Dance is A Sport. Argumentative Essay Example

For countless years the Olympic committee has questioned whether or not dance is a sport. This is a substantial controversy among numerous athletic boards. Dance is considered an art, no question, but is there a chance it can fall in the category of sports as well? It takes a great deal of hard work, just as much or more than all of the other activities considered sports, and is just as competitive with the same goals. Any sport and dance use all three of these. 

Dance is a sport because it follows the definition of the word. In the dictionary, the word “sport” is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature” (“Sport” 1757).  Skill is the “ability to do something well” (“Skill” 1701). To have a skill you must have knowledge of the activity and be able to perform it successfully. For dance this takes many years of training to accomplish perfection, like other sports. Dance checks this off because people who want to be successful must train quite a few hours a week. “To have bravery and be able to compete” (“Prowess” 1451)  is how prowess is summed up. This makes “physical prowess” (“Sport” 1757) mean being able to compete confidently in an athletic activity. If someone does not have physical prowess in dance, they cannot go out on stage to perform. Confidence and the power to compete against peers is essential. Without it, you will stand out and ruin a production. Practice is very important for most sports, especially dance. One of sport’s main themes is competing. It takes the “capability to challenge others in order to win a prize or a game” (“Compete” 370). Competition dance is one of the vast varieties of styles which includes a dancer, or multiple, competing against others to win a prize. In addition to competition dance, dancers compete against each other for all types of roles for performances.  Again, this falls into the definition of the word “sport”. The three main components of the word all fit into what dance truly is. Dance seems to be a sport so far. 

However, dance is more than just a sport. It is also an art. Some may ask, why does dance, unlike almost every other sport, require a few other things, the main ones are acting and performing? An experienced dance teacher uses an example of how dancers must keep up an act: “Dance requires performance and acting. Yes, one could say that basketball players perform on the court. But they do not have to smile while doing it” (“Why Dance Isn’t A Sport”). Of course, people argue that no real sport needs performing. But ice skating classifies as a sport and is in the Olympics. It requires fulfilling a role just as much as certain types of dance. They are pretty similar in their basics. To add to this point, ice dancing is also a sport in the Olympics, which is literally dancing on ice; “Ice dancing is a sport of the figure skating discipline that has its roots from ballroom dancing” (Wood). The most important takeaway from the similarity of dance and ice dancing is where it comes from. Dance is a show, making it an art, which it is! The fact that dance is an art does not make it disinclined to be a sport,  dance can be in both categories. 

In all sports there is a way of judging which is different for everyone. It can be many things including scoring points through a goal or a judge rating an athletes skills. The judging system of dance is not that confusing and is not an extremely important factor in the actual activity. Dance is sometimes put into the question of being a sport over the fact that “there is no universal scoring procedure for dance, unlike gymnastics or diving. Rather dance ranks and scores differ greatly depending on the television show or competition” (“Why Dance Isn’t A Sport”). Immediately this is not a valid argument because this could change eventually and cannot stand alone as one reason. It is true that “dance competitions are won or lost based on subjective judges’ decisions” (“Why Dance Isn’t A Sport”), but there still are differences in how judges give scores, such as gymnastics, diving, and ice skating. Each judge has their mind and their own bias in each section taken into consideration. Dance judges have bias’ equally with other sports, it just has more types to deem points. 

Most people regard dance as only an art, not a sport. For how much skill and physical prowess dance requires, this is unfair. Arts almost always do not require any physical capabilities, so calling dance an art, and that only is very unreasonable. Yes, some styles show a generous amount of emotion, but that is not the only theme. Dance also shows the outstanding athletic capabilities of a dancer.  Imagine if the Olympics were to host dance in the future, would you watch the extreme skill, power, and capability these dancers have? Maybe it could help people realize how much of a sport dance actually is.