Is dance a sport | Expert Opinion |

Is dance a sport? While getting views from university students, dance industry experts, and sports people, most of them start with “It’s a hot debate topic.” While my question is from you guys,

is it really a hot debate topic? Or you have misunderstood the topic.

While analyzing various facts and figures, I found something different that most of us do not realize.

Dance is more than sports. To justify my point, I have shared the dance facts most of us are not looking at.

Before coming to any conclusion, please read the full blog post, and if you have some additional stuff or queries related to the article, please comment or email.

So here we begin.

What Dance Symbolizes

Dance is a medium to present words in the form of body movement and expression. As per historians, dance is used as a medium for transferring the storyline to the next generation, and it has been carved in stone; if you think about the origin of dance, it is India, and most historical cravings of dance have been found there only.

Well, looking into India and other countries’ cultures, historians concluded dance also has a connection with religious spirituality as well, and each culture has its type of dance whose baseline is to give a constructive message to humanity.

In terms of competency, dance has proved from ancient times when there was no origin of music; dancers used to produce music from their feet, which nowadays we call tap dance.

Present Generation

As generations evolve, new dance styles emerge. As per veteran dancers, the foundation stone of any new dance style is taken from the old one. To help you know trending dance types and genres, I have prepared infographics.

Performing dance styles is not limited to professional dancers. Various other professions in our society, such as athletes, corporate professionals, and medical professionals, have added one of their dance genres to their fitness routines.

As per other professions, dance not only helps burn out the stress but also maintains flexibility and strengthens the legs and limbs. As per sports coaches, for cardio and respiration, dance plays a significant role.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, before becoming Action Star, was a kickboxer and ballet student. As per him, “If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport.”

I have achieved the first breakdown to make it clear to you how dance is more than sports. It’s the first activity that not only helps in maintaining our mental and physical health but also in spiritual growth as well,

The best thing I found in dance is that one doesn’t need any special equipment or considerable ground or a number of participant players. One can perform in their house alone.

Now, my second stand to justify my statement is “dance is more than sports.” you need to know what type of hardships one professional dancer needs to surpass in their career, whether mentally or physically.

What are the things that make one a great dancer?

Fitness

The whole process of dance involves the movement of our body. To achieve smooth functioning, dancers need to have flexibility, which one can achieve with exercise and spending time with gym equipment, which involves strengthening and endurance.

While having a talk with ballet dancer Ken Bard about his day-to-day workout regime, he stated that he performs a daily 2 hours workout to keep his muscles and joints limber. When I compare dancer workout routines with professional football and basketball players, they’re equivalent.

As per fitness trainers, having a daily workout not only boosts dancers’ performance but also aids in the prevention of injuries. In a survey of ONET on various filters, strength, flexibility, stamina, and coordination required, Dancers scored the highest comparable to athletes, fitness. To get detailed information, please check the image.

Discipline

After watching a performance of dancers in five minutes, we made our different conclusions, which is irrespective.

In order to give a 5-minute performance, professional dancers need to spend about 5 to 6 hours per day, which needs to be consistent for many days. Along with this, they need to include separate fitness training.

In order to move with a daily schedule, dancers need to be disciplined. While writing this article, I made two to three visits to a dance studio to watch how dancers get trained before their performance. I was really astonished by their time management; before their instructors came, dance students started their 25-minute warm-up.

Flaunt Dance Studio Director Coco states dancers have a tough fight with time, and to win this fight, they need to be disciplined. As per her, discipline is the first learning in their curriculum, under which they give a set of daily tasks for about 21 days for respected interval time.

When I asked her about the social life of dancers, She replied dance is a passion for many of them who enroll in her studio, and making little sacrifices for social life is not bigger for them.

As for me, I only feel army personnel are the most disciplined, but now dancers have made the space in my list, too.

Mental Health

Having a strict fitness and training schedule with less social life, dancers sometimes feel depressed. To avoid such things, good dance institutes appoint psychologists, and some of the professional dancers who start with good earnings keep up with monthly sessions with psychologists.

It has been found that each year, about 670 K bone injuries are found in dancers, which affect their performance for a long time, and some of them go into severe depression.

With excellence in their art, for a great dancer, there is also a mental struggle to act as a background player, which we never consider; it is really appreciative for all the dancers who have a realistic approach towards their passion and excellence in their art; they are also mainlining mental health as well.

Education

Having a good baseline foundational knowledge of all aspects of dancing helps to become a great dancer. Some of the students go with university degrees or training studios after high school to boost their careers.

During their education, students acknowledge various dance types and intensify training; they are also prepared how to avoid injuries during the performance.

Some of the Universities, such as UC Irvine, have not limited the curriculum of dance majors to learning different dance styles. They have also included costume design, the emergence of dance and technology, and lab notation (which included analysis of body movements).

In conclusion, yes, dance is hard. Just like other professions, they also go through a challenging process, while the intensity of difficulty in dance can be more but not less, I have tried my best to explain my second breakdown of how dance is more than sports.

Summarizing my justification - is dance a sport

You might be thinking why I have discussed how the dance symbolizes relation with society and what things make great dancers because if you see any successful debate conclusions, facts are laid from the foundation level to the skyscraper, not like seeking a simple overview and starting making perceptions.

In this topic, “Is dance a sport? “everyone reluctantly speaks one statement: dance should get a place with sports, but no one diversifies things and makes 360-degree propulsion to understand dance and stating that dance is more than sports.

Therefore, while writing an article, I did immersive research on the internet and made visits to the studio to find things that compel everyone to dance and sports in one place. But when I came to the conclusion, I found a different way from the topic – is dance a sport?

I found dance is not a sport, and while it’s one step ahead, the reason that makes dance compare with sports is the respect that dancers do not get like a sportsperson while dancers are doing more hard work.

As per me, rather than making a comparison or clarifying whether dance is a sport or an art, we have to do work at the ground level. I have enlisted some of the initiatives that can change the prospect of dance in society.

Making people aware of the importance of dance in their lives and the hardships of becoming a professional dancer.

At the high school and university, dance competitions and events should be publicist, such as other sports events.

Structural-level categorization of dancers should be there. We can take an example from the sports organizations that have categorized each player into D1, D2, and D3. This categorization started at the high school. At the categorization level, some of the universities also favor admission.

Perks and Salaries of dancers need to be raised, and paid internships should be given to trainee dancers.

More types of dance should be included in the Olympics; only break dance is there in the 2024 Olympics.

On social media, share hardship videos of dancers for their performance and struggle stories with achievement stories.

Conclusion

My whole scenario is to prove that if you want to dance and sports at the same level of respect, you should not waste your time finding the common things. At the same time, you need to find what is different and what initiatives you can take to get respect for dance as a profession.

Being a writer, the debate should reach a fruitful conclusion that makes both parties satisfied and work on the real cause rather than blaming or putting it down.

I hope I have given you a satisfactory answer to your query about is dance a sport. If you want to add something or remove something, please share your views via comment or email. I really appreciate engaging readers.

Frequently Asked Questions

is competitive dance a sport

To make differentiation among dancers, some dancing types are attributed to competitive, which is completely flawless, while the origin of each dance type is to give a message to humanity not to make comparisons. We should take dance as an art, not a competition.

is ballet harder than football

Yes, ballet is harder. In a 1975 study, it was proved that ballet had given a tough fight to athletes on strength, flexibility, and mental coordination.

is dancing hard

Yes, dancing is hard. In order to become a professional dancer, one needs to be disciplined toward a day-to-day schedule, which includes fitness training, skill training, and mental health.

is ballet considered a sport

Ballet is one of the dance types due to some features such as physical exertion that categorize it as a sports.