Dance Lessons in Greeley: The Benefits of Dance for Kids

Updated September 9, 2020

When a child takes a dance class, they’re doing more than just moving their body—they’re actually developing their brain. While children are busy learning new steps and having fun dancing to the music, many other benefits are happening. There are numerous benefits of dance for kids, including everything from social skills to brain development. When you sign your child up for dance lessons, it leads to whole-child development.

Four Benefits of Dance for Kids

Dance is a uniquely creative outlet that can offer children of all ages a variety of benefits. By taking dance lessons in Greeley, children will find a fun activity that provides more than just a great way to keep them active! A Dance Place in Greeley, Colorado is passionate about dance and every benefit that dance can bring for your child. Here are four reasons dance can be a positive experience in the life of any child:

1. Dance Is Good for Their Mind and Soul

One of the greatest benefits of dance for kids is the positive effect it can have on a child’s psychological well-being. Through dance, kids of any age and in any walk of life can find a beautiful way to escape any stresses they face or simply unplug and immerse themselves in a constructive and enjoyable activity. Dancing, like exercise, causes a release of endorphins and helps reduce stress and anxiety, improve mood, and promote positive thinking. Studies have even shown that dancing can have a positive impact on mental health, helping those who suffer from mental illness and reducing depression.

Taking dance lessons is also good for their soul. Dance provides a creative means for self-expression that simultaneously improves confidence and encourages the passion within.

Dance has often been used as a way to encourage a renewed positive attitude and promote healing in hospital-bound children. A doctor at Children’s Hospital of Orange County has taken up dancing to inspire his patients to get up and move while simultaneously improving their mental state of mind. Read about the “Dancing Doc” and how he uses dance to brings positivity to children in difficult circumstances. 

2. Dance Promotes Physical Activity

Dance is also a great way for kids to get in an aerobic workout. Even in a slower dance, a significant amount of energy is required to continue the flow of movement. Dancing can burn 200-400 calories every 30 minutes, which is close to the same number of calories as thirty minutes of running, jogging, or cycling. Your child may not need to burn calories in the same way adults might, but developing habits of physical activity will be greatly beneficial as they get older.

However, if your child is overweight and it has been recommended that they lose weight for their health, dance lessons can provide the perfect alternative for typical exercise and weight loss activities. Through dance, kids can have fun while burning fat, losing weight, and improving muscle tone. Because dancing requires so much movement, you will also find that your child will have improved flexibility, mobility, muscle strength, cardiovascular condition, and stamina. Learning to dance will challenge your child and help shape and strengthen their body in a fun and healthy way.

3. Dance Can Improve Overall Health

The more a child dances, the more they can improve their physical condition and their health. Numerous studies have been done that highlight the health benefits of dance on physical health for people of any age, including children.

Among the findings of these, you will find that dance can help do the following:

• Improve cardiovascular health
• Decrease blood pressure
• Improve cholesterol levels
• Strengthen bones
• Improve brain function and memory
• Improve balance
• Reduce dizziness and increase stability
• Improve muscle memory
• Reduce the risk of osteoporosis, obesity, or Type 2 Diabetes
• Increase lung capacity

4. Dance Lessons Create Social Connections

Taking dance lessons is a fun and interactive way for kids to meet other kids with similar interests and have fun while doing it. At dance class, kids can take the fun they have with viral dance moves and convert that into choreographed dance moves while connecting with others and building friendships.

Dancing certainly has a way of bringing people together, and it is no different for children. Dance gives kids the opportunity to encourage and support others and build a strong support system of their peers. Through dance, kids can learn to connect in a positive, passionate, and exciting environment.

5 Ways Dancing Develops Children’s Brains

Aside from the many healthy and social benefits, dance has been connected to strong brain development in children.

Here are five ways dancing develops children’s brains:

1. Dance Improves Brain Health

Dance has been proven to prevent brain diseases in people of all ages and can be particularly beneficial to establishing brain health in children. Because learning dance and new types of movement trigger areas of the brain focused on decision-making and memory, dance uses the brain’s neural pathways, particularly in regions connected to mental skills, long-term memory, and spatial recognition. Dance pushes the brain in new areas, which keeps it healthy and strong.

2. Dance Increases Mental Capacity

Dancing and exercise have been linked to increased mental capacity, or the ability to use more of the brain for memory and other functions. Children’s brains are constantly buzzing as they learn and experience new things every day. Learning new dance steps and routines acts as a sort of mental exercise to stimulate the brain. Repeating dance steps and imitating the movements of teachers and other students also increases the brain’s ability to remember things.

Some studies have linked dancing as a child to having more developed areas of the brain relating to planning and organizing as teenagers and adults. When children increase their mental capacity at a young age, it can be easier for them to retain information when they’re older.

3. Dance Improves Motor Function

Dance has been connected to improved motor function, or the ability to move certain parts of the body. This is especially important in young children who are just learning to control of their own bodies and children with developmental delays. Dance in children can develop both gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills involve moving large muscles, and fine motor skills involve smaller, more detailed movements. Developing these motor skills teaches the brain new skills and can help children be more coordinated and in control of their movements as they grow up.

4. Dance Enhances Muscle Memory

As children develop their dance skills, they are enhancing their muscle memory. The more children practice a dance step, the more they connect certain movements with certain instructions until they can perform the steps without thinking because their muscles know what to do. Studies have linked visualizing dance steps and routines to improved muscle memory. The ability to connect physical and mental exercises is advanced for children and can give them more control over their bodies as they get older. Muscle memory also makes the brain work harder, which can enhance its overall capacity, even relating to other topics and activities.

5. Dance Regulates Mood

Dance is a form of exercise that releases endorphins. These chemicals naturally reduce stress and regulate mood and behavior. Developing these skills in children can help them learn to better self-regulate their emotions as they get older. Dancing can also provide a mental outlet that helps fight anxiety and depression by using the brain in new ways and releasing chemicals that only come from movement and physical activity.

Dancing lessons not only benefit the physical body, but also the mind. There are many ways that dancing helps develop children’s brains, even from a very early age. The numerous benefits of dance for kids make it a great activity for kids of all ages.

At A Dance Place, you can find dance lessons in Greeley for your kids that are not only fun and exciting but will also help to improve and support their physical and mental health.

Read more about why dancing is good for your child’s health.

Learn more about the dance classes we offer at A Dance place (or to get your child signed up!) by calling us today at 970-590-9530.