Should my child attend ballet classes?
[mme_highlight] Ballet helps develop fine motor skills, coordination, flexibility, expression, posture and body self-awareness. Ballet enhances memory, attention and concentration, which may help better academic achievement. Ballet makes children contact with music, rhythms and traditional dances from an early age. Ballet gives a sense of confidence and self-esteem and develops the capacity to work in group.[mme_highlight]
When enrolling your child in ballet classes, the main goal of parents and teachers is to help children build their personality and strengthen ways of self-expression and confidence. This must be done taking the most out of a child’s capacities and posing new challenges always with a training and set of goals adjusted for every child’s profile. Ballet is beneficial in many ways as it teaches posture, musicality, rhythm, and may also improve bone and cardiovascular health.
Mr. Carr set the goals for dance education in 1984:
- to develop capacities and techniques;
- to teach traditions through traditional forms of dance;
- to teach certain series of movements;
- to promote independency;
- to develop imagination;
- to learn to critically judge one’s own achievements.
What is the relationship between pursuing ballet and personality?
62 young dancers were given self-esteem questionnaires which inquired about empathy, creativity and other personality factors as well as a list of interests. The results can be found in the box below and suggest that in comparison to the control group, ballet dancers had a significantly higher interest in music, singing, acting, writing, drawing and handwork, showing less interest in technology.
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Frequency of hobbies in young ballet dancers vs. control group (Helsinki students)
| Young Ballet Dancers | Control Group | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Often | Seldom | Very seldom | Often | Seldom | Very seldom | |
| Playing an instrument | 33% | 13% | 54% | 31% | 5% | 65% |
| Singing | 39% | 11% | 50% | 24% | 4% | 72% |
| Acting | 24% | 12% | 64% | 5% | 2% | 92% |
| Writing | 55% | 17% | 28% | 28% | 13% | 59% |
| Painting | 58% | 12% | 30% | 30% | 16% | 53% |
| Handwork | 52% | 14% | 34% | 24% | 26% | 61% |
| Engines | 3% | 5% | 92% | 13% | 7% | 80% |
| Nature activities | 18% | 23% | 59% | 14% | 13% | 72% |
| Photography | 3% | 8% | 89% | 4% | 12% | 84% |
| Collecting | 15% | 20% | 65% | 24% | 16% | 60% |
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Ballet dancers may better develop since young age better capacity of expression, improved self-esteem and confidence, sensitivity and empathy.
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Empathy levels in young ballet dancers vs. control group (Helsinki students)
| Ballet Dancers | Control Group | |
|---|---|---|
| Female | 79.8 +/-6.6 | 71.0 +/-6.8 |
| Male | 72.0 +/-8.9 | 64.7 +/-7.0 |
| Total | 77.2 +/-8.2 | 67.3 +/-7.6 |
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Self-esteem levels in young ballet dancers vs. control group (young baseball players)
| Ballet Dancers | Control Group | |
|---|---|---|
| Female | 24.2 +/-3.4 | 18.9 +/-4.3 |
| Male | 22.5 +/-3.8 | 19.7 +/-4.1 |
| Total | 23.4 +/-3.5 | 19.7 +/-4.1 |
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What can be the physical implications / benefits of ballet?
Aside from artistic intentions, ballet training implies also physical activity, which has been shown to have health benefits and therefore is likely to benefit children who participate, irrespective of whether they will continue into a professional career. Most skills needed to ballet are not inborn, but, on the contrary, demand training. One of the most prominent physical features is the hip external rotation (ER), which is fundamental to the turned out position characteristic of the art.
Every child van benefit from attending ballet classes, but teachers should define an individualized training program to help children improve as much as possible and to cope with possible physical limitations with positive reinforcement. Thus, a dancer with limited turnout may still benefit enormously from doing ballet.
Bennell K and colleagues compared bone mineral of 78 pre- and early-pubertal novice female ballet dancers with controls and found that dancers had 4.5% greater total hip bone mineral density (BMD) and 4.9% greater femoral neck BMD (both p <.01). These findings suggest that the mechanical loading of dance training may benefit the bone mineral density, which may prevent fractures and later onset of osteoporosis.
Most of injuries associated with ballet training in children are overuse injuries, caused by errors in technique and abrupt changes in training. Forcing turn-out is the most common technique error. Ballet teachers should be able to prevent such injuries from happening.
Summary and Recommendations
- Ballet is one of the most physically and artistic demanding dance styles.
- Parents may enroll their children in ballet academy since young age (baby ballet classes accept 3-year-olds). The desirable initial training focus primarily in the motor and expressive skills than on classical ballet technique itself.
- For young children, ballet is a good option irrespective of sex. However, plan carefully your child’s weekly schedule not to overload it – remember kids benefit a lot from free playing time.
- Ballet helps develop fine motor skills, coordination, flexibility, expression, posture and body self-awareness.
- Ballet enhances memory, attention and concentration, which may help better academic achievement. Ballet can also be beneficial for hyperactive children.
- Ballet makes children contact with music, rhythms and traditional dances from an early age.
- Ballet gives a sense of confidence and self-esteem and develops the capacity to work in group.
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References
- Kalliopuska M. Empathy, self-esteem and creativity among junior ballet dancers. Percept Mot Skills. 1989 Dec;69(3 Pt 2):1227-34.
- Bennell K, Khan K, Matthews B et al. Activity-Associated Differences in Bone Mineral Are Evident Before Puberty: A Cross-Sectional Study of 130 Female Novice Dancers and Controls. Pediatric Exercise Science, 2000,12, 371 -381.
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