With fall sports ending and Roosevelt dance rehearsals in full swing, dancers are often left unnoticed compared to traditional ball athletes. However, there are more similarities between dancers and ball players than initially thought. To many in society, dancers are seen as entertainment. This is far from the truth, seeing that dance socially expands cultural diffusion and community togetherness. Analyzing these physically demanding aspects will display the spirit of dance often shadowed by society’s delicate view.
A poll by The Gazette stated that 77% of people consider dance a sport, but why is this not a unanimous opinion? The response from the leftover 23% was that dance was solely an art form. This is far off the mark regarding the dance community at Roosevelt. Former dancer, Junior Eva Worman writes, “Dance fits in the definition of a sport because it is physically challenging and requires whole body movement and exertion.” Worman highlights that dance consists of “non-stop full-body movement, in a short period.”
The limited time that dancers perform also contributes to the stress that dance puts on their bodies, unlike traditional athletes, dancers have to articulate more. For example, as stated by Worman “Moves like leaps, turns, lifts, kicks, etc are very challenging and other athletes aren’t even able to do them.” When asked about the similarities between the training methods of dance and ball sports, Worman says, “Dance is a lot of repetition to perfect choreography, similar to ball sports in practicing running plays. ” Freshman dance student Astrid Hawk also supports this idea by saying “dance should be considered a sport because you can compete, and it requires a lot of strength seeing that football players usually cross-train ballet to get stronger.” Although it is a fixed decision in the Raider dance community that dance should be considered a sport, is this acknowledged by ball athletes?
Junior Football Player Kyric Johnson writes in response “Yes dance should be considered a sport”, he further examines the societal view of dance stating that the stigmatized delicate view of dance is partly because “Many people see the light and soft productions and translate that to the difficulty of dance.” As an American football player, he believes that his sport has “way more injury risk” but dance “deserves more recognition and support.” Johnson thinks that watching dance should be recognized more so by “the common man” rather than the “elite” to gain more mainstream attention. We have heard from both a dancer and a traditional athlete, what could make this argument more convincing?
According to a survey conducted by Dance magazine, dancers scored 100 out of 100 in the stamina, flexibility, and coordination categories, and 87.8 out of 100 for strength. Athletes and sports competitors took third place. Although everyone in Roosevelt’s close-knit community agrees that dancing should be a sport, do you believe this will eventually grow beyond a potential Olympic category?
