No doubt, dancers acquire some very unique traits and talents that make them very special. But dance also makes you very spatial! Guest writer, Melanie Doskocil muses on how this ability has supported her backpacking hobby in the first of a series about the sometimes surprising life lessons and skills we learn through dance. Read her amusing account of how ballet comes in handy in the wilderness and stay tuned for more from Ballet’s Un-X-pected Lesson Files.
mind-body
Helping Your Preschooler Become Body-Aware
It might seem silly at first to get on the floor with your child and roll with her. You might think she already knows how, but movement is a layered experience, which means we relearn the same concepts over and over.
Ready, Set, Stop: How To Teach Mind-Body Skills By Not Moving
To illustrate this, I ask my students to become aware of how their body feels as it works against gravity. I ask them to put their hands above their heads and then to be still. I remind them, “you are in charge of your body,” “your brain tells your body what to do,” and then we wait.
Relearning and Reinforcing Body Integration
Movement is a layered experience. We develop movement patterns and then continue to relearn them as we get older. Babies learn to crawl, developing the spiral and then relearn and master it as they walk and then run.
