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Story by Mandy Ochoa
Photographs by Mike Culpepper
With the Broadway musical Billy Elliot sweeping the Tony awards, dance lessons are in the spotlight. The play, based on a 2000 movie, is about an 11-year-old boy who finds his way into a ballet class despite his father’s objections. Of course, he eventually triumphs.
Many youngsters in the Valley take dance, including a small but growing number of boys. We talked to dance instructors and parents to find out what they think are some of the benefits for dance students.
The experts we consulted are Joanne Davidson, owner and director of Elite Dance Academy Inc.; David Herriott, artistic and executive director of Columbus Ballet and coordinator of Columbus Ballet Conservatory; and Laurie Wylie, dance coordinator at Columbus School of Music and Dance.
First, and perhaps obvious, are the physical benefits. “It’s great exercise,” Davidson said.
Dancing requires “a lot of athletic skill,” Wylie said, adding, “The younger kids are building a lot of strength, endurance and agility.”
The physical benefits carry over into athletics. “I’ve had soccer players really improve on the field because their legs are getting stronger,” Herriott said of his ballet students.
Karyn Leggett’s 10-year-old daughter Veronica has taken dance at Columbus School of Music and Dance for one year. “This is her main source of exercise right now,” Leggett said of Veronica, who takes ballet and jazz.
“It makes them aware of their bodies,” Leggett said, adding, “It makes them comfortable … I want her to be that way.”
Many children who start dance lessons at a very young age have their first exposure to socialization and gain an awareness of their body movement.
At Elite, children may enroll at age 2; at Columbus Ballet and Columbus School of Music and Dance the starting age is 3 years old.
“The young children learn agility, rhythm, coordination and how to follow directions,” Wylie said, adding, “They learn the basic concept of words and movement—front, back, right, left. They learn that movement corresponds to something within the music.”
“It teaches taking turns, socializing with other children their age. They learn to take directions from the instructor,” Davidson said.
For kids of all ages, dance promotes self-discipline, and among older children it helps instill good time-management skills, the experts said.
“Most of our dancers are top-notch students,” Herriott of Columbus Ballet said. “They spend a lot of time here. They know the work ethic of getting their homework done in addition to dancing.”
Wylie of Columbus School agreed. “It’s a very disciplined activity. It’s great for learning self-discipline.”
Many of her students take dance four days a week, and some take six, Davidson of Elite said. In addition to dance, they have schoolwork, church activities, other extracurricular activities and a social life, she added. “These are responsible boys and girls,” Davidson said. “Dance plays a big part in that.”
In addition to all these benefits, there’s the creative spark that dance ignites in its students.
Herriott talked about educating “not just in technique, but in the French language, musicality.” These things, along with the proper execution of steps and body placement, combine with creativity to develop a performance, he said.
Dance class, Wylie explained, provides “exposure to different elements of art.” Because she teaches at a school that also teaches musicians, dancers learn to work together with music students to create their performances, complete with a live student orchestra.
“A good dancer makes the art look easy,” she said.
This year the school is starting musical theater class, and a voice instructor will help with that, Wylie said. “We’re very excited to be able to offer musical theater. Nobody around town is able to offer that.”
Davidson concurs that dance teaches students to “use their minds creatively.” She said sometimes she gives students the opportunity to come up with their own dances, which gives them a real feel for the creative process from beginning to end.
All this talk of dance may conjure up visions of girls in black leotards with their hair up in tight buns, perhaps dancing on their toes. That would be part of the picture, but there’s another world of dancers learning in the Valley: boys.
While all three schools have male students, Columbus Ballet Conservatory has a class just for boys.
“I came here five years ago, and there were a few boys here and there,” Herriott said. “I started a boys’ class with two or three, and this past year we had 11 in the class. There were four older boys taking other classes, also.” Herriott goes to 30 schools every year to talk about dance with students. At that time, he recruits for his boys’ class.
“I’ve told them what kind of athlete a dancer is,” Herriott said. He tells them how ballet “helps prevent injuries on the field because the muscles are toned and stretched.”
Among the boys who have answered Herriott’s call to dance are three Myers brothers: Nicholas, 6, Sean Jr., 8, and Maxwell, 10.
Their father, Sean Myers, said the boys have been taking dance coming up on a year. “They’ve enjoyed it so far. It’s been a good program,” he said.
The Myers wanted the boys to have “exposure to a different art form,” Myers said. The boys danced in Columbus Ballet’s annual performance of The Nutcracker, which gave them the opportunity to perform in front of people.
One bonus of taking ballet is they’ve made good friends, Myers said. “They’ll keep doing it as long as they enjoy it,” he added. He said the separate boys’ class is definitely what drew them to Columbus Ballet.
“For my boys it wouldn’t have matched if they had come in with a bunch of girls,” Myers said.
While they don’t have a class exclusively for boys, Elite Dance Academy and Columbus School of Music and Dance have boys in their classes also.
At Elite the break dance class is all boys except for one girl, Davidson said.
Wylie of Columbus School of Music and Dance has seen boys involved in “a little bit of everything — ballet, jazz, hiphop. Boys take childhood ballroom.”
Many times boys will enter dance through something like hip hop and move into other types of dance once they feel comfortable. “It’s great for boys,” Wylie said, “even if they may not stick with it for long. They become more flexible, agile, and it’s a benefit to any kind of athletic ability.”
Parents of all children need to find a class that’s a good fit for their child and a program they feel comfortable with.
Herriott of Columbus Ballet Conservatory offered some things he would look for as a parent and questions to ask before signing up. “You have to look at the background of the teacher. Have they been a professional dancer? Do they have a degree? Have they worked with professional dancers? How long have they been teaching? Have you seen what they put on stage? Do the parents ever get an opportunity to watch class?”
Herriott also recommends finding out if the studio has special flooring or if the students are dancing directly on hard floors. Class size is important, and he even suggested finding out if there are “hidden costs,” such as expensive costumes for recitals. At Columbus Ballet they make their own costumes, which he says saves parents a lot of money.
No matter which class you choose, it’s clear that dance has many benefits for its students, from very young children to teens.
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