Higher SAT Scores From Ballet Class and Pointe Shoes?

Author: Dianne M. Buxton



In a southern California newspaper, a report by Chris Moran says
" The College Board annually releases a report showing that the
more arts and music courses students take, the higher their SAT
scores are. Sweetwater Union High School District's survey of
its own students five years ago found that students enrolled in
visual and performing arts classes had higher grade-point
averages than those who were not. The correlation is an
admittedly chicken-and-egg argument over whether the arts make
students smarter or smarter students pursue the arts. "



A recent article in New Science Daily presents the following:

"Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the
making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists
from seven leading universities across the United States. In the
Dana Consortium study, researchers grappled with a fundamental
question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts
training make people smarter?"

#8 in a series of points made is:

"Learning to dance by effective observation is closely related
to learning by physical practice, both in the level of
achievement and also the neural substrates that support the
organization of complex actions. Effective observational
learning may transfer to other cognitive skills."

MARY BELLE MCCORKLE and SHIRLEY KISER wrote in the Tucson
Citizen, "How the arts make kids smarter. Students' scores
improve in the three R's when they're exposed to music, dance
and the theater".

Betty Oliphant, former Principal of The National Ballet School
of Canada insisted on high academic standards, because she grew
up in London in the earlier 2oth Century where dancers were
considered dumb. Personally I don't think you can learn the
classics if you are dumb.

What is dumb anyway? Shyness, less-confident, dyslexic,
under-nourished? Maybe not interested in the usual social issues
and dramas?



If it were not for the internet I would not know that scientists
find this subject interesting. Artists know that they are not
less smart than scientists. They also know that the money needed
to run all these multi-university studies could run a small
ballet company for a season or two.

Scientists and artists alike need patrons - and competition is
fierce. Patrons need artists and scientists, and vice versa - so
it's a chicken or the egg situation - and it makes an
interesting holisitc picture for us all to function in.

But if your parents worry that your grades will drop if you
spend too much time in pointe shoes or the ballet class - just
mention the higher SAT scores!

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Chunking and Imitational Learning In Ballet Shoes and Pointe

Author: Dianne M. Buxton



Please let me explain. "Chunking" is a new verb. It is a
scientific word. It means breaking down a movement into its
series of mini-movements so that someone learning it can learn
it more accurately and faster, and build the right neural
pathways. Like a ballet class, or a ballet exercise.
Neuroscientists use this word. Try not to think "chunky" because
to a dancer "chunky" is a very threatening idea.

I am trying to be serious and academic about this but the verb
"chunking" is too funny.

Brandeis University's Volen Center for Complex Systems published
a study "Monkey See Monkey Do". It attended to the lack of
research on imitative learning, which has apparently been
neglected, in favor of studies in verbal learning, even though
we learn more through imitation than by words. The study notes
that:

"Several strategies may help leverage a learner's attention and
motivate imitative learning. Organizing the motor skill practice
is key. For example, Sekuler, an expert on the neural and
cognitive terrain of visual memory, says that breaking down a
behavioral sequence into chunks can aid imitation learning, just
as chunking can help us memorize a string of seemingly unrelated
digits or other material. Agam and Sekuler have their sights set
on identifying strategies that teachers and coaches could use to
make complex actions more "chunkable," and therefore easier to
imitate.

The researchers' long-term goal is to devise simple methods that
will allow teachers and coaches to take any arbitrary complex
action that they want to teach--like that series of dance steps
or that perfect golf swing, and then re-package that action into
components that make for optimal learning."

If the researchers had watched a classical ballet, and then a
ballet class, they would see a supreme example of chunking.
Don't you just love that word? All those pre-pointe routines
make pointe work chunkable.

The gazillion degages are chunking the aspired to, smooth,
floating, gliding glissade. The stretchy, elastic,
muscle-elicious fondu in adage are chunks of grand allegro.

The quick footwork exercises at the ballet barre are chunkettes
of petit allegro.

I do not mean to diss brain research but I find this hilarious.
So please appreciate the careful chunking that your ballet
teachers are so good at, in helping you develop organized
thought patterns, build neural pathways and build strength in
your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.

The best example of chunking that I know right now is href="http://www.linkbrander.com/go/54727">this ballet
manual, which chunks perfectly for pre-pointe practise and
essential ballet technique for all.

About the author:
Click here for free
articles on ballet shoes, pointe shoes, The Perfect Pointe Book,
The Ballet Bible, how to get exactly the right fit, details
about turnout, pre-pointe, dance books and DVD's and more.