Friday, December 13, 2013

Dance Education in Public Schools

Dance education has been hailed as one of the best learning modalities in education that has a general positive impact on the development of the learners. Being an expressive form of art, dance education has helped community integration as students are able to appreciate cultural diversity as well as developing natural abilities that they use in communicating their ideas, opinions and emotions. Dance education is therefore an important aspect of the education curriculum as it contributes to the overall improvement of the students.

The arts are credited as a high level means of expression in virtually all cultures around the world. The arts are known to teach the community about history via its literature, visual arts, music, dance and performance. It has become imperative that in the current world, one is not just to appreciate the arts but also get actively involved in the creative arts. Learning through the arts provides us with an opportunity of bringing every subject to life and create reality from conceptual world. Dancing has been in existence for quite a long time in history of mankind. Dancing involves the use of body movements as a tool for expression. Dance education has been hailed as enabling students to discover their natural capabilities that are handy in communicating ideas, thoughts, and feelings through dancing as a medium of expression. The dance education curriculum acknowledges that any given student has the right to an arts education as an essential part of his or her fundamental education. This paper will look at how dance education in schools can be implemented to improve the students careers.

Dance Education
Dance education requires that students move their bodies expressively to pass certain meanings. It is said to provide students with a kinesthetically means of learning and passing on information. Dancing program is usually designed to educate the learners on the basics of dancing and chorography. The program also plays a vital role in helping the learners nurture self discipline concepts. It is through the art of dancing that learners are able to appreciate cultural diversities in terms of different beliefs in our society. By evaluating the history of certain dances from different cultures, students are able to respect other cultures thereby being able to connect and co-exist with people with different cultural orientations (Young, 1992).

More often, dance is incorporated as a physical education program in elementary and secondary schools. The goals and indicators of the dance curriculum are arranged in sequence. Kindergarten Grade 12 (K-12) would encompass creative work, types of dances and related techniques, history of dances, performance and production among other basics in dancing. Dancing studies are said to contribute positively towards healthy lifestyles together with development of personal and social skills. The dance programs provide the necessary opportunities for cultural integration. A quality K-12 dancing program caters for the learning needs of the child in totality. Such programs would address the development of the child physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually. The dance curriculum helps the students to practically experience the learning process. The dancing enables the students to be successful since it incorporates all the different learning techniques and intelligences (Baltimore County Public Schools, 2010).

Benefits of Dance Education
The performances that are exhibited are just but mere by-products of the dance education. They are therefore said to be originating from the creative process of dance education. Dance education has been identified as having numerous positive effects on the motivation of the learners as well as the overall academic performance of the learners. Dance components are thus essentially viable to be included in the school curriculums. Introduction of dance programs in public schools will be most appreciated as this will be cost effective for most parents as they strive to ensure that their children are exposed to wholesome education program. The magnet schools that are scattered throughout the country to serve students with special interests are seen to be costly to the parents. There are also some specialized high schools meant to address the needs of the gifted dance students and therefore the public schools would provide the source from which these specialized high schools can recruit the talented students (Young, 1992).

Dance programs do help the learners in their development on various accounts. Learners are able to advance on their critical thinking skills imaginative skills cooperation and teamwork skills they will be able to develop self esteem and self expression skills and the organizational and problem solving skills. The learners are also able to communicate emotions through body movements and at the same time they learn to appreciate the diversity of human culture. Dance program enables the students to develop their own aesthetic criterion with which they use in evaluating and validating their activities and decisions that they make (Baltimore County Public Schools, 2010).

Dance education is a wonderful concept that is meant to contribute towards the improvement of the students general performance in schools. Dance education provides the learners with the opportunity to learn via movements and it involves the utilization of the acoustic, visual, and kinesthetic techniques. These are traditionally known as the hear, see, and do modalities. Dancing has been identified as a powerful educational tool that meets the various needs of the learners. Perceptions, opinions, and feelings are elaborated through the physical aspect of dancing. Since it incorporates the active involvement of the students, dance education is capable of nurturing and fostering the community spirit among the students. Simply put, dancing helps the students in understanding themselves as well as the world around them. It is therefore imperative that dance education be incorporated in the public schools.

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