Competitive Dance Should Be Embraced As A Team Sport By Schools
Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff
As an American boy who grew up playing baseball, basketball, soccer, and touch football, in the backyard and then at school, I dreamed that one day I would teach my kids how to play these sports. I’d think about all the ways I’d teach them how to bunt, how to dribble with both hands, and all the skills that took me days to learn and years to master.
I’d look forward to the days I would work with them in the backyard, teaching them everything I knew, and everything I would look up on YouTube. I pictured cheering them from the sidelines, hoping they would excel, being happy if they just gave it their best, but also just oozing in the happy memories of my childhood, where my biggest worries were whether I could play wiffle ball past sunset on a summer Saturday.
Eventually, I became a father, and I started mentally planning my kid’s sports life before she could even walk. Spring, Summer, and Fall days spent at the batting cages, throwing, or kicking the ball around, that was my fantasy.
Life, as they say, loves throwing you curveballs when you’re expecting fastballs down the middle.
I have a wonderful 8-year-old daughter, whom I tried early and often to get interested in any sport, but especially baseball or basketball. From about 6 years old, however, I could tell she wasn’t as addicted to it the way I was at that age. Sure, she was only 6, but seeing the way other children quickly generated enthusiasm for American sports left me feeling something was going to be different for my daughter. Does she dribble and pass the basketball with me in the driveway? Absolutely. Does she have any interest in team sports for basketball, soccer, or softball? Nope, not for a second.
(To be clear, she could take up any of these team sports 5 years from now. There’s no roadmap for when you must play competitively against other kids. I firmly believe its more up to the kid than the parent.)
As a kid who was forced into taking up hobbies I had no interest in, I wanted to make sure to support her no matter where her interests took her. We signed her up for a dance class, and my wife and I could tell there was immediately a connection there that didn’t exist for baseball. I was happy but totally ignorant as far as what dance really involved. Sure, I knew there was skill, talent, and a lot of effort needed to do dance well, but, as someone who had no idea what a dance recital even 4 years was ago, never mind not knowing anything about tap dancing or ballet, I viewed competitive dance ultimately as a hobby and not much more.
Boy was I ever wrong about that. I quickly learned that competitive dance is a team sport, 100%.
My daughter immediately excelled in dance class, always performing at the front of the stage for every recital. She was invited to join the competition team for the first time at 8 years old, and practices got longer and a bit more intense. Her first regional competition was earlier this month in East Haven, CT, and I came in just hoping she wouldn’t get stage fright.
Stage fright? What the heck was I thinking? She was cooler under pressure in front of hundreds of people than Alex Rodriguez was with a 2-strike count, and she wasn’t being paid hundreds of millions of dollars!
It took me seeing a dance competition for myself to realize how cool these kids are at a much younger age than most little leaguers would be at the same age. I quickly understood competitive dance is as much a team sport as any of the major sports we worship on TV.
Yes, Dance teams, especially hip-hop, is right up there with football, baseball, basketball, any of these K-12 sports, and no parent should be ashamed their kid, male or female, goes into dance instead or along with the other sports.
Let’s spell out why
1) Dancing takes as much, if not more coordination than the other sports
2) It is as intense a cardio workout as any sport (just watch how out of breath in shape dancers are at the end of a performance)
3) Teamwork is more important in dance than any other sport.
You can have a 30-person routine, but if one teammate, one, does not do their part on time, in the correct spot, in the right cadence, not only does the audience know, but the judges will know.
I have friends and family who push their kids away from dance, gymnastics, theatre, and into sports, even if their kids don’t have much organic interest in it. This could not be more wrong. Dance takes as much practice, good cheer, sportsmanship, and fitness as any of the other sports.
I totally understand the desire to have your kids recreate your childhood as much as possible; who wouldn’t want them to have the same fun you had?
This may just be the pioneer in me talking, but life has so many paths to joy. Why limit yourself to the one you already know? Or worse yet, why assume your kids’ interests must be the same as yours? Did you want to have all the same interests as your parents?
Sure, some kids do! But your childhood interests do not pass down genetically to your offspring (I don’t think that’s even an aspect of Lamarckism!)
At the East Haven CT dance competition I attended, I saw one dance studio do a routine to “Taki Taki”, after which a forklift was required to lift my jaw off the floor. There were 20-30 dancers, all in sync, all giving 150% effort to their dance coordination like their lives depended on it, and it felt as if I was watching something on Broadway. Yet, these were high school girls doing this. I’m not allowed to share video, but picture this routine, with way more choreography, performed at 3x speed of this video; and this team didn’t even win!
Don’t tell me competitive dance isn’t a team sport.
My daughter has learned teamwork, agility, coordination, everything I would ever want her to learn through traditional American sports. She will learn determination, patience, and the importance of understanding that there is no such thing in dance, or in life, as hero ball.
All parents should embrace dance, but schools should also embrace it. Yes, there are dance squads at many high schools, but they usually serve as the warmup act to football or basketball games.
This isn’t enough.
Football players should be serving as the warmup act to dance competitions, particularly hip-hop dance competitions, at least in some areas.
You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.
Let’s take this one step further: dance teams should be directly competing against each other just like basketball teams. Can you imagine if basketball teams ran Harlem globetrotter plays against no defense, by themselves, and referees judged winners based on how well they executed a behind-the-back pass?
Heck no!
Let’s have dance teams participate directly against each other. Judges can announce songs they have to dance to without warning, or feats they must accomplish, and let’s see who performs better ad-libbed under pressure?
Is this a half-baked idea? Kind of. I totally haven’t thought this through.
But the point is, people love to watch gifted dancers perform! Dancers are every bit the athletes as other sports.
It’s time parents and school administrators treat them as such.