Today my topic stems from an announcement made on So You Think You Can Dance last Thursday. During the usual opening for the show, Nigel Lythgoe told America that Gatorade was now recognizing dance as a sport. The winner of this season’s show will go on to become the first recognized dancer to represent Gatorade. This has sparked a huge debate in the dance world- is dance really a sport, or is it an art?
My first delve into researching this topic led me to trying to define “art” and “sport.” Wikipedia seemed to give me the best definitions.
“Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the sense or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics.”
It intrigued me that even though this described dance perfectly, dance was not listed as an art. Choreography is essentially the “arranging of elements.” When one dances, all the elements align and are put together to create a whole piece. Dance hits all the points of that definition, particularly the mode of expression. I don’t know a single dancer who hasn’t been moved by at least one piece that they’ve danced or created in their life. Even my younger students talk about how they’ve felt during a piece. Essentially, as well, aesthetics are a big part of dance. Everything has to look right, whether it’s meant to be aesthetic for the audience, or for the choreographer.
After seeing that dance was not truly considered an “art”, I did a search for performing art, and that’s where I found it listed. It was basically described as the materials for the art being the human form, as opposed to physical objects. This makes sense, but then this is where we get dangerously close to the definition of a sport.
“A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. In a sport the key factors are the physical capabilities and skills of the competitor when determining the outcome (winning or losing). The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines. In contrast, games such as card games and board games, though these could be called mind sports and some are recognized as Olympic sports, require only mental skills. Non-competitive activities such as jogging and rock-climbing, are usually classified as recreations.”
This also defines dance. Whether we dance in competitions, or in class, it is still competitive. It’s the difference between competing with other people, and competing with yourself. Dancers are constantly trying to one up themselves to achieve that physical perfection. It’s organized with a set of rules for each class, and how each movement is executed. It’s also most indefinitely a skillful physical activity.
So here’s where the arguments come in. Both art and sport define dance.
Nigel said on the episode of SYTYCD that he couldn’t wait for dance to be included in the Olympics. My gut reaction was “No way!” Dance is so SUBJECTIVE. Contrary to some of the arguments I’ve heard, dance is not like gymnastics. While there are the floor sections that might as well be a dance with a lot of flips, there is still a set amount of tricks that need to be performed. That’s all it basically is, though- a bunch of tricks. I hear from so many judges and dance teachers that complain when dances become all about the “wow” factor, and they don’t have the basics to back it up. In gymnastics, I’m pretty sure that the judges aren’t critiquing on how the gymnasts hold their hands or how wonderful their chasses are (I don’t know this for a fact. If a gymnast out there reads this and I’m wrong feel free to correct me). In dance, those are the basics that need to be judged on. Gymnastics is also based on the steps. Dance is typically based on the emotion or the expression. How could a judge critique emotion? You can’t set a bunch of rules on how to judge emotion. One judge may like the fact that they’re making big faces, while the other may think the dancer is doing too much. A syllabus on how to determine that couldn’t very well be made without a huge controversy.
At the same time, though, dance is SO athletic! Why do you think most dancers are thin but muscular? It’s because of the intensity that it brings to our physical beings. If you get the right dance teachers, they’ll tell you that you should be sweating after the first combination that you do in class. Dance is created so that you work right off the bat. The physical demands are so extreme that classes are designed to almost immediately warm up your body. In this aspect, it almost DEMANDS to be a sport. The physicality of it is almost more-so than half the sports out there. I mean, come on, look at curling. If THAT can be called a sport, why not call dance a sport?
Then there’s the comparison of dance and cheerleading, and how cheerleading is not being considered a sport. This just boggles my mind. How can cheerleading NOT be called a sport? Yes, it involves poms poms, and yes, it involves yelling, but seriously, I’d like to see some of those nay-sayers do a split jump in second, or even attempt a back flip! I can’t do it. I’d absolutely put cheerleading in the category of sports. There’s an element of creativity to it, of course, but it’s not really a performing art. The physical demands of dance and cheerleading are very much so the same, with the only differences being the types of tricks that are performed. So if cheerleading won’t be considered a sport, then why is dance now being considered?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and walk that fiery line of being on both sides. I think it’s an athletic performing art. The other performing arts out there don’t put that physical demand on the body. You can’t call acting a sport, right? There isn’t the same level of activity. At the same time, it’s a form of expression and was originally created as a way for people to interact. It’s a performance, not just a regulated series of steps. Essentially, dance is the best of the both worlds. It’s the only performing art that requires that physicality, while at the same time is one of the few sports that require the creative aspect along with emotion.
The next time you talk to a dancer, give them some credit. They’re always being told that they’re one thing or another, when really they’re all the good things of the categories they’re being defined as rolled into one. I really think that dance stands on its own, and is in and of itself its own entity. Thanks for the nudge, though, Gatorade! We appreciate the recognition!
(Just a little note- thanks to www.wikipedia.com for the definitions! I am not endorsed or anything to use their site or anything like that, though! I don't own those definitions!)
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