How Dance Competitions Help Kids Thrive + Plus Local Competitions Near You
Here at Dansations, it’s our job to teach your kids how to dance and show the artistic value that it brings to the world. It’s also our priority to ensure you understand the type of dance we specialize in, which aligns with what you’re looking for the most. It can be recreational, just something fun to do for the summer, or, in the bigger picture, you go on to be a part of competitions and test what you can really do on the big stage.
In this blog, we will explore various dance competitions around New York State and their benefits, explaining why and how they can be beneficial for you.
Why Dance Competition is Great for Your Kids
Regular recreational dance can be just as important for your kid as competitive dance, but that doesn’t mean that competitive dance doesn’t carry benefits that lead to other successes down the road if you do something non-dance related.
Overcoming Your Anxiety
One of the major benefits of dance competition is being able to elevate yourself out of a state of anxiety. Whether you’re competing in solo or team-based competitions, this process is extremely beneficial. Now dancing doesn’t stand on a pedestal as the only and most anxiety-driven form of competition out there, but we’d be lying if we didn’t say that’s ONE of the hardest to master.
Some of the many practices that dancers engage in involve a regular and consistent exercise plan, deep breathing exercises, practicing mindfulness, and focusing on the present moment. Meditation is a great activity to get you in a good rhythm by helping to calm your mind and body.
We discuss this topic extensively in a previous blog, “Combating Performance Anxiety and Stage Fright in Dance,” and we recommend that you take a look.
The Power of Discipline and Teamwork
You’re gonna fail, you’re gonna learn from it, and you will ultimately succeed. That’s something that your kids will learn over time when they find out what the complexities are within dance competitions. It takes strong discipline and teamwork with others (if it’s team-based competition) to truly learn what you have within you and show others what it takes to be the best. Only if that’s something your kids want to strive for.
You can be the one who leads a group to win a competition, or you can be the support player that everyone can rely on if something needs to change, and your team takes a fall. Leading and supporting are two different sides of the same coin; many people in a competition understand their role, and that’s the best way to show off what you can do.
How Dance Competition Can Help Your Life as An Adult
As parents, you’re always looking out for your kids’ futures, and we believe that dance is something that will GREATLY influence what your kids do. We understand that we don’t control what your kids do on the outside; all we want to do is help improve their dance capabilities. With that comes a sense of pride knowing that what we do in the dance studio can also greatly affect what the kids do in the future once they become adults.
Dance allows you to develop cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities that will be beneficial in school, a summer job, other sporting activities, and finally, your future career. Problem-solving, social competence, and resilience are all examples that you learn from those abilities.
Teamwork in dance allows you to really develop problem-solving, because just about every job in the world focuses on some form of teamwork, the same thing with a big school project, something your kids will experience a lot in college. If you have a big work meeting for a new product to be sold, you have to prepare with your team to show the boss that it can be done.
Through thick and thin, by the time your kids reach that point in their lives, they will have learned everything else that they’ve needed to know, and dancing, especially dance competitions, is a great way for them to learn the way forward.
Our Introduction to Competition and Other Events in NYS
There are many different, bigger competitions like the United States Tournament of Dance in Syracuse and multiple regional competitions held by companies such as Dance Champs Elite and Turn It Up Dance Challenge across New York state. A lot of these different types of events feature all kinds of dance forms and also feature some great future opportunities for internships and the possibility of being recruited into higher arts programs.
One of Dansations best ways to get a foot in the door for your kids is through our local recreational competitive program. This allows dancers to be a part of a team without the huge commitment. It allows kids to compete and perform in recitals and through many forms of dance like tap, jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical.
We also feature a chance for the kids to participate in a duet, trio, or small group if they are enrolled in 4 or more classes, including ballet. This brings back around the teamwork angle that we strive to push forward in all of our kids, and this allows them to show it off. You can read more about the benefits on our Recreational-Competition Team page at the bottom.
We offer recreational competition classes for ages 7-10 and ages 11-15, and if you have any other questions for more details about these competitions, be sure to reach out through our contact form, and we will be happy to assist.
We sincerely hope that this influences you to show your kids the great things that come from dancing in competition, and we look forward to making sure that they get those opportunities!