Dance, as a sport, is often underestimated and due to its grace and fluidity, it is not taken seriously. Grace, fluidity and flexibility are all essential for dancing at a professional level, however, as is strength and agility, skills are often overlooked by the general population. As dance requires a high level of physical fitness and skill, the impact of injury on a professional dancer’s career can be severe and can affect their ability to perform at a professional or even amateur level. Strength training is the primary component of injury prevention.
BACKGROUND
Evidence suggests that dance originated from ancient rituals, spiritual gatherings and social events, and the way dance has evolved throughout history greatly varies between different societies. This lead to the modernisation of current styles, such as ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, tap, salsa and the tango.
Jazz, hip-hop and tap dancing are genres that originated from African American vernacular dance, whereas salsa and tango originated in the Caribbean and South America.
THE PHYSICS AND ANATOMY OF DANCE AND THE BODY
Injury is becoming more prevalent in dance due to the fact that dancers bodies are stressed beyond their design limits. The competitive nature of dance has lead to younger and more talented performers. The competitiveness of the field results in increased physical and mental pressure on dancers to be better than their peers. Being ‘better’ equates to greater flexibility, balance and
The reason that the traditional dance has remained apart of the world is because of the teachers and students. But in order to dance the students required movements, steps, and music to put them to. The dance masters—teachers of the 18th and 19th centuries—all had the same original dance steps, while they invented their own steps on top the original ones. There are two different roots, which
Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes. Aside from technique and movement, health and cardio are underlying factors that play a huge role in a dancer’s career. Many dancers take on a healthy diet in order to maintain their body weight. Something that has been looked down upon in the trained dancers’ community is what it
For high school dance teams, the sport is quite competitive just like any other school sport. Dancers practice six days a week for at least two and a half hours each day, and these practices are far from easy. When it comes time to compete, we do not get any do-overs. So, if someone gets injured, and it is not an extreme case, the dance continues. Dancers are also built and trained to do things their bodies were not naturally born to do, this means dancers have to participate in strength training and conditioning. Having strong and
Dancers go through a lot of pain. On average dancers get hurt about once every two weeks. That means that dancers, on average, get hurt about 26 times a year. Whether it is a tiny fall or breaking a bone, dancing is a foolproof way to hurt at least something in your body. Especially if you are on pointe. In a pointe shoe, you
Along with other sports, dance involves physical exertion and requires skill. It can be inferred that when athletes undergo physical activity, they push themselves to their limit, which results in them becoming sore, and possibly even injured in some cases. This also pertains to dancers. Dancers can pull a muscle by overstretching or by not stretching enough. They can also break any bone by doing turns, flips, jumps, and tricks. In Ronald Smith’s article, he proceeds to explain
Many may know that it can be almost impossible to completely identify what African Dance is. Africa is a huge continent that holds many different cultures, beliefs and overall ways of living. It is said to be the most “socially and racially diverse on the planet (wikipedia).” Even though Africa can be one of the most diverse places on earth, there can be similar dance styles being established throughout many other larges countries. Creativecareerguice.com states that “history, language, song, background, and purpose and cannot be translated to another dance of the same culture much less another
Dance is a unique sport because it combines the grit and sweat of sporting events, such as track and field, with the style and extravagance of a fashion show (D.Fowler, 2000).
One of the primary ways in which Tap, swing and jazz dance deviate completely from ballet are how the styles organically developed into social dances. Ballet started as a social court dance however at it’s inception was segregated from it’s roots as something purely performative. Jazz dance forms on the other hand such as tap dance kept many of the swing vernaculars which created them in their performance. That is to say that when watching a tap dancer perform on stage (with a traditional deportment) and then watching a swing dancer in a dance hall, one can see the similarities in movement qualities and even certain steps (such as the “shim sham” or “Attack Annies”). From this it can be argued that Tap dancers (as well as all vernacular jazz dancers of the day) question what dance is by keeping its social roots alive even after it had transitioned onto the stage. The fact that tap dance was a part of the vernacular dance of the day (and still had a casual culture about it) allowed that the Nicholas Brothers to learn to dance without ever taking a class (Frank 67). Where as a ballet dancer may spend long hours training at the bar and in class Fayard Nicholas learned to tap dance purely through watching
Dance demands the same physical skills that are required in other sports. Flexibility, strength, and endurance are key characteristics that most dancers need to posses. As with other “athletes,” most dancers are not born with these abilities but must establish them through practice and repetitive training. Similar to traditional sports practices, dance rehearsals are extensive and require diligence, dedication, and patience from the dancers as they will have to repeat exercises and stretches to perfect their technique and stay on
c) Balance is a vital part of dance. Dancers must have strong core muscles. Men need strong shoulders for lifts, since they must not only support their own body weight but also their partner's. “Dancers are some of the toughest athletes in the world,” claims Dr. McNitt-Gray.
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.
Dance is one of the most beautiful, expressive forms of art known to mankind. It expresses joy, love, sorrow, anger, and the list truly goes on for all the possible emotions that it can convey. Dance not only can express how one feels, but it can tell a story or even be used to praise a higher power. Dance has intricately played an important role to every culture over the course of time. Two forms of dance that have not only stood against the test of time but have influenced the development of other various styles of dance is none other than Classical Ballet and Modern Dance.
The origins of jazz music and dance are found in the rhythms and movements brought to America by African slaves. The style of African dance is earthy; low, knees bent, pulsating body movements emphasized by body isolations and hand-clapping. As slaves forced into America, starting during the 1600’s, Africans from many cultures were cut off from their families, languages and
Also, injuries are less common. Therefore, dance should not be considered a sport. "Dance is not a sport because there are no winners or losers, also there are no limitations or rules" (Guarino). These people are mistaken because, dance competition judges score each performance based on Technique (1-25 points), Style and Execution (1-25 points), Showmanship (1-20 points), Costume (1-10 points), Choreography (1-10 points), Degree of Difficulty (1-5 points) and Age Appropriate Performance (1-5 points) for a maximum possible 100 points. A final adjudicated score is determined by an average of all judges scores. After this all dancers are put on stage and awarded with trophies 1st-10th place depending on the 1-100 average scoring from the judges. Therefore, dancers do have a set of rules and scoring just like any other athlete. Regarding injuries, they do occur. Most dance injuries are long-term because of the physical stress constantly being put on a dancers body. There are also instant injuries that happen while dancing, most commonly occurring in the knees, ankles, back, neck or hips. "The physical ability and discipline expected of a dancer can be easily related to those of an athlete and increasingly, dance critics are describing dancers as athletes" (Ailey). Ultimately, dancers are consistently proving, even to the critics, that they obtain the skill needed to be considered an
The benefits of dancing as a physical exercise are well researched, widely understood, and as a fitness, mobility and weight management tool, it is a multi-million dollar industry. Less studied and acknowledged are the benefits on our mental functioning, self-awareness, psychological well-being, self-confidence, self-expressions, concentration, social skills, etc.