There are a lot of reasons for kids to take up dancing and attend a dance school but one of the subtler ones is the way it boosts their confidence. Sometimes children don’t seem like they have a problem with this but even the ones that seem confident need practice and encouragement to shine. Whether they are bold or shy, dancing can help give them good confidence that can be used in many other aspects of life.
Learning social skills
One of the reasons that children either lack confidence or use bravado to cope is their lack of social skills. It’s something many of us adults still struggle with! You meet new people or are in an unfamiliar situation and feel awkward. Or you meet people who are very confident and you feel a bit intimidated or unsure, this is also the case with children.
Dancing is often something done with others, whether from learning your place in a set or dancing together on stage with others. This means there isn’t a lot of time to think about getting along with others, you just have to get on and do it. This quickly means that their social skills will develop and give them confidence when they meet new people. This is a useful skill later in life even if they don’t pursue a career in dance.
Another common issue for children is expressing themselves, telling others what they think and feel. Sometimes it can be a lack of words but often it is a lack of confidence, as if others might laugh at them or think they are being silly. Learning to express yourself creatively through dance can then lead into expressing yourself in other ways – talking about how dance makes them feel can help them articulate how other situations make them feel.
There’s little doubt that the most successful people are the ones who are self-motivated and can propel themselves to do things that others think aren’t possible. This is something that dance can teach any child, a dance step that seems impossible, but then mastered to complete the whole routine boosts confidence. It can also teach motivations, including the old adage practice makes perfect enabling them to practice other routines and learn new dances with the assurity they will succeed eventually with practice. This self-motivation can be used to learn other skills in other areas of life.
As we go through life, we learn that we can do things and this gives us the confidence to take on new challenges. When you learn to dance as a child, you gain accomplishments from learning a dance to competing in competitions, performing to an audience or passing an examination. You can then look back at these accomplishments and use them as a landing point to move on to other things, both dance related and in other areas of life.
Dance is fun, it is a great form of exercise and a brilliant way to build children’s confidence. It teaches them skills that can be applied to many situations outside the dance world, helps them express themselves and communicate effectively while also developing a love of dancing that will stay with them whichever path they choose.