Teaching Dance in Schools

My friend recently shared a post on her Facebook that caught my eye. The post was a link to this article, by Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica named ‘Why Dance is just as important as math in school’ which was excerpted from the new book You, Your Child and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education. Published by Viking, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. 2018. Link – https://ideas.ted.com/why-dance-is-just-as-important-as-math-in-school/

This is a topic that has interested me since deciding I would like to teach Dance as a career as I have been assessing which age group I would like to teach. I have volunteered in different schools teaching different ages, trying to decide which age group I enjoyed working with the most. I initially thought it would be Primary age, however having considered how many job opportunities there were for teaching Dance at that age, I quickly reconsidered! This is why I decided to look into the topic of teaching dance in schools especially at a young age.

I have a lot more to learn on this subject, as I am not fully aware of the ‘ins and outs’ of the actual curriculum in the UK and how much dance and performing arts it includes, or whether it is at the discretion of the teacher to include it into Physical Education lessons, but what I do know is how I feel about how important dance is to the younger generation.

When in schools, I saw so many students that were painfully shy and found it difficult to hold eye contact whilst engaging in a conversation, and this is one of the main reasons why I believe Performing Arts is an integral subject. No matter how good you are at dance or singing, what this subject does give you is confidence. It allows people to interact, to improve social skills with one another, things that I believe have helped me in day to day life. When attending job interviews or recruitment days for jobs that aren’t within this industry, I am normally the most confident person in the room. I know how to conduct myself, how to speak, how to act and have the confidence and the ability to interact and perform and I believe this is due to my involvement in the arts. So although I may be slightly biased towards teaching dance, as it is something I am passionate about and have found a love for, I also believe it can help people who don’t want to pursue it as a career. In this article one of my favourite quotes by Bob Morrison was “We don’t teach math solely to create mathematicians, and we don’t teach writing solely to create the next generation of novelists. The same holds true for the arts. We teach them to create well-rounded citizens who can apply the skills, knowledge and experience from being involved in the arts to their careers and lives.”

I was wondering what other opinions were on this subject? Please share them with me! 😊