Dance your way to a healthy future now

Lorraine Howard

There are the obvious benefits of studying dance; reduced obesity, a fun source of exercise, healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and helping to maintain a balanced lifestyle.

And there is clinically significant evidence that children who participate actively in the performing arts spend less time sitting in front of a computer screen playing games and therefore are at less of a risk of developing health problems.

Children who spend more than two hours a day on screen related pastimes are at a high risk of developing health issues, such as obesity.

While dance is a good source of fun exercise for young children, it is also a creative outlet. Fun exercise is important but the opportunity to release creativity is as important as exercising and maintaining a balanced diet in the development of healthy children, because of the life skills they will learn.

Dancing can make a person feel physically refreshed and improve their mood, tackling serious issues including anxiety and depression, and not just in adults.

Group dancing is a tool to release daily stress, a distraction from everyday worries and an outlet for imagination and emotion.

There are physical benefits of partaking in dance classes as a child. Through dance, children develop a greater range of movement whilst developing the ability to work within different spaces. They learn to interpret the effect their movement has on the world around them. Dancing also improves a child’s co-ordination, especially at a time when they are rapidly developing in an ever-changing and evolving environment.

Good co-ordination is vital in developing skills learnt in other parts of life, such as learning to ride a bike and learning how to multitask successfully. Dance and movement patterns also develop kinaesthetic memory. It also develops strength and endurance from an early age.

This creates a solid platform for the child’s physical development.