Is Dance a Sport?

One controversial topic that has consistently come up during my conversations with people is whether or not dance is a sport. I have always had an adamant answer to those who question this subject, and would lash out multiple reasons as to why dance is considered a sport to me. Since I have been dancing for 19 years, this topic never seems to ease away. So here it goes, the reasons why dance is considered a sport is based on the simple definition of a "sport". According to dictionary.com a sport is defined as "an activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often a competitive nature". Dance fits these characteristics because it takes training, conditioning, and practice just like baseball, football, and soccer. Dancers can compete as a soloist, duet, trio, large group, small group, or production and there are over 1,000 dance competitions just in LA county alone. So that takes care of the competition aspect of it.

It takes just as much time to build dancing skills as it does for any other sport and the injury level of a dancer is about the same, if not higher than any other sports. In order to be considered a good dancer, you must have agility, endurance, balance and strength, which are characteristics that describe any great athlete. People may argue that there is no way of putting a score on a dance performed by a dancer. But during dance competitions, there is 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and so on, based on the scores given by the judges based on the dancers skills. So if we call the judges "referees" than can we call dance a sport?

In reality, there are more female dancers than there are male dancers, so dance is typically thought of being a feminine activity. I feel that if dance had started with males than people would put it in the sports category. Since women have struggled in being acknowledged as an athlete it is more difficult to get dance to be recognized as a sport. But there is progress in action! Just at CSULB, the Dance Team is now apart of the athletic department on campus. On a broader scale, ESPN covers the UDA National Dance Competition in Florida, and the Long Beach State Dance Team has been interviewed and shown on this nationally known sports network. There is even talk in putting dance as a new Olympic sport! It is exciting to see progress take place in a topic of women, sports, and dance.

Bianca Poncedeleon KIN 338I Sec 6