After a full day of summer school, I went to the gym then rushed home to finish my homework before practice. I had to start learning my competition routine even though we would not compete until the spring.
But however much work I put into practices, classes, and competitions, some people still will not consider dance a sport.
People acknowledge the physical demands and athleticism of football players, basketball players, tennis players, and other athletes. However, the same work dancers put in is not often recognized.
Furthermore, dance builds core strength, increases flexibility, improves memory, and helps with bone and heart health, published by Everyday Health on Feb. 17.
Not only do dancers have to remain physically strong, but they have to connect their movements to music, maintain flexibility, sync their movements with others on the team, and show facial expressions while performing.
This adds another dimension to the sport, as it requires much more than just physical strength and encompasses all parts of the body to be strong and coordinated.
Dance can seem easy at first glance I mean, everyone took ballet as a kid and dances with friends at parties. However, technical dance classes require discipline, stamina, and strength.
Dance is an art form, a way to express oneself, but that should not take away from it being a sport.
Dance is unique in the way that you are judged partly on the aesthetics. Dancers get sparkly costumes, slick back their hair, and put on intense makeup just for a single competition or performance. This is partly why I believe there is much hesitation to call dance a sport.
People focus too much on the elegant, costuming aspects of dance that they do not recognize the strength and coordination required. If anything, the costumes and makeup add another layer of difficulty, forcing dancers to perform and reach a certain level of beauty throughout the dance.
Dancers prepare for performances the same way other athletes do for games. Dance competitions can take up entire weekends, the same way that a soccer tournament might. Dancers put in the same amount of training and effort as other sports, only to not be considered athletes.
Even at South, 14 percent of students at South believe dance is not a sport and 15 percent believe that it is not as challenging as other sports, according to an unscientific survey of 306 students conducted by The Oracle. Although less than half of the students surveyed believed that dance was not a sport, this is still significantly more than it would be if we were to ask students if football or soccer were sports.
We need to stop judging something before we truly understand it. Dance takes a lot more effort than one may think, and is just as difficult as any other sport.
