Enc 1101 - Dance Is a Sport!

Lauren yon

Professor Barrett

ENC1101

February 18, 2018

Dance is a sport!

Dance has been argued whether it is a sport for almost a decade. People often say dance is a hobby used for recreational fun. In some cases, this is true for the select few who are not avid dancers. As for others who take dance more serious level the same amount of physical activity it takes is very similar as any sport. Some say dance is one of the most contacted sport like football. Dance requires entire use of your muscles, complete understanding and acknowledgment of the activity as well as the time dedication if not more. I understand that dance could be enjoyed as more fun and entertaining than sports, but most people would say that baseball, tennis and football are equivalent to being fun.

     As a dancer, you must understand the use of muscles in each dance movement. In a plie, which is where both feet are on the floor and you bend both your knees, you must use almost every muscle in your body correctly execute the move. A plie may look as simple as picking up a pencil but is quite challenging. As for any other sport, you must build your muscles to be able to hold your own weight and carry through the moves. As for an entire dance, which can vary from three to thirty minutes can have a very strong toll on a dancer’s body or anyone’s body. A dancer can get injuries from working hard and can strain as many muscles as a football player. If you haven’t danced in a while, and say you take like a 1 week intensive. Your body isn’t used to moving that much. You will start to feel pain, sharp pains, extreme soreness, and bruises everywhere. Dance is just like football, cheerleading, track, softball, etc... just because we “dance” she shouldn’t be categorized as just an Art.

Cheerleading is considered a sport. In my point of view most of my friends can do all kinds of tricks just as cheerleaders do. Why do people consider cheer a sport then? They dance, they do tricks. Try taking any dance class. It’s so hard to perfect anything, the cardio involved is insane. Yes, it’s a form of art and is expressive, but I feel as if its more intense than that. The work out one gets from taking a class is great. I’ve heard that a whole ballet performance is about the same as if playing multiple soccer games. This is a huge argument between what they call them self’s “real athletes” and dancer. I fell as if you’re doing exercise, its considered a sport. Golf is a sport and you need little to no actual working out for that.

Haven’t you heard of football players or ice skaters taking ballet classes? Dance is used in many other things besides its own category. Although dance isn’t what a normal every day person does, there may be little things here and there that athletes may be doing that they might not even realize is based from dance. For example, synchronized swimming is practically a whole combination in water. Its choregraphed just as piece or combination would be. Again, with ice skating as well, a lot of work is done without skates in a class. Not saying that skating is the same when getting on the ice but both forms of art work together.