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The Magic of Dance

Dèveloppé, fondu, jeté; these are the language of dance. Choreograph dancing is something that requires individuals to retain taught combinations. Dancing for over six years leads me to start thinking of different affects dance could have on the brain and how that could impact the learning process. Knowing how choreograph dancing impacts the way which individuals learn could make it clear to know how dance could enhance student’s academic performance. For this research paper, I pose the question, how choreograph dancing effect the learning process among teenagers?

The summer before third grade and a couple months upon my arrival back to the United States, my mother received a letter in the mail inviting me to audition for the magnet program at Rainbow Park Elementary. The arts program is consisting of dance, drama, and music. My passion for dance grew as I watch how dancers could tell a story without using words. My growing passion led to join the dance magnet program. That was my first introduction to choreograph dancing.

I was not only excelling in the dance studio but also in the classroom. Starting around grade three I have managed to keep my grade above a 3.0. Doing so was not easy. Just before I attended Rainbow Park Elementary I attended Glenmuir Preparatory in Jamaica. The decision to attend school in Jamaica was caused by my constant shabby grades and a teacher’s suggestion that I should get tested for a learning disorder. After I graduated elementary school I decided to Continue my passion for dance. Being apart of the dance magnet program meant added responsibilities. On average, the dance magnet program put on three shows each school year. Leading up to each performance there were multiple after-school practices and dress rehearsals. With having so many responsibilities and still being able to maintain my grades lead me to wonder what was my secret.

At first it was a bit strange on how I was able to graduate summa cum laude, be accepted into one of the best college in the country, make the Dean’s list, i.e. when I had to also direct a large percent of my focus to learn and perform intricate dance pieces. I tried to come up with different explanations like I probably had extra hours added to my day or I might have a stunt double that complete half of my daily tasks. After snapping back to reality, I knew none of those explanations made sense or was even possible. I then wondered to myself, “could dance be the secret?” It was all making sense; well, to me at lease. My grades started to improve around the third grade which was also around the time I was first introduce into choreograph dancing. Author like Alison Reynolds and Wendy Valerio are just two or many that have conducted experiments comparing students who are apart of arts education and those who are not to see whether or not there is a significant difference between the two. Both authors created an experiment with dancers and non-dancers to see which group of students had a longer attention span. The article did not provide specific details as to how dance had cause the difference in attention span between the two groups, but with the results showing that those who where dancers had a longer attention span lead me to conclude that dance might have played a role in how the students function academically.

Personally, I believed that dance was all about the way the body moves but dance is a way to showcase what an individual is feeling or thinking through movement. In choreograph dancing, dancers have to remember different combinations. The skill of having to remember choreography and remember them might cross over to dancer’s academic. Nádia Pereira and Alexandra Marques-Pinto both created a dance program to test the how students felt about doing academic work before the program and after the program. They created a self-report for the teachers to complete to have an idea of the differences the teachers might have observed in the students after they complete their dance program. The results for this showed that there was no significant difference. There might have been different reasons as to why. A few reasons might be because the authors did not have the same numbers of participants participating in the program and those who were not participating in the program and the short time span. A couple of weeks is not enough time to see a significant change in student’s behavior.

The brain muscle memory is impacted when learning new information. Choreography dancing is centered around learning new movements which in many ways adds to the memory muscles that builds up the brain. Janice Deans who did an experiment with 460 teens came to the conclusion that “the power of dance as an authentic semiotic meaning-making tool that supports sophisticated levels of embodied thinking, aesthetically oriented expressive communication and empathetic social contagion,” which directly links learning dance routines to improving the brain’s function. Misha who has been dancing for over nine years shares her own belief and stated that “it’s like my brain is constantly going,” which leaves no other choice but to build its muscle.