I suppose my thinking would be, even though there are competitions probably the ultimate aim is to get into big productions, like winning the competitions would help you to achieve that aim - where as with sports like football, tennis and that sort of thing, the competitions and winning them are the end goal?

I don't think ballet can be classed as a sport simply because you can compete in competitions. I mean, The Turner Prize... that's a competition, but I wouldn't call painting or sculpting a sport.

But ask 100 people, get 100 different answers!

Rhythmic gymnastics is not million miles away from ballet and artistic merits are considered.
Suppose it could be turned into a sport but why?
Then again in ancient olympics
wikipedia

figure skating also few ballet techniques i guess, like pirouettes

I remember working with a lad who was not that long married and one Monday
we were all talking on the sales floor about the weekend and football
#ladsladslads i someone said to Si "oi Si you went out with yor missus on
sat-day, where did you go?" and Si said "the...ballet...":umm2:. Literally there
was a moments lull and then he got ruined :joker:
He was genuinely known as Rudolf after that day. true story

I'm not convinced that Arts & Humanities sits well with Phys Ed. And while ballet is very inclusive, you can take ballet classes anywhere at any age to keep fit, football clubs have in the past employed ballet dancers for classes to help players improve their stamina, balance and fitness... but I think it's a very different kind of performance ballet dancers produce, from the performance of a track athlete or a gymnast. Just my take on it of course.

Nah I also agree and say it is more of an art like any other form of dancing than a sport, well for me personally anyways.

You can though, there are Ballet Competitions and I know there's definitely Irish dancing competitions, my niece enters the all irelands and worlds in that, it's highly competitive. I think I might be changing my mind on it actually :think:

I mean chess is classed as sport :shrug:

Those definitions seem pretty arbitrary
But why change it if it ain't broke?

Think Livia was saying that just because there are competitions it doesn't automatically make it a sport though

imagine chess being a official sport event at olympic games :skull:

which i cannot see happening since no one would tune in for that

Oh yeah i misread her post .....apologies

...dance in general, including ballet would be incorporated into the PE curriculum at many schools...so I guess it would be a crossover for both, as it’s an art form but it’s also physical education based...there are county ballet events and workshops for school children and they all come under the umbrella of Sport/PE...

This article is sort of what I was thinking when I said some ballet dancers wouldn't want it to be considered a sport:

i am sure the people who go and see ballet would be horrified to think they were watching sport

:joker:

tbf, it might look easy on the eye, but it is hard work i guess to get everything that precise, perfect

so is driving a tank

No more than tap or waltz.

I've been to West Ham and I've been to Saddler's Wells. There was no similarity whatsoever.

But you could say the points in football aren't based on athleticism but who gets the ball in a net?

Cal in PE when the teacher tells her to go pick up the ball.

The points in football alone are indication that it's a competitive sport, lol, it doesn't matter how those are earned. "Point-based" games are easier to define as sports because there are clear guidelines in how the game is played and, more importantly, won.

Whilst there are indeed ballet competitions... there are also baking, sewing, singing and design competitions. Ballet, whilst more physical and demanding than those other examples, is still a little more hard to define when it comes to "who wins?" Racing has times, ball games have goals/tries/runs, pub games have points, athletics has heights/distances/times... but I suppose ballet is more like diving in the sense that only someone paying close attention can tell what the best score for a performance would be. In that sense it's still a sport, since diving is one :laugh: but I would imagine there are 100x the complexities in a ballet performance than there are in a single dive.

Suppose it'd be closest compared to figure skating?

Would ballet not have points to win though like ballroom dancing competitions? Where they look for specific technique/stamina?

Niamh?

More of a sport then bloody motor racing