Every kid deserves a chance to dance

You want to hear the fun version or the serious version?

Let's start with the fun version.

Dancing is human. Throughout the ages, across all cultures, humans have something in common - we dance.

Nowadays, with our technology and our factories and our awkwardness, we're afraid to dance. We're afraid to be vulnerable.

We've lost part of ourselves.

Kiddos still have a chance (adults too - let me teach you!). They are right at the age where they are trying to decide what is okay, what is not okay. What is normal, what is not normal.

I want kiddos to develop knowing that they can use their whole body. They don't need to feel ashamed or embarrassed for doing what kids do - wiggling and giggling and jumping and spinning.

Kids need to do this. Kids need to do this to develop properly.

That was the fun version (haha it was still kind of serious.)

Now for the serious version.

Life sucks. Life is beautiful, and I will always believe that it is more beauty than pain, but life can break us. Life, at moments, can look darker than we ever imagined.

You know what gets me through?

Dance.

No, not putting on a tutu and trying to do a perfect tendu. But really dancing.

I don't know how to explain it, but when I dance, I heal.

A lot of research demonstrates this. What heals trauma? It's called interoception. The ability to perceive the physical inner sensations of your body. Integration of your mind and body. Regulating the body to the calm parasympathetic state. Quality dance education teaches this.

(This is also a marker of what makes dance education resiliency-building instead of toxic. Toxic dance education teaches kids to ignore their bodies, conform to a certain image, and be perfectionistic. This might be appropriate for a professional training program, but for most kids, it sucks.)

I believe in God. I believe that God gave us tools to build resiliency and heal. Dance is one of those tools.

The more tools your kiddo can be exposed to resiliency tools at an early age, the more ready they will be for life.

Even if they don't fall in love with dance, they will have one more somatic mindfulness tool for their belt (quite a few, actually, because I integrate various tools in class.)

And one day, maybe dance will be what gets them through.