Benefits of Jazz Dance to Children

It’s now fairly common for children to be enrolled in specialised music, dance and singing classes. Aside from discovering their talent and expanding their comfort zones, those classes also help them further develop their social skills. These also help them build appreciation for a wide variety of arts, fields, cultures and practices. 

Why choose jazz dance? 

When it comes to appreciation and variety, it helps to expose children to less popular types of dance and music. Also, even a few weeks or months of immersion in a certain performing arts class can benefit children in several different ways. 

As mentioned earlier, children can expand their comfort zones because of their exposure to different fields and practices. With this expanded comfort zone, they can feel confident in a wide variety of environments and situations including unfamiliar ones. To children, this can benefit them especially when they get into the big school’s unfamiliar environment and potentially challenging social encounters. 

One way to help children expand their comfort zones and further build their confidence is by enrolling them in a jazz dance class. This seems an unfamiliar type of dance but many of us have actually seen it on TV or online (we just don’t know yet that it’s actually jazz dance). What makes it distinct is that the dance usually requires turns, kicks and jumps executed with strength and precision. 

Although jazz dance has its origins in religious and social gatherings, the dance has now reached the mainstream performances. Also, the dance has evolved through the decades and it is actually a blend of traditional African steps and European styles of movement. In other words, the dance’s exact origin and inspiration is impossible to trace because it was a blend of movements in the first place. 

Aside from some signature movements, jazz dance also has improvisations that may require the creative and spontaneous expression of the performers. This can benefit children because they can practice their creative expression as well as have more fun during the performance. This is in contrast with highly structured types of dances such as ballet. 

Jazz dance can be an amazing addition to your child’s early experiences. Other performing arts classes and creative activities are still important to ensure your child’s holistic development. The key is to introduce and encourage variety so that your child can absorb and process several different inputs and get exposed to different fields and environments.