The Positive Effects of a Combined Program of Creative Dance and BrainDance on Health-Related Ouality of Life as Perceived by Primary School Students

Abstract

The combination of Creative Dance and BrainDance within the context of physical education could be a promising innovation. This combined program can be implemented in primary school to help students achieve a better and more holistic assessment of their Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), covering aspects of physical, emotional, social, and mental functioning and well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact that a combined Creative Dance and BrainDance program based on the Laban Theory of Movement Analysis has on HRQoL perceptions of primary school students when this program is implemented within the context of the physical education curriculum in primary school. For this purpose, an eight-week educational intervention was designed combining Creative Dance and BrainDance into one single program. The survey sample consisted of 32 fifth- and sixth-grade primary school students. The Kidscreen-52 questionnaire was used to collect data. Data analysis was performed with the use of descriptive statistical indices and mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA). Although the results showed no differences between the beginning and end of the educational intervention, a fact that might be due to the small sample and the time of the implementation of the program (limited to 8 weeks), its implementation produced very good results with regard to improvisation, body control, balance, and coordination, as well as kinaesthetic awareness and musical rhythmic skills. Creative Dance and BrainDance promote imagination, creativity, improvisation, and self-esteem in general, particularly in primary school students..

Which Educational Dance Programs Can Be Used to Identify Children’s Talents

“…Educational dance activities can become a medium not only for the identification of the early phase of dance talents in childhood children, but also for the improvement and stimulation of an important aspect in other children's developmental processes. This is true, especially for the improvement of communicative abilities (Yazejian & Peisner-Feinberg, 2009), physical, emotional, social, and mental welfares (Theocharidou, Lykesas, Giossos, Chatzopoulos, & Koutsouba, 2018), and dance training programs using music that will be intimately related to the children's cognitive development as well as reducing children stresses (Sawami, Kimura, & Kitamura, 2018).…”

Creative Dance as Experiential Learning in State Primary Education: The Potential Benefits for Children

“…Education Research Complete, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO were searched with the inclusion criteria of evidence for employing creative dance for primary school children and any benefits with a view to exploring whether creative dance can be understood as experiential learning. The articles were read and analyzed by the first author using a traditional content analysis approach (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) to obtain a sense of the whole (Tesch, 1990) and sorted into the following features: population, setting, purpose, sample, methods, analysis, and outcomes. Articles (N = 107) were grouped according to benefits (i.e., inductive category development- Mayring, 2000).…”

“…From the analysis, it appears that insufficient research/evaluation of dance programs has marginalized dance education in the primary curriculum. Specifically, more evidence is required to demonstrate the worthiness of creative dance as more central for learning in U.K. primary education (Theocharidou et al, 2018). However, there were some benefits found: socioemotional and arts-based/creative learning; transferable, embodied, cognitive learning; and learning through physicality.…”

Braindance Activities Based on Minang Dance Basic Movements in Children Ages 5-6 Years Old

“…Creative thinking skills are among the most sought-after life and work skills in the 21st century. According to research, educational programs that integrate braindance and dance programs have a good influence on children's creative thinking, imagination, and improve the development of rhythm, fluency, flexibility, inventiveness, mental processing, and freedom of expression, even in preschool children (Chronopoulou & Riga, 2012;Theocharidou et al, 2018). However, the demand for creativity exceeds the level of its availability and development (Ritter et al, 2020).…”