Sweat falls to the floor as the athletes wrap up another long and arduous practice. The team is in the middle of hell week and has spent countless hours pushing themselves to their absolute limit. Each person is exhausted, yet proud of all the time and effort they’ve put into their craft.
By reading those first couple of sentences, you would think the athletes I was referring to were playing something like basketball or football. However, the athletes I was talking about weren’t basketball or football players. No, most people call them something else.
Dancers.
Yes, you read that correctly. Much like the four major American sports, as well as the numerous other sports played globally, dance is very much a sport.
Before we dive into this topic any further, we should probably establish what the definition of sports is. According to the Oxford Dictionary, sports is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”
I do not consider myself a dancer, but as someone who grew up watching and playing sports, I do have to admit that the definition seems awfully applicable to dance.
Now, I understand the hesitancy in calling something like dance a sport. Some people prefer to call it a form of art, while others will claim that dance is merely a hobby. But a closer look into dance will reveal that it shares a lot of athletic qualities with “traditional” sports.
If you look at that definition of sports again, it says that a sport involves physical exertion and skill. Almost any dancer you talk to will agree that dancing is exhausting and that there are many techniques involved when dancing.
Jeremy Jasper Reyes, a member of Hall of Fame and Griminalz, dance teams based in southern California, talked about the rigors of dance and the toll it has on a person’s body.
“A lot of remembering routines has to do with muscle memory,” Reyes said, “and in order to get the pieces down the way the choreographer envisioned means constantly going full out and building that stamina so your body gets used to the movements without your energy dying. Believe me, I’ve been sore in places I never thought could be sore.”
Now that the first part of the definition has been covered, let’s go over the next part. The definition states that sports are where an individual or team competes against others for the entertainment of others.
In southern California alone, there are plenty of individuals and teams known for dance. Competitions like World of Dance and Vibe have gotten more and more popular each year as the dance community continues to grow.
Justin Dial, a former member of PAC Modern, the hip-hop dance team based at California State University, Long Beach, talked about the nature of competitions.
“Even though most see dance as a hobby there are special events where dance is competitive,” Dial said. “Even though there may not be physical contact between people, there is, however, cheering, scores, and passion for what dancers put on that stage.”
Bottom line: dance is a sport. Accept it.