Boys who dance see social, physical, and intellectual benefits that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. Dance is beneficial to all children, regardless of gender. It teaches them discipline and perseverance, strengthens and stretches their bodies, and challenges their brains.
Don’t believe me? Check out some of these blog posts highlighting the many physical, emotional, and intellectual benefits of dance: Top 10 Ways Students Benefit from Dance, 19 Reasons Why Your Child Should Dance, Because of Dance, What is Brain Dance, and The Benefits of Brain Dance
Here are three additional out-of-the-box ways boys benefit from dance:
1. Crossover skills- Ballet improves your balance, flexibility, strength, and endurance. Each of these benefits will improve physical performance across the board — including in other sports. Learning to coordinate weight shifts, directional changes and managing different body parts moving simultaneously can help with soccer, basketball, football, or any sport really! Flexibility and strength helps prevent injury because the major and minor muscle groups are not only strong, but pliable.
2. Self-Expression – The benefits of ballet aren’t only physical and intellectual. Just like girls, boys need to learn to process their emotions in a healthy way. Dance allows for defeats and triumphs in the classroom and on stage, and dancers learn to handle positive and negative emotions in a healthy constructive way that yields emotional stability later in life.
In addition, dance teaches boys to show our emotions through their body language which is a critical way that young dancers can express emotions they might not be ready to share verbally, and that more mature dancers might not have any other outlet to express.
3. Opportunity – Let’s start with the obvious. There are fewer men in dance than there are women. That means better roles, a better chance of a college scholarship, and a possible professional career. (Not that the men don’t work just as hard as the women, they do! But they have the numbers on their side as well).
But what are the other opportunities? Boys love to move their bodies — they connect to the world around them through motion and physicality (why do you think they earned the monicker “rough and tumble boys”). Dance class is a great way to do that and to constantly learn new ways in which to do it. Brotherhood might not seem like an obvious benefit, but a few boys in a room full of girls can really pull together and create strong bonds. Physical and emotional health are of the greatest benefits of dance. Each class is a challenge that will keep the body and brain healthy.
Are you still asking: Why do boys dance? The answer is simple: For the same reason that all of us dance, they like it! They love to move. They enjoy the challenge of perfecting a craft. And it makes them feel better, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Check out this blog post from Dance Teacher Magazine, for parents of boys who want to dance.
