Making a song and dance of it

Thanks to the worldwide success of High School Musical and Glee, performing arts are becoming cool for kids (and adults!) again. But apart from learning how to memorise lines, put on a costume and jump around singing and dancing, what exactly do children learn at drama schools?

Well, the answer is sort of obvious; they learn how to act, dance and sing! But it's not as simplistic as that. Children who attend performing arts classes can develop skills and strengths that will be of benefit not just now but later into their lives.

Self-confidence

One of the most common fears adults have is speaking in front of

other people. Acting classes can either prevent this fear from developing (if children start at a young age) or help them to overcome their reluctance to sing or speak or dance in front of strangers. The joy of experimenting with this at performing arts classes is that they give children a safe and supportive environment to practice in, resulting in increased confidence as children discover that they can achieve something that they previously thought was daunting and beyond their comfort zone. This might be particularly useful for tongue-tied teens who, in the process of developing into an adult, often suffer crippling self-consciousness.

Part of what enables this to happen is the ability to put themselves literally into someone else's shoes. As a person adopts the mannerisms and behaviour of a character, they can experiment with other ways of existing. Plus, as many well-known actors will testify, it's a lot easier to talk as someone else than as yourself!

Interpersonal skills

Acting also requires people to focus on how and when they speak – successful stage productions need actors who are excellent articulators and who can time their responses to other characters accordingly. This develops skills in teamwork and awareness of others.

All of this can help a child later in life, even if they decide the stage isn't right for them. Performing in public helps build a person's confidence in interview situations, jobs that require oral presentation skills (eg the law, and teaching), and any career that depends on great interpersonal skills.

Communication skills

There's a saying about how it's not what you say that matters but how you say it. Drama classes teach you how to effectively portray a character to an audience to invoke emotions such as fear, laughter, tears, happiness and anger. They also can help children understand how to persuade people to believe in what they're saying, which is invaluable for budding politicians!

Empathy

The key job of the actor is to represent a character as realistically as possible. This is often achieved through finding out more about what:

• their character thinks, says and does

• emotions he or she may experience

• motivates them to act the way they do

All of this can help actors question their own thoughts. With children, stories are often the best way to explore difficult situations and emotions, so working through drama activities that encourage children to behave in certain ways get them thinking about their own emotions and behaviour. Ultimately this can only be a good thing as they apply this knowledge to their everyday life.

Leading and following

Admittedly there are natural leaders and followers in the world, but there's no reason why your child cannot break free from the mould and try a different approach. Unless they are performing as part of a one-man or one-woman show, they will be acting alongside other children and will therefore need to learn how and when to lead the gang, listen to instructions and opinions, support other people and rethink their own convictions. While this can also be nurtured in sporting activities drama productions take the skill one step further, as children won't always be working within their own age group – performances often involve different ages, genders and people with different skills and abilities. It's great for younger children as they can aspire to be like their older counterparts, while older children can feel proud in acting as a role model.