True Colors by Cyndi Lauper

20 Girl Power Songs (for dancers) – #movetolove2019

March is Women’s History Month, and we’re celebrating amazing women (& girls!) in dance history and pop culture. As we discussed with our 20 Self-Love Songs (for dancers) last month, we believe the world needs strong & inspired girls like us doing more of what we love.

So we’ve decided to continue our #movetolove2019 series, and this month spotlight performances from our dance camps with the Friday Night Show theme, “It’s Great To Be A Girl.” We’ve chosen 20 girl power songs that echo our dance camp mission: to empower girls to move to love.

What exactly do we mean by “move to love”?

MOVE – to pass from one place or position to another.

LOVE – to access the part of our mind that is connected to Spirit; the source of peace, joy, happiness and a whole bunch of other “positive” emotions.

So move to love means to move to a new place (or state of mind) – the state of mind connected to your Spirit (peace, joy, happiness…all that positive stuff). Please share your inspirational dance videos on Instagram this month! #movetolove2019 @danceadtc

Song #9: “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper

Performed at our VT Dance Camp

Performed at our MD Dance Camp

Performed at our CA Dance Camp

Performed at our IL Dance Camp

Girl Power Song #9 – “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper

“True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper has a simple but important message, especially given the challenges today’s girls face living in a culture of perfectionism. In her book, The Myth of the Perfect Girl, Ana Homayoun defines “perfectionism” as “striving for an ideal based on externally driven standards.”

Effects of a perfectionist culture include increased stress, constant anxiety, never feeling good enough, over-apologizing, and decreased productivity, creativity, curiosity, imagination and fun. Homayoun even said that the majority of girls she interviewed for her book didn’t have an answer when asked what they do for fun – they didn’t know (ironic since Cyndi Lauper’s most famous song is “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”!).

Instead, most of us are operating on an externally driven blueprint for how to be “successful” rather than listening to ourselves. And when we don’t meet the impossible ideal, we withhold love from ourselves and each other.

Given what girls are up against today, we believe the true value of dance camp is not in the dance skills learned, but in the self-esteem gained. We believe the true value of dance camp is in the collaboration, creativity, outside-the-box thinking, and courage we develop to show our true colors – to be unique!

Each and every week at ADTC, campers and staff of different backgrounds, styles, perspectives, beliefs and competencies live together as a community. Our goal as a camp is to understand our own and each others’ true colors to create an environment that values differences.

P.S. Just for fun, we recommend taking our True Colors Personality Test – this test uses four colors to represent four styles of being – green, blue, orange, and gold. At dance camp, where we value teamwork and social growth, it’s very helpful to have a variety of different colors so that we have all the personality traits we need to thrive as a community.

More About Our Dance Camp Mission

American Dance Training Camps is a company inspired by and created for strong girls. Doing what we love enables us to embody, model & teach our sixteen character values, or “movement manifesto.”

The ADTC Movement Manifesto is one way we promote our values within our dance camp community. It is an ever-evolving collection of bold thoughts that allow for some real conversations to take place at camp and throughout the year.

Learn more about ADTC’s mission & manifesto here!