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At a Burlington County high school students perfecting pirouettes and choreography in the dance program are also outperforming peers in the classroom.

Emma Levan is one of the students at the Burlington County Institute of Technology’s Academy of Performing Arts. This year, she won a New Jersey Governor’s Award in Arts Education. Levan credits her dance class for giving her confidence and motivation.

“In dance you’re kind of forced to constantly be working, like to always have that drive to keep going, so it changes your mind so that you have that same mindset in every aspect of your life, including academics,” she said.

According to a Harvard Medical School article, the benefits of dance range from improved memory to strong neural connections. Research also finds dance promotes the development of social and emotional competence.

Levan has been dancing since she was 5 years old.

“It’s just kind of something that I always loved, I feel like it is one of the only ways to express yourself without having to use words,” she said.

As a senior, she created her own dance production, auditioning other students and choreographing the work.

“Even if you have different styles, if you’re able to communicate with each other and find a way to add each of your little pieces, it definitely becomes easier and from there it becomes easier to work in other ways of leadership in your life, including academically,” she said.

Lauren Gebhart, the director of the dance program at the Academy, said most of her students do very well academically.

“I think the biggest part is that there’s a discipline, students are very focused, a lot of dancers push themselves for perfection, and that’s not just in the dance studio, it’s in every aspect of life,” she said. “They are more aware of their actions, and the actions of others, more empathetic and wanting to help and give back to their community.”

Gebhart said her students learn to be empathetic, to communicate efficiently and be team players. She said even though many students may not pursue a dance career they wind up as social workers, teachers, psychologists, doctors and other professions that involve giving back to the community.

Maura Slocum, a dance major and 2019 graduate, is about to start medical school at Nova Southeastern University.

She said studying dance helped her develop a strong work ethic.

“It gives you a different way of thinking about everything,” she said. “It teaches you that you really have to be committed, it requires so much of your time so you always have to be focused, you always have to be there, whether it’s school, dance, studying medicine, and I think it’s prepared me for that.”

Eder Joseph, the assistant superintendent of the Burlington County Institute of Technology, said it’s not surprising that students in the Academy of Performing Arts do better than most other students academically.

“When you love what you do, everything else starts to follow,” he said. “The students that we have in our performing arts programs, they are leaders in our student council, they’re leaders in the building, they become leaders in life.”

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series that explores the impact of creativity on student learning and success. WHYY and this series are supported by the Marrazzo Family Foundation, a foundation focused on fostering creativity in Philadelphia youth, which is led by Ellie and Jeffrey Marrazzo. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.