At Linganore football, cheerleading and basketball are all seen as sports to care about and are mentioned regularly. But the subject of Dance as a sport never seems to come up at all. We are far more focused on the extracurricular activities. If you think they have it hard, here is the dirty truth. Dancing is harder work than most sports. Along with hard work, we dancers face pressure, injuries, and high costs. After twelve years of ballet, tap, jazz, everything, I should know.
Many hours of regular dance classes, followed by extra rehearsals for upcoming shows and/or competitions can take up a lot of time. On average, I spend 19 hours per week at my dance studio. With school and all my other activities I have about four hours for myself a day. Serious dancers have little or no social life and most of our free time is spent doing homework. When someone decides to dance, he or she must dedicate their life to it. For example, my sophomore friend Katie is a dancer and she had to miss the homecoming dance and Halloween because she was in a performance at her studio called Zombie Prom. Realize that I am not complaining because I love what I do, but I want others to recognize how much we sacrifice to dance. Other sports require dedication, too. Those sports are scheduled around major school events and last for one season.
Dancers face major pressure. Performing out on a stage with a group or worse, by ones self, can be very nerve-racking. Every performer deserves praise just for getting up the courage to even go out there in front of an audience, and, sometimes judges. This is different from other sports, let’s say football for an example, because although football players perform on the field they wear helmets to hide their faces and they can’t see the audience half the time, unlike dancers where the audience has the capability to see their faces during any accident or mess-up. We dancers have it hard because we have to multi-task. For example, not only do we have to memorize the dance/s but we have to memorize the counts the moves are on, make it go with the music, and still keep a smile on our face.
Next dancers pay much more than a school sport. My parents spend almost $180 a month which is not that bad for 14 classes because I am in the company and am part of the unlimited group. But for those who dance and do not acquire this at my studio, usually pay $40-45 a month per class so if you have 10 classes that’s $400. This amount does not even include shoes, make-up, costumes, props, etc. My pointe shoes for example cost around $80 and depending on how much I wear them, I need about 2-3 replacements. This is just one type of shoes too; this doesn’t even include jazz, ballet, tap, hi-hop, etc. shoes. Costumes at our studio are pretty reasonable prices we try not to exceed $100 but if you have 10 $50 costumes that’s $500; just for costumes. For those who compete like I do, there are also competition entry fees which range from about $50-80.
Dancers have a much greate risk of getting hurt. So do cheerleaders and gymnasts, but unlike them we are not always capable of using a mat. When we’re on a stage performing we don’t always get the option of using a mat. Meaning you could end up doing a round off, back handspring, back tuck on the ground, putting a dancer in a much higher risk of getting hurt.
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2 comments:
I agree with the comments on time consumption, high costs, and risks of injury that dancers have to go through.
Having been a dancer for the majority of my life, my family and I have paid many, many expenses relating to tuition fees, competition fees, conventions, gas, costuming, class attire, and all other necessary costs of traveling long distances to compete or perform. Most serious dancers dedicate long amounts of time (longer than most of the well recognized sports) to classes and rehearsals, traveling, and performing.
This means that there are many more chances for a dancer to become injured. When most
For this reason, dancers experience many knee, back, hip, and foot problems. This means dancers begin taking classes, which usually happens around a very young age, the way their bodies develop is affected by the movements and stress they put it through. of time in the doctor’s office and at the physical therapist’s. I also know a few young girls more medical costs paid throughout a dancer’s life.
I have been injured many times throughout classes and performing, and have spent a lot who have already had hip surgery at the age of thirteen years old.
Dance is still a lot of fun though, and I think that it’s worth the many risks.
I agree. Dancing is very time consuming and expensive. I have been dancing since the age of 3.
My parents pay close to $500 every 6 weeks for ballet classes, and that's without the cost of class attire, costume fees, and other expenses. And then there's always the gas money that adds up driving to and from rehearsals.
And as for time consuming, just this year I had to take 2 months off of my job to make sure I made all mandatory 4 hour rehearsals on weekdays and 6 hour dance rehearsals on weekends for the Nutcracker which was performed at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in December.
Dancing is so much fun though! So it's worth it. :)
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