Is dancing a sport?

Answer 1

"Dancers are both athletes and artists." --Margot Fonteyn

That said, let's do this the right way: Random House Webster's College Dictionary says the definition of sport is "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature."
"athletic activity" : Dance is definitely athletic. You can work up a sweat dancing in no time.
"requiring skill" : Pretty obvious, good dancing requires skill.
"physical prowess" : This basically repeats the last two points. It is physical/athletic and it requires skill.
"often of a competitive nature" : Often is a key word. Dance is sometimes competitive, sometimes not.

I'm not even a dancer, so it's not like I'm trying to defend myself here or anything. But looking at this properly, dance is a sport.

Answer 2

No, it is not a sport. The primary objective of sport is to excel in some form of physical exercise. Dancers also seek to excel in physical exercise, but that's only a means to an end, not an objective in itself. The primary objective in dance is to create something beautiful and expressive.

In recent years, ballroom dancing has identified itself as a sport. I understand that it's a marketing ploy to increase publicity for the style, but I do think it's a pity. By calling it a sport, it encourages dancers to concentrate too much on technical tricks, and forget that it's meant to be an art form, like music or painting.

Answer 3

definition of SPORT: an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

definition of ATHLETIC: physically active and strong; good at athletics or sports: an athletic child.

definition of DANCE: the art of dancing

So, technically, dance is and artform. However, since many dancers are physically active and strong, and choose to dance competitively, hell yeah, dance is a sport. I danced competitively for 4 years in high school. No previous teams from our school had gone to competition. When we chose to do so, no one took us seriously until we showed them how hard we worked, how often we practiced, how many dance routines we learned in such a little amount of time, how well we performed, and placed fifth in the state competition in our division.

Answer 4

I've seen the way many people attempt dancing. They make it appear to be not so much a sport, but closer to another reason for Jerry Lewis to hang in there and have a telethon for these poor uncooridinated creatures, who go out into the world and prove God does have a sense of humor. It could also depend on your partner and how much they participate. Depending on their weight, it could resemble a tractor pull with you in the front....of the tractor.

Answer 5

Well, try dancing for a few hours... you tell me. I danced competitively for 16 years and in my eyes it is a sport.

Answer 6

Dancing is CAN be a sport because it takes exercise and dedication to dance.

Answer 7

Try searching answers for this question. If you type in your question in the search window at the top it returns 221 results.
http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=Ap1qo11ad9L3wyjpaAyBM34ezKIX?p=is+dancing+a+sport

Dancing is a very broad term. First and foremost, dancing is art. Secondly, it requires high level of fitness, and there are dance competitions, therefore it can also be considered a sport.

This question is asked many times. To me it sounds like "If a person carries brushes and paint, is he a wall painter or is he an artist?" Well, we don't know, until we know know a little more about this person.

Answer 8

dance is a sport and an art. it's demanding to flexability and muscle strength. i say it's more of an art but dance is defintitly a sport. i know. i'm a young balletrina.

Answer 9

NO. It is an art. Yes, in things such as ballroom dancing, there is competition, and yes, it does take so much more physical and mental activity, but it is NOT a sport.

Answer 10

If by definition a sport is where people compete, then theoretically it could be considered a sport. However it is not recognized as a sport by Yahoo (thus the arts and humanties subcategory) nor by most people.