The Dance Discovery

There is a wonderment that begins the moment you become a parent. There is just a perpetual state of ‘wow’ and discovery with every breath that little being takes. Every reflex and squirm, and each flexion of their vocal cords, and every blink of those little eyes is endearing. Not to mention the absolute state of fascination you find yourself in just watching your little one sleep! Sleep! Of all things. I am almost embarrassed at how much time I spent in those early weeks just watching another human being be unconscious… and loving every minute of it. Every breath, every little movement within the confines of my substandard attempt at swaddling, just made me fall more and more in love.

This awe continues as time goes on and this tiny being begins to let the universe know, in no uncertain terms, that they have arrived! And, they are hungry! Through the fog of fatigue some semblance of a routine begins to develop. The days fly by and the nights are protracted and 3 diaper sizes later you’re marveling at how quickly this tiny person is learning, growing and rapidly assimilating their environment.

In the few and far between moments when you can take a quick breath, you marvel at another miraculous aspect of parenthood - you begin to ‘know’ your child. They can’t talk. They can’t communicate in any meaningful way, but you KNOW what they need. You begin to differentiate between cries. You can even anticipate their distress, hunger, heat… you and your baby are connected. You chat with this floppy ball of flesh as though they’ve been with you always as it becomes apparent that they too are getting to know you. You have a subliminal connection that great effort has been made to explain via many scholarly papers and best selling books over the centuries. You’ve never felt so close to another being...

Then they start to want to disconnect. They’re ready for movement. Turning over, rocking back and forth on all fours while giggling through the sweetest drooled lips. Before you know it, they’ve figured out that by coordinating the forward movement of upper and lower limbs, they can travel. And that’s it - there’s no stopping them. They’re crawling, they’re pulling themselves up to standing and safely cruising towards every item that they cannot have. They’re trying out words and sounds and taking more time to look at things that they’re able to grasp before trying to eat it. This baby is intent on graduating from baby school to Toddler. Every day is discovery and investigation and they’re becoming more and more certain of what they like, and what they don’t.

Of course, like any great parent, you’re there for all of the milestones. You’re jotting down every change in your baby book and keeping souvenirs from ‘back when they were 2 months old’. At least, this was what you aimed to do when you were pregnant, but then, you had a baby. So, you’ll get to the book when you’re done the dishes and finished sterilising the bottles - and you’ll take a pic of the souvenir for now because keeping up with this growing human is just impossible.

There is one moment you don’t forget at all, and that is - the day the beat dropped. Maybe baby was cruising along the side of the crib, or possibly holding on to your leg as they were reaching up to beg to be lifted, or they were on all fours heading to pick up a blue building block that caught their eye - and the beat dropped! The sweetness of the melody of the tune blazing through the radio waves lassoed both auricles, causing a swift turn of attention. In an instant, baby’s body resolves that it must accompany the accompaniment with movement. It’s involuntary. It’s automatic. It will require repetition, that is, if one doesn’t want to risk altering the current joyous state of baby’s reality (and yours).

It isn’t long before ‘again’ is a consistent confabulation for a favoured song or rhythm. Soon, your sleeping mind is harassed by a nursery rhyme or children’s theme song.

Next is the recognition of their own ability to make ‘music’ - the creation of instruments. Oh the joy of the banging pots in the kitchen! The natural fascination with organised noise may even be assisted with a gift from that one uncle who believed that your child would do well with a toy drum or piano. Thanks uncle! Thanks a lot! A whole new composition of cacophony to plague my subconscious.

Nonetheless, it is clear that your developing Toddler really does feel at home moving to the music that they make. At home, at the supermarket, in the car, on the bus - if there’s music this little one is going to bust-a-move!

It was around the time that my daughter turned 2 years old that I realised that this physical musicality needed to be developed - and right away! It also didn’t hurt that music and movement aka DANCE is proven to improve brain function. There is so much research to prove how dance aids in cognitive development in children. The forming of neural pathways needed for life skills; hemispheric integration and fine motor skills; development of locomotor skills and gross motor skills. But most of all, the sheer JOY she has when she’s moving that little body to music - all contributed to our decision to start her dancing. 2 years old may have been considered way too young to start dance class back in the day - but we soon discovered that it was the perfect time! She’s been dancing ever since...

And the perpetual state of ‘wow’ continues with every graceful step!