Dance as part of Kiwisport – a great physical activity to get youth fit!

“A broad view of sport or physical recreation is needed within schools in relation to the new Kiwisport physical activity initiative announced this month,” says DANZ (Dance Aotearoa New Zealand) executive director Tania Kopytko.

While DANZ agrees the new injection of funds directly to schools to increase student’s physical activity is a good initiative, it is important that a broad range of physical activity is encouraged.

Recreational activities need to be of interest to youth, as interest is a primary motivator for participation.

“Dance is highly popular with youth and they are motivated to get involved. By dance I am meaning everything from haka to hip hop, tap to ballroom,” says Ms Kopytko.

The 2008 SPARC research showed 549,112 or 16.8 per cent of NZ adults (aged 16 years and over) regularly participate in dance. By comparison rugby and netball combined have just under 350,000 participating in the same age groups.

Dance is the eighth most popular physical activity for NZers. For women, dance ranks fifth, higher than cycling, jogging/running and pilates/yoga with 22.6 per cent of NZ women dancing.

Dance is a key component of Maori, Pacific Island and migrant cultures, where it expresses core cultural values and identity.

In the SPARC research dance is ranked the sixth most popular activity with Maori and Asian, fifth with Pacific Island, eighth with NZ European and seventh with Others, who are largely Middle-Eastern, Latin American and African ethnicities.

Dance is currently in the physical education and arts curriculums in schools. Yet its full potential as a subject is still to be realised, it is a tool for developing everything from health and fitness to understanding identity and history, exploring creative thinking or developing leadership skills.

Most schools in NZ have dance clubs, often initiated by the students themselves. This degree of enthusiasm for dance is a fantastic basis to build on. It opens the door to some great community involvement in order to encourage a diversity of dance.

With this new funding injection it would be good to see schools make some broad recreational choices and consult young people on what they would like to do.

“I am confident that dance will feature highly as a desired physical activity option for young people,” says Ms Kopytko.