When do we call ourselves dancers? When do we stop to be dancers?

The author told us her story and she put few excellent points there:

“Dancers have excellent time management skills, are both creative and pragmatic, collaborate well, can adapt to a variety of settings and personalities, can juggle multiple projects at a time and bring a level of commitment that is profoundly unique”.

No matter how much time we spend away from serious training, that technique, artistry, discipline and passion built us into Dancers.

Perhaps we never lose our dancer identity, and once this physical and emotional art-form has nested within your bones, it is in you forever. Dance is physically etched into our identity. We know our bodies better than the average person knows theirs. We share a common language. We have a deep ability to focus. We hear the rhythm of a song before we hear the words. We crave moving on a daily basis. We check our alignment in every mirror. We know the perils and rewards of hard work.

The characteristics that so often define a dancer may be developed through technical training, but they stay with us long after that training stops” (source: https://www.dancemagazine.com/are-you-still-a-dancer-2649041990.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3).

Exactly like that, many of us have sometimes practiced regularly and hard. Then some other circumstances happen and we stopped with our trainings.

No matter, as the author stated, once dancer, always a dancer.

Sources:

https://www.dancemagazine.com/are-you-still-a-dancer-2649041990.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3

Photo: Unsplash.com/Chermiti Mohamed

Članak Do You Ever Stop Being a Dancer? se pojavljuje prvo na Ples & Grad.

DanceLogic is one of the programs that promotes learning coding with dance. It is a program of the West Park Cultural Center, a nonprofit founded by Betty Lindley in 2001 to provide affordable activities for kids over the summer and after school. The class teaches one hour of dancing followed by an hour of coding each week in an effort to promote S.T.E.M. learning, or, as Lindley refers to it, S.T.E.A.M. — science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

“I just thought there had to be a way to bring what we were doing with the arts with the coding, how could we do that?” Lindley said. “He was having trouble getting youth to come to the [coding] classes. And coding is not something that especially girls think about doing, and girls of color in particular.”

She contacted Franklyn Athias who was teaching coding with dance in New York. He always wanted people who might be intimidated by the math and science behind coding to understand that it’s like any other skill. “It’s always hard in the beginning,” he said. “This is why the dance part is so important, because a lot of young ladies came in and could not dance. But they practice.”

“Coding is repetition, and dancing is also repetition,” said Franklyn Athias, who is the coding instructor at danceLogic. “Yes, one is exercise, but you got to learn the routine. It’s the same thing with coding, you still got to learn the routine.”

But why dance? Why not just teach girls to code without dancing? We found answers in Forbes article: New York City Teens Are Learning Coding And Science Through Dance, that is describing another similar program run by non-profit STEM From Dance:

“The reason we use dance is because researchers found that dance helps you with your problem-solving skills and also increases their confidence.”

Dance as a basis for problem-solving is a growing field within psychology research. It underlies some of the theories behind dancing as therapy for people with Parkinson’s Disease, for example, but it has also been used to encourage creative thinking among school children.

STEM From Dance uses dance to empower, educate, and encourage girls as our next generation of engineers, scientists, and techies. Our students build their confidence through dance and create challenging, technology-infused performances – ultimately building the skills needed for a future in STEM.

Sources:

1) DanceLogic: Innovative youth program combines coding and dance – CBS News

2) Through hip-hop and dance, this nonprofit teaches girls of color how to code — ‘It helped me build who I am’ (inquirer.com)

3) danceLogic – West Park Cultural Center

4) New York City Teens Are Learning Coding And Science Through Dance

5) STEM From Dance

Članak Basics of dance in programming se pojavljuje prvo na Ples & Grad.