Why Dance?

At Koti Academy, we integrate music, dance and dramatic play throughout the day for all ages. But why? Of course, it is fun but there are also big reasons related to brain and social development.

7 reasons every child needs music and dance:

1. Early musical development builds fundamental auditory and rhythmic understanding and increases spatial temporal reasoning (Schiller, 1999).

2. Creating art enables children to develop fine motor skills, hand-eye discrimination (Koster, 2005), visual discrimination (Morrow, 2007) and foundational math skills (Roberts & Harpley, 2007).

3. Art increases a child’s problem-solving skills (Douglas, 2001).

4. Dramatic play supports the development of long-term memory and increases mental capacities for recall (Liebermann, 1995).

5. Children use props in dramatic play and dance to demonstrate the ability to think symbolically (Miller & Gaskins, 2009).

6. Fundamental dance techniques help children develop coordination, balance, sequencing, and spatial awareness skills (Rupnow, 2000).

7. Art, music and dance invite children to develop social and emotional skills by symbolically representing their feelings, thoughts and imaginations (Seefeldt & Galper, 2008; Gaskins & Miller, 2009).

Come Sing, Dance, and Create with us this school year!

Koti Academy goes way beyond daycare, our research-based curriculum support whole child development through purposeful and creative play.