Is Dance a Sport?
Is Dance a Sport? The endless debate between the dance world and the sports world is trying to decide where dance fits in. Dance does require athletic ability for the technique needed. However, dance does not fit completely into what is typically considered a sport. Some people say it cannot be called a sport and that it is an art instead. In this argument, it is important to distinguish what type of dancing is being discussed, as there are many different types of varying levels of difficulty. Paige Abrams puts it this way: “You can dance at a club for fun, as a hobby, as a serious passion, or you can dance as a career” (2). Just as a person can play catch, which has some of the basic components as baseball, it is not considered a sport alongside baseball. In the same way, dancing for fun at a party or a club or even just dancing as a hobby cannot be categorized along with competitive or professional dance. In trying to label dance as an art or a sport, the definition of what a sport is must first be established. However, defining what qualifies an activity as a sport is not an easy task. With so many different types of sports, each with its own set of rules it is hard to say what they all have in common. According to Dictionary.com, a sport is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature” (qtd in Rice 1). Paige Abrams defines sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others” (2). These definitions are good at including every sport in the definitions, however they are not specific. There are other activities that are not considered sports that might qualify according to these definitions. One example would be a jump rope competition between two children at recess. It would be a physical activity that requires skill and they would be competing against each other, yet a jump rope completion is not considered a sport. So, there must be
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