In this Article the Author talks about the benefits of creative dance and movement in children, specifically primary school children.
She structures her argument as a list of the benefits of creative movement, elaborating on each one. I have condensed her argument into an overview of her views on each benefit, and a selection of quotes that Dow uses to support her Article:
Access for all children:
Dow argues that creative movement can be accessed by any child, because it requires little or no equipment, other than a spacious room. It can also be adapted to suit disabilities, changing movements for children who are physically impared. For example, a child in a wheelchair could throw their arms in the air instead of doing a jump, or create a letter shape with their hands instead of their whole bodies.
Curriculum Enrichment:
Dow believes creative movement can be used as a vehicle for any subject or theme, helping bring the topic alive and engage the children.
Physical Development:
Incorporating creative movement into a primary school childs day helps to develop their
“coordination, body control, balance, stamina, and overall strength.” Dow 2010.
Antidote to obesity:
Dow argues that incorporating movement into every class would be an extremely effective way of combatting childhood obesity:
“Incorporating active, enjoyable, creative movement into classroom routines is just what the health professionals ordered!” Dow 2010
Social and Emotional Development:
Children learn to work as a group. “Creative movement is one of the best ways for children to learn the social skills needed for working together” (Gilbert 2002)
The National Dance Education Organization states,
"Dance promotes psychological health and maturity. Children enjoy the opportunity to express their emotions and become aware of themselves and others through creative movement. A preschool child enters a dance class or classroom with a history of emotional experiences. Movement within a class offers a structured outlet for physical release of feelings and emotions” (CNDEÜ 2009).
Creativity:
“In the years ahead, children will enter a global workforce. We need to teach children to look at problems in new ways, to practice critical thinking skills, and to learn collaboration and cooperation in finding new solutions.” (Dow 2010)
Dow believes that creativity can practiced and enhanced through creative movement in schools.
The mind body connection: Movement and the brain:
“Research shows that movement and exercise can spark the growth of new brain cells and facilitate learning” (Ratey 2008)
"Movement, a natural process of life, is now under- stood to be essential to learning, creative thought, and high level formal reasoning. It is time to consciously bring integrative movement back into every aspect of our lives and realize, as 1 have, that something this simple and natural can be the source of miracles" (Hannaford 1995. 214)
"Exercise improves learning on three levels: first, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it pre- pares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another. which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus" (Ratey,2008, 53).
"Building muscles and conditioning the heart and lungs are essentially side effects. I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the brain" (Ratey, 2008, p. 3).
She summaries thusly:
“Evidence is mounting about the benefits of movement in the learning process. Creative dance is the perfect vehicle for enhancing the mind-body connection in young children and an important part of early education. Once educators become familiar with movement and its many benefits, instead of asking. "What is creative movement?" the question will be, "Why not creative movement?"” (Dow 2010)
This Article is directly relevant to my study. It is concentrating on the benefits of creative movement, which is the foundation of dance. It will be interesting to see if there is a link between the benefits Dow perceives primary children receive through creative movement, and the benefits of participating in dance teachers and secondary age students perceive. Some of Dows points will be slightly to complex to justifiably link to my research results i.e cellular structure of the brain etc. But it might be possible to draw links between Dows arguments of Access for All and curriculum enrichment and the opinions of students and teachers about how dance participation benefits the students.
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