My Sport - Spring

Being a good dancer means being able to recognize cues in the music and performing along with them. Dancing also requires memorization of movements, steps, times, and the music. Each different style of dance requires different techniques and different music types. There are many different styles of dance, these including hip hop, jazz, contemporary, tap, ballet, modern, and lyrical. Overall, performing your best and dancing full out is what makes it look the greatest.

Fitness Components

Out of the five health related fitness components, the three that I feel are executed the most in dance are cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, and flexibility. Cardiovascular fitness is important for exercising for long periods of time especially and it asserts a healthy respiratory system and heart. This is used in dance for all of the movements that require more than just basic activity including turns, leaps, and more. Next, muscular endurance is used constantly while dancing. Most routine dances are between 2 and 5 minutes and require full out movements and activity the whole time. Along with that, our practices are usually 3 hours long and so they require endurance so that we can run our dances almost continuously throughout that period to maximize the use of our time. The last thing I think applies to dance is flexibility. Being at least somewhat flexible is a really helpful component to have on the stage and it enhances your moves even more. I am personally not super flexible, but I believe that I am flexible enough to do the movements well, which is as full out as I can. The last two fitness components which I feel are not as important during dance are muscular strength and body composition, but they are still used at times even though just because they aren't as prominent.

For the six skill related fitness components, the three that I think are the most prominent are power, balance, and coordination. Power is a huge part of dance, as doing sharp or flowing movements, depending on the dance, contributes greatly to the overall performance. These motions also need to be as full out as possible, especially during competitions, to give the full effect of the dance routine. Next, balance is important because there are lots of times where you will be doing the choreography and find yourself needing to apply balance because you are in a position that differs enough from standing up. This can include being on one leg or sometimes even only balancing on your hands during an acrobatic motion. The last skill component that I believe is most helpful is coordination. Everyone on stage doing the same parts has to look the same in order to get a good score at competition. Using coordination, executing moves in the same way as others will let you be in sync with the other dancers. This looks much better on stage and will give the routine a more advanced feel to it than if it was out of sync. The other three also also used during dancing activities but those three are the ones used more often.