Goddess Dance
Why Do We Dance?
Dance can be a great activity for a girl, for many reasons!
Fun!
It's fun to learn how to do things your friends can't do, such as balance a glass of water on your head or roll your abdominal muscles. It's fun to dress up in the wonderful costumes that dancers use. And, it's just plain fun to DANCE.
Exercise Benefits.
Goddes Dance is a form of exercise, and exercise is very healthy for the human body. Exercise promotes strong muscles, flexibility, and strong cardio-vascular health. It also releases endorphins into the brain, which generate a feeling of well-being. Done regularly, exercise helps prevent obesity.
Mental Well-Being.
Girls in American society, more than boys, are beaten from an early age into being dissatisfied with themselves: their bodies, their faces, etc. Girls, more than boys, are surrounded by magazine articles and advertisements that promote use of make-up, bust enlargement techniques, ever-changing fashions, hair color, and diet plans. The point of the constant barrage of ads is to make girls so dissatisfied with their current appearance that they'll go out and purchase these products to "fix" their problems. Goddess Dance provides a girl with an environment that teaches appreciation for her own body, whatever it may look like. It offers her a way to feel beautiful without dieting herself to malnutrition or enriching big corporations with her spending money.
Social Opportunities.
Dance offers a girl another group of people to meet, outside the usual settings of school and church. A girl who feels shy and awkward in school may find that dance class provides a more comfortable place to meet people and make friends.
Cultural Awareness.
Learning a dance from another country can bring new life to how she thinks about that culture. Instead of thinking about boring history books, terrorists, oil profits, or wars when she hears a country mentioned, she'll think of its music, clothing, and folk traditions.
Public Appearance.
In the adult world, people who are skilled at public speaking have many great job opportunities open to them. Learning how to be comfortable in front of an audience as a child will equip a girl with a valuable job skill.