“Dancers are the athletes of God” - Albert Einstein

According to Janine Bryant of The Dance Journal, Einstein's quote is often used within the dance community to describe the mix of athletics and spirituality with which dancers dance. 

I recently watched a video of a hip hop/ballet dancer float through the air in an art gallery.  As she moved each firm limb in her body, it was as if she was a living art set against the backdrop of stunning paintings on a crisp white wall. Even when I watch my daughter and her dance company perform, I sit back in awe as I see these young women extend their muscular legs and arms, jumping high while moving gracefully across the floor. While dancers have always been applauded as artists, they are also athletic. Our goal is to shine the spotlight on the amazing things dancers do and show how athletic dancers really are.   

What defines an athlete?

If you were playing a game of "Heads Up” and you had to describe an athlete. You might shout "strong, focused, skilled, determined, resilient, competitive" and your partner would guess right away. When you think of an athlete, you think of a person who's trained in and great at sports that require physical skill, stamina, and strength.  

Athleticism

Dancers demonstrate impressive athleticism.  A study from the University of Michigan shows that ballet dancers can jump as high as basketball players. Cross-training is very common among professional athletes to improve fitness and performance in their main sport. Dancers are also often encouraged to cross train to build breadth of movement and physical strength for their dance performances. Common cross-training activities include pilates, yoga, swimming and even martial arts.

Competition

Like other athletic activities, competition can play a part in performance.  Dancers, while typically part of a company, troupe or team compete individually to become a member of a dance club, for roles, and as a team against other dance clubs in competitions.

Training

A dancer trains regularly and showcases stamina and strength in every move.  Professional dancers can spend two hours a day in technique training with 6 hours of rehearsals and will often only get one to two days off.

The athlete and the artist

While it is clear that dancers are athletes, dance is also an art that stretches far beyond the physical skill. Expression and musicality are as important as technique. A dancer with the greatest technical skill will not win the hearts of her audience if she can't stir emotion and a deep connection. 

According to Alicia Graf Mack, via New York Times, an American dancer, describes Michael Jordan's performance on the court as a dancer but his end goal is to win a game whereas the end goal of the dancer is to touch the audience in a beautiful way.  Dancers train, compete and feel the same pain as athletes but they add another layer to their performance - artistry. This is why dancers see themselves as athletes and artists.

Repetition enhances performance

According to Janine Bryant of The Dance Journal, "the dancer’s repetition ultimately creates a strong artist and athlete who performs effortlessly on stage, leaving audiences stunned at the height of jumps, the incredible control of positions and the seemingly inhuman degree of range of motion.”

Jumps, plies, twirls, kicks, and leaps and much more are part of the dancer's performance.  They perfect their ability to perform just as Christine Sinclair practices her keep ups or Marie-Philip Poulin her stick handling or DeMar DeRozan fine-tunes his three-point shot.