Back to Early Childhood

Child's Bill of Rights in Dance

Dance is a powerful ally for developing many of the attributes of a growing child. Dance helps children mature physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively. The physical benefits of dance are widely accepted, but the emotional, social and cognitive attributes have only recently begun to be appreciated. 
  
        Physical Development: Dance involves a greater range of motion, coordination,

        strength and endurance than most other physical activities. This is

        accomplished through movement patterns that teach coordination and

        kinesthetic memory. Dancing utilizes the entire body and is an excellent form of

        exercise for total body fitness. Young children are naturally active, but dance

        offers an avenue to expand movement possibilities and skills. 
  
        Emotional Maturity: Dance promotes psychological health and maturity. Children

        enjoy the opportunity to express their emotions and become aware of

        themselves and others through creative movement. A pre-school child enters a

        dance class or classroom with a history of emotional experiences. Movement

        within a class offers a structured outlet for physical release while gaining

        awareness and appreciation of oneself and others. 
 

        Social Awareness: Dance fosters social encounter, interaction, and cooperation.

        Children learn to communicate ideas to others through the real and immediate

        mode of body movement. Children quickly learn to work within a group dynamic.

        As the ongoing and sometimes challenging process of cooperation evolves,

        children learn to understand themselves in relation to others. 
  
        Cognitive Development: Young children will create movement spontaneously

        when presented with movement ideas or problems that can be solved with a

        movement response. Movement provides the cognitive loop between the idea,

        problem, or intent and the outcome or solution. This teaches an infant, child and,

        ultimately, adult to function in and understand the world. The relationship of

        movement to intellectual development and education is an embryonic field of

        study that has only recently begun to be explored.

The Standards for Dance in Early Childhood are important because they

• Provide a scaffold outlining the breadth and scope of learning and teaching dance as an art upon which to design curricula and course syllabi.
   
  Standards are a guide, not a directive nor a curriculum. They offer constructive support, suggesting areas of curriculum but not defining it. Standards allow each district or school to develop an approach most suited to local or individual values.
  
   
• Serve as a springboard for creativity for the learning and teaching of dance making: improvisation, choreography, and composition.

          Standards suggest avenues of creative exploration in the arts-making

          processes of Performing, Creating, Responding to, and

          Interconnecting dance learning to knowledge of other disciplines and life skills.

• Define age-appropriate expectations and levels of achievement in the art of dance.
   
  Standards inform individual schools of dance and school districts what students should know and be able to do in the art of dance at certain benchmark levels when taught by a highly qualified dance teacher in a graduated curriculum.