Playing the Game, Taking the Test and Performing on Stage

In Sports, Dance Arts, and Academics, consistency in training and practicing are important to improvement, accomplishment and success. The same is true for academics. We study to prepare ourselves for testing.

However, just as important, is implementation, and application, by playing the game, performing on stage, and applying the specific discipline in academics.

Often when we sign our kids up for Dance Arts, or Sports, we overlook the importance of participating in the final game/performance. We do not make a career or accomplish a task by only training or studying endlessly. Instead, we need to also implement the training with application. Then we put into practice the techniques In which we are training for Dance, Sports and Academics.

In Dance, we learn musicality, timing, movement, technique, showmanship, teamwork, presentation, and build confidence to then put all this training to the test. Performing on stage gives us the opportunity to put all we have been training together and challenges our abilities to handle the pressure of multitasking, which will our successes to the next level.

With the performance, we are then able to see what we were successful in and what still needs work and fine-tuning for the next performance, just as in sports where we use the game to learn what we need to do for the next game, that will eventually lead us to the championships.

Performing on a stage is also not the end or conclusion to class training, but part of the process of our growth as a performer and artist. Performing helps us navigate to higher levels of expertise and accomplishments in becoming confident in front of an audience, the self-esteem boost from enjoying the cheers from the audience, as well as the pressures of public scrutiny.

We then use the experience of the game, the performance and or the test, to then go back into the dance room, field or class room to continue challenging ourselves to the next level.

Playing the game in sports, getting up on a stage, and performing in dance or taking a test continues to prepare us for an eventual career, helping us to continue to challenge ourselves and grow in confidence and accomplishment for success in whatever we decide to pursue in life.