Dancing with the Stars

"The talents given to you and me, we must develop faithfully, so we can be good mouseketeers."

The Mickey Mouse Club song

Dancing with the Stars is one of my guilty pleasures. As a big fan of figure skating, I guess it isn’t too surprising that I am drawn to a television show that trains non-dancers to perform ballroom routines with professional dancers. Now that we are down to the final four couples, have you noticed that two of the remaining stars are athletes? The winner last year, Emmitt Smith played football, as did Jerry Rice, runner-up from the previous year. Current semi-finalists Laila Ali, a boxer, and Olympic champion speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno both show that athletes and dancers have a lot in common.

Both groups of people have what Howard Gardner calls bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. The like to play with movement. Gardner has proposed eight different kinds of intelligence which account for a broader range of potentials than traditional intelligence tests:

Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):

Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")

Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")

Musical intelligence ("music smart")

Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")

Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")

Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

You can probably pinpoint which areas relate the most to you, your children and friends. You can take a test here to find out which elements of intelligence are the strongest for you.

I wish people were taught about multiple intelligences at a very early age. I think the theory teaches us two very important lessons: First, nobody is good at everything and second, everybody is good at something.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved