Top 10 Reasons Boys Should Dance Too

submitted by Jamie Schwaba, Managing Director of Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts

Boys don’t always flock to the dance floor, but they should.   Here are 10 reasons why:

#10. Coordination, strength, flexibility, agility. Dance keeps you in condition and makes you strong and fit for other sports – and life in general.

#9. Dance builds strong, healthy muscles and bones. It’s also good for posture, deportment and aesthetic formation. Dance is especially good at assisting in building a strong core.

#8. Team work. Dancing is more of a team sport than you’d think. Dancing in a group or with a partner hones team skills that will come in handy in all areas of life and work.

#7. Guys change the feel and momentum and possibilities in dance. Guys bring a power and force to dance, that feels different than the gifts that women bring to dance. Older dancers also get to do some pretty cool lifts!

#6. Mental strength. The discipline required to be a dancer is beneficial to any area of life. Dance teaches perseverance, focus and the importance of positive thinking.

#3. Adventure and job opportunities.  Not every child that takes dance has the goal of being a professional. However, in the dance world, there are thousands of female dancers, and only hundreds of men. The dance world is ready and willing and eagerly seeking out male instructors and performers. Dance can send you traveling all over the world, working with inspiring people in incredible locations.

#4. Self-esteem and confidence. Dancers are forever putting themselves in challenging circumstances, such as on stage or in a difficult dance class. If you can slay a dance floor, an audition or company performance, you’ll feel like you can achieve anything. Because you can.

#3. Health benefits. As well as body awareness and general conditioning, dance has many health benefits. According to Better Health, these include improved function of your heart and lungs, improved brain function and psychological well-being.

#2. Creativity and self-expression. A dance studio is a safe place where people are free to express themselves creatively. Dancing also helps to process emotions that are difficult to put into words.

#1.  Everyone thinks it’s cool.  Seriously.  Even if they pretend otherwise, they are secretly envious of dancer’s abilities!

Over the years the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA) located in Winona, MN has encouraged and nurtured male dancers of all ages to participate in all of our dance genres. Any given semester we have 70 or more males participating in our programs including our Boys Program, Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Creative Movement, Modern, and Hip Hop.  We were even featured in Dance Teacher Magazine in an article, “Boy Crazy”.