How dance can help improve HSC outcomes

In previous blogs I have addressed ways our dance studio can prepare your children for school. But did you know there is growing awareness about how continuing dance classes in senior high school years can help improve academic performance?

At Industry Dance, we believe that continuing dance through Years 9 – 12 can assist with stronger HSC outcomes. Encouraging your teenager to continue taking one or several of our ballet, tap, jazz or contemporary dance classes is an investment in their education.

In Dancing to Learn: The Brain’s Cognition, Emotion, and Movement (2015), author Judith Lynne Hanna, is one of a growing number of educators advocating dance as a learning tool. In her book she talks about the misconceptions continuing to exist today, that dance is merely “a leisure activity”.

She points out that dance is not only a means of communication but a powerful physical exercise that can spark new brain cells and help us cope with daily stresses that can motivate or interfere with our ability to learn.

Hanna emphasis that we can “acquire knowledge and develop cognitively because dance bulks up the brain and, consequently, dance in itself as an artistic, recreational, educational, and/or therapeutic form, is a good investment for the brain”.

There is also more attention to movement, “not only for its role in human evolution, but for the creation of brain cells (neurons) and connections among them and means of coping with stress.”

At Industry Dance, our regular dance classes allow your child to let off some steam from the daily pressures of school. Increasing competition to achieve high results and gain entry to university takes its toll on teenagers. Our studio offers a creative outlet that can make an enormous difference to the way your child deals with stress. As well as providing an opportunity for self-expression, the physical demands of dancing boosts endorphins – those feel good hormones helping keep us happy and motivated.

Your child will feel joy and sense of worth from our dance classes as well as comfort in the knowledge there’s the security and support of our Industry Dance family. Industry’s compassionate staff cares deeply about your children. We want them all to do well at school, in dance and in life.

Ref: Hanna, Judith Lynn. Dancing To Learn: The Brain’s Cognition, Emotion, and Movement (2015), Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland USA,ix.xiii.