Anna Rivera
Karen Hiday
English 103
12 October 2017
Is Dance Considered a Sport?
Three laps around the gym, minute long planks, crunches, sit-ups, and push-ups in a matter of thirty minutes. As a dancer, experiencing and realizing the strength that needs to be present in order for an athlete to grow is vital. We go through long hours of choreography sessions, pain and strain on our bodies, and vigorous training. Many people will disagree on the status of if dance is a sport or not. Well, what makes a sport a sport?
Both Mary – Elizabeth Esquibel, in her article “Why Dance Will Always Be a Sport” and the infographic entitled “Is Dance a Sport?” attack this controversial dilemma. Even though these arguments use different formats, they use
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rhetoric similarly. According to Collins Dictionary; sport is defined as “an individual or group activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game”.
Some may say that this is opinionated since it mentions the fact of activity pursued for “pleasure”. But what about the exercise, the physical makeup that is necessary for any individual sport, and the hard work and dedication put into it? From the looks of it that way, any sport should be considered a sport. Esquibel uses her opening sentence of her article as a strong and dramatic effect. She explains that football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey are the essence of sports in America. Everything relates around them. They are always broadcasted on television, and always highlighted on news sites. By trying to get the audience to understand her view, she is somewhat recognizing and siding with other’s views as well. She is not entirely stating that dancers are like all general athletes but the dancing, and effort these dancers put in, is a sport. Mary- Elizabeth also goes on to identify how others try to say that dance isn’t as competitive or how dancers aren’t trying to win over anyone. In fact, that is wrong. Here is an example; the show Dance Moms. In Dance Moms, the group of girls that …show more content…
are being showed are always trying to compete to be at the top of the pyramid. Who was the best at the last competition? Who demonstrated the best skills? Not only are they trying to be better than each other, but also be better than everyone else at their competitions. See, just like Esquibel said, it’s a constant state of competitiveness. It is a constant battle between your physical state and your mental state. So, this is why she wanted to dramatically force her audience to see their doubts right from the beginning. In the infographic titled “Is Dance a Sport?” the visual aspect of the many facts creates a very well understanding for those who want to know everything there is about what makes a sport, as well as what makes dance a sport.
It starts out but comparing the definitions of both dance and sport side by side. The infographic explains that a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” and that dance is “to move your body in a way that goes with the rhythm and style of music that is being played”. Here they are not trying to compare them with each other but only explain what readers may need to brush up on. The other aspects mentioned in this infographic are time and effort, and skills. The creator wanted not only to illustrate the answer of yes, it is a sport, or no, it is not but also to go more into depth and comparison. The main statement made about time and effort is that the moves and dances we memorize are very challenging and that is what takes all the time and effort. Just like any sport, you need to manage and plan time. Also, if you want to succeed, you must put your all and passion into what you’re trying to achieve. We all know that to be successful in any sport, you need to have the true skills in certain areas. If someone is a cook, you need to have the skills of creativity and tastefulness and to be a teacher, you must have the skills of communication and
respectfulness. For some people, to be able to dance doesn’t require much skill. Others believe it is your way of moving and there is no right or wrong. But, speaking on a competitive level, you do need to have lots of skill. You need to be flexible, strong, and have the right endurance and stamina. Both Esquibel and the creator of this infographic understand that by shocking the audience with strong facts and overall background, it is a very powerful component to their arguments. One of the things that Ezequiel really does not touch up on is her tone of her article. She is wanting to draw an audience that is very strong on her side, but she doesn’t use enough facts or outside sources to back her up. It is very biased based on her own experiences as a dancer. Mary- Elizabeth, at the end of her argument, uses words such as “you have to” and “it is required to”. This may not persuade her audience as much as she wants because of her word choice. It is very opinion based. If she wants to get the readers to understand her view on attaining the “ideal dancers name” she may need to add more examples and explanations on how these dancers can gain the title of an athlete. In the infographic titled “Is Dance a Sport”, the author decides to value the other side to their argument. They explain how dance critics or other “judges” view the so called “sport” in the entertainment world. “They say dance is not a sport because it is mainly just a memory game.”. Is this being the case, what about football players? Are they not constantly memorizing their plays, or routes that they have to run? Or what about soccer players? Of course, they cannot predict how the game will occur, but they always have something in the back of their head to feed off of. Since this infographic also points to the other side, it does not mean they support it. They are just trying to show their knowledge of both sides to make their argument even stronger. Dance may be only an art or an entertaining factor to some, but that does not mean it is not a prestigious hard-working sport. It can be a sport whether it is competitive or even recreational. For an athlete to be able to grow, we, ourselves, need to take into account the factors that need to be put into it. Time, effort, motivation, strength, and many others do not only attain to the sports such as football, hockey, or soccer. To be a sport, means you need to strive for your success.
What exactly determines whether or not an activity is a sport? The term sport is defined by The Free Dictionary as: A physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively, an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively, or an active pastime; recreation.
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.
Young girls and women symbolize femininity with being a ballerina. Kelso comments that in the shadows of the spotlight lurks an abusive world of eating disorders, verbal harassment, fierce competition, injuries, fatigued, and malnourished dancers (Kelso, 2003). In today’s world of ballet, dancers suffer from always being in pain, worrying their body image is not the right look they need to have to get lead roles resulting in the development of eating disorders, and male ballet dancers are stereotyped as being homosexual when most of the male dancers are in fact heterosexual.
As sport acts as a microcosm of society, many issues found in sport such as gender stereotyping, female discrimination, sexploitation and racism, can also be found outside of sport. The cultural level holds immense power in influencing all levels of the framework, with socialisation of factors regarding race, culture, femininity and masculinity filtering through each level and either directly or indirectly impacting the individual level. Both male and female participation in dance is influenced by gender stereotypes with hegemonic beliefs about masculinity and femininity limiting or enhancing both genders equity and access into dance. Within our media saturated society, females dancers are urged to sexualise themselves in order to serve the
The five-hour practices four times a week, the hours of time spent conditioning, the tears, the sweat, the blood, the pain, and the injuries experienced throughout the season, all come down to the second your team walks on the mat. Only the best of the best will have what it takes to come out on top and prove that their hard work has paid off. Does this sound like a sport? Absolutely. Now, what if it was mentioned that there is only have two minutes and thirty seconds to give it your all, does this change your opinion of this mystery sport being an authentic sport? It should not. So if all of the above examples fit into the same amount of athleticism as other sports, why is cheerleading not considered a sport? If the courts were to rule cheerleading as a sport, how would they go about it? Should all-star and school cheerleading be voted a sport? Should none of it? The answer to this is all-star cheerleading should be ruled as not only a sport, but also as a varsity sport. Competitive and collegiate cheerleading should be ruled as a sport because of the danger, the rigor and the popularity that this athletic activity demands. Cheerleading is overall called an athletic activity which is practically no different than calling it a sport. Different name. Same meaning.
[6] Cohen, Selma Jeanne. International Encyclopedia of Dance: A Project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Dancers often times have many pressures put on them, which can lead to physical and emotional damage. These damages occur through the pressures from the media, parents, teammates, and the stereotype that society has placed on dancers. One of the hardest pressures that dancers have to overcome is the pressure from the media. The media places harsh, rigid, and false ideas of dancers on to the mass public. Constantly bombarded by commercials, magazine ads, posters, etc., the idea of being thin and beautiful is what the society thinks of as the “norm”.
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.
Why do people think school cheerleading is not a sport? People say school cheerleading is not a sport because when we think of a sport we think of having a competition against a team. Some schools do not have the ability to compete at competitions. “One can be an athlete and not participate in a sport. And one can participate in a sport and not be very athletic.” says (ESPNw). Cheerleaders also do not compete against the other cheerleaders on Friday nights when the football team
To this day video games are not considered a sport because it doesn’t require physical work. Even though it is not considered a sport, events exist in which teams compete for a big prize. Some people think that video games are a sport because it requires an incredible ability to play video games and know how to play the variety of games that exist. Others think that video games are just moving your fingers and pressing buttons, but it goes a lot further than that.
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.
Dance presents a human desire for personal expression and social connection. According to Jenna Garecht, author of “Is Dance a Sport or and
Dance and gymnastics are sports which take a lot of determination and commitment that lead to amazing results. It becomes frustrating because many people think dance and gymnastics are identical sports, but they have many similarities and differences.
The dictionary defines dance as "an artistic form of nonverbal communication" (dance). As Christians we have always heard that dancing is immoral; that dancing only led to one thing- sex. Although this is the general belief, many people find the art of ballet, such as The Nutcracker to be tasteful. Dancing embodies passion, grace and poise. Dancing is not just a mating ritual as we have been told; it is a story that is too good for words. Dancing is a way to communicate with anybody no matter what language they speak or how old they are. It is a way to cross barriers and touch souls.
To many, dance is only an art. In reality, dance is much more. It 's an art, a sport, a way to express one’s self, a way to exercise, a way to get feelings out. Since the beginning of time, humans have used different types of dance to express themselves. There are many advantages to dancing, however there are also some disadvantages. Dance is one of the most physically and cognitively demanding sports.