Why should ballet not be considered a sport?

Question

Why should ballet not be considered a sport?

Answer 1

Because it's never been considered a sport, but rather an art form.

Because even chess is considered an olympic discipline (chess olympics) and ballet isn't.

Because the emphasis of movements inside ballet is on how you move and not on the excercise.

Because no sport (that i can think of) can be played in either teams OR singles. And there's never background-"players" and foreground-"players" like in ballet.

Answer 2

Ballet ISN'T a sport, Caitlyn, and it never has been. It's one of the PERFORMING ARTS. It's true that there ARE sports which borrow elements from ballet, such as Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Dressage, Vaulting ( equestrian), Synchonized Swimming, Rhythmic Gymnastics, and so forth, but that doesn't mean that ballet itself is a sport. When people dance ballet, they aren't competing with each other. In order for something to be considered a sport, there must be some type of direct competition involved. There is intense competition for positions with top ballet companies among the artists themselves, but that doesn't mean that what they are doing is a sport.



Other PERFORMING ARTS include music ( whether classical, opera, jazz, rock, hip hop, rap, rhythm and blues, ragtime, or whatever) and other kinds of dancing, including ballroom, break dance, tango, mambo, square dance, circle dancing and other ethnic dances, and so forth.)



PS: Al, Dressage IS A SPORT. In fact, it's one of the world's OLDEST SPORTS. Granted, it didn't start life that way, but it is most definitely a sport in the modern age. Like the other horse sports which are in the Olympics, dressage had its origins in the military. When it began, it was invevnted and used by the armies of Europe and Asia as a system of training horses and riders for mounted warfare- and many of the customs you see in the sport today actually are throwbacks to the time when it was first invented. The most simple example of this that I can point to are the salutes which riders offer to the judge as they begin and end their rides. The reason modern competitors do this is because when the sport was invented centuries ago, it was expected and customary for soldiers to offer a salute to their commanders before they started work on the parade grounds, and to offer another salute when they were dismissed. The custom has survived through CENTURIES, Al, to become the modern salutes of today. And you should know that there is controversy among scholars and historians as to whether dressage or polo deserves the honor of being considered the world's oldest horse sport. It IS known that polo is the world's oldest organized TEAM SPORT- it was thought to have been invented by the Persians even before the Phoenicians started playing it. Both sports have histories that go back more than two thousand years- to the time of the Phoenicians in the case of polo, and to the time of Xenophon in the case of dressage. Xenophon was a soldier, philosopher, statesman, and a diplomat who lived and died during the 4th century BC, or 400 years before the birth of Christ. During his life, he wrote a treatise on the subject of classical riding and horsemanship that is considered by many historians to be the first and best known work on the subject. It contains principles that are STILL USED TODAY at places like the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria. So I fail to understand how you can say dressage isn't a sport, because it is. People compete for medals in it and always have, ever since it and its two counterparts, eventing and show jumping, were introduced to the modern games in 1912. Yes, the sport does BORROW some of the features of ballet- but that doesn't make ballet a sport, nor does it mean that dressage itself is not a sport.

Answer 3

@Lucille- Figure skating is an Olympic Sport and it has singles, pairs, dance and synchro.



I personally don't understand why figure skating is and ballet isn't.



The argument that it can't be judged is a bad one, due to the fact that there are many dance competitions. I would say though, that it is art form like acting and singing, and not so much an olympic sport.



Now don't belittle it in your debate. It requires hard work, muscle and amazing flexibility.

Answer 4

It is considered an art form.

Answer 5

Because there's no direct competition. There's no winner or loser.

Answer 6

The most traditional answer to your question is " because it never has been considered a sport." That's correct but very unsatisfying.



I also don't buy the argument of head-to-head competiton not being possible. When I think of head-to-head competition, I think of basketball, hockey, tennis, track, boxing, wrestling, and so on. It's one athlete or team against one or more to see who's the fastest or best. By contrast, downhill skiing, speed skating (long track), pole vaulting, javelin, high jump, long jump, discus, hammer throw, weightlifting, etc. lack head-to-head competition and are long established sporting events.



Not all head-to-head competition should be considered sport. I am very opposed to chess or bridge being admitted as Olympic sports -- this was actually considered not long ago. Similarly, video games do not deserve consideration.



There's a line between art and sport. Most Olympic sports and events are clearly on the sport side, such as weightlifting, wrestling, ice hockey, boxing, track, and so on. You have to look very hard to see any artistry in those sports. There are pasttimes that are very artisitic that involve no athletic skill, such as painting, sculpting, stand-up comedy, debate, etc. No athleticism necessary here. Then there's the sports that straddle the art-sport line: gymnastics, synchronized swimming, diving, synchronized diving, freestyle skiing, etc. I put those on the sport side of the line because of the tremendous amount of athleticism required.



Similarly, I consider ballet to be athletic artistry. That puts it on the art side of the art-sport line and therefore not a sport. Having seen my share of ballet, I believe a world-class gymnast could become a passable ballet dancer but a world-class ballet dancer could never become even a decent gymnast. The heavy emphasis on ballet's artistry comes at the expense of the athleticism necessary for serious consideration as a sport. If ballet is a sport, ballroom dancing, performance art, and break dancing must also be considered sport, and they're not.



Incidentally, I'm not picking on ballet. I do like it, but it's no sport. Neither is rhythmic gymnastics or equestrian dressage, both Olympic events, but that's another debate.