Sitting and watching someone dance, it looks so easy, as if it comes so naturally, as if there is no hard work involved. The performance really is just the end result. Does the audience think about what it takes to get to that point? How much training and sweat there is? Truthfully, dance is hard working and should be a required part of any school curriculum. It has the same requirements as other major sports, it has many health benefits and it has also been tied to higher test scores and better academic performance.
Dance has the same requirements as other major sports. For example, football requires aerobic conditioning, speed, endurance, and body and muscle strength. Similar to football, hip hop dance requires flexibility, balance , muscle coordination, muscle strength, core strength, and it requires you to stay moving and active usually for up to an hour at a time. “Dancers in a group learn important skills such as the ability to plan, successfully express their thoughts and ideas, providing concise arguments and reasons for or against different concepts, and applying different strategies to complete tasks” (“Champions of Change”).Other sports like gymnastics and football also plan out a routine or steps to follow to succeed in the final performance or game. Dance clearly fits the definition and meets or even exceeds the requirements of common sports; therefore it should be nationally considered for school curriculum just like football, soccer, baseball, etc.
Dance also has many health benefits. It gives strength to the lungs and heart, minimizes chances of osteoporoses and cardiovascular disease, decreases blood pressure, strengthens the body and its muscles, and it can help control weight. “A 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine even found dancing can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly” ( “The Health Benefits of Dancing-Including Specific Benefits of Different Dances”). Many people don’t have the healthiest life style and it’s not always their fault. If dance was in the school curriculum then it would give many more students another opportunity to live the healthy lifestyle they need and maybe even want.
Dance has also been tied to higher test scores and better academic performance. In a kid’s middle and high school years, they go through a time of adolescence which is a time of increasing maturity, responsibility, independence, self expression, etc. and with a movement- based approach to learning, these kids would develop higher-level thinking skills. Also, through dancing and creating new movements, a student can learn to communicate differently than any other way that we learn in school. “Dance is very important to education because it teaches everyone to think abstractly and it is not tangible. It teaches a sense of something deeper” (Mora). “Comparison students took art related activities in schools(like dance) and 66.8% of 8th grade students scored in the top two quartiles on standardized tests compared to only 42.7% students who did not”(“Champions of Change”).
Dance should be a required part of all school curriculums. Dance has the same requirements and intensity as other major sports and it has many health benefits and it would more likely be incorporated in school curriculum if it was nationally considered a sport. No matter how easy it looks, it really is just as hard as football and soccer. The beauty of dance is in the final performance. Most people don’t know or understand all the hard work it takes to get there because they don’t see the pain and sweat; it turns into something beautiful and breathless to watch.