Why Do Dancers Have a Recital?
It is that time of year when all of our teachers and students at Blue Dog Dance begin to work on their recital dances! The question is, why do we have recital? Why does it only occur once a year? Why do dancers not participate in “games” like other sports? All of the answers to these questions are so important to further understand dance and why we do it!
Recital is an opportunity for all of our dancers at Blue Dog to show off their progress, as well as any new movement they have learned on stage. Our recitals consist of many different classes varying in age and style. While we are all at different stages of our dance journey, recital is a way we can all gain some perspective on dance and why we do it! For example, if you have an older dancer, recital provides as an opportunity to reflect upon where your older dancer once was at a younger age. Or, if you have a younger dancer, recital gives some insight into what your younger dancers routines could look like in the future!
Now, what about dance recitals as compared to sports games? At the core of dance, it is a performing art! While dance is a highly active and physically demanding activity, like many sports, it can be aligned more closely to other performing arts such as orchestra or band. So while dance requires dancers to tap into physical strength, flexibility, and coordination similar to sports, dance is more similar to learning how to play an instrument. This is another reason as to why we have recitals, just like orchestra or band concerts.
Hopefully this post helps you understand a little bit more about recitals and why they are so important in the dance community. If you have any more questions about dance recitals please feel free to reach out to us at Blue Dog Dance and we are happy to answer them!