CHILDREN: Let them dance!

“Dancing enhances motor skills, balance, coordination and sense of rhythm,” says Simona Lovreglio, a children’s dance instructor at the Centro Studi Danza Roma. Dance also improves a child’s sense of space. “Small children don’t have an immediate sense of how far away a person or object is or how long it will take to reach the other side of the room. Dance increases this capacity,” she explains.

Dancing also allows pre-school and older children to channel pent-up energy and develop discipline and concentration. The sequential movements that create a dance also help a young child develop skills for ordering.

In Rome, classes are available for children as young as three. However, Lovreglio says that children aged three to five are not really learning to dance. “It is more a preparation for real dancing at age six. They are learning about rhythm, the parts of their body and how each part can move.”

The ideal age for starting serious dance classes is around age six, although this is not set in stone. “From a body-coordination point of view, they are complete around that age”, she explains.

In Rome, even the smallest children are expected to wear a made-to-measure body-suit, tights of a specific colour and leather or canvass ballet slippers. Sweats and a T-shirt won’t do. Lovreglio asks parents to ensure that girls’ hair is put in a tight bun. “Dance is an art but it is also a discipline,” she says. “Children need to learn both aspects of dance. In addition, when children are all dressed in the instructed manner, the teacher is in a better position to see whether they are moving correctly.”

Others schools focus on costumes. Simonetta Labella, a teacher of oriental dance at the Centro Masir, says: “We get them to dream, with exotic costumes, veils and other typical accessories, offering the opportunity to express themselves with grace and strength through games that today’s little children don’t play anymore. It’s the game of disguise, interpretation of roles and using creativity to express themselves.”