Should you take your child to live stage performances? The short answer is yes, you should, whenever possible! As budding performers, dance students need input from many areas in order to improve and achieve their goals, including from professional dancers. Here are some important reasons why live performances will enhance students’ dancing.
Inspiration and Reflection
Watching professionals on stage gives students the chance to reflect on their own dancing. It provides a model for goals and the space for dreams to grow. After watching beautiful, engaging, and technically demanding performances, students walk away with renewed inspiration and focus towards their own achievements. This, when translated into the studio, can show amazing changes in effort and determination. Ultimately, reflects in technique and performance.
National Youth Ballet dancers on stage
Development of Artistry
While watching live performances, students witness the intricacies of artistry and acting required by dancers. In the studio, it is easy to get caught in the complexity of technique and the eagerness to perfect it. This can at times lead to students forgetting the importance of performing these technical steps with artistry and flair. Watching a live performance serves as a great reminder to use expressiveness and finesse, even when performing the most difficult choreography.
Connection to the Artists
Watching a live performance, rather than a show on a screen, provides a much greater sense of connection to the dancers. The presence of the artist creates a completely different energy to watching something through a monitor. It becomes a much more tangible experience for students. It also reinforces that it is possible to reach the dream of becoming a dancer. The performers are standing there on the stage, for real! Patient students may even get to meet the stars of the show at the stage door after the performance!
TLFCB dancers on stage in Belle and the beast in 2017
Be Swept Away
Who doesn’t want to be swept away in a fairy tale or story that allows one to forget the stresses and complications of everyday life? Let the music, dancing and narration of a great story transport you for a couple of hours. Certainly children, too, need that time and space to step away from reality and immerse themselves in their imagination. With this in mind, make it an event to look forward to.
Appreciating the Benefits of the Arts
Time and again, studies have shown how important the arts are to children’s development, their academic success, and to general well-being. Arts in education and at home are connected to higher self-esteem, motivation, increased cultural exposure and creativity. In addition, they are associated with social harmony and an appreciation of diversity. So, why not continue the education received at home and in school by exposing students to the arts through live performances?
Have you seen a live performance recently? Which one? Let us know in the comments below!
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