Everyone should have the opportunity to dance. Lots of parents will say to me that their child is never going to be a ballerina and so they see no value in taking lessons. There are so many advantages for children who enrol in ballet classes. Because the exercises are mostly symmetrical and are based on basic gross motor skills, the children quickly learn to have more control and awareness over their bodies.
Children who study ballet develop co-ordination skills that assist them in all sorts of sporting and social activities. Classical ballet in particular is known for its physical enhancing capabilities relating to posture and core body strength. By continually being encouraged to use abdominal and lower back muscles, children develop good habits that allow the correct development of growing bodies and can assist in later life regarding old age complaints relating to incorrect posture.
The commitment needed to undertake classical ballet exams over a number of years is a good indication of the metal of a child and their ability to set and achieve life goals. These are impressive characteristics on your first job application, indicating the kind of self-discipline valued by would be employers.
Children also benefit by the performance aspect of dance. Everyone should have the opportunity to hear the applause from an audience. Our students become self-assured and confident children who carry these qualities into other aspects of their lives. They also learn to work as a team and to genuinely care about their classmates and what the group is trying to achieve.
Students who excel at ballet seem to be high achievers in academic and other areas. Apart from doing well, the students make lifelong friends and get to express themselves in a safe, supervised environment. Giving children a healthy respect for their bodies may hopefully deter them from abusing their bodies later in life. Giving them the opportunity to learn that with dedication and practice, they can achieve goals (finally perfecting a changement or double turn). This is a lifelong lesson that can be applied to many other challenges they will come up against in work and life in general. Children who are continually setting and being given the tools to achieving goals, face challenges with much more confidence.
We highly recommend that all students take classical ballet as well as other styles if they wish to do competitions (ballet is compulsory for students wishing to take part in competitions) or become a professional dancer, or work in the industry, and simply because it is so good for them. Classical ballet is like basic dressage for horse riding, every other style comes back to the roots of classical ballet because that is what teaches deportment and correct posture from an early age. Children are like trees, they grow how they stand, and the more they are encouraged to stand tall and straight, the more they will grow correctly, less likely to incur lower back problems through poor posture, developing correctly.
