art, Entertainment, Health, Music, Sports

BALLET : An art or a sport?

Ballet is a discipline that includes dance, orchestral music, acting, elements of scenery, costumes, and magical stories that give meaning to the movements made by the dancers. But can we consider ballet as a sport? Or is it just art?

Ballet is an art, but it is also a sport and it should begin to be recognized as such.

We can define the concept of art as any activity in which the human being recreates an aspect of reality or a feeling, with an aesthetic purpose using elements such as image, sound, movement, colors, etc.

On the other hand, sport is defined as any physical activity or exercise that follows a set of specific rules. Similarly, it involves teamwork, skill, physical prowess, and sometimes competition. This is where the doubts arise.

I have practiced ballet since I was three years old, and I have gone through all levels. In all my experience I can say that, following the definition of the concept of sport, ballet is not only an art but also a sport.

The dancers perform in front of an audience. Viewers can only see the final product but are not aware of the intense and extensive work that each dancer goes through in order to be part of a ballet performance.

The preparations for a ballet show begin months before, and it not only involves the rehearsals and memorization of the choreographies, but it is hours and hours of Pilates, physical conditioning and working with weights, just to be in the necessary physical condition to dance.

Getting ready to dance.

Some of the factors that are necessary for ballet are:

  • The aerobic capacity, to be able to control breathing, even in moments of great exhaustion.
  • A lot of muscular strength
  • Muscular endurance to be able to perform two-hour shows without rest time without wearing out your muscles too much.
  • Flexibility is very important, as in ballet there are a variety of positions that challenge the natural extensions of the body, but are necessary for discipline.
  • Agility and speed to be able to develop difficult combinations of movements.
  • In ballet, many of the movements and positions are not natural for our body, so injuries, wounds and discomforts are very common, and much of the time we must continue training and presenting ourselves, so that dancers develop a high resistance to pain.

These are just some of all the requirements that dancers must meet. As we can see, the definition of sport is almost met, we only need two characteristics to prove it 100%: Competition and teamwork.

Finally, we can say that ballet is more than just movements and beauty. It is true that it is an art, but it is also a highly demanding sport. Taking into account all the arguments mentioned in the article, do you think ballet is an art or a sport? Or both? Leave a comment and let us know!

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