I am delivering a speech on Ballroom and Latin dancing being a sport! I have some evidence of this, but was wondering if anyone knew any statistics about dancing, such as one dance being equal to a quarter of a basketball game or something--I don't know if that is true, but something like that would be helpful...

Hopefully my speech will motivate more people to take up this fantastic sport! =D

I'm just throwing stuff out at random:

The closest comparison I make between dancing and another "sport" is between ballroom dancing and dressage (equestrian), with the exception that Dressage is typically (unless it's a free-style) a pre-established pattern of movements and transitions, and it's performed one horse/rider team at a time. The precision, technique, and training are very similar.

I have no idea where you're going with your paper, other than "Dancing ROXORZ", but stick with the basics- dancing's fun, it's a great communication tool, it's beneficial to mind/body, etc.

Check with USA Dance. They had a video some years back that was used to convince the IOC that this is a sport. If I recall, it compared a couple dancing quickstep to a sprinter.

Ballroom is now an Olympic event. One may disagree whether Ballroom is a sport. However, an international committee consisting of the best sports minds this world has to offer has voted and installed Ballroom in oldest sports competition in the world. As for me, I agree with their determination.

As you can tell Ive had the same argument and made the same speech in my Toastmasters chapter.
Carl Candiano
unvcandy@yahoo.com

Oh cool! Thankyou so much all this information has been extremely useful! Yay! It's great to hear Ballroom is an Olympic sport!

Hello,
In case we forget. It was not possible to consider dancing as an Olympic Sport unless the word SPORT was included in its title.

Back in the 50's, a competition was run to see how many miles a dancer would travel in one day of teaching. Wally Fryer, who was a ballroom champion, had a pedometer fitted to his shoe. All I can remember about that is nobody got anyway near the total miles Wally did in a day.

It would be a good talking point in a studio if the teacher did a similar competition. It would be a different idea to raise funds for the studio or a charity.

"Ballroom is now an Olympic event."

No, it is not, and it is quite unlikely ever to be.

"However, an international committee consisting of the best sports minds this world has to offer has voted and installed Ballroom in oldest sports competition in the world."

No, they have decided over and over again that while they are willing to recognize it, they will not include it in their competition. And that is very unlikely to ever change.