I have been dancing since before I can remember, first just for fun but as I got older I became more committed and joined competition dance. Now when people ask what I do for sports and I say dance, there are sometimes some funny looks in return. People don't seem to be able to accept the fact that dance is a sport, and think of it as only an art but it is actually both.

One reason why dance should be considered a sport is because it requires as much physical skill as many other sports. According to the website,“ Dance Consortium,” people tend to misjudge how much strength, stamina, and sheer will are required to dance because the best dancers never let you see anything but the image that they are trying to portray. The whole concept of dance is to tell a story or show a mood while doing intricate moves or steps to music, so many people think that it is so easy and say that it is “about memory not skill”. As a dancer myself I ask them to try a move, and watch in silent laughter as they struggle and realize that it is not that simple because dancing is not just all about remembering a sequence of steps. Dancing is also just as mentally exhausting as it is physically. First there is the pressure to perform and try to tell a story with facial expressions and the weight of the movement. Then there is also the pressure to remember all of the moves in your dance. Also a dancer must remember to use technique, like pointing toes, while executing all of the moves.

Dancing also has an objective and rules just like other sports, which many people find hard to believe. When you perform a dance you aren't just doing a sequence of steps to music for no random reason, you get to tell a story without using your mouth. When you dance you get get to express and perform in your own unique way which is why no dance is ever the same, just like how no sports games are ever the same. You may be performing the same moves, but the way that you express them makes the Dance feel different. Dancing also has some rules or fundamentals that you have to abide by when you dance. According to,”Varsity,” technique is the basis of all fundamentals of dance, from holding your body correctly while performing to executing skills properly in a routine. Dancers have lots of technique that they have to abide by while doing their whole dance like pointing toes, pressing shoulders down, and rounded arms just like how in soccer you have to use the inside of your foot to kick the ball.

Another thing that you do in dance that you also do in many other sports is compete against other teams, except that the only difference is that when you go to dance competitions you are usually competing against multiple other teams not just one other team. Not every dancer does competitive dance, which is why it is not that well known. I do competitive dance at my studio, which is when you create dances and perform them in front of judges. After the judges judge each dance they rank them from best score to worst score which is how you win or lose. Sometimes you go up against almost one hundred teams at a time, which makes it harder to win than most sports.

Many people say that anyone can just get up and dance and that it requires no skill at all, but many of those people just dance at weddings or parties doing random moves with no structure at all. According to,”SportInspired,” Anyone could go to a dance class if they wanted to, they may have two left feet, but will claim to be a “dancer”. You walk into a club and everyone is dancing, but how many of them are actually dancing well? What I’m talking about here are those people who have it in their blood to move in a way that most can even comprehend yet still push them themselves to achieve the very best. Anybody can claim to “dance and dance well” just as anyone can claim that they “play soccer”.

So the real question is do you think that dance is a sport? There is no rule book about which sports are sports and which are not, it’s all in people's heads. I think that dance is a sport because it is something that you have to strive for and work hard for just like other sports.