Creative Dance (A Holistic Form of Education)

Mary Vance
731 N. 400 E. Provo, UT 84606
(480)720-0272
meemers29@hotmail.com
Dance Education
78-211-9736
















Creative Dance
A Holistic Form of Education
Mary Vance
With the increasing popularity of television shows such as So You Think You Can
Dance or Dancing With the Stars, many people often see dance as a frivolous activity
with no real mind-enriching substance. It can often be seen as a form of entertainment
rather than a form of education. Although there are people who have spent their whole
lives training to become professional dancers and have spent their career lives
performing, this is only a small percentage of dancers. Dance is so much more than just
showing off flexibility and strength. It is not just for the performer or the highly trained
artist, but it is for everyone. Now one may ask, How could this be so when I can hardly
lift my leg off the ground?
In a style of dance called creative dance, a person is given the opportunity to think
in creative ways and discover a form of movement, which fits their own body. Creative
dance is a form of self-expression where someone can learn to share their ideas and
discoveries with others through movement. It also gives a person the opportunity to
share feelings that might be difficult to explain otherwise. Although the more dance
training a person receives the more that persons personal movement vocabulary is
increased and the better they are able to express themselves, creative dance doesnt
require a person to be able to extend their leg high above their head. All a person needs
is themselves, their mind, and a little bit of creative thinking and they can share
wonderful things with others. Creative dance can be a mind-enriching experience that
provides a character-building education, whether or not a person trains extensively in
creative dance.
In this manner, creative dance becomes a great activity for children. It stimulates
their minds and learning in a variety of ways that no other activity can. Stimulating a
childs mind and learning cannot be done in a strictly academic way. In order to have a
well-rounded understanding of life, children must have a variety of learning experiences
at hand. At an early age, human beings learn to develop life-long skills. These life-long
skills deal with the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of life. While
creative dance might not teach children how to do math problems better, it assists them in
acquiring these important life-long skills that must be held in balance against each other.
M.L. Van Vliet, the Dean of the faculty of Physical Education at the University of
Alberta wrote, When this form of balance is maintained between routine activities and
artistic and creative movement, individuals experience a greater feeling of wholeness.
They are able to participate more fully in the totality of life. (Shumway 30). As children
participate in creative dance activities, they develop physical, cognitive, emotional, and
social skills. These skills in turn have positive, holistic educational outcomes that help
children participate in the totality of life.

Physical Skill Development
Creative dance can enhance a childs physical skill development. Because dance
is geared toward using the body in movement, this is one of the more obvious outcomes
that occur in creative dance. Children learn to explore their bodys physical capacities
while participating. Through moving, children develop a greater range of motion or
flexibility in their joints as well as strength and endurance, all of which are valuable
assets to a persons individual health. Children feel refreshed when they have these
things in their lives, which is especially important for their playful natures and growing
bodies. The National Dance Education Organization said, Dance 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
(Standards for Dance in Early Childhood 1). Developing flexibility, strength, and
endurance helps children to develop good health and expand their movement possibilities
and skills.
Locomotor steps are taught in greater depth in creative dance also. These steps
help children develop coordination in their everyday movement because locomotor steps
are any movement that travels from one point to another in space (Shumway 28).
These steps consist of walking, running, skipping, jumping, hopping, leaping, galloping,
and sliding. They are steps children use in their everyday play. When these locomotor
steps and other dance concepts are engraved into childrens bodies through creative
dance, the children become more confident with themselves out in their own playing
grounds. They are free to move about the playground equipment or the soccer field in an
uninhibited way because of the coordination they have developed. This is something that
is so important to children. A child will start to feel secure and happy because of the
confidence she or he gained in locomotion.
By learning about physical skills that are developing in them, children begin to
understand their bodies as a whole. Kinesthetically they start to understand what it can
do and how it works. Eventually as children continue in a creative dance program, they
catch a glimpse of the greatness of their bodies and the complexities found therein. They
begin to see their own potential as a human being and what their bodies can individually
do. They see the beauty in their bodies and gain an appreciation for it. Because of these
things that they perceive in their bodies, children see that the miracle of life is not just by
chance. They understand that there is a plan to this earthly life and that they are a part of
that plan. Through creative dance, children learn physical skills that in turn help provide
them with an understanding of their bodies and the plan of life.

Cognitive Skill Development
Developing cognitive skills through creative dance is only something that has
recently been studied as being an outcome. Children do learn cognitive skills in creative
dance that help them grow and progress to become better people. In the classroom
setting, children must learn to be very attentive with their minds and present in the
moment in order to participate. Children are expected to give their full attention in class
so they can quickly analyze the dance material presented. This is seen in the movement
sequences that children must learn. Children have to watch and replicate the movement
that they see their teacher demonstrate. This pushes them to turn on their swift thinking
skills so they can remember what dance step comes next. Along with this, creative dance
puts a great deal of emphasis on dancing in an improvisational way in order to get the
creative thinking going. This gives children the opportunity to once again think in the
moment and produce swift thinking skills. The children begin to trust their instincts and
allow everything to fall into place. These same swift-thinking and improvisational skills
are not only good for dance, but in many other aspects of life. Academically, these skills
can help children with things such as timed tests. Children are more able to think on
their toes in academic situations such as these. Also, this helps children in social
settings. As they learn to develop relationships with others, they learn to carry on
conversations with others. Children can pull from their improvisational experience and
learn how to create things to say in the moment.
Another cognitive advancement that happens is children learning how to make
their own decisions through this activity. Children make their own artistic decisions in
the dances that they create themselves. This is where children start to understand their
likes and dislikes and then they apply it to their own choreographic style. By doing this,
children develop their own identity. They begin to understand their own voice and
personality and see that they have opinions. Establishing an identity is something that is
very important to human beings. As we develop, we desire to find where we fit in with
the world. A person is more confident and happy with life when they know what makes
them who they are. Through making their own decisions in the dances that they create,
children are assisted in establishing their own identity.
Also, through creative dance children develop creative problem solving skills. In
these classes, children are encouraged to think in new ways and solve movement
problems that explain stories, feelings, or objects. Because creativity is expanded and
promoted here, childrens minds are opened up to a variety of new ways of thinking.
This helps them solve problems not only in a dance setting but also in an everyday life
setting.
Jana Shumway, a teacher of creative dance for children, said this when speaking
of creative problem solving skills, This is more important in a school setting because
most of the children will not become professional dancers when they grow up, but they
will benefit from creative thinking skills in various aspects of their lives (Shumway 30).
Creative problem solving encourages children to take the knowledge that they already
have of something and apply it in any given situation for their benefit. An example of
this could be a child who has been asked to make his or her bed, but has never made it
before. Through the creative problem solving skills developed in creative dance, this
child can draw upon his or her own knowledge and experiences and then create a way to
solve this problem. Creative thinking can be applied to any aspect of a childs life,
whether it is through their academics, their social lives, or their personal lives. They
learn to not give up when presented with a problem, but to work through it.
Through creative dance, childrens imaginations are stimulated also. Children are
encouraged to think abstractly. Abstract thinking brings about imaginative thinking.
Through their imaginations, children see all their opportunities brought about in life. By
imagining and seeing all of these opportunities, anything becomes possible to a child.
This can lead an individual to develop hope. Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, Hope has the
power to fill our lives with happiness. Hope sustains us through despair (Uchtdorf 22).
Because children develop hope, they will have happiness and strength to make it through
trying times in their lives. Having hope helps children to accomplish many good and
desirable things in life through their positive thinking. They become more open-minded
and willing to listen to what others think because they have hope in everything around
them. They accept others and themselves more.


Emotional Skill Development
Creative dance brings about emotional skill development also. Because dances
created by others often have a lot of meaning and deep feelings involved, there is an
emotional tie within the dance. In 2 Nephi 2:25 it says, Adam fell that men might be;
and men are, that the might have joy (The Book of Mormon 59). Emotions are the basis
of our human existence as this scripture states. They are what drive us forward on this
earth. That is why learning is so closely tied to emotions. Things are engraved deeply
into our minds when they have some sort of an emotional tie. By children finding their
emotions in the meaning of a dance, they have more ideas and impressions brought to
their minds that help them develop their own personal philosophy of life. Children will
take those ideas and impressions with them throughout the rest of their existence. Things
are learned more efficiently and have a greater impact when they are tied to emotions.
Expressing emotions is a healthy thing to do. Human beings are not made to have
all their feelings bottled up inside of them. This can add stress to a persons life, which
results in unhealthy thinking. Often children come from very emotional backgrounds.
Children need to express these emotions and get them out of their system in order to be
themselves and have fun. Creative dance is a good activity for them to engage in to
release these emotions and feelings that they might have. Emotions can be a variety of
things.
Children may wish to express sad or hard things, or they might want to share
happy and excited feelings. By doing this, children also will be more receptive to how
others are feeling. They learn to appreciate those feelings that other children may share
through dance and can draw closer to one another through these emotions. When
emotions are stagnant, people are brought further away from each other, and when they
are expressed, others are brought closer together. In creative dance, children learn the
importance of expressing emotions and how to understand one another better through this
process.

Social Skill Development
The last way that creative dance helps children is in their social development.
Creative dance allows children to interact and gain a relationship with each other,
whether it is through dancing together or watching each other dance. Because our world
is such a technologically advanced world, people are becoming less and less dependent
on their relationships with other people and more dependent on their relationship with
technology. This can be seen through children choosing to play a video game versus
playing with a friend that lives across the street. Creative dance brings children back
together to spend time with each other. Through creative dance, children learn the
importance of relationships in their lives. They gain an understanding of how
relationships are what really matter most in life. Children become more socially
endowed through creative dance.
Creative dance teaches communication skills. There are two types of
communication skills that it teaches, verbal and non-verbal. The children, through
listening to their teachers feedback, learn verbal communication skills. The child must
learn how to interpret that feedback that they receive and apply it to their own selves.
Another way verbal communication skills are developed is through the teacher explaining
a movement sequence with words. This requires the child to listen to and interpret the
ideas that their teacher is trying to explain and then try to implement it in their dance.
Also verbal communication skills are learned by children describing and explaining
abstract movement into words. Moira Morningstar said, Creative dance promotes
coordination of thought, feeling, and action because it is developed from the inside of the
child outwards instead of being imposed from the outside in! (Morningstar as quoted in
Shumway 29). Creative dance helps children learn to interpret what other people are
saying and learn to organize their thoughts and feelings into words from the inside to the
outward.
Non-verbal communication is another communication skill that is developed
through creative dance. Since creative dance is all about using the body and translating
what is presented in the movement, it only makes sense that this would be a
communication skill that is learned. By watching others dance, children can interpret
what that person is saying through their movement. They develop an understanding of
body language and how it can express a persons feelings in a different way than words
can. Children gain an understanding of that person by feeling what the movement was
about. When dancing in an improvisational way, children develop these non-verbal
communication skills also. Through being in contact with a partner or partners, they can
predict things that those around them might do. They start to feel unified with those they
are dancing with through the atmosphere. The children learn to feel and observe rather
than talk.
Children also learn to work in groups in creative dance. A person will always go
through life and have to work with other people, whether it is in their job, in their
schooling, or in their church. One cannot escape this inevitability. Working in groups
can be a hard skill to acquire because, with different people comes different opinions and
thoughts. In creative dance, working in groups is seen when children are asked to
choreograph something together or review a sequence that was taught to them. Through
working with others, young people train themselves to become more unified with those
around them. This leads to harmony in the classroom. The children become open to the
new possibilities and ideas of their classmates and develop unity among each other. They
learn to explore more together. Through working side by side, children can learn to
create things together in not only dance, but also in life. Working in a mutual way
promotes peace.
The last way creative dance helps children develop social skills is through
promoting openness of feelings and thoughts among one another. When they express
themselves and share their feelings with each other through movement, children learn to
not close themselves off from their society and other people. Because they dont close
themselves off from the world, they desire to be more of a part of society because they
have contributed their thoughts to it. They share their talents and their sincerity with
others, which strengthens other people around them. Also, when children learn to
express their feelings and stay open with one another, they develop understanding with
one another. This is something that is seriously lacking in our society today. Often
people will draw conclusions about one another before they even know each other. There
is a lack of understanding of one another, and this causes negative feelings towards
others. Its like the old saying the only people you dont like are the people that you
dont know. Children share their feelings through creative dance, and in return they
receive support from each other. Sharing feelings and thoughts with one another helps
children see how they fit in relation to others. They not only start to develop a greater
understanding of other, but they also learn more about themselves through others.
Children are natural movers. They were moving before they could even talk. In
an article written about creative dance for children, it says, Dance embodies one of our
most primal relationships to the universe. It is pre-verbal, beginning before words can be
formed. It is innate in children before they possess command over language and is
evoked when thoughts or emotions are too powerful for words to contain (Standards for
Dance in Early Childhood 1). In order for children to be children, it is requisite for their
little bodies to be moving. This only adds to the effectiveness of creative dance in a
childs life. Its a good way to help them get their giggles and wiggles out so that when
the time comes to sit down for school, it can be done in an easier manner.
Dance tends to have a stereotypical connotation connected with it. Often it is
looked at as being a form of entertainment that does not provide any futuristic, mind
enriching benefits for its participants. While it can be considered a form of
entertainment, it also is a form of education. Through dance, particularly creative dance,
a person can be educated in a well-rounded way. Creative dance teaches physical,
cognitive, emotional, and social skills. Children are good recipients of the benefits of
creative dance. It teaches them early to develop these life-long skills that help them in
their pursuit to become better human beings.
The art of dance can fulfill many human needs and shape children to be better
people. According to David Rockefeller, he said, Dance is surely a most extraordinary
fusion of thinking, doing, and feeling. If we are concerned about the health of a childs
mind, body, and spirit, then how can we ignore the education force of an art form which
addresses all three at once (Rockefeller as quoted in Shumway 5). Virginia Tanner, a
pioneer of creative dance for children, also said, The motivating force behind my work
and philosophy is that of not only developing excellent dancers, but far more important,
developing young people who are useful, imaginative, worthwhile human beings
(Tanner as quoted in Shumway 6). As children take creative dance classes, their whole
character will be cultivated and shaped. That is why creative dance is a holistic form of
education. Its not only teaching children how to become better dancers, but it also
teaches them how to become better human beings.














Provo, UT; October 2009-February 2010
Works Cited
The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints, 1989.
Morningstar, Moira. Growing with Dance. Herot Bay, B.C.: Windborne Publications,
1986.
Rockefeller D. Coming to Our Sense, The Significance of the Arts for American
Education. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1977.
Shumway, Jana. Creative Dance in Elementary Education: Types of Lesson Plans
Classroom Teachers Are Willing To Teach. Provo, UT: Brigham Young
University, 2001. Print.
Standards For Dance In Early Childhood. National Dance Education Organization.
January 21, 2010 <http://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893
257&module_id=55411>.
Tanner, Virginia. The Repertory Dance Theatre Presents: A Tribute to Virginia
Tanner. Salt Lake City: Capitol Theatre. November 10 & 11, 1978.
Uchtdorf, Dieter F. The Infinite Power of Hope. Ensign, Nov 2008: 2124.