What does your child love about dancing? Well, I’ve asked them and the majority of them love our pretend play and creative movement portion of class. This month we focus on how children becoming expressive dancers and learn to express emotions through dance. Child Psychologist, Annie Spell, Ph.D. writes about this concept by explaining that everyday your children absorb information around them and associate it with life events. This provides the basis for their emotional awareness and emotional adjustment. There are few places for them to create these associations in an active manner and free from external events. But on the dance floor or in the theatre, the practice of emotion expression provides a safe place for the associations to be processed. We begin by associating certain movement and facial expressions with emotional labels (happy, mad, sad, frightened, surprised). Your child will be more mindful of what their body and face demonstrate both in and outside of the dance studio and they are afforded accelerated emotional maturity.
I love seeing their emotions change from scared to brave, from angry to excited, or sad to loving during their dancing. That, my friends, is what we call DRAMA! Oh, the joy of being a girl! : )
