Gannon, Erie Campus- It seems that in the ballet world, there is always something new to fight about.

Growing up in ballet, I have heard about every dance-centric debate. I took classes from the age of three until I was 18 in a few different styles of dance. But the one that was always closest to my heart was ballet.

Most of the debates I found myself in were lighthearted. Are Russian-style pointe shoes better than other brands? How contemporary is too contemporary when doing a ballet piece? Was wearing my hair up in a bun, instead of loose or in a ponytail, always going to be required for ballet performances?

Sometimes, ballet debates leak into the mainstream. Most notably, the recent news that some pointe shoe companies are starting to expand their color options, from the classic light pink to darker tones. While this move was controversial to some, many wondered if it was too little, too late.

But the question I want to focus on today is the classic debate: is ballet a sport? Specifically, should ballet be featured as an Olympic sport?

There are some activities that exist on the border of sport and art. Acrobats, cheerleaders, and marching band members are often found arguing that their sports are just as athletic as contact sports, like football and soccer.

Nowadays, ballet tends to fall into this ambiguous category. While ballet is intensely athletic and requires teamwork, it requires artistry that contact sport do not.

In recent years, there has been a growing debate on whether to add ballet to the Olympics. However, as a ballet dancer of 15 years, I believe that it should not be added as an Olympic sport.

In my experience, the debate that ballet should be an Olympic event is a surprisingly common one. It also seems very divisive. I’ve heard about as many dancers hope for ballet to be included in the Olympics, as I’ve heard those who would protest if it were. But personally, with 15 years of experience under my belt, I firmly believe that ballet should not be included as a judged event in the Olympics.

Ballet, first and foremost, is a way of telling a story. A ballet performance is a play, which uses the artistic movement of the body instead of words.

We live in an age where technique- which is the ability to which you can properly execute dance movements- is increasingly prized over storytelling ability. Both are important. However, I believe that a dancer with strong emotional execution and an ability to convey a story will always be more engaging than a dancer with beautiful turns and leaps.

Dancers practice for years to perfect their technique and make their skills easy. But I think that in recent years, teachers and judges prize perfect technique over emotional storytelling.

Technique is important. But a perfect leap on one person looks the same as a perfect leap on another. However, one person’s way of expressing emotion can never quite be replicated. The artistic side of dance is how we differentiate between performers, and even between ballet productions. If you take the art out of ballet, you’re left with pretty turns and leaps, but a lifeless story. You’re left with the original intent of ballet, as a storytelling device, gone.

Sports like swimming and football are objective. You can see who swims the fastest, or you can see who makes the goals. The judging should be definitive, every time.

But so much of ballet is opinion. Yes, if a dancer stumbles on a turn or falls during a leap, it’s clear to see that the execution of the move is wrong. But how do you judge how a dancer makes you feel? How do you judge how well they portray a story? Is the use of music, costumes, and props included in the judging, or would the purely technical aspects of dance be the only parts judged?

I find that the dancers that support ballet as an Olympic sport are often just fighting against the idea that ballet is not athletic. Ballet is hard, it’s exercise, and it’s more work than most people can imagine. But just because it requires a sometimes extreme amount of athleticism does not mean it is a sport. Confusing art and sport do hundreds of years of ballet history a disservice.

I think that ballet is at its core an art, and I believe that art cannot be accurately scored and judged in the same way that an objective sport like football or swimming can be. While breakdancing may have been recently added, and then quickly dropped from ever taking the stage again, I hope ballet never makes it to the Olympic stage.