Raising great kids through dance

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This article was published 11/09/2017 (3017 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the entrance of a River Park South dance studio, a sign that says “We don’t teach kids to make great dancers. We teach dance to make great kids,” clearly expresses owner Shannon Putter’s desire to empower her students to love and care about themselves.

Exhale Dance Studio (12-1500 Dakota St.) will be the second one in Canada, and the first in Manitoba, to offer the Youth Protection Advocates in Dance program and certification. This will be setting a higher standard to Putter and her teachers, pushing them to do their best to encourage their students to be better citizens and not just dancers.

“Having a studio where we’d be making sure that kids are kids and that age appropriateness is an important thing to us was really important for me right from the start,” Putter said.

YPAD is a non-profit organization founded by Leslie Scott, a California-based veteran in the dance industry as a response to several adverse effects she experienced and witnessed in the life of her fellow dancers, parents and studio owners who were battling depression, eating disorders, self-esteem issues, and more. They empower dance communities through workshops that promote dance as a channel for self-expression covering how performing arts affects self-esteem, the influence of social networking, body image, bullying, social media management, and a master class with Scott.

Scott also talks to the parents about raising their children as people and not just dancers, Putter said, creating opportunities to implement healthy boundaries and to teach children skills that will serve them outside of dance.

“There’s the teamwork, but also the chance to have the dedication to something, to work hard toward an end goal. They experience disappointment at dance, but they learn how to overcome things as things are challenging and they progress,” she continued.

The workshops and certification start on Sept. 13 and runs through Sept. 17. Doing things for the integrity of the kids and setting themselves to a higher standard was something that stood out for her, Putter added.

“I want them to have that opportunity and that safe space where kids can still be kids because they are still kids,” Putter said. “In social media, there’s always this metric of what their likeability is, and how many people are sharing their post.

“We use dance to teach life lessons. They might not all become professional dancers, but they will do something with their lives, and if we can teach them to give back and if we can teach them to love themselves and care for themselves then we can hopefully set them in the right direction.”

ligia.braidotti@canstarnews.com