For as long as I can remember I have been in dance class. Ever since I was three, it was something that I truly loved. But I never took it seriously. Until now.

Whenever I get asked if I play a sport I reply with yes: dance. Yet, sometimes in return I’ll get a look and joking response of “but is dance really a sport?”

To begin, dance requires so much time and effort. Dance has many of the same components as any other sport that is in the world. Just because there is no ball does not rule out that something is a sport.

Since it is a yearlong sport, sometimes I never get a break from dance classes. I never stop. For example, many professional dancers work tirelessly practicing for six to seven hours every day of the week. This amount of time can also apply to children and teenagers who are training in dance. Many classes that I have attended outside of my studio have been from around nine in the morning to almost one or two in the afternoon.

Dance, like other sports, teaches people how to be part of a team and work together. Dance, just like other sports, brings people together. The studio that I have attended for 11 years now has been my home and I couldn’t ask for anything else. It has showed me the way sports bring people together and form families within them.

In addition to the teamwork element, dance is like a sport in its physicality. Dance was ranked in an article written by Madeline Schrock for “Dance Magazine” as the most physically demanding job. Dance is something that uses one’s entire body and has so much work put into it.

For instance, in the chart the article provided, dance scored a 97 out of 100 for the “overall level of job physicality.” It scored a 100 in three out of the four categories listed: stamina, flexibility and coordination. This being ranked higher than athletes/sports competitors and fitness trainers/aerobics trainers.  For dance to be ranked higher than these other two “sport related professions” it shows a very strong reason why dance is a sport. Dance also scored higher than many jobs in the construction working field.

If you look at a ballerina in the Boston Ballet and watch how she goes up onto her toes, the work that goes into pushing herself up onto pointe is something that always amazes. If going up on her toes on such a hard surface and being able to hold all her weight doesn’t show her stamina, I don’t know what does.

Dancers push themselves so far to try and perfect everything from technique to their performance.  When it comes to recognizing an example of a sport, dance shouldn’t be pushed to the side.