The Power of Storytelling to Build Empathy, Compassion and Understanding Through the Performing Arts

Storytelling is a hugely powerful tool to help us understand one another. This is especially true for children and young people as they connect with others and develop their core social skills. Performing arts activities, like those offered by Stagecoach Performing Arts, provide plenty of opportunities to safely explore various modes of storytelling as children put themselves in another person’s shoes, and work with their classmates on performances. All of this builds empathy, compassion and more in children and young people as they grow into well-rounded adults.

Enhancing your empathy and compassion is key at any age, but it is especially important for children and young people as they grow and develop through key life stages and changes. Research suggests that empathy and emotion recognition in others is still developing into adolescence*. This means giving children and young people the chance to build their skills in exploring emotion, reactions and interpersonal relationships is hugely important throughout childhood.

The Power of the Story

Performing arts classes are all about storytelling. From the meaning behind a song, to the emotion conveyed in a dance routine to a full performance at the end of a school term, storytelling is at the heart of the performing arts. For children, understanding storytelling is a core part of their development, it feeds into communication and comprehension skills, and plays a role in how we understand one another.

Helping your children to enhance their storytelling skills through the performing arts not only supports them with getting a better view of the world around them, it also helps them build empathy as they expand their understanding of what makes other people tick.

Take a Walk in Someone’s Else’s Shoes

Playing a character is a great way of building empathy and compassion through storytelling. When you try to tell one person’s side of a story in drama, you are challenged to consider their own background, experiences, biases and perspectives to inform your own performance. It sparks our imaginations and channels them into understanding how other people see the world. This can help children make sense of other people’s emotions and reactions in real-life scenarios.

Acting classes put children into a position where they need to consider that everyone around them has their own opinions and memories that inform the way they are, the things they say and the decisions they make. As children grow and the pool of other people they know gets wider, for example in the move from primary to secondary school, having the insight to know that everyone thinks and feels differently for a whole host of reasons, and being able to try and put themselves in someone else’s shoes, is an invaluable skill. This level of empathy is key for making friends, working on group projects and solving interpersonal issues.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Performances, like Stagecoach’s end-of-term shows or showcase sets, can only really work if the group work together in harmony. This requires children to listen to one another and to take time to rehearse and practice as a group until they all feel confident in their roles in the piece. Being involved in a project like this that relies on students working together and going through the class, rehearsal and performance experience together – seeing their hard work come to life in a piece they can be proud of – is great for building empathy through their storytelling efforts.

As they move the story forward with each of their individual contributions, whether they’re playing a lead role or are part of the ensemble (the backbone of theatre!), they can see how working with others should be done.

Opening Their Eyes to More

The act of storytelling through drama, dance and singing also gives children the opportunity to get out of their comfort zones and discover something new. As they work with material they might not have come across otherwise that challenges them to think differently, or perhaps even learn more about another culture.

Booking your child into a performing arts class is a great way to help your child’s empathy development. Through teamwork and exploring storytelling and character, children naturally build their empathy, compassion and understanding. If you’d like to explore the positive impact of the performing arts, you can search your postcode on the Stagecoach website to book a commitment-free Two-Week Trial today.