Amanda Pretlow- Dance as play

In class one day, we were talking about dance as a form of play. I am used to this notion because I am a nanny. Over the summer, I watcher 5 children everyday. We did all sorts of different things for fun (park, pool, beach, etc.). But one of their favorite things to do was dance to the music on their mom's iPod. I liked dancing as a child too, but I was astounded at how long they could be occupied by simply dancing. For hours we would dance around the living room and run around the house without breaks (those kids wore me out). The same was true for coloring and finger-painting. When I started out in this class, I began to think about why the kids could do these creative activities for hours on end. Dance, I am assuming, is not necessarily a spiritual activity for these kids, although they live in a religious home. I doubt that they understand what they are saying when they say that they are dancing for Jesus. The oldest child is five years old so I doubt that they understand what there parents are trying to teach them. These kids are tremendously active and creative, so they had no problem dancing, coloring or painting for long periods of time. Think that dance is sometimes done for the sake of dance and might be considered profane. However, I disagree with the idea that it is profane. The dance still creates a new experience and acts as a release of some sort of energy. I loved dancing with the kids because it allowed us to combine all of our energy and have a little fun (not to mention, it got them nice and tired for their naps!).