A lot of hard work and dedication goes into a routine or performance. Dancers go through a lot of things behind the scenes that you may not notice or even acknowledge, so today I am going to show you a sneak peak into a dancers everyday life. I, myself, am a dancer at Just For Kix. I have been in dance for around seven years, as others have been dancing since they were born.
Although some may argue dance is not a sport, dance is actually one of the hardest sports someone can do. Dance is much more than just frolicking about and it isn’t as easy as it looks. Dancers have to be very strong and they go through a lot to work on a routine.
An article in Taylor and Francis online states, “Dance is not a sport due to the fact that everyone can do it. For example, a sport like golf or hockey is a sport because it takes much talent to play either of them.”
This is wrong on many levels. First, not everyone can dance; sure everyone can move around to a song, but the sport is very technical. Second, as golf and hockey are hard sports, dance is as hard and takes lots of talent and skill to do. In the dictionary, a sport is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” As it is shown here, dance fits right into this description; dance involves many hours of physical exertion and a lot of talent and skill is needed to achieve, and as you know dancers work on multiple routines for months up to a competition where they compete against different teams. At North Dakota Academy of Dance, they work for many months on a performance, where family and locals could purchase tickets to watch the show, making this dance “for others entertainment.”
Fargo North sophomore Catherine Bailey has been dancing for 12 years now and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. “I’d love to do something dance related as a career choice someday!” said Bailey. Her view on competitive dance is that it is really fun; the dances can get a little repetitive, but she believes dance is a subjective art form. “Judging dance can be controversial,” Bailey stated.
Dance is a sport in many ways, it is just different than the other sports. “Dance takes so much physically and mentally; you have to be in shape to be our best. It’s not just twirling around. It’s definitely a workout.” said Bailey. “Not to mention many dancers compete in competitions at all levels so there’s that aspect of competition too.”
This is all very true, as a dancer I can say that dance does really take a toll on a person physically and very much mentally. Each day is filled with numerous hours working out to get to a goal, and mentally it’s draining trying to make everything perfect.
While some think dance is a sport, there are many people who believe that it isn’t. I have interviewed a student, who would like to remain anonymous, who believes just this. They believe that dance is not a sport, because it is something everyone can do, and dance is really easy, while football is harder and not everyone can do it. This student thinks that it is just a hobby and shouldn’t be considered a sport. “It’s not watched enough, it’s a waste of money, and it’s more of an art form,” they said.
As stated before, the definition of a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Competitive dance is where a team, or just one individual, competes against other teams dancing. But the dancing is not just twirling about moving to music, it is much more technical and you need much experience and talent to accomplish anything. Many dancers work on one piece for months up to a competition, hours and hours going into each step and technique, and the whole process is very tiring and if something isn’t perfect you work on it for weeks until it is. So if you look at the definition of a sport, dance falls very much into that definition.
Overall dance is challenging but it also is really fun because you get to express yourself in a different way.
I do understand the confusions people may have, dance is very different from typical sports, but when people say that dance isn’t a sport it is really hurtful because they just have no idea what exactly goes on behind the scenes and how much goes into a routine. I do believe that if these people who claim dance isnt a sport actually tried to do what us dancers go through, they see that dance isn’t as “easy” as it looks and they would definitely change their minds.
People can have their own opinions on whether competitive dance is a sport or not, but if you realize the hard work and technicality that goes into competitive dance it is in fact a sport. Us dancers are tired of not being recognized as being in an actual sport, so next time you go to say dance isn’t a sport, please try to step into a dancers shoes and find out yourself if dance is a sport or not.