Dance as a sport
I just came home (its 9pm), I have a reading to finish and a Keynote presentation to finish but I’m extremely tired. I came home from both training for Nationals (as I’m using the same routine) and rehearsing for a show we’re having this Thursday for Japanese Studies Week.
I probably burned more than 300 calories today (though I’m not counting as I am not really on any special diet), sweated my ass off and pushed my body to fatigue, for a sport which many don’t recognize as a sport.
I realized recently that one reason why people don’t realize the sport of dance is because they don’t really know anything about Dancesport. I’m starting a set of posts that will detail fast, easy to know facts about the sport that is dancesport and I’m going to start it with an introduction.
What is Dancesport?
Dancesport is the term that denotes competitive ballroom dancing. This is different from social dancing that it has its definitive rules, operations, techniques (very important) that is measured and compared with other competitors instead of dancing it just purely out of leisure.
The term Dancesport was coined to help in recognizing the sport of competitive ballroom dancing by the Olympic committee and is enjoyed by many countries such as Japan, Russia, The United Kingdom and the USA.
It can be defined as a team sport as it is in essentiality a team of two people (a man and woman, or in certain competitions, a man and man or a woman and a woman) dancing, together showing technique, floor craft and showmanship to produce a high quality performance.
How do you compete in something like dance?
First of all you need a partner, the essence of dancesport as said by Karen Hardy is of two people dancing together as one.
Competitions in dancesports may sound odd but they are all highly organized events, some even take a year to plan out. In the Philippines we have the annual Philippine Star Ball which is an international event that many foreign dancesport athletes compete in and we also have the National Ranking competitions by the DSCP (DanceSport Council of the Philippines) which are held at different times during the year (quarterly, mid-year etc.).
Competitions are usually organized by age group and there are two main Disciplines. The two disciplines (Latin and Standard) dictate the manner of training the couple went through and the dances they are required and trained to dance. There are five dances under each discipline and dancesport athletes train and study these dances for competition. For Latin they are the Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Paso Doble and Jive. For Standard they are the Slow Waltz, the Tango, the Slow Foxtrot, the Viennese Waltz and the Quickstep.
Learning these dances are not just a matter of knowing step patterns but dancesport has very specific techniques assigned to each dance and each step of the dance. This makes it more codified and competitive.
In a competition couples are called into the floor sometimes 12 at a time. They will perform a set of dances (the number of dances depends on the grade category of the event, sometimes it is a Grade E or one 1 dance event or a Grade A where all five dances of a discipline are danced). Around the floor are set of Adjudicators (usually around 6) who judge each couple on their mastery of technique, connection, athleticism, artistry and showmanship. They do this by essentially casting votes. Each judge will only say two things, they either say Yes to a couple (meaning they want them to pass to the next round and check their number on their papers) or No (meaning they aren’t good enough). At the end of each round the number of Yes votes are tallied and the top or 12 or 24 (depends on how many competitors are there) will move on to the next round. They will do this until the final round where they will be asked to rank the couples 1 to 6 and again, the couple with the highest number of number 1 votes wins (and so on and so forth).
Is it just an art or a sport?
This is a much debated issue even within the dance world. Scientifically dancesport is comparable to basketball, or running. According to Blanksby & Reidy Dancers perform at 80% of their oxygen consumption level and burning up to 300 calories per hour. This considering that dancesport athletes usually dance for hours on end during competitions support the athleticism involved in dancesport.
In terms of art and comparison to other sports, Dancesport is a lot like figure skating in that there is technique and discipline involved within the sport while it is also judged in aspects of artistry and a means of self expression. No one complains about figure skating not being a sport? (right?)
In my own experience, the level of discipline dancing really requires you to train your body in ways that are not that far off from any other athlete. There is technique involved that requires you to really study and master to be able to execute and achieve the desired outcomes. You really have to look and train yourself specially with the stamina involved in competing, most competitions have more than three rounds with each round requiring you to dance 4 or 5 dances (dances which can be extremely fast or extremely slow) consecutively.
The technical element also elevates it to more than just showing creative new choreography as creativity is just one part of the mixture. Judges will very rarely pass or choose a couple purely out of flashy creative choreography if they find that the couple lacks fundamental technique (this is especially true in the professional divisions)
The artistic aspect of it also helps the sport evolve in such a way that we’re always looking for that something that is new, extra special or better essentially the olympic idea of Faster (footwork and such), Higher (we have jumps 
heard of a Tour Jete into kneel), Stronger (most routines require some sort of stunt work though not necessarily lifts but these do require body strength).