Dancing means something different to everyone. For some, the first thing that comes to mind is dancing along to a song in your car with a friend or dancing at a party. For others, it is a beautiful and graceful performance. For some, it is competition reality shows or even Tik Toks. 

For me, it is a form of self-expression, the way I spend the majority of my nights and weekends, something I have been doing my whole life, and a central part of my identity. Rarely the first thing to come to mind when one hears the word dance is a competitive sport. 

Merriam-Webster defines an athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.” I am in the Competition III Senior team at All About Dance, the most rigorous and advanced team at the studio. During an average week, we are at the studio 15 hours taking conditioning and technique classes and rehearsing. 

When the year began, I attempted to get a gym exemption due to the rigor of my dancing and the stress it puts on my body. In order to get a gym exemption, you must participate in at least ten hours a week of an outside-of-school sport, a requirement I met. When I had my advisor meeting the day before school started, I expressed my interest in getting a gym exemption. However, this request was ultimately denied. 

I was confused because not only does dance meet the rigor required for exemption, it also counts as gym credit if you take a Parker dance class. I was told that in order to get an exemption, Leslie Holland Proyer, the Performing Arts Department Head, must write a Performing Arts exemption form.

Gym exemptions are a way for athletes to balance school and their sport while maintaining the health of their bodies. I had the same attitude going in to get this form that most of my friends with exemptions do: They know they meet the requirement and they don’t really have anything to worry about. My sister rows for ten hours a week, half the number of hours that I dance, and before her freshman year even started, she already had a gym exemption waiting for her. Dance is just as, if not more, demanding than the sports that my peers participate in and for which they receive exemptions. 

When I attempted to get an exemption, my advisor spoke with Head of the Upper School Justin Brandon. Afterward I was left in a state of confusion about whether or not I would be granted an exemption. The communication was unclear and different departments contradicted each other about whether such exemptions were allowed for dance. I filled out the necessary forms and got all my signatures before bringing my form to Jan Zouful, Physical Education Teacher and Department Head, for the final signature. After days of not being able to find her in her office, she finally told me she could not sign my exemption form. She told me that dance was a performing art, not a sport, and therefore I could not get an exemption. 

We have a large competition team of over 150 people, broken up into smaller teams determined by age and skill. Like the field hockey team, we have big and little sisters. Like any other team sport, we have “starting lineups” of the people we know will be in the front line, doing special parts, or having extra dances. Every person has their strengths and weaknesses that give something to the team. In soccer, you have the kids who run fast, the good goalkeeper, the best defender and the kid who can juggle the ball with precision. On our team we have lifters, fliers, turners, jumpers, girls who are flexible and can kick their faces and girls who can perform and evoke emotion. 

Dancers are trained and skilled. We must have strength in everything we do. There are more obvious examples of strength in big jumps and lifts, but even a simple plié (bend of the knee) requires so much strength in so many different muscles. We need agility and stamina to complete long and difficult routines, especially when rehearsing for hours at a time. I see myself as an athlete and treat my body like an athlete’s body. Between offseason training, physical therapy, and stretching and rolling out my muscles every night, it is hard to not see myself as an athlete just like my friends who do athletics in and out of school.

I do not understand how something that’s a gym credit within our curriculum cannot be counted as a sport by our gym department.