Is Dance A Sport

Dance, Is It A Sport? A common misconception about dance is that you have to be trained in order to be ‘good’ at it. This is not necessarily true though, because not every dancer dances for the sole purpose of performing or competing. In their own way, everyone can be considered a dancer. How many times in your life have you heard a song that has made you want to move? Probably a lot of times. That movement that you make is called dancing. Whether you want to admit it to yourself or not, you are a dancer in your own right. Would you consider dancing to be sport? A sport by definition is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Just like any sport

In my life I have heard people argue that dance does not require the physical and mental sacrifice that other sports do. According to an article at danceconsortium.com, “Teams practice for more than twenty hours a week at times in order to perfect and synchronize their movement.” I remember when I was on my high school’s dance team, we spent over twenty hours a week rehearsing routines as well as countless hours we would spend rehearsing individually. My coach would sometimes not let us leave until the routine was performance ready, even if it took all night. We would have five or more dances to practice and would often find ourselves spending the entire two and a half hour period running a single routine over and over again and always finding something else to correct. This is where the cliche line “you’re only as strong as your weakest link” comes into play. As a dancer who has shed plenty of blood sweat and tears (and I mean this in the most literal sense,) I can tell you that it most certainly does require all of the physical and mental sacrifice that any other sport would if not more. Dancers are not immune to many of the chronic injuries that plague all of the sporting world. Rotator cuff and tendonitis injuries that are commonly experienced by baseball pitchers are also commonly diagnosed in the world of dance. Dancers, ballet dancers more specifically will often times experience psychological problems when competing to be cast as a particular role in a ballet. They will also starve themselves to maintain a certain weight for a role the same way that a professional boxer would to fit into their weight class.