Dance Is A Sport

This sport is one very similar to many, but also very different. It holds true similarity through its athleticism, but it differentiates itself with many other sports through its artistic form. A dance can tell a story, give emotion, and hold a power all at once. There are many athletic qualities that make dance a sport. Two qualities regarding this are that they undergo many hours of strength training and conditioning, and the athletes show prominent and positive sportsmanship.

To do something you love and want to be the best at it takes hard work, and most of it takes passion. Kurt Vonnegut once said, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” He is saying that you can’t go anywhere without your passion for something. That’s the same with all sports, including dance.

Some may argue that dance is an art and not a sport. Yet, it has the same characteristics as a sport does.

It takes both an athlete and an artist to be able to dance. Dance requires you to have muscular strength, flexibility, physical and emotional endurance. People usually question why dancers love what they do when there is a whopping 80% of professional dancers that get injured every year. The answer is simple though, what keeps them going though is the constant love and encouragement from friends and family.

Dance demands the same physical skills that are required in other sports. Flexibility, strength, and endurance are key characteristics that most dancers need to posses. As with other “athletes,” most dancers are not born with these abilities but must establish them through practice and repetitive training. Similar to traditional sports practices, dance rehearsals are extensive and require diligence, dedication, and patience from the dancers as they will have to repeat exercises and stretches to perfect their technique and stay on

According to Hannah J. from learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org, “This is despite the fact that dancers have just as rigorous training regimes as rugby players do, for example. Dance improves strength and stamina just as much as football and skiing do.” This is true because it is really hard to train and memorize things in dance such as your routines. Also, if you ever have seen Misty Copeland, you can tell that she has been training really hard for a long time because she has a lot of muscles and she is extraordinary at dancing. Since I do dance, I have noticed a difference in my shape and my stamina due to my training. Next, Hannah says, “Dance has an overall goal or objective to win and tell a story (just like a runner who wants to beat a time, or a footballer who wants to score goals).” So, this is something I agree with because they are showing emotion to the audience when dancing but they are also trying to show as much talent and emotion as they can because that is what will make them win. The emotional

When using this definition of what a sport is, there is no doubt that dance fills these requirements. The first requirement is that it uses physical exertion and dance is extremely physically demanding. The amount of athleticism required to perform many of the dance moves is astounding. According to an article on aarp.com “a workout that involves jumping and turning repeatedly for over ten minutes creates a workout similar to running a mile” (qtd in Rice 1). Most dancers don’t just dance for ten minutes: Paige Abrams states, “Teams practice for more than twenty hours a week” (2) and Aubree James says, “Many competitive dancers practice for five hours a day to perfect their technique, while some rep hockey teams [only] practice five hours a week” (2). In addition to the actual dancing at practices, dance requires a lot of additional conditioning. Lauren Allaire said, “We condition every rehearsal, which includes a six minute plank, three hundred sit ups, fifty burpees, we run laps, and a lot more” (qtd in Abrams 2) In my own experience, just conditioning in class still isn’t enough to keep a dancers body as strong or as flexible as it needs to be. Staying in shape requires stretching and working out every night.

Many people consider activities such as, football, baseball, volleyball, and track to be a sport. The qualities that tend to make these activities considered sports are, running, tackling, hitting a ball, participating in relays, and so much more. Not mentioned in this list of sports is dance. People tend to believe that dance is nothing more than moving your body to some music, it is also very mentally engaging as well as being a physically demanding activity. The question that many might ask: Why is dance not classified as a sport? Dancers that compete in competitive situations do not get off as easily as people may think. These dancers require countless hours of exercising, training, and stretching, just as much, if not more, than other sports. To perfect the art of dancing comes with years of training and dedication. With this explanation of the art of dancing, it can be concluded that dance is in fact a sport.

Is competitive dance a sport? When you hear the judges read off that you got double platinum it makes your day from all the hard work you put in. Do you think competitive dance is a sport ? If dance has the components of an art and a sport then it should be considered both, not one or the other,for dance you need to work as hard as any other sport (5 to 10 hours a week),The definition of a sport is exactly what competitive dance is.

One of the strongest muscles that dancers need is the core. Since the core supports the entire body, dancers need to keep theirs strong to keep their balance, and to prevent injuries. To convince you even more, data collected from multiple tests conducted at the Science Institute showed that dancers from the famous show, So You Think You Can Dance, were ranked among many other professional athletes in terms of overall athleticism. Furthermore, even NFL football player, Steve McLendon, has taken ballet classes, and has admitted that “[Ballet] is harder than anything else I do”. The endurance and strength needed to be a dancer surely should make dancing

a) Many ask, “How can dance be a sport? You can't judge on time and the scoring is subjective!” Just like figure skaters, competitive dancers are judged on many criteria: technique, posture, timing, line, hold, poise, togetherness, expression, presentation, power, and foot or leg action. Dancers have a lot on their minds while performing. They are constantly asking themselves, am I extending correctly? Is my technique right? Is my head facing the right direction?

Is dance a sport? Many people right now are thinking “How is the harlem shake or the cupid shuffle a sport?”, but that is not what we are talking about, we are talking about dance sports and teams. “But Sport is in the name DANCESPORT” is what some are saying now, but many still don't accept this kind of dance as a sport yet. There are two sides to this argument, those who are for dance as a sport are usually those who are in a dance sport or are educated in the subject. While those who are against it as a sport tend to not be part of a dance sport or just don't know what they are truly talking about.

Dance began as a form of communication and storytelling. Thousands of years ago dancing served as a way for people to tell a story and helped distract themselves of the hardships they faced. Furthermore, dance was a form of storytelling through communication, which then turned into using storytelling through dance as entertainment. According to the History World, many dancers during the BC time danced in front of only a few people to get a story across. That later turned into hundreds of thousands of people as dance was used by many. Today, dance is also a form of entertainment and storytelling, but in a modern sense. However, today perfection and technique are stressed more than they were in the past. Yet, the passion for dance has not changed. Many dancers who share this passion also have many of the same qualities. Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes, expect perfection from themselves through competition, and religiously attend dance performances.

Dance is a unique sport because it combines the grit and sweat of sporting events, such as track and field, with the style and extravagance of a fashion show (D.Fowler, 2000).

They really just eat, sleep, study, and dance. They have an average of 7 hours of dance a day and, if they are in college, only get about 5-6 hours of sleep depending on their minors and majors. Their schedule is this way for a reason. Dancers that professionally do this or have it as a major, need to keep their muscles used to doing everything that they do. Try to think of it as playing music. If you learn a piece of music and then don’t play it for a week, the chances are, you probably forgot it. That’s why it is important to have dance classes every day. Dancers also have their schedule this way because of their performances. Most dancers usually have about 1 performance a week, which means that every day they need to buckle down and work. All dancers, for a performance, need to learn their dances, get fitted for their costumes, rehearse the dances, and have stage rehearsals at the place that they will be performing at. This happens usually all in one week. This doesn’t even include their other college classes that they may take. Now as I had said in the beginning when people see dancers dance, it looks effortless to them. This is only because dancers WANT to make it look effortless. That is their job. The dancers want to make it look graceful and beautiful, and that doesn 't come with making weird faces or having it look like they are working really hard. From this, some people