Is Ballet a Sport? The Intersection Between Athleticism and Artistry
Ballet is not just about looking graceful and flawless on stage. Behind the scenes, there are sweat and tears that come with the amount of effort it takes to achieve excellence. Ballerinas balance on the tips of their toes until they have bleeding blisters and aching bones. Ballerinos spend hours on end strength training to a near point of perfection. They need to be able to lift their dance partners off the floor and into the air in one swooping movement.
Often, every muscle in a ballet dancer’s body – even some we didn’t even know existed – are used when performing one simple step. In fact, when you look closely, you can see the ripple of toned muscle when a dancer adjusts their weight ever so slightly. A specific diet is also at the forefront of note, ensuring that they maintain their overall exudation of pure power and grace. Ultimately, ballet dancers are the definition of athleticism and artistry. So, next time you get asked the age-old question of: “Is ballet a sport?” the answer is yes!
The Parameters of Sport and Art
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines sport as “diversion, entertainment, fun”. It also says it’s the “success, pleasure or recreation derived from or afforded by an activity.” Interestingly, it also explains sport as “a theatrical performance; a show, play or interlude,” as often used by Shakespeare in his works. Similarly, the OED defines art as “the expression or application of creative skill and imagination.”
Socially known sports like football, rugby and the new craze of padel, fit into the first definition quite easily; but not the latter. However, ballet finds an intersection between the two.
Ballet is neither all sport nor all art and that is where the beauty of it lies. You will often hear people say that a ballerina’s body in motion is the most spectacular to watch. This is because of the definition of each minuscule muscle. The way ballet dancers develop their bodies is mostly through just dancing for hours on end. It is also rooted in what they feed their bodies: a lot of protein and very little carbs.
To rise on pointe, a ballerina must activate her calves, pull up her thighs and lock her knees. In addition, she must activate her abductors and adductors in her glutes. She should also flex her core and back muscles. Throughout all of this, her arms should be gracefully floating above her tutu, with their movement beginning from the shoulder blades. The foot then slowly leaves the ground in a rolling motion from heel to toe. Finally, the big toe fully extends in the pointe shoe.
The challenge of ballet is to do such complicated artistic movements, like fouettés or grand jetés, without showing the physical effort it takes to perform them. By the end of a performance, dancers’ bodies are aching. However, the smiles on their faces reveal that it’s not only hard work, but art in motion.
In Their Professional Opinion
Principal dancer, Revil Yon from Joburg Ballet, says: “That’s the beauty of ballet. It is as physically demanding as any sports genre, however, done gracefully. [I believe that] dancers in general are natural athletes because of the amount of time and skill we put into our bodies. Some might even say it’s more demanding because of the amount of time we spend training. No other sports genre trains that hard.”
Megan Biermann, the owner and dance instructor at Move Beyond Dance Studio in Morninghill, says: “Dance is a sport. It requires days on end of physical exertion and skill development. Just like every other sport, it requires you to have good cardiovascular health, increased flexibility of joints and muscular strength. I challenge you to try just one ballet class and only then answer the question about whether it is a sport or not.”
“Ballet dancers perform under pressure, showcasing their skills and endurance to an audience. They also often have the added challenge of conveying emotion and storytelling through their movements,” says Mzansi Ballet’s Prima Ballerina, Angela Revie. She is of the opinion that ballet combines the precision and athleticism of sports with the emotional and aesthetic depth of art. Thus, ballet sits at the intersection between both disciplines.
In the end, it might require a mind shift to answer the question about whether ballet is a sport, an art form or both. Ballet requires fitness beyond visits to the gym or the football field. Yet, it also requires the artistic refinement of an instrument or paint brush. The body is pushed to its creative and physical limits when performing, and that in itself places ballet in a league of its own.
Images: Sourced
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