By Corinne Love

By Corinne Love

I might not know a whole lot about sports; I can barely recall the rule of football other than the goal is to make a touchdown.

Sports are lost on me.

What I do know though is that dancing should be considered a sport.

Many would be quick to counter, that dancing is not a sport, it’s not competitive and it does not fall in the same lines with hockey and soccer or for that matter, table tennis.

Even cheerleading is a sport.

If cheerleading, the “art” of hyping up a game, is a sport. Then, dancing (modern, ballet and the intensive breakdancing) should receive the same recognition.

It’s a mixture of art and sport. Dancers have to train their bodies for endurance, like athletes, they are also susceptible to injuries as well.

In football if you tear your ACL, you are out of the game for a couple of months.

In dance, if you tear your ACL you are off the floor.

This is not to say that the dancing you do at the Brandin’ Iron or Sevillas is the same as the grace and precision that Mykhail Baryshnikov brings to audiences.

Although your friends may think that you are the best dancer since Michael Jackson moonwalked across floors.

What the audience sees is the product of a lot of training, so it appears that it looks like something they could do in their living rooms (as many YouTube clips would prove).

Reality shows like Bravo’s “Step it up and dance,” MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew

and ABC’s “Dancing with the stars” play up dance’s competitive side as well as the mental and physical preparation it takes.

“America’s Best Dance Crew” featured dancers from around the nation who aimed high in order to show off their dance moves in rapid-fire movements with nearly impossible choreography. Every week, contestants were put to challenges such as reversing the movement, jumping from stage props, and thinking of ways to make it look smooth.

That is not a simple feat.

One particular crew, Status Quo’s member Enoch injured his foot, what looked like a simple sprain turned out to be far worse. He couldn’t move for days and had to sit out most of the rehearsals.

In a turn of events, however, he quickly regained his strength and went on to perform even better.

The dancers may not have been driving a ball up and down the court, or sailing a football across the field, but they were competing.

Audiences were so in love with the show, that it was picked up for another season that should be full of the same high voltage, stunt plenty dance ensembles.

The definition of “sport” is an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature.

Dance requires skill and physical prowess, and can be competitive, because dancers need to show that they are the best person for that spot.

Think “Center Stage,” “Showgirls,” “Save the Last Dance” and a host of formulaic dance movies that hit the cinemas every summer.

These movies show (or at least attempt) how intense competition can get for a dancer.

Skill can not be underestimated. Ballet dancers perhaps the most hard-core in dancing, are known for their dedication to the art as well as the many bruises they endure to look like elegant dolls gliding across the floor.

Breakdancers do stunts that some would say is either plain stupid or brilliant.

Watching dancers who are good at their technique is similar to watching an athlete who possesses a grace when they get on the court or the field.

Audiences come to watch kinetically gifted individuals, whether they glide on the tip of their toes or slam dunks.