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Mindy Michaels
Dance 276
10/23/12
Child Development
Kori Wakamatsu

There is something about dance that keeps audiences spellbound and dancers
ecstatic. Aesthetic beauty alone could bring dance enthusiasts together but I think the
reason dance is becoming more widely recognized as a universal language is due to the
emotional connection dance provides. Humans are consistently searching for emotional
understanding and earnestly try to learn how to navigate through relationships. Although,
emotions are constantly evolving even from a young age, dance guides this progression
by helping children understand how to recognize their own feelings, read others, and how
to communicate through movement.
Young children bring a sweet innocence to exploring the world and experiencing
life situations. As dance educators, it is a great privilege to help these students
understand their own emotions. Throughout Janas first grade class, I was able to observe
a wide range of emotions from the students. As they embodied characters in the story,
there were moments of separation, loneliness, and after being reunited, celebration. The
children expressed sadness, worry, relief, joy and love through their movement but it was
also shown through their facial expressions. Dance allows young minds to explore a
large range of emotions which prepares them for their own life experiences. Because the
whole body is involved in the exploration of the emotion, as the child reacts naturally to

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different situations in life, they are able to pull knowledge and sensations acquired from
their kinesthetic discovery that allows them to link their mood with the correct emotion.
In The Emotional Development of Young Children, author Marilou Hyson gives a related
example of how movement and physical activities help develop the childs understanding
of emotions. Natalie, a kindergarten teacher, built a cardboard tube that hung from the
ceiling and could be tipped from various angles. The young students played by putting
toy cars in one end and watching them emerge from the other. the tube activity
afforded rich opportunities for children to re-experience disappearance and reappearance,
which is an emotionally charged issue at the beginning of the year. (Hyson 5-9) Hyson
also describes how creative environments allow children to express themselves and
becomes sources of curiosity, excitement, and sometimes frustration. (Hyson 5-9)
Dance, especially creative dance, generates a welcoming and safe environment for young
students to be able to challenge and experiment with their emotional understanding.
As young students continue in their dance education, they learn to become more
sensitive to their body and its inner signals. This skill may of course, be fairly primitive
in young dancers but they are still able to use their knowledge of the body to recognize
nuances in the quality of their movement in regards to their emotional state. The dancer
might notice that as they feel sad or ill, their movement becomes less grandiose and tends
to stay in a smaller kinesphere. In addition, the childs positive attitudes may be
displayed through higher jumps, more forceful effort and a clear satisfaction that theyve
given their best to the activity. Adolescents would show similar results as they feel more
confident in their appearance their dancing improves, or if they are nervous about a

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blooming relationship, they tend to have less balance. Children learn to listen to their
body and understand how the body can exude even the slightest shift of emotional focus.
Because movement is an avenue to recognize mood, teachers are constantly
demonstrating their own emotional perception to students through their choreography.
Children are able to assess the others emotions by analyzing their movement and facial
performance. In Sweden, a study of childrens emotional recognition was conducted by
having professional dancers improvise movement based on the moods of joy, anger, fear,
and sadness. Their improvisations were recorded as eight dance solos and watched by
children age 4, 5, and 8. Adults also watched the videos and all groups reported which of
the four emotions they perceived each solo to be depicting. The study found that the four
year olds had great understanding but not to the degree of the other ages. However, in
some cases, either girls or boys seemed to recognize the emotion equally skilled as the
other groups. The five year old group achieved recognition close to those of the eight
year olds and adults. Researchers from this study concluded, by using Laban Movement
Analysis, that tempo and force in movement were the top key factors in emotion
recognition. (Lagerlof, and Djerf 409-431) Children can understand emotion through
dance by reading the body language of others and can begin to replicate it through their
own movement.
However, observing dance can be almost as influential as participating.
Psychology experts state that the brain contains mirror cells. These cells do not
differentiate participation from observation. Neural mirroring solves the problem of
other minds (how we can assess and understand the minds of other) and makes
intersubjectivity possible, thus facilitating social behavior. (Lacoboni) This type of

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choreographic imitation creates great empathy thus strengthening human connections. If
it is true that one cannot judge another until they have walked a mile in the others shoes,
then dance must be the epitome of life experience. Social psychology studies have
demonstrated that imitation and mimicry are pervasive, automatic and facilitate
empathy. (Lacoboni) By practicing choreography, the children are able to experience
anothers mood and dance in their shoes. As dancers, the children are able to live
within the bodys expression of the artist.
Expression of emotion is important for all ages, but especially for young children.
The effects of neglecting to develop the emotional part of a child can be disastrous. All
humans need to work through their emotions and learn how to respond appropriately to
different situations. Dance gives children an outlet to experiment with those emotions. If
they are not given a safe place to fully engage their heart, mind and soul, emotions can
build up within their psyche and can cause detrimental effects to their development.
Children, who are exposed and included in emotional discourse, are unready to learn and
their cognitive competence responds negatively. Hyson outlines other studies and reports
that in the long run, children with continuing emotional difficulties especially with
anger and aggression, become more likely to drop out of school and engage in antisocial
or delinquent activities (Raver, 2002) (Hyson 5-9) The emotional development of
children need to be encouraged and address so they are able to express themselves clearly
and resolve issues of emotional discord.
The sharing of ones emotions with a peer or trusted ally is not always easy for
young children. Dance allows these communications to be nonverbal, thus giving the
child a sense of protection. A study from the University of Denver involved 42 subjects

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and requested that each demonstrate an emotion in whatever type of nonverbal form they
preferred. The main categories were listed as body, face and touch. For emotions such as
embarrassment, guilt, shame, and anger, the majority of the subjects chose to use body as
their means of communication. Love and sympathy were overwhelmingly expressed
through touch. The moods displayed were then summed into Social Status, Survival
Focused, and Intimate Relationship. From the results, body, face and touch were the
majority channel used for the corresponding categories previously listed. (App,
McIntosh, and Reed) Dance encompasses not only the body, but continues to involve
facial expression and human touch. As a creative art form, it is the most comprehensive
channel for nonverbal communication, creating connections between people and
promotes emotional understanding and development.
Dance is a beautiful exploration of releasing emotions and learning to relate one
to another. Because children are young and experiencing the world through innocent
eyes, dance and dance educators is a valid and positive outlet for emotional development.
As children begin their emotional understanding through dance, the skills achieved will
help them throughout their life, in all human interaction and situations. Children learn to
recognize emotions within themselves through kinesthetic awareness as well as their
process of creative invention. In addition, dancers are able to create a deep sense of
empathy for those whose choreography they are able to experience; they step inside the
emotion and journey of another. As children are able to build upon their ability to
recognize their own emotions and read the moods of others, they are better able to
communicate to other members of humanity. Beth Jones once said, To dance is to reach
for a word that doesnt exist, To sing the heartsong of a thousand generations, To feel the

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meaning of a moment in time. Dance cannot be ignored as an influential art form that
promotes and encourages emotional awareness.

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Works Cited
Hyson, Marilou. The Emotional Development of Young Children: building an EmotionCentered Curriculum. 2nd ed. New York: Teachers College Press, 2004. 5-9. Print.

Lagerlof, Ingrid, and Marie Djerf. "European Journal of Developmental

Psychology." European Journal of Developmental Psychology. Vol.6.Issue 4 (2009): 409431. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.

App, Betsy, Daniel N. McIntosh, and Catherine L. Reed. "Nonverbal Channel Use in
Communication of Emotion : How May Depend on Why." Vol.11.Issue 3 (2011):
n.pag. PsycARTICLES. Web. 21 Oct 2012.
<http://web.ebscohost.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/ehost/detail?sid=d9c1a8ee-62e6-47dc-8fd61bcc212419ec@sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZS
ZzY29wZT1zaXRl

Lacoboni, Marco. "Annual Review of Psychology." Annual Review of Psychology.

Vol.60. (2009): n. page. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.