Dance Marathon Participant Observation

After repeatedly being asked over and over again, “So what sport do you play again?” I am now completely prepared for all the confused looks I know that i'm going to get when I say, “I dance” As an individual who has been dancing for as long as they can remember and has participated in local, national, and international dance competitions, I am a dancer and dance will always be my sport. So yes, I guess you could say that i might be a little biased, but before answering the questions whether dance is a sport, it is important to define what makes a sport a sport. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a sport is the “participation in activities involving physical skill and regulated by set rules or customs in which an individual or a team competes against another or others.” It is clear now that dance definitely fulfills all of these requirements.

Three laps around the gym, minute long planks, crunches, sit-ups, and pushups in a matter of thirty minutes. As a dancer, experiencing and realizing the strength that needs to be present in order for an athlete to grow is vital. We go through long hours of choreography sessions, pain and strain on our bodies, and vigorous training. Many people will disagree on the status of if dance is a sport or not. Both Mary- Elizabeth Esquibel, in her article “Why Dance Will Always Be a Sport” and the infographic entitled “Is Dance a Sport?” attack this controversial dilemma. Even though these arguments use different formats, they use rhetoric similarly.

The buzzing of razors and the clipping of scissors filled the basement of the Iowa Memorial Union. A few girls are wiping away tears as their golden locks fall to the ground. Our friends are taking photos and videos of our reactions. Other girls are chatting about how much they want to cut off, while others are complaining about how much their feet hurt. It is four in the morning, we are only nine hours in, we still have fifteen hours left.

Powerful words can have powerful effects upon readers and listeners. Words can have a denotative- and a connotative definition;

Penn State athletes are ready to dance at the annual THON. The dance marathon is going to benefit pediatric cancer research. The Penn State IFC or Panhellenic Dance Marathon, known as THON, is going to happen this weekend.

What is the definition of a sport? A game played with a ball or someone running around in tight, little shorts? What about “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against one another or others for enjoyment”? That is the true definition of a sport. Not only does football, baseball, basketball, and soccer fit this definition, but so does dance.

event that Morgantown residents can always look forward to is the biannual performance of Morgantown Dance and the Morgantown Ballet Company at the Metropolitan Theater in downtown Morgantown. The programs vary, but every other year theater-goers can expect a performance in November of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, a classic tale of Clara, her Nutcracker Prince, and a magical journey to the Land of Sweets. In past productions, guest dancers from the Pittsburgh Ballet have taken part, allowing audience members to see professional dancers from a national company. Other performances at the Metropolitan Theater have included The Snow Queen, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and Romeo and Juliet. Each production has been a showcase of talent from

This bibliography is important because it is has allowed me to critically view the sources that I will use for my research paper. I have dissected and deconstructed the data so that I could fully understand them and employ the material effectively. The question I am attempting to answer with my research is to what extent does the arts and specifically dance benefit our psychological body?

In our daily activities as humans, we consciously and unconsciously observe what people do around us, how they do it, and sometimes ask why they do what they do. In so doing we gain a better understanding of their ways of life. Anthropologist and sociologist too mention but a few, professions employ the daily observations we engage in as humans in a methodology called participant observation. Dewalt and Dewalt (2002:1) define participant observation as “a method in which a researcher takes part in the daily activities, events, rituals and interactions, of a group of people as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their life routine and culture.” Participant observation can be carried out in roles

This website talks about how dance qualifies as a sport. Aubree James believes that dance is a sport and talks about actual evidence that qualifies dance as a sport. Comparing dance to the legal definitions that defines a sport dance is considered a sport. I can use this in my article because it's evidence nobody can dismiss when arguing this subject."Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in

The dancers are tired. That simple sentence sums up On Their Feet, Dance Marathon by Otto Bettmann. All signs, point to this somewhat obvious conclusion. The eyes are the gateway to the soul, and in this case, the dancers’ eyes have sunken low enough to let their souls escape their body. Three of the participants are slouching on their partner as if someone sprayed chloroform scented Febreze on the dance floor. Besides eyes, the general facial expressions also convey the feeling of exhaustion that these dancers feel. Some may use the grinning boy in the back to counter that but notice that he is not dancing and therefor he is most likely grinning at the dancers or at the reality of how terrible his life has become. These dancers are tired of

Various painters use their works of art as a representation of feelings. They include symbols, figures, and expression to reveal their emotions through the form of art. Philip Evergood’s painting Dance Marathon illustrates the desperate times surrounding the Great Depression. In the scene, dancers compete for a cash prize as they see who can dance the longest. He portrays the cruelty of the time through this vulgar setting. The painting easily captures the viewer’s attention mostly from the use of color, figure, spatial effects, and other techniques created by the artist.

During high school, I was a member of a competitive hip-hop team of a private studio where we performed and competed at various showcases and competitions. When the team had a competition for the upcoming weekend, there was a rule where members who missed rehearsals the week following up to the competition would be pulled out of the dance. Although our dances were already finished and formatted with the dancers before the start of the competition season, this rule ensures that the whole team will be able to perform their best during the competition and not have to re-format any part of the dance. Even if one member is missing, this still affects the chemistry of the dancers as well as the formations.

Ethnographic method was used in important social cultural studies by Loïc Wacquant (1998) reflecting upon the embodiment of boxers, in sociological studies and rugby players decision making while emdoying knowledge (Downley, 2010). In dance studies ethnography is the method mostly used on relevant works guiding this research, as for example: ballet dancer's habitus by Wainwright, Williams and Turner (2006), in dance studies focused on dancer's senses by Potter (2007) and Roses Thema (2007) in contemporary dance,

The online system has to provide users with a way to register and then vote for their favourite team, as an alternative to telephone voting. The registered users have to give some information about their favourite shows, which might not be necessarily valid responses, risking to show some advertising not relevant to the audience. A common risk when it comes to online voting is that users can change IPs as well as delete cookies, enabling them to vote multiple times from a few different accounts. This is still possible even if there is a registration confirmation link as mail readers can be easily automated. Compared to the telephone line which is managed by an outside business, DDOS attacks might bring our in-house systems down as well, unless we have expensive firewalls, or as an alternative we can keep the system outside, making it harder to maintain and access. Overall, these issues have been fixed in the past by companies such as Google or Amazon, therefore the system is a viable one nonetheless.