Ishani Khanna ‘25
The EA Dance Team deserves the same recognition and the same opportunities to compete, perform, and share their achievements as any other varsity sport. By denying skilled and accomplished dancers the opportunity to earn varsity letters, EA disserves its students and harms its reputation.
Dance is currently offered as a winter sport at EA, but there is no varsity distinction. Although team members practice during sports blocks and even hold a performance, they cannot receive the same deserved recognition as other EA athletes. Though it counts as a sport, in practice, dance is treated as an art. In actuality, dance is an interdisciplinary combination of the two. While dance is a beautiful form of art that requires creativity and innovation, it is also a physical activity that calls for athleticism, coordination, endurance, and other skills.
It is a great step that EA even offers dance as a sport, but it’s time to reconsider the policy on varsity letters. Dance Coach Nai-Whedai Sheriff says, “I think it might have something to do with tradition…it might have something to do with Performing Arts. Specifically, dance has been on a long journey of being recognized as a sport, and so EA has taken the first hurdle they’ve finally recognized it as being a physical sport comparable to football or basketball, and now they need to take the next hurdle and then give it the same caliber of attention where the same infrastructure that is put in place for any other sport. It is necessary to give dance that same infrastructure including making them eligible for varsity and giving them the same amount of attention and respect.”
Team members are just as dedicated to dance as other athletes are to their respective sports. Many have been dancing for most of their lives and pursue the sport competitively outside of school. The amount of time it takes to be a varsity athlete is very difficult, and dancers have to go through nothing less. As evident in the preview and show on February 7th, it takes an immense amount of physicality, teamwork, and mental strength to be able to put on their jaw-dropping performance.
“Dance requires muscle, energy, stamina, and commitment like every other sport. We are expected to angle and create shapes in a way that can push our bodies to the maximum and that is equally demanding as other sports,” says dance team member Kailin Gao ‘25. These are the same skills that all varsity athletes must master, yet these students get letters, awards, and other recognition. If dancers dedicate the same hours of strenuous physical activity every day, why is the recognition level not the same?
The justification for the lack of varsity recognition is that, unlike other sports, dancers do not compete in the Inter-AC or other competitions among schools. However, dancers are unable to compete nationally because they are not a varsity team. Sheriff says, “[EA Dance] feels very intramural, where they only get to interact internally. But we should have opportunities where we are competing with other schools in the community to show that dance actually exists, it’s competitive, and it requires quite a bit of skill and endurance. So, if there’s a rubric that says you have to compete or you have to operate on a certain level to get the letters, dancers in this school and in other schools should have opportunities where we are communicating and competing.” Many dancers are willing and eager to compete against other schools, and Sheriff believes that inter-school competition is a feasible possibility.
Episcopal’s mission statement is to encourage boys and girls in mind, body, and spirit. How can EA live up to the mission statement, if the dance team is not recognized for how they are using their mind, body, and spirit? Sheriff comments, “The mission statement implies three tenets, and it’s shown on the EA website that is a staple here. If you’re thinking about developing someone’s spiritual development and their mental development, being able to see where they came from and where they are going is important to that spiritual development. So you have to give people a physical representation of what they have accomplished. Being able to see and feel that dance not only exists here, but it is lived here, and it’s accomplished here.”
The lack of varsity letters puts dancers at a significant disadvantage compared to students in other sports across the country, especially when it comes to college or applying for other opportunities. Despite their varsity-worthy hours of physical strain, dedication, and sacrifices, EA dancers are unable to accurately report and convey the work they put into dance on applications. Unlike other top athletes, they are not able to list dance as varsity engagement, even if they are among the top dancers in the school. These members are also at a disadvantage if they want to pursue dance at a higher level because they will be less likely to be recruited or recognized by college-level dance programs or troops.
Athletic Director Todd Fairlie agrees that the dance team deserves acknowledgment. He says, “I think it’s great to support the dance team and to see what they are doing. We want to work towards making sure [our dancers] feel supported for all they do because it is very impressive what they put together. I am excited to make sure we continue to support it, offer it, not just embrace it, but encourage it, and recognize it accordingly.” Hopefully, the dancers are able to compete, either through Inter-AC or state or national competitions, and if EA coordinates the infrastructure needed to support the team, with enough support from the EA community, dancers will soon get the opportunity to earn varsity letters. Hopefully, the conversation will start sooner than later and a rubric will be created so that the team can earn Varsity status and have the same benefits as all other sports at EA.
