Dancing is a Sport
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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How many times have you thought of dancing as a hobby instead of a sport? Well, I’m here to prove you wrong.
People say there is no competition in dance, but I just went to a competition on Feb. 25 and 26. A competition is where groups (or troupes) of dancers learn dances and compete against each other. Just like basketball and volleyball players earn points, so do dancers. We get graded on our performance, and the lowest medal you can possibly get is the bronze, the highest medal possible is platinum. After you get graded, the judges give their picks of the best dances and dancers. I think dancing is definitely a sport.
The first proof that dancing is a sport is from the muscles a dancer builds. Ballerinas usually start out at the barre and build back muscles by holding our arms in a certain position. Also at the barre we do battements to build leg muscles. In jazz we come out to the center and do a lot of stretching in order to one day be able to do the splits. We do dances over and over and over until it’s perfect and if that’s not exercise, I don’t know what is.
Second, in most sports you memorize plays, and in dance we memorize formations and movements of dances. Before we go to a competition, our teacher has us come in one by one, and we do the dance by ourselves. If you don’t have it memorized, then you have one week to fix it or you’re out of the dance. At the moment I’m memorizing nine dances, each about 2 minutes and 30 seconds long or shorter, just as in basketball you memorize about nine plays in all. Our job as dancers is to make the dance look easy. So basically we have to hide that we are worn out and tired.
In any sport if you want to be good, you practice, practice, and practice some more. The whole entire week I’m at the dance school 13 hours. Saturdays alone, I go to dance at 8 a.m. and stay there until 3 p.m. and sometimes until 4 or 5 p.m. After you are done with the hard work though, your reward is getting up on that stage.
In any sport you have a court or a field to play on. Well, in dance the stage is the dancer’s court or field. I know I take dance really seriously, but it’s about time people, especially boys, realized that dancing is a sport. Dancers deserve respect and praise just like basketball and soccer players get.
Brianna Pitts
Warsaw Christian School
Sixth Grader
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How many times have you thought of dancing as a hobby instead of a sport? Well, I’m here to prove you wrong.
People say there is no competition in dance, but I just went to a competition on Feb. 25 and 26. A competition is where groups (or troupes) of dancers learn dances and compete against each other. Just like basketball and volleyball players earn points, so do dancers. We get graded on our performance, and the lowest medal you can possibly get is the bronze, the highest medal possible is platinum. After you get graded, the judges give their picks of the best dances and dancers. I think dancing is definitely a sport.
The first proof that dancing is a sport is from the muscles a dancer builds. Ballerinas usually start out at the barre and build back muscles by holding our arms in a certain position. Also at the barre we do battements to build leg muscles. In jazz we come out to the center and do a lot of stretching in order to one day be able to do the splits. We do dances over and over and over until it’s perfect and if that’s not exercise, I don’t know what is.
Second, in most sports you memorize plays, and in dance we memorize formations and movements of dances. Before we go to a competition, our teacher has us come in one by one, and we do the dance by ourselves. If you don’t have it memorized, then you have one week to fix it or you’re out of the dance. At the moment I’m memorizing nine dances, each about 2 minutes and 30 seconds long or shorter, just as in basketball you memorize about nine plays in all. Our job as dancers is to make the dance look easy. So basically we have to hide that we are worn out and tired.
In any sport if you want to be good, you practice, practice, and practice some more. The whole entire week I’m at the dance school 13 hours. Saturdays alone, I go to dance at 8 a.m. and stay there until 3 p.m. and sometimes until 4 or 5 p.m. After you are done with the hard work though, your reward is getting up on that stage.
In any sport you have a court or a field to play on. Well, in dance the stage is the dancer’s court or field. I know I take dance really seriously, but it’s about time people, especially boys, realized that dancing is a sport. Dancers deserve respect and praise just like basketball and soccer players get.
Brianna Pitts
Warsaw Christian School
Sixth Grader
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