Teaching a Love of Music Through Dance
Understanding music is difficult for young dancers when they first start learning. Interpreting music into movement is something that comes naturally for some people, but for those who need a little more time to develop their skills, it will come.
Rhythm is the thing that joins music and dance together. This is one of the first things a young student will learn when they start dancing lessons. A fun way to learn about different rhythms is by Eurhythmics. This is when students hit sticks together in a certain rhythm, as they walk around. In this way they will learn different dance rhythm patterns like; waltz, march and polka etc. When they hear music the students will be able to pick out the rhythm patterns and dance to the beat.
Melody in music sets the mood of any piece. An important component of dance is mime and the melody helps to tell the story. Young students need to learn how to recognize and understand the music using the melody.
It's important young students get to know different types of music. Classical music is mostly associated with ballet but other music is sometimes written for certain ballets. The more a child gets to know the music the better they will be at understanding it.
Interpreting music is something children are quite good at and an easy way for them to unleash their creativity. Developing this skill to interpret music takes time and patience but it eventually comes to all young dancers.
Classical music is often used in dancing and exposing young children to this music early on is a great thing. A long love of more mature music styles such as classical comes directly from early experiences like those received through dance lessons.
In order to take advantage of this part of dance, you will need to choose a good school for your child. The school should take into consideration the needs of students and not be in it just for the money. This means that the curriculum for different ages and levels of dancing will be well worked out and suitable for your child's age group.
Good dance teachers aren't difficult to find but they don't just grow on trees, either. A good dance teacher will have a strong rapport with all of their students, they will be creative and they will have credentials and experience in teaching children. Many dance schools take the easy and cheap way out by using their older students to teach the younger ones. This is a great way for a school to make money but it won't satisfy the students or their parents.