By: Sophia Franzini
Dance & Cheerleading are known to be expensive sports. These expenses are actually investments in your child.
Once you total up the costs of classes, shoes, entry fees, costumes etc… it’s more than what parents may think they have signed up for.
At the end of the day, it’s an investment into the child’s growth and development.
Dance and Cheerleading educates invaluable life skills that are transferable into their school and home life. In my 15 years of being a Dance & Cheerleading coach, I have witnessed my students become confident, driven and independent young adults. I strongly believe dance contributed to this.
We all know the obvious benefits of Dance & Cheerleading such as strength, posture, coordination and, well, the ability to show off cool skills to everyone!
But what are the other benefits?
The social, physical, emotional and problem-solving skills that will remain with your child throughout their journey in school and adult life.
The list of social benefits of dance and cheerleading are extensive… but let’s just focus on my favourites – face-to-face interaction and new friendships.
Firstly, it gets children off their screens. We can all admit children (and us adults) spend too much time on screens. Enrolling your child into dance and cheerleading will schedule time for your child to interact with other kids in person. Most of the time, they will be communicating with children from other schools. Your child will increase their network of friends and ultimately build a circle of “dancing friends”. (And if you are an ex-dancer reading this, we all know that we had stronger friendships with our “dancing friends” than our friends we had at school).
Like most sports, there are cognitive benefits to dance and cheerleading. These include improved attention span, increased capacity to problem solve and better ability to manage their own emotions and become resilient.
Enrolling your child into a dance or cheer lessons will allow you child to switch off mentally from the outside world and be present in the moment. This is especially beneficial for teenagers who may feel overwhelmed with the social and academic pressures of high school and just need a break from it all and do something physical that they enjoy.
Physically, there are many obvious benefits of dancing and cheerleading – The physical benefits of dance and cheer include increased mobility, better posture and enhanced rhythm & coordination. It is clear that dance also improves gross motor skills which build stronger and leaner muscles.
When your child joins a dance or cheer team, they build a sense of belonging and develop pride in achieving new skills. This cultivates a strong work ethic in your child to set and achieve independent goals, collaborate with their teammates and learn how to lead their team. This results in your child building confidence and self-belief that they can achieve new skills with practise.
The lessons learnt in dance classes will also help your child at school. Toddlers who learn dance in a structured environment learn skills that translate directly to classroom etiquette. When they reach Kindergarten they will have a great understanding of teamwork, patience, the ability to concentrate, respect for taking turns and be able to follow instructions.
If you’ve been looking for a new activity for your child, try dance!
And if you’re looking for a friendly and progressive cheer and dance school, try KINETIC DANCE FORCE in Concord West, NSW.
About the author:
Sophia Franzini is Director of KINETIC DANCE FORCE, an award-winning Cheer and Dance school for kids in Sydney’s Inner West. As an elite-level dance and acrobatics coach, Sophia has transformed hundreds of children’s lives in Dance. Her teams at KINETIC DANCE FORCE have won 8x National Champion titles with athletes that had started their dance journey with her.
If there is one thing she is passionate about, it is coaching kids to realise their potential. To her “coaching” means taking someone from where they are to where they want to be (and have fun in the process!). Furthermore, she thrives from witnessing kids grow into artistic athletes and mentoring them to become confident young adults.
KINETIC DANCE FORCE itself has a highly regarded 9 year history and has earned 8x National Champion Dance titles. Sophia Franzini leads a team of coaches, who are fulfilled witnessing your child’s progress and character development. The coaches work on developing dane and cheer skills to unlock your child’s potential in a safe and welcoming environment.
Dance and Cheerleading classes for kids with a focus on progression. We believe every child has the potential to be a great athlete. It is our job to create an environment where they can flourish.
Kinetic Dance Force is now taking registrations for Term 3 (commencing Monday 18th July).
Click here to book your FREE trial class: https://www.kineticdanceforce.com.au/free
