WHAT DOES DANCE IN SCHOOLS DO?
Unlike music, literature, visual art or even performing arts, dance is not an integral part of the school curriculum. Yet that was the goal of TanzZeit when it was founded in 2005:
to get all schoolchildren dancing together in class, with teachers and artists working together to bring this about.
The TanzZeit team works with around 25 dance mediators and 120 teaching staff (the class or subject teachers of the schoolchildren involved) to implement TanzZeit projects at schools across Berlin.
The dance mediators – many of them from abroad – usually teach in pairs and give the children and young people an insight into the work of dance professionals.
It is essential for children and young people to acquire certain skills if they are to achieve their personal learning goals. That’s why TanzZeit has made it its mission to help children discover and develop the following skills:
DANCE can strengthen artistic skills!
Children learn to discover their own body language and develop confidence in their own abilities. They experience the process of creating art, with all of its ups and downs, doubts and unknowns, and adopt the language of dance as a lingua franca that enables them to overcome the barriers of words and their own inhibitions.
DANCE can consolidate social skills!
Children grow in self-assurance and learn to trust their peers, develop and experience respect and appreciation, build self-esteem and dismantle cultural, religious, xenophobic and other types of social prejudice.
DANCE can hone learning skills!
Children improve their powers of concentration and cognitive skills, expand their bodily awareness, enhance their motor skills and develop their physical and mental staying power.
See here for an overview of the schools that have taken part in TanzZeit projects so far: TanzZeit schools
