Benefits of Ballet
Benefits of Ballet
There are many benefits of doing ballet lessons and we discuss below the ten key benefits of ballet.
Confidence
Starting ballet as a toddler or even as an older person, can seem daunting. Some people are born with confidence, while for many of us, building confidence is a gradual process through life. Starting your first ballet class offers the chance to try something new and challenging. It’s something you may not feel comfortable with at first. Ballet classes will give you the chance to learn something new, manage a new environment, to meet new people and overall to challenge yourself. Performing movements that you once considered hard to do, can make you feel that you have accomplished something and will motivate you to improve.
Ballet allows you to gradually get to understand your body and know what it is can do. Furthermore, your end of year ballet recital will let you show off all that you have learned during the year in front of your family and friends. Moving out of your comfort zone and showing your skills to a live audience will help immensely with building self-confidence and that sense of achievement.
Endurance
With the increased access to mobile technology through this generation, we have seen lifestyles turn increasingly more sedentary than they were in previous generations. This sedentary lifestyle has taken away much of our natural fitness that every day activity would give and has meant we are less fit and often we are feeling tired before the day has ended.
Stamina or endurance will enable us to maintain a higher level of fitness which in turns allows us to stay focused for longer. The flow on is that we can then do our daily activities more efficiently without being easily fatigued and giving up on doing things we might otherwise be keen to do.
Ballet dancers generally have good strength and fitness allowing better endurance, built by investing hours of practice and training. This training will often include cardiovascular exercises, strength training and many hours of rehearsal. Improved fitness and endurance will let you feel more refreshed and energetic during the day, resulting in an overall better level of physical and mental health.
Flexibility
Ballet dancers will often have amazing flexibility in almost every part of the body. This is because ballet positions involve stretching muscles and tendons in almost every part of the body and in particular the arms, legs, feet, back, and neck. Many of the ballet techniques like the adagio and arabesque allow the body to move with a great range of motion and resulting in a high level of flexibility.
Use of the ballet barre enables stretching while holding onto a fixed bar with only one hand and is an intrinsic part of ballet training, to allow strengthening and flexibility while learning the key positions. As part of the ballet lesson, dancers incorporate stretching into the warm-up routines to encourage flexibility.
The importance of warming up prior to dance class and the benefits are discussed further here Dance Warm Up & Exercises.
Posture
Poor posture is something that we are seeing more and more in youngsters as they spend many more hours than previously, in front of a screen. Unfortunately, bad posture is a ‘habit’ that we can fall into without realizing it. Long terms effects of a poor posture can be huge and result in future back, shoulder and neck pain. As we age, poor posture in our youth can also lead to reduced circulation and further long term health problems such as joint damage and spinal issues including compressed discs and nerve damage.
In ballet, achieving good postural alignment is a critical aspect focussed on from junior classes. Each position, exercise and stance in ballet demands that a good posture is maintained. A ballerina is expected to have an elongated neck, shoulders back, a lengthened spine and a strong core. All of these are ensuring a good posture and with weekly lessons and practice, this awareness of posture will carry on through life from an early. Ballet dancers are able to apply these posture lessons to everyday life with long term health benefits.
Strength
A ballet class will give you a great entire body workout. Ballerina’s are known for their incredible strength. The movements required in ballet will activate every muscle group through your body. You are required to do all forms of movement during a ballet lesson and recital including, bending, stretching, twisting, jumping, twirling, and balancing, using almost every muscle. Repetitive use of the main muscles throughout the body when performing results in very strong toned muscles and incredible strength.
Coordination
From the earliest class as a toddler, ballet involves listening to instructions, then applying those instructions in an often-complex set of moves requiring coordination of arms, legs, feet and head, also set to music!
Therefore, ballet usually involves a high level of multitasking and doing even a simple ballet routine requires a complex set of physical and mental actions. You will need to be moving the arms and legs in different directions at the same time, while also coordinating your dance to music in a controlled manner. Undertaking a perfect routine can be difficult, but with practice your coordination will kick in. At this point, your brain and body become as one effortlessly.
Coordination will improve out of sight with ballet lessons and the ability of your mind and body to undertake multitasking will help in everyday life activities. Some benefits are improved cognitive function, time management, and the ability to handle multiple tasks, leading to improvements in many aspects of your life.
Mental Resilience
Ballet requires focus, concentration and above all discipline. To manage the multitasking and precision required in ballet, a dancer must be constantly present and concentrating on the numerous steps, poses and actions to be performed and within a short period of time. In any one performance you maybe counting the beat, coordinating arms and legs, maintaining the right posture, skipping, spinning, leaping and so on. Performing intricate tasks simultaneously increases brain function, helping with learning, memory and comprehension. Ballet is both mentally and physically demanding and the more you practice, the better your focus and mental resilience.
Sociability
Unfortunately, one of the lessons from The Pandemic has been how important social interactions are.
Ballet lessons allow you to meet new people and to make friends who have the same interest in dance. You are often meeting people of various ages, so there is a healthy mix of people you get to meet. A nurturing learning environment with a group of peers, all sharing the same experience provides a safe, healthy supportive space for children to explore and grow their confidence and social skills.
As children watch and interact with their peers, they can develop a range of social skills such as kindness, empathy, sharing, companionship and helping others. This is developed by watching and interacting with other children of a similar age who are experiencing similar struggles. Some children will grow by helping other students, while some might be the ones accepting help, both of which allow children to feel accepted and comfortable.
As children become more comfortable in their dance class, they will feel excited and eager to come to class ready for more. As children move through their school years maintaining these out of school friendships forged in the dance class, can be a valuable support structure for them.
Even as adults, a dance class can be a great way to add some sociability into your life, making it a great way to incorporate exercise with a way to interact with people from different walks of life and to form new friendships in your community.
Well-Being
Because ballet can be such an intense full-body workout, it can result in a strong feeling of well-being after you have been to a class or performance.
Undertaking exercise releases endorphins and ballet is no exception to this rule. Endorphins are chemicals that will make you feel good, released in the brain they will trigger a very positive feeling which will continue long after class is over.
Moreover, some reports show that that ballet and dance in general will release more endorphins than some other forms of exercise. Furthermore, classical music has been linked to positive outcomes such as calming the brain and aiding focus.
Artistic Expression
Ballet training encourages development of performance skills, allowing dancers to convey their emotions and to tell a story through their dance and movement. Artistic expression includes facial expressions, body language, and the ability to connect with the audience. The development of artistic expression in ballet lets the dancer communicate their emotions and show what they feel through movement and music.
The ability to express emotions and feelings is an important part of human development and learning ballet and encouraging artistic expression will actively promote this.
So in conclusion, there are many benefits of ballet, so enroll your child in a ballet class today, or take it up yourself!
