"Its hard to find moments like this"
When does a dancer become a sportsman? The day he begins his dancing journey! When does dance become a sport? The jury is still out on that one for some, I'm afraid. A very recent experience with a secondary school in the private education sector made me realise just how far as a society we still must go to recognise dance as a mainstream sport.
My son began his dancing journey aged 8. As a sporting family, we encouraged him from an early age to take part in sport. We spent many an hour on the touchline of the local football pitch and supporting from the side lines at a rugby game. We encouraged him to play cricket, learn to swim and join a gymnastics club too, all to no avail!! Despite our best efforts - and a strong set of sporting family genes - 'traditional' sport was just not for him! Fortunately, he had a much better plan - he asked us to take him to a local 'acro dance club'. We had never heard of 'acro' but in desperation, and in truth with a little scepticism that this could be for him, we took him along to see all the fuss was about! He wouldn't join in the class that day, preferring to hide inside his parker coat! But as soon as we left the dance class, he declared it was the 'best thing he'd ever done' and we never looked back!
During the following years he progressed through the world of Freestyle dance, training a minimum of 13 hours during a 'regular' week, or 20+ hours to prepare for a big competition. Training takes many forms including cardio and strength training, plus technique classes and one-to-one tuition, developing and creating numerous routines to enable the boys to compete at the highest level in the Freestyle world. I'm confident other dancers train even more, but my son trained as hard as he could alongside his schoolwork and studying for exams. We spend many weekends travelling up and down the country, sometimes for a day competition but mostly for competitions that last for the weekend. As a family we are committed, there is no other way to success.
Dancing quickly became my son's life. His confidence and resilience grew steadily with each competition, enjoying his successes and learning to deal with the days when things didn't go to plan, picking himself back up and getting back into the dance studio to improve. His social skills developed, he learned how to be part of a team, supporting others at the same time focussing on his own performance. He has made some very good friends, both within his own dance school and within the wider Freestyle 'world'. And most importantly, he loves to dance!
After securing a place in sixth form for Isaac at a private school, we applied for a sports scholarship to support the tuition fees. As with most private schools, sporting scholarships are available to students who can demonstrate successes in sports such as rugby, hockey, and swimming - the more 'traditional' sports. Undeterred, I was confident that once I had educated the key decision makers at the school about Freestyle, they would understand that to be successful in Freestyle dance took just as much commitment as the 'other' mainstream sports, more in some cases. And the benefits aligned to the aspirations of the school for their pupils too: commitment, confidence, resilience and teamwork to name a few. Coupled with that, the school had recently opened a new dance studio so I felt I had a strong case and would be listened to. Sadly, despite reassurances that dance scholarships may be considered in the future, we were not successful in our application because dance was not considered to be a sport. The irony is, if the physical performance of my son - or his fellow dancers were to be measured against that of a mainstream sports player, I know who would come out on top! But that's for another day. As a society we need to broaden our understanding of what it takes to be a dancer, both the physical and mental strengths and commitment required and we should respect dancers as much as we respect those in other sports too.
Jo, Isaac's Mum.