What are transferable skills and how in the world do they have anything to do with dance?
Simply, they are skills learned in one setting that can be used to improve performance in another. Dance has a plethora of skills that can be used in other parts of life. Dance is a common activity for many people throughout their life in social, educational, and recreational settings. It’s a masked form of communication for many populations that can breaks down barriers. In dance for special needs there is a HUGE opportunity to teach skills that promote independence in activities of daily living.
Growing up in dance, I was taught discipline, respect, and responsibility without even acknowledging. I learned to listen to the teacher, only one person should talk at a time, share space with others, to take turns and to thank my teacher at the end of every class. I learned to succeed through the hard times and the mistakes because I was ALWAYS learning something.I could ramble on about this topic forever but I am going to focus on creativity, strength & coordination, and communication in this post. I feel that these three skills are extremely important transferable skills that dance teaches.
Creativity
Creativity is key, there I said it. Creativity is just like a muscle, if it is not used it will be lost. I spend about 50% of my teaching in all dance classes encouraging creativity. Imagination and improvisation allow students to make connections between things inside and outside of dance. Using prompts such as animals (lets move across the floor like a turtle) makes the students think about a thing that is not a technical dance term/movement. They have to decide if the need to move slow or fast, on the floor or standing, etc. The chance for the students to make decisions and create their own meaning to the movement is a BIG deal. This increases confidence, independence and enjoyment.
Strength and Coordination
Dance improves strength and coordination. This is among the top physical benefits of participation in dance. Practice and repetition gradually build the strength needed to perform poses and movements in dance while simultaneously increasing body awareness. Down the road, the repetition and building upon simple actions and positions in a dance setting can be used to promote independence and mobility.
Communication
Dance is a nonverbal way to express, or learn to express emotions. Communication is commonly a topic for conversation within teaching people with special needs. In this field you encounter individuals that do not communicate in the same ways as you do. Maybe one individual speaks, the other uses eye gaze, another uses simple signing, and one has a commutation application on a tablet. Sometimes the access to communication is not readily available at every second of the day, so what else can be used? Our bodies.
Dance is movement. It is not always a set of steps done in order to music. Dance can express feelings, needs and wants. In a class setting, I give my students the freedom to show me how different songs make them feel through movement. One song can make one person feel happy, another sad, and another energized and occasionally a song will make someone who may not have shown any expression the entire class suddenly smile from ear to ear. I also am able to use a variety of music to show my students what emotion I relate to specific songs, genres, and tempos.
Dance taught me many things beyond moving in time with the music and my goal as a teacher is to do the same for my students. I want them to learn to move in space with others, not only inside the studio or on stage but in life. I want my students to be creative, strong, and expressive people in their own unique ways.