Have you ever been in so much pain but have to smile and work your way through it while keeping your posture upright,or love something so much that even if the teachers seem like military sergeants you still want to go and do that one specific thing; ballet dancers go through that everyday just to come out on top.
I think Ballet should be considered a sport because it takes a lot of labor and time just like any other sport. The definition of Sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Ballet dancers happen to dance on their toes all day; I think that’s a little extreme. To prove my point because i’m sure this isn’t enough I
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will start with the history on how Ballet started. Ballet began around 1500 in a place called Italy, it was loved by many and only taught to the nobility. It was later introduced into France when the King Henry II married Catherine de Medici, she taught the style and introduced it to the French court after she was married. Dance has evolved and so has the leading countries and by 1850 Russia had taken the lead. Ballet was not introduced to America until 1930 when Diaghilev's dancers left to live in America and work there.( Jacobus Arturo 2 ) As I stated earlier Ballet evolved over the years and pointe did not exist until the early nineteenth century. Ballet dancers get injured every day and that’s because of many different reasons.
Most Ballet dancers begin at the age five or six,and are pushed to be as flexible and be as strong as a professional dancer. This is how most dancers get hurt due to the fact the are pushed to extreme pains to accomplish something that looks so effortless. Most Ballet dancers don’t eat a well balanced meal to keep the slim shape and sometimes dancers will wear corsets to keep the posture and slim shape. Now tell me that's not extreme. Ballet dancers will go to a physical therapist sometimes after each practice to ease that …show more content…
pain. Ballet dancers are very competitive and only a few people each year make it in “The Dance World” . For example, at a school called Juilliard only 24 people( 12 men and 12 women ) make it each year in their school out of the dance category.( Katie's Frii Web ) If you don’t make it the first time you only have one more time to apply before you can’t try out anymore. Ballet dancers often will have friends outside of practice hours but during the practice hours they are alone and are competing against themselves and everyone else in the room. While the are beating themselves up to be the best in the class and get the role the teachers are pushing them to extreme measures to be perfect. “Most dancers are careful,” explains Jackie,professional dancers, when quizzed on the assumptions of the barely-there ballerina diet.
'Some stay healthy, some are chaotic, and others risk everything by indulging in ridiculous diets, but the truth is you have to have fuel to be able to dance.' “ ( Claire Blackmore web ) So in other words no Pizza, no Mcdonalds, and no Kentucky Fried Chicken. Dancers will rarely eat anything unhealthy so they can be strong enough to lift their partner or stay on their toes without snapping their ankle or breaking their toes. They may look like these little dolls but a female can put all her wait on her toes and sometimes will even lift a partner both male and female. Ballet dancers have to work together to have the perfect routine with no flaws and dance and jump at the same
time. The hardest move in Ballet is performed by the black swan in Swan lake doing 32 fouette turns. It is a lot harder than they look.( Sugano, Arleen ) It takes years and years and years of practice to have the perfect turns. All the mistakes, blood, tears, and sweat to perform this move maybe once in their life. Ballet dancers can work hours a day pushing themselves to extreme pain to do something maybe once or to get that spot. When on tour they have to dance in weird conditions and sometimes with no space. They will practice when they wake up until they fall asleep, some work so hard and never get the chance to live their dreams. Have you ever been in so much pain but have to smile and work your way through it while keeping your posture upright, or love something so much that even if the teachers seem like military sergeants you still want to go and do that one specific thing. Ballet dancers push and pull just so when the curtain closes they get a rose thrown on the stage.I think ballet should be considered a sport because Ballet dancers push themselves through the sweat and tears to just hear that was amazing. Even though people will say it is not hard to take ballet but, in all actuality Ballerinas work just as hard if not even harder than any other sport.
By universal definition, "sport" is listed as "an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively." Football, basketball, baseball, soccer and other primary activities have always been concretely defined as sports in society. However, one of the most physically demanding activities is constantly forgotten when it comes to the realm of sports- dance. Dance requires a tremendous amount of training and creates an aura of competition in which people compete to be the best, win, and take home the trophy- just like in traditionally accepted sports. These sports, however, do not possess an element of psychological health threats that some competitive dancers unfortunately must account for due to the emphasis placed on physical appearance.
Ballet is an athletic art form that utilizes muscle control, flexibility, and physical strength. It requires extreme discipline from the dancers and takes an extreme amount of mental concentration. This discipline causes dancers to have success throughout life and specifically in academic studies. There are many ways that dance can affect the success of a person’s life; however, there are two in specific that make dancers generally more successful. To begin, ballet causes dancers to be self-motivated workers; dancers cannot rely on others to push them to be better, but must have the drive within themselves.
Dancers deal with pain or an injury differently than most people because they defy the principles of the human design and have the urge to prove themselves to the company that hires them. One would think that a profession like ballet, dancers would take care of their bodies (instrument for their profession) but with the demands of the director and choreographers, dancers must ignore what their bodies are telling them and go on with the show.
Dr. Michelle Warren, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center’s gynecologist and obstetrician and expert in Menopause and Hormonal Disorders, says, “Dance is one of the worst areas. The average incidence of eating disorders in the white middle-class population is 1 in 100. In classical ballet, it is 1 in 5,” (Dunning). Many professional companies have an on-site nutritionist to suggest proper eating habits to the dancers. Instead of giving beneficial eating habits, many tend to give the dancers diets and recipes for meals that have as little as 300 calories (Kelly).
For the dancer, music and choreography are paramount. The music guides the dancer, and the moves express the music. However, the dance has to start from somewhere.
The typical idea of a dancer is that they are tall, slender, full of energy, and lucky because they dance with all of the “stars”. Much of this is true, however, what many people do not think of are the many hardships that a dancer goes through in order to achieve their high status in the dance world. It takes much hard work and determination along with good direction to become a dancer. However, nothing good comes without a price. Dancers often times have many pressures put on them which can lead to physical and emotional damages. These damages occur through the pressures from the media, parents, teammates, and the stereotype that society has placed on dancers.
Ballet is a beautiful and romantic type of performance art. It originated in the Italian court systems in the 15th century (Jonas). Since its origination, ballet has undergone many changes and gained worldwide recognition. Filled with elaborate costumes, cheering audiences, lights, weightless movements and beauty; ballet is admired by many. On the magical stage ballerinas can become whoever they wan to be, and perform in a world of fantasy. For these reasons, children, especially little girls, all over the world dream of becoming ballerinas when they grow up. However, becoming a professional ballerina is an extremely difficult accomplishment, in which few will achieve (Kelso 1). The world of ballet may seem to be filled with glitz and glamor but, behind the curtain there is an entirely different story. There are extreme demands and pressures put on these young dancers to be very thin and nearly perfect. Some of which include body and weight demands, competition, and social pressures. These constant pressures can lead to a negative body-image and even debilitating eating disorders (Price and Pettijohn).
Ballet has been an art form since the late fifteenth century, but society did not truly see the impact of ballet until the nineteenth century. Modern day thinkers possess the idea that ballet began with tutus and pointe shoes, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that this opinion was observed. Ballet has come a long way. It has survived the turmoil of many wars and has changed itself by accepting new ideas and impressing the audience with its unique stylistic views.
an important factor of sports, it’s presence in Ballet is not to be ignored. These reasons all lead
Each dancer has been in ballet since a young age, on average each member of the company began training when they were between three to five years old. They each studied in ballet and found something they were passionate about. Each dancer, in their own way, loves their craft. They love what they do and it can be seen when they
Is dance a sport or not? Some people in our world today consider dance just to be all frilly and fragile. Dance takes time, effort, determination and impeccable strength. I believe that dance is a sport because it has the same components as any other sport. In any other sport you need to work hard with a lot of effort, and that is exactly what dancers do. For example, most beginning dancers practice between five to ten hours a week. Although most people in our world today look at dancing as nothing more than tutus and twirling, a good dancer must have a mind mentally engaged, a body able to endure physical challenges, and toned dedication and skill.
Many young girls grow up taking ballet class, but there is a lot more to ballet than just little girls running around in tutus. Many people think that ballet is boring or isn’t their thing but there are many roles that go into putting on a ballet. A lot of work goes into doing a ballet. There are many famous ballets that without the story, the ballet wouldn’t be as interesting. There were many influential dancers and choreographers in ballet. There are many basic steps that frame the technique of ballet. Ballet is very physically and mentally demanding. Ballet is an art that many people misunderstand, but there is so much more to ballet.
Football is a very physically demanding sport. According to Taylor (1969), “Professional football is basically a physical assault by one team upon another in desperate fight for land.” (pg. 23) The body is used as weapon to prevent an opposing player from crossing into another's territory. The body must be strong and well equipped to endure the stresses of physical contact. The body is very susceptible to injury when engaging in football. It is important for those who participate in football train their bodies effectively. The same can be said for ballet. It is a physically demanding activity as well but the body is used as a form of expression. According to Huwyler M.D. (2002), “ For the dancer, his body in his means of expression, the instrument is his heart. Ballet is meant to be graceful and elegant, it does not appear to be a physically demanding sport as football is. Looks are deceiving, According to Kennedy M.D and Hodgkins M.D. (2008), “The grace and art of the ballet performance belie the great physical strain of the body as a whole. (Preface) Ballet places a great deal of strain on the body; it is important that those who participate in ballet receive adequate and effective training.
Ballet is an expression of the human body. Ballets are often fairy tales with a meaning in the end. In order to be a ballerina you must start at a very early age and work up to being a great performer. Ballerinas careers often end when they are in their forties, for when ballerinas become this age they are
Dancing doctor: This was my response when I was first asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. My high school life can only be described as a precisely-choreographed “pas de deux”, a ballet term for a “dance for two”, between my passions of ballet and medicine. I used to think of the arts and sciences as almost polar opposites, but as I gained more experience in them, I realized that ballet could be considered an exact science similar to how medicine could be considered an art, and that they were actually quite similar. The foundation of ballet rests on the five basic positions.