Ballet is an athletic art form that utilizes muscle control, flexibility, and physical strength. It requires extreme discipline from the dancers and takes an extreme amount of mental concentration. This discipline causes dancers to have success throughout life and specifically in academic studies. There are many ways that dance can affect the success of a person’s life; however, there are two in specific that make dancers generally more successful. To begin, ballet causes dancers to be self-motivated workers; dancers cannot rely on others to push them to be better, but must have the drive within themselves. Ballerinas will never improve if they fall back into old, mundane, and routine habits. They must push themselves outside of their comfort zone in order to build stronger muscles, increase flexibility, and dance with increased grace. This self-motivation to be better helps dancers to be more successful in school, due to the fact that they have the inner drive to study, get the …show more content…
This happens because ballerinas are forced to pick up choreography that is thrown at them in just minutes. Although, ballerinas do not start out with a brain that is ready and capable to remember information and the snap of a finger, their ability to do this grows over years and years in training. This leads to success in academic studies because the brain of a dancer has the ability to look at information and remember it with rapid speed. Their brains have been trained to work at extremely high speeds and this translates into their studies. This allows ballerinas to perform well on tests, quizzes, and exams because of their capability to take information and store it into their brain with exorbitant speed. This skill will not just affect school life, but any ventures after school, as well. Ballerinas will be able to recall directions given to them in a career or instructions from a boss on how to complete a
By universal definition, "sport" is listed as "an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively." Football, basketball, baseball, soccer and other primary activities have always been concretely defined as sports in society. However, one of the most physically demanding activities is constantly forgotten when it comes to the realm of sports- dance. Dance requires a tremendous amount of training and creates an aura of competition in which people compete to be the best, win, and take home the trophy- just like in traditionally accepted sports. These sports, however, do not possess an element of psychological health threats that some competitive dancers unfortunately must account for due to the emphasis placed on physical appearance.
After a while at being at the academy, Li got to know his teachers and they saw a lot of potential in Li’s ballet skills. They told him a lot of legends and stories that made Li want to practice and work hard at ballet and become better at it. “Sit down, I want to tell you a story”. Li trained hard, day and night, getting advice from teachers and students on how to improve, “I worked hard and listened to what they said”. Li pushed through injuries just so he could get better at ballet in hopes to get his name out there but most importantly making his family proud. “My rapid improvement surprised my teachers and classmates”. Therefore, by improving on his ballet it shows that Li has a lot of determination in getting better at ballet every day and he is getting more independent in this whole process of training and
Aalten, A. (2005). In the presence of the body: Theorizing training, injuries and pain in ballet. Dance Research Journal, 37(2), 55-72. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20444641
It will allow me to be a manager and better my leadership skills. I will learn how to manage a big group of people, which is something that can be applied to many various careers. I will learn the best way to be a teacher and to stay calm and focused when things get difficult or crazy. All of these skills are not only applicable to the dance world, but to life in general.
The typical idea of a dancer is that they are tall, slender, full of energy, and lucky because they dance with all of the “stars”. Much of this is true, however, what many people do not think of are the many hardships that a dancer goes through in order to achieve their high status in the dance world. It takes much hard work and determination along with good direction to become a dancer. However, nothing good comes without a price. Dancers often times have many pressures put on them which can lead to physical and emotional damages. These damages occur through the pressures from the media, parents, teammates, and the stereotype that society has placed on dancers.
Ballet is a beautiful and romantic type of performance art. It originated in the Italian court systems in the 15th century (Jonas). Since its origination, ballet has undergone many changes and gained worldwide recognition. Filled with elaborate costumes, cheering audiences, lights, weightless movements and beauty; ballet is admired by many. On the magical stage ballerinas can become whoever they wan to be, and perform in a world of fantasy. For these reasons, children, especially little girls, all over the world dream of becoming ballerinas when they grow up. However, becoming a professional ballerina is an extremely difficult accomplishment, in which few will achieve (Kelso 1). The world of ballet may seem to be filled with glitz and glamor but, behind the curtain there is an entirely different story. There are extreme demands and pressures put on these young dancers to be very thin and nearly perfect. Some of which include body and weight demands, competition, and social pressures. These constant pressures can lead to a negative body-image and even debilitating eating disorders (Price and Pettijohn).
an important factor of sports, it’s presence in Ballet is not to be ignored. These reasons all lead
Moreover, the attire ballerina’ must wear adds to the “skinny” issue. Because of the tight clothing, it can expose the dancer to any imperfect areas of their body, evoking girls to stress and encourage them to achieve a small figure. Seeing others thinner than she, could also prompt a dancer to lose a few pounds to look as tiny as the other girls in the room. As each one does this, the room of dancers becomes very small. Anorexia seems like the best way to become the smallest dancer in the class. Similarly, when practicing, ballet dancers often have to work with a male partner. Together, they will work as one and have to execute moves gracefully and flawlessly. A dancer has to be conscious that a man has to be able to carry her for extended lifts and holds. Knowing she can dance better with a smaller weight, persuades a dancer that she must stay thin at all costs. Not only does a ballet performer have to worry about her weight when she has a partner, but it also influence her movement
Dancing is a tremendously difficult task. That is why all dancers must have a mind mentally
Diana showed great determination by following what she believed in. She had a passion for ballet throughout her entire life. When she was at boarding school, she would sneak down to an empty corridor at night and practice for hours on end. Even though she grew too tall to accomplish her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, she kept dancing throughout her adult years (Morton 125).
Dancers are suffering: How the clothing that is worn in class psychologically effects dancers The current expectation of a dancer is set at a high bar with a foundation of standards established years ago. Of these demanding requirements, the ballet world has a significant involvement of rules when partaking in this art form that can be detrimental to the mental health of a dancer. This is a problem that is overlooked by most ballet studios because of the usefulness of traditional ballet attire and that needs to be corrected because, if left uncorrected, dancers will continue to fall into an unhealthy mental state.
The Disorder of Dancing It is estimated that 10% of the women population have eating disorders (primary text) however, 83% percent of dancers have eating disorders(eatingdisorderreview.com). The alarming statistics for eating disorders are especially prevalent in dance students. One source said that “dancers have a three times higher of a risk of suffering from eating disorders… than non-dancers” (Arcelus 1). Eating disorders in dancers is not something that is widely talked about by the general public because it is not something known about for how prevalent they are. Eating disorders in dancers are alarmingly high.
By perceiving the relative positioning of their body placement, a dancer’s sense of spatial awareness sharpens, allowing the brain to process at a faster rate (Brown and Parsons 3). Efficient Memory Dance “helps develop new neural connections” namely in places affecting long-term memory (Edwards 2). Dementia, a disease characterized by memory loss, is greatly reduced by dancing due to the stimulation of the brain from mental exertion (Edwards 2). Marking, the process of dancing but not doing the motions full out, allows dancers “to memorize and repeat moves with greater fluidity” (Beris 2).
There are many positive effects being a dancer can have on your life, one of the positive effects is that dance can improve your physical and mental properties. One way dance can be used to improve physically or mentally is dance therapy. The official definition for dance therapy is, “the therapeutic use of movement to improve the mental and physical well-being of a person.” (“Dance Therapy” Line 1) There have been a few scientific studies done on the effects of dance therapy on people that are considered “healthy” and people with serious illnesses. The effects of dance therapy physically are for exercise purposes, it can improve your coordination and how you move and also decrease the amount of tension and stress you have in your body and mind. The effects of dance therapy emotionally are, to increase self- confidence and also interaction with other people. Some of the scientific studies have claimed that dance therapy can also strengthen the immune system and help to prevent diseases. (“Dance Therapy” 7-12) Sometimes dance therapy can be used to help people recover that are suffering from certain illnesses. One of the experi...
“Dance, the art of precise, expressive, and graceful human movement, traditionally, but not necessarily, performed in accord with musical accompaniment. Dancing developed as a natural expression of united feeling and action.”