A report in the journal Pediatrics (Jan. 2007) by Dr. Kenneth Ginsberg and two committees from the American Association of Pediatrics made many connections between play and learning, including:

•    Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive and emotional strength.
•    Play is important to brain development.
•    Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master.
•    Play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resiliency they will need to face challenges.
•    Play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate and to resolve conflicts.

According to evolutionary biologist Mark Bekoff, "Play is training for the unexpected."

And child development professor David Elkind, P.h.D, author of The Power of Play, concurs:  "Children are self-directed learners - they are naturally curious - and how they learn is through play."

In creative dance, we do this all the time. Whether in the studio or the schools, students dive under the water, fly through space. They become magnets, whirlpools, and pupae. They solve problems, and by engaging in this rigorous, multi-sensory approach, before long they've mastered abstract concepts and can relate them to the everyday.