by Jennifer Koludrovic

Created on: May 08, 2008

Why should dancing be a sport only associated with girls. There was a study done many years ago of an athlete who ran marathons and a ballroom dancer who competed in competitions. The ballroom dancer exerted more energy during a competition than the marathon runner during their competition.

As a teacher of ballroom dancing, I started dancing quite young with my parents taking me to social dances from an early age and eventually taking lessons when I was in my teens. I competed in competitions and won prizes eventually teaching classes to adults. Even the social dances gave me confidence, communication skills that I would not have learned in any classroom.

It puzzled me that when going to school and we attended our sport session and they held classes in ballroom dancing, the boys would make fun, laugh and joke around and kept saying that they didn't want to touch the girls. Within a couple of years after leaving school these same boys would attend the studio were I was on staff, learning how to dance and so that they could meet girls. How quickly things turn around!

I now have two (2) children of my own. A boy (5) and a girl (2) and would like them to start learning how to dance when she gets a bit older. With so many shows nowadays such as Dancing with the Stars, yes we do have that show here in Australia, my children are intrigued to see that Mummy used to teach this dancing and start asking when I am going to teach them how to dance. The only reason I am waiting is so that they can both go together and learn at the same time.

With the introduction of shows such as Dancing with the Stars and other "Reality TV" it has bought many activities into the comfort of your own home, where children are seeing what is out there for them to do. I do not think that dancing is projected, as it has been in the past, as a "sissy" sport. My son wants to learn dancing and he also wants to learn ice skating which is another sport that has the connotations of being a "sissy" sport.

My husband and I would have no objections to him learning either and would encourage any sport that he wants to do.

Girls are allowed to choose any sport including football and soccer and we do not call them "butch" or "tom boys", so why should we still associate dancing as a "sissy" sport

When a child chooses a sport he will show more passion and excitement in playing that sport than if he/she was forced into playing or doing something that either of us as parents have chosen for them.

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