Dance, like many sports, affects the development of various human abilities. Among other things, dance elements stimulate the development of motor skills, but the effects that the traditional dance elements have has not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, the goal of this research was to determine to what extent traditional dance elements affect the motor skills of children from 1st to 4th grade. The paper explains in more detail the anthropological characteristics and motor skills, dance and traditional dance elements, and research in which dance and motor skills are mentioned in. The research was conducted in an elementary school in Zagreb and in a folklore group from Hrvatsko Zagorje. 49 students between the ages of 7 and 10 participated, of which 16 were boys and 33 were girls. The respondents were tested in two groups. The first group consisting of 17 respondents represented children who dance traditional dances, while the other group that consisted of children which do not dance traditional dances, consistent of 32 respondents. Three motor abilities were tested: coordination, explosive power, and realization of rhythmic structures. The MAGKUS test via side steps was used to test coordination, the MFESVM test was used to test explosive power via standing high jump, and the MKRBUB test - non-rhythmic drumming was used to test the realization of rhythmic structures. The results of the research showed that there is a statistically significant difference in coordination between children who dance traditional dances and those who do not. In the other two tests, the difference was not statistically significant, but children who dance traditional dances achieved somewhat better results than those who do not dance.