Performing Arts – The Benefits
Performing arts: the combination of music, drama and dance, a performer and an audience. Whether it’s the Royal Albert Hall or a school hall assembly a performance is a performance! With each performance comes all the learning, rehearsing, mistakes, growth, joy and confidence that each participant experiences. With Ants In Your Pants your children will experience all this and more! Here are some facts of how each facet of the performance arts affect the entire school curriculum: academic, social and emotional.
Music
FACT: Music is one of the only activities that activates, stimulates and uses the entire brain
Activity Type
Enhanced Skill
Creativity
Compose a rhythm/song, improvisation.
Results
Thinking outside the box – essential in modern workplace.
Perseverance
Focus
Practicing an instrument or vocal skill.
Moving from sound to symbol (musical notation), detecting patterns and measuring sound.
Confidence to continually develop new skills, improved confidence.
Promotion of literacy, mathematical and scientific learning skills.
Fun/Relaxation
Singing.
Increases self-esteem, confidence, positively affects the functioning of the immune system, breathing, mood and stress reduction, promotes literacy and storytelling skills.
Brain processing
Learning singing skills, analysing melodies, listening and exploring a wide variety of music recorded and live.
Improved listening skills, sharpens the brain’s early encoding of linguistic sound, perception of language which impact on learning to read.
Motor Skills
Learning an instrument.
Enhances fine motor skills, improves posture, trains muscle memory and transfers to daily physical activities, increases concentration and provides an outlet for relaxation.
General Attainment
Learning new musical skills and practicing them with dedication.
Increases the ability to overcome frustration when learning is difficult, therefore increases motivation for learning, self-discipline and provides a means of self-expression.
Social Cohesion
Participating in musical group activities and performances.
Promotes friendship, social skills, team work, co-operation, responsibility and commitment, mutual support and bonding to meet group goals.
Drama
FACT: Drama tuition found increases in IQ. Children can find facts at the touch of a button or a hit of Google, drama teaches a mind to be subtle and flexible.
Enhanced Skill
Activity Type
Results
Trust
Drama exercises and social interaction
Provides confidence to be outside your comfort zone, allows for taking risks, making mistakes and learning from them.
Imagination
Role-playing and performing in front of an audience
Jumpstarts creativity, links acting to story telling and literacy.
Empathy
Acting roles from different situations, time periods and cultures
Promotes compassion and tolerance for others’ feelings and viewpoints.
Cooperation/
Collaboration
Combining creative ideas and abilities of students
Increased skills in discussion and negotiation.
Concentration/
Memory
Acting, practicing and performing
Develops a sustained focus of mind, body and voice, which also helps in other school subjects and life.
Emotional Outlet
Pretend play and drama games
Studying and learning, myths, poems and plays
Allows for expression of a range of emotions. Aggression and tension are released in a safe, controlled environment, decreasing anti-social behaviours.
Social Awareness
Teaches about social issues, conflicts from cultures, past and present, all over the world.
Dance
FACT: Dance embodies one of our most primal relationships to the universe. It is pre-verbal, beginning before words can be formed. It is innate in children before they possess command over language and is evoked when thoughts or emotions are too powerful for words to contain.
Results
Activity Type
Enhanced Skill
Cognitive development
Movement skill building
Aids the development of kinaesthetic intelligence and provides the cognitive loop between the idea, problem, or intent and the outcome or solution.
Physical
development/fitness
Dance exercises
Jumpstarts creativity, links acting to story telling and literacy.
Non verbal
communication
Improvisational exercises
Provides means for communicating ideas,
thoughts and feelings, to break down the mechanics of body language and develop higher-order thinking skills.
Creativity
Learning set dances and steps to tell a story
Support literacy development when using imagination to formulate ideas, characters and narratives.
Emotional Maturity
Exercises to portray emotions through dance
Opportunities to express emotions and build trust, as well as offering a structured outlet for physical release while gaining awareness and appreciation of others.
Fun/relaxation
Can encourage a more positive attitude to self and others, an appreciation of the body and sound health practices, as well as effective stress management approaches.
Performance – put it all together and “What d’ya know – we got a show!”
All artistic creations are born through the solving of problems. Without even realising it those that participate in the arts are consistently being challenged to solve problems. All this practice problem solving develops children’s skills in reasoning and understanding. When children practice creating something collaboratively they get used to the idea that their actions affect other people. They learn that when they are not prepared or on time, that other people suffer. Through performance arts, children also learn that it is important to admit that you made a mistake and take responsibility for it. Because mistakes are a regular part of the process of learning in the arts, children begin to see that mistakes happen. We acknowledge them, learn from them and move on.
A wide range of social benefits can develop through participating in performance arts. Being in an orchestra, band, choir or other type of group promotes friendships with like-minded people, self-confidence, social skills, social networking, a sense of belonging, team work, self-discipline, a sense of accomplishment, co-operation, responsibility, commitment, mutual support, bonding to meet group goals, increased concentration as well as providing an outlet for relaxation
Finally it has been shown that consistent participation in performance arts greatly improves academic performance and significantly bumps up standardised test scores. Also those who make time for the arts are also more involved in community service, and less likely to leave school early.