The Differences in Dance and Sports

Dance and sports are often put into different categories by students and parents alike. But what really separates them from one another. Is it the fact that sports tend to be affiliated with public schools and dance is outside of the school? Why does dance tend to get a second rate opinion in school systems as well as by gym teachers in school?

I am a dancer. I am not good at sports at all. I stink at them. But I happen to be a respectable dancer and relatively good in ballet class. I have been on Pointe for three years and can do a fair performance on it. My parents have paid to have me in dance classes for the past ten years.

What about sports students? I am not saying that they are not good or that they are all stuck-up, but that seems to be the stereo-type we have assigned them. Sports players show there skills at more regular intervals then the dancer because they have games at least once a week, while dancers build up to specific shows. Sports players apply their skills to different situation in every game while dancers master skills to apply and perfect in a single dance, in one practiced and perfected situation.

So let's say that sports participants have to use skills of application more effectively then dancers and on more regular of a basis. But dancers have to use skills of counting and mathematics to keep in time with other dancers and the music. If they do not listen and flow with the music, then the entire dance is lost and bad.

Both dance and sports stress teamwork. Teams that work together tend to do better than "I" teams. Dancers have to constantly be in unison with one another. Not being in unison gives the dance a bad look, because dancers want to look like one. Working with others builds team work skills no matter what you are working on.

There are many other similarities between dance and sports, more than you would really think possible. In fact, the thing that makes them different is not the base work that they put into it, but the final product that they create.