Is Ballet A Sport Or Sport

Introduction: Ballet: Art or Sport?

Participation in sports is typically regarded as a masculine activity. Traditionally, males have dominated in sports and male sporting events generate more money and attention. Ballet is an activity that involves physical exertion and skill; this is Webster’s definition of a sport. Ballet is clearly an art, but because of the years of intense training, skill and dedication it should also be considered a sport and regarded as such due to the similar physical intensity as gymnastics, ice-skating and even male dominated sports. Ballet is a major part of the performing arts, ballet dancers and athletes experience comparable levels of skill, physical demands and mental stress during training and performances

In the early 1400’s, Italian Renaissance dance master, Domenico di Piacenza, used the term balletto to describe theatrical dances, yet the word ballet is of French origin. Hundreds of male and female dancers dressed in lavish wigs and costumes and attempted to impress nobility. In 1490, Leonardo da Vinci designed a balli spectacular and the artistic interpretation of the dance was to emulate the celestial bodies and create peace for the audience. This could have been perceived as competition or art, balletto or ballet. Paris, France can be defined as the ballet capital of the world, and the Paris Opera Ballet was the first professional instruction of ballet. Master Pierre Beachamps established the foundation for the five basic ballet positions. Up until the performance of Le Triomphe de l 'Amour in 1681, all of the female roles at the Royal Academy of Dance were performed by young male dancers. By the early 1800’s, dramas and stories of mythology began to fade and new romantic ones emerged. This is when women adopted the primary roles in ballet. It was the idea that a dancer could float so angelically on her toes that gave the women of this time a new advantage over men. Consequently, the presence of men in ballet became lifting the women and making it look easy (Tip Toe

There is a definitive winner that is determined by the final score. If there were no winner at the end of the fourth quarter there would be some very upset players, coaches and fans. As an audience watches, dancers perform difficult combinations and evoke emotion in their assigned roles, each audience member may interpret a different meaning. At the end of a ballet performance as the principal dancers takes her final bow, there is no declared winner. If Ballet is considered a sport the beauty and art is replaced with competition and aggression, like most American sporting