DANCE - What Makes a Strong Foundation?
by Nichola Johnson, MFA
When people think about dance education, they often imagine the visible markers of progress: flexibility, turns, jumps, extensions, or years of technical training. While these skills certainly matter, they tell only part of the story.
At The Complex, we believe a strong foundation begins long before impressive technique becomes visible. It begins with learning how to move with awareness, curiosity, intention, and understanding. A strong dancer is not simply someone who can execute difficult steps, but someone who understands their body, thinks critically, communicates through movement, and continues to grow throughout a lifetime.
Movement is one of the first ways we experience the world. Long before children speak, they communicate through movement. They reach, crawl, balance, imitate, explore, and play. Through movement they begin to understand themselves, other people, and the environments around them. Dance education does not create this relationship with movement—it deepens it. It invites students to become more aware of their bodies, more intentional in their choices, and more connected to the expressive possibilities of movement.
For this reason, we believe dance education extends far beyond learning steps. Students certainly develop coordination, balance, alignment, musicality, rhythm, strength, and spatial awareness. These technical skills provide an essential framework for growth, but they are only one part of a much larger educational experience. Students also learn to observe carefully, solve creative problems, make artistic decisions, collaborate with others, and communicate ideas that cannot always be expressed through words. Dance becomes another way of thinking.
Technique is an essential part of that journey.
Because ballet has profoundly influenced many Western concert dance traditions, it remains an important part of a well-rounded dance education. Ballet provides students with a rich technical vocabulary while developing alignment, coordination, musicality, strength, precision, and discipline. These principles continue to support many forms of concert dance and provide valuable tools that students carry into other movement practices.
At the same time, ballet represents one tradition within a much larger landscape of human movement.
Dance exists in every culture, every community, and throughout human history. Hip hop, tap, jazz, modern, contemporary, Indigenous dance traditions, African diasporic dance forms, social dance, folk dance, and countless other movement practices each offer unique histories, techniques, philosophies, and ways of understanding the body. A complete dance education encourages students to appreciate this rich diversity while recognizing that every movement tradition has something meaningful to teach us about artistry, culture, identity, and human expression.
We also believe that creativity is strengthened by perspective. As students explore different dance traditions, histories, and artistic philosophies, they develop a broader understanding of both movement and the world around them. The more students understand where movement comes from, why it evolves, and how different communities express themselves through dance, the richer their own creative thinking becomes. Creativity does not grow in isolation. It grows through curiosity, knowledge, and meaningful engagement with ideas beyond ourselves.
Perhaps most importantly, students develop a personal movement practice.
Movement should not exist only in a classroom or on a stage. It is something we carry throughout our lives. Whether someone continues dancing professionally, performs through high school, or simply discovers that movement helps them feel healthy, confident, and connected, the habits developed through dance remain invaluable. Strength, mobility, body awareness, creativity, discipline, resilience, and self-confidence continue to serve us long after performances have ended.
That is why we do not believe every student needs the same destination.
Some students will pursue conservatory training or professional careers. Others will become educators, healthcare professionals, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, parents, or community leaders. Whatever path they choose, they deserve an education that teaches them how to move well, think critically, care for their bodies, respect diverse artistic traditions, and continue engaging creatively with the world around them.
A strong foundation is not measured solely by what a student can perform today. It is measured by what continues to support them for decades to come:
The ability to move with confidence.
To think creatively.
To approach challenges with curiosity.
To care for both body and mind.
To appreciate the traditions that came before them while contributing something uniquely their own.
Because at its best, dance is not simply something we study. It is a lifelong practice of learning, creating, connecting, and understanding ourselves and one another through movement. That is the foundation we hope every student leaves with.
About the Author
Nichola Johnson is the Founder and Director of The Complex Performing & Creative Arts Centre, where she has spent more than twenty years helping students grow through authentic arts education. An educator, artist, and college professor, Nichola believes the arts are about far more than performance—they are a powerful way to develop creativity, confidence, critical thinking, collaboration, and lifelong curiosity. Her writing explores the philosophy and practice of arts education and the role creativity plays in helping people thrive.