Karate and dance on Nuns’ Island: what the dojo adds beside the studio

01The short answer

02The second sport, before adolescence

The American Academy of Pediatrics writes, in its 2016 clinical report on sports specialization, that participating in multiple sports, at least until puberty, decreases the chances of injuries, stress and burnout in young athletes. Sport for Life, the Canadian long-term development body, puts it another way: early specialization makes no sense if the aim is healthy, lifelong participation rather than the podium. For a child who already dances, the question is finding a second activity that does not redo the same thing.

Karate shares with dance the bare feet, the work in lines and the memory of a form — and differs on everything else: no music, no audience, a partner in front for part of the hour, and every technique repeated left and right. A child who does both learns two ways of holding the body, not one.

03A complete programme, in the same hour

A dance session has its syllabus; the dojo has its own, written down. In the WKO Shinkyokushinkai first-year textbook, an examination covers kihon, ido geiko, kata, conditioning (knuckle push-ups, jumping squats), flexibility and kumite. Kata is the subject closest to what a dancer knows: a sequence of movements set in advance, learned by repetition, presented in front of someone who grades it — What is Kyokushin kata? explains what is looked for, and why it is not choreography. The rest of the hour — basics, conditioning, flexibility, partner work — is what the studio does not do.

The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities gives each described activity a MET value — a multiple of the energy spent at rest. Ballet, modern and jazz are listed at 5.0 in class or rehearsal, and at 6.8 in performance; karate at a moderate pace is at 10.3, and a beginner’s slower practice at 5.3. These values describe an activity as it was observed, not your class or your game: a beginners’ class is closer to karate’s 5.3 at a slower pace than to 10.3. A beginners’ karate class and a beginners’ dance class are therefore alike in effort too; the gap opens as you advance.

04Flexibility, and what is new

Flexibility is part of the grading, on the same footing as technique; a dancer already knows what it is to work on it, and finds at the dojo a demand they recognise. What they do not know yet are the blocks, the strikes, and the low stance that makes a kick hold. None of that is a transfer — it is simply what the hour will ask of them that is new. What kids’ classes are like describes the order of an hour, bow to bow.

05The studio calendar

Look at the studio calendar: the weeks before a recital are when adding an activity weighs most. Between two sessions, or as soon as the dress rehearsal is over, is the simple moment to come and try — the dojo is open five days a week all year, and a trial class commits you to nothing. If you are the one who dances, the same rule holds: one karate class a week slips in beside a dance class, and two is a rhythm.

06Dance keeps its teacher

Musicality, expression, line and the vocabulary of the barre are learned at the studio, and this page does not promise a better leap. A kata is not choreography: it is presented without music, at a rhythm you hold yourself, and every movement in it is a technique that would make sense facing someone. And for parents’ questions before a first class, Kyokushin for kids.

07On Nuns’ Island, in practice

The dojo is at 550 chemin du Golf, suite 010, on Nuns’ Island (Verdun), and also serves LaSalle, Pointe-Saint-Charles and the Sud-Ouest. Children train from age 4 to 13, adults from 14, five days a week: the schedule gives the groups and times, the pricing page the monthly rates.

The first class is a free trial, and there is nothing to buy beforehand: comfortable clothes and a bottle of water are enough — what to bring to your first class has the list.