Running Head: DANCE AS A SPORT

Dance As A Sport
Marcela Zacarias
University of Texas at El Paso

Running Head: DANCE AS A SPORT

Abstract
Many people believe that dance is not a sport and that dance doesnt mean
that you are athletic. Most often dance is to be considered an art, and it is,
but they arent considering the other benefits, other than art, that dance has
to offer. Dance needs more than art to be able to be called dance. Just as
almost any other sport, dance needs strength, technique, and flexibility.
Dance not only offers these qualities, but it also offers you the opportunity to
be a better athlete. Dance is a sport and it has been proven.

Soccer, baseball, basketball, football swimming, etc. All one

commonality; sports. But, there is one disregarded physical activity that is
typically forgotten when it comes to the realm of sports: dance. This is a very
important topic because it is very true that many people believe that dance
is not considered a sport, but they arent considering the athletic skills of
what it takes to be a dancer. This specific reason of people believing that
dance is not a sport is what made me want to investigate and persuade
those specific people that dance is a sport for many reasons that I will be
describing next.

Today, there has been many dancers and researchers that have tried to
convince people that dance is a sport. As mentioned in Commentary: Making
the Case for Dance to Be Considered a Sport, Alonni Reid, a sophomore at
City Honors, is a formal dancer that has danced for many years and she has

Running Head: DANCE AS A SPORT

seen how much dance has been underrated (Reid, 2014). I believe that
many of the comments of dance not being a sport and all of that comes from
the people that dont know much about dance and dont know how much
dance has changed over the years. Many people dont take the time to sit
and watch a real dancer dance. According to the Commentary: Making the
Case for Dance to Be Considered a Sport, dancing requires tolerance for
pain and hard work just as in any sport (Reid, 2014).

First, Dance is a sport because along with other sports, dancing

involves physical exertion and requires skill. It is known fact that when
athletes perform a physical activity, such as a sport, they work hard, become
sore, and may even become injured. Dancing is the very same way. Mobile
Bodies: Contemporary semi-professional dancers experiences with injuries
says, Injury rates among dancers are higher than in any other professional
sport, (Markula, 2015). Also, Mobile Bodies: Contemporary semi-professional
dancers experiences with injuries reported that eighty percent of
professional dancers will be injured at least one time in their career. In
addition to being injured, forty percent of dancers from small ballet
companies and fifty percent of dancers from large ballet companies will miss
performances due to injury. (Markula, 2015). It is the very same way for all
other athletes- you get injured, you can't perform. Along with involving
physical exertion, dancing requires skill. Just like any other sport, athletes
can't do their job if they have no idea what theyre doing. They need to have

Running Head: DANCE AS A SPORT

trained to get the right skill. Dancers spend hours and hours training each
day- exactly like other athletes everywhere. Therefore, dance is a sport
because it involves physical exertion and requires skill, like other sports.

In addition to involving physical exertion and requiring skill, dance

helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle, similar to other sports. Dancing has
many beneficial health attributes, such as strengthening bones and muscles,
reducing stress and tension, and improving posture and balance, according
to the Multidisciplinary predictors of adherence to contemporary dance
training: findings from the UK Centres for Advanced Training (Aujla, 2015).
The article Multidisciplinary predictors of adherence to contemporary dance
training: findings from the UK Centres for Advanced Training says that all
sports can help strengthen bones, effectively develop muscle strength and
endurance, and contribute to a fuller range of motion, which helps with
achieving a proper posture (Aujla, 2015). Not only does dancing have those
great benefits, but it can help shave off those unnecessary calories. This
means that dance has very similar health affects compared to other sports,
as they are almost exactly the same. These facts prove that that dance is a
sport because similar to other sports, dance helps to maintain a healthy
lifestyle.

Lastly, in both dance and other sports, participating athletes practice,

perform, and compete. Dance and Sport reported that some football players

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have said they practice on average about 43.3 hours on their sport a weekplaying, competing, and training (Ingram, 1978). Also, according to Dance
and Sport, professional dancers practice and train for about 6 hours per day
(Dance and Sport, 1978). This equals roughly an average of 42 hours per
week. This shows that dancers practice almost exactly as long football
players, which proves that dance is a sport because you practice just as long
as another professional sport. In addition to practicing, while participating in
sports, you perform and compete-similar to dance. Dancers all around the
globe participate in many performances to show off their skill, similar to how
any other athlete would play in games. Pursuing this further, there is a
natural competition between individual dancers for jobs, as there are fewer
jobs in the world today. This competition can be easily related to football,
where the competition is for college scholarships or contracts with famous
teams. This shows the relationship between dance and other sports; in both,
athletes practice, perform, and compete.

Dance should be considered a sport for three main reasons. One is the
fact that along with other sports, dance involves physical exertion and
requires skill. Secondly, dance is a sport because similar to other sports,
dance helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Lastly, in both dance and other
sports, participating athletes practice, perform, and compete. Although you
may not see dancers in helmets tackling each other, they are certainly
athletes. The point is that even though dance is one of the worlds true art

Running Head: DANCE AS A SPORT

forms, it is still a sport, and should be considered one by all of society,

including athletes everywhere.

Running Head: DANCE AS A SPORT

References
Aujla, I. J., Nordin-Bates, S. M., & Redding, E. (2015). Multidisciplinary predictors of
adherence to contemporary dance training: findings from the UK Centres for Advanced
Training. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(15), 1564-1573.
doi:10.1080/02640414.2014.996183. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&dba9h&AN=103309599&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Ingram, Ann. Dance and sport. (1978). International Review for the Sociology of Sport , vol. 13
no. 1. (p. 85-9). doi:10.1177/1012690227801300107. Retrieved from
http://irs.sagepub.com/content/13/1/85.full.pdf+html

Markula, P. (2015). (Im)Mobile bodies: Comtemporary semi-professional dancers experiences

with injuries. International Review For The Sociology Of Sport, 50(7), 840-864.
doi:10.1177/1012690213495745. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=111190372&sit
e-ehost-live&scope=site

Reid, A. (2014). Commentary: Making the case for dance to be considered a sport - The Buffalo
News. Retrieved from http://www.buffalonews.com/life-arts/next/commentary-making-t
he-case-for-dance-to-be-considered-a-sport-20140306