Inside a Dance Studio is a blog hosted by Pegasus Studios with the aim of celebrating, discussing and learning about how dance can help support and foster healthy and happy children, adolescents and adults. This blog is inspired by our experiences as teachers and owners of Pegasus Studios, a dance studio primarily dedicated to art and health in children, from the ages of 2-20, give or take a few years!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Health Smart! Remaining Focused on personal goals rather than competition


One of our core values at Pegasus is that each person that comes through our door should be valued for their unique qualities. We’ve built our dance program off this principle and it is one of the reasons we rarely participate in competitions. We try to focus on what each student’s personal best is and encourage them to reach it… and hopefully going far beyond it.
This month’s blogs are focused on ballet exams and we wanted to take this health section to talk about the mental health that surrounds a high stress situation for children. Last month we talked about how to encourage children through tough times and one of the suggestions from the experts was to help them focus on their personal goals. A ballet exam, dance competition, recital or even just day to day class, is the perfect forum for setting personal goals. In each situation a dancer will be surrounded by number of other people who all have their own talents and challenges. In our society we are encouraged to compare ourselves to those around us and in the dance world this is very prominent - those mirrors don’t help at all. Comparison can be very intimidating and in the end can turn out to be very harmful. So this month… try setting goals for just you. Are you going to work towards relaxing your hands during ballet class, landing the double pirouette in jazz, get all the sounds in a delayed wing in tap class, or be able to run through the entire routine without forgetting what comes next in modern?
What is always helpful in reaching personal goals is to tell someone what they are. Teachers are a great person because they can they help you stay focused on your goals in class and they can guide you towards reaching them. So… why are YOU doing a ballet exam this year? Or, taking musical theatre for the first time? 

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