The importance of teaching dance in schools

When I was meeting with the official who wrote the Visual, Performing, and Media Arts Strategic Plan for the San Mateo County Office of Education, I was ready to use these statistics to question the department’s intentions of actually creating equitable access to all art forms within the public school system. I was anticipating someone who would be resistant to my claims and actively try to keep

me out of the loop. However, Holdt was quick to point out the vast strides that the department still had to make in terms of arts integration: “Having something like the strategic plan is more along the lines of policy. We as an education agency have written a policy statement that says we as an organization stand for the value and importance of arts in schools. But then that’s a piece of paper, that’s a policy document, but then what does that really look like? In terms of schools, how many kids have access to dance? Very, very few.”

This transparency is a trait that was very natural to Holdt. She made being an Arts and Restorative Learning coordinator for San Mateo County Office of Education look like a role of emblazoned advocacy rather than byzantine local policy. While listening to her talk, it wasn’t hard to see her passion for education. She kept repeating all children are born as artists and it is our responsibility to give them the proper tools to think divergently. However, she wasn’t shy to point out the holes in her own strategy. Government policy couldn’t possibly speak to all of the institutional barriers for students in 14 pages. Through her, a bigger picture emerged. State and federal laws have essentially cut arts funding from public schools. Holdt’s efforts are now faced by a generation of teachers, parents and administrators who view arts as a simple recreational activity secondary to the subjects on standardized tests. It is clear that the aim to integrate arts into public schools is and has been a hard-fought battle.

To get more insight, I talked with Lauren Reibstein, the Carlmont High School dance director.

Carlmont offers the three standard levels of dance: beginning, intermediate and advanced. All students, starting freshman year, are eligible to participate in beginning dance classes as a physical education credit.

Carlmont is not alone. Schools across the county, such as Sequoia and San Mateo high schools, all run similar, impressive programs. However, with class sizes being limited, the spots in the advanced classes are highly competitive. Students who have been able to afford years of training are disproportionately given access to these performing and choreographic opportunities while others are left behind.

This is not just an extracurricular issue. As Dr. Stacey Skoning states in her book “Teaching Exceptional Children,” teaching dance and other movements lead to increased student understanding of content and improved classroom behavior. However, for those who often need arts instruction the most, it is the most inaccessible. According to the Strategic Plan for the San Mateo County Arts Commission, the majority of households are severely burdened by the cost of housing. With a “self-sufficiency” income of $65,295 for a family of three, there are 69% of single mothers and 29% of families who live below self-sufficiency. In terms of race, these financial burdens fall disproportionately on Hispanic families.

Dance classes from studios often cost $60-$150 a month with additional performance and costume costs. These prices only skyrocket as students need to commit more time to their dance training.

Ultimately, while our county has worked tirelessly in secondary schooling to provide more dance opportunities for students, these opportunities are often turned away from the most vulnerable due to the necessary cost of training. And that is why we must come together to make the vision of that document a reality, come together in community to bring the arts back into schools.

Ella Urton is currently a high school senior at Crystal Springs Uplands School. She is planning to double major in journalism and dance when entering college.