Cavorting Confidence
By Lauren Gregory, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
08/06/04
The streamlined ripple of muscle on a dancer's back. A fluffy, pink tutu. Blistered,
bloody toes. A leap that seams to float in midair forever.
Dance is a balance of hard and soft, gritty and graceful; achieving this balance is what
many dancers strive to do their entire lives. And it is in this quest that the art — whether
in the form of ballet, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical or hip-hop — becomes a life-changing
experience.
As they geared up for the start of fall classes, several local dance instructors weighed
in on the benefits of dance, explaining how what often starts out as a fun after-school
activity can become a means of experiencing some serious physiological, mental and
emotional growth for the rest of your life.
Get your blood pumping
Dance can serve as an easy and fun outlet for burning calories, reducing stress and
improving strength, endurance and cardiovascular health, explained Mary Beth
Cauthen, director of The Dance Center on Second Avenue.
“It's an art form, but it's also very athletic. It has a long-term positive effect on the body
and the mental state,” Cauthen said.
Flexibility, coordination, rhythm and balance are among the most important skills
learned in dance class, she said. “The fundamentals of learning to dance build long,
lean muscles. It develops (students') muscles in a very positive way; it affects the
development of the legs and hips, and even the way they carry themselves.”
Kathy Baird, owner of Baird Ballet in Garden Lakes, says she has a student with
scoliosis whose posture has improved dramatically since she began studying dance.
“It places everything as perfect as it can be,” Baird said. “It helps in a lot of physical
aspects of growth and development — even if you're not going to become a
professional ballerina,” she added.
Physical and mental development begin to feed off each other, she said. Preschool
dance classes focus on developing fine motor skills and learning left from right, so “it
works both sides of the brain; it affects the learning aspect at a young age.”
The confidence unfolds
“Dancers get to a point where they have fun with it,” Baird said. “They're so confident;
you can see it in them.”
Dance, she said, inspires “poise and grace and confidence” that translates to everyday
life. “They just have a self-assurance about them when they go on their first date,” she
said with a smile.
The confidence stems in part from the sense of accomplishment in the disciplined
environment of the dance studio, Baird said. “There's a certain code of standards,” she
said, referring to hair, dress and manners. “For kids, doing that is a lot.”
It is that self-discipline aspect of the study of dance that builds confidence, Cauthen
said — “especially for young girls. It's a good time to start working on their self-esteem.
“The study of dance involves a lot of repetition,” she explained. “As you repeat the
movements, you become more and more confident. And that translates to the stage.”
Achieving the goals you've set for yourself and learning to bend and shape your body in
beautiful ways through dance can transform the way you look at yourself, agreed
Meredith Thomas, Rome Civic Ballet director. “Every girl deserves to be told that they're
beautiful.”
The idea that dance can be a confidence-building activity might be foreign to those who
have heard about professional dancers' propensity towards eating disorders such as
anorexia and bulimia; but Cauthen explained that the approach to dance in Rome is
quite different.
“In a lot of professional settings, body image can be a problem,” she said. “But in my
school, we rarely — if ever — mention weight… We just don't approach it that way. My
classes are geared toward the child who wants to do it for fun and fitness.”
Both Baird and Thomas agreed. “I think you should dance because you love to dance,
not because you have the body for it,” Thomas said. “Every girl deserves to be told that
they're beautiful.”
The mentor/mentee relationship between teacher and student helps foster this kind of
attitude, Cauthen explained. Especially for girls who have danced their way from
preschool to high school, she said, “teachers become mentors.”
This unique aspect of dance makes it a special experience for both student and
teacher, she said. “It's different from regular school, where you don't have the students
for as long. We love watching our girls grow up.”
A creative outlet — for girls AND boys
Over the years, Baird said, dancers learn to take the confidence they've developed in
the classroom and use it to share themselves more completely with audiences during
performance.
“It takes so much to get out onstage,” she said. “But it's liberating. It's like you just lay
your soul out. It's very expressive and spiritual… Creativity is developed at an early age
when you dance. It falls right in after motor skills.”
Cauthen agreed. “I think a lot of girls use it as an outlet,” she said.
“There's something uplifting and spiritual and immortal about ballet,” Baird said
dreamily of her favorite discipline. “It makes you imagine and dream. I think dancers
dream to make something beautiful.”
The magic aura that surrounds dance in our culture contributes to the dreamy quality of
dance, Thomas said. “Who doesn't want to be a princess?”
Said Baird: “Little girls just take to something so airy and fairylike.”
But the appeal of dance can be much more universal, Cauthen cautioned — boys take
a lot away from a dance class as well. “That's misunderstood a lot,” she said,
“especially in our area. For some reason people think that boys that take dance are not
masculine. But that's as far from the truth as can be. The boys we teach are all boy.”
Having boys in class “is good for the girls, too,” she added. “They think boys are not
supposed to dance.”
In reality, dance is a great foundation for any athlete, male or female, Cauthen said.
Students can take the balance, coordination and endurance they've learned in the
dance studio and apply it to sports like soccer, gymnastics, football or basketball.
“There are a lot of benefits besides the fun aspect of it,” she said.
Dance shoes fit at any age
And those benefits are not just restricted to children, she said. “I think it has benefits no
matter what age. There are so many different variations of dance. There's bound to be
something to fit your taste.”
The physical strength and mental release dance can provide is worth a trip to the
studio at any point in your life, Cauthen said, even if you've never so much as tapped a
toe before. Working on flexibility and balance — “one of the first things to go when
you're older” — is important at any age.
Baird agreed: “The overall workout is great for physical fitness. It doesn't build muscle–
it strengthens and slenderizes. At the same time, it builds stamina and strength.
“Plus,” she added, “learning the fundamentals of ballet gives you a fuller appreciation
of the art.”
Christy Thacker, a senior at Rome High School who has danced at the Rome Civic
Ballet since age 3, says she hopes to continue her study of dance in the years to come.
“It's really fun,” she said. “You get to meet lots of interesting people.”
Thacker, who studies ballet, tap and jazz and helps Thomas teach some of her
classes, said that it's performing that has gotten her hooked to the art form.
“Sometimes you just get to be someone different than yourself,” she said – and that
can be a great escape.
Thomas has watched Thacker grow as a dancer over the years and couldn't be more
proud. “I hate the mentality that you have to quit after you finish high school,” she said.
“You can enjoy dance all your life.”
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