I watched several episodes of "Dancing With the Stars" in the past month.

I'd like to think my interest was casual, but I found myself predicting - quite accurately, I'm ashamed to say - the judges' scores for each routine.

There you have it.

But before I turn in my sports writer's credentials, consider this: The last two celebrity winners of the televised contest were bonafide athletes. Speedskating champion Apolo Anton Ohno won the dancing gold medal this week with partner Julianne Hough, a young professional dancer. The previous winner was Emmitt Smith, the former Dallas Cowboys running back.

That doesn't mean that any athlete can excel on the dance floor. Clyde Drexler of NBA fame had very little glide in the latest "Stars" contest. One critic said he appeared to have his feet in cement. Drexler was ousted early in the competition.

I still can't see ballroom dancing - or "DanceSport," as it is named in its competitive form - ever becoming part of the Summer Olympics. But then again, I never thought I'd see synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics.

Any sport where the outcome relies almost entirely on subjective judging is problematical on the international stage. The opportunity for shenanigans is too ripe. Remember the French judge at the Salt Lake City Winter Games?

Maybe it would be different if the Olympic judges, instead of hiding behind their anonymity, took the "Dancing With the Stars" or "American Idol" approach - require the judges to speak out about why they like or dislike a performance.

Of course, the judges' comments, often humorously sardonic, are part of the show. These televised reality programs are not to be taken seriously as competitions. They are entertainment. Laili Ali may have said, "I'm pissed," when she had to settle for third place this week. But she got plenty of air time, and it was cool to see Muhammad Ali watching his daughter from the front row one night.

I prefer to think of dancing as an art form rather than a sport. It is not unusual for athletes to excel as artists, and vice versa. Just as Laili Ali did OK on the dance floor, her father could be quite expressive as a poet.

The convergence of sport and art was recognized at the recent Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table awards banquet. The Round Table and the Santa Barbara Symphony established a musician-athlete scholarship for high school seniors. The first pair to be honored were Isabel Dickinson, a cellist and distance swimmer at Santa Barbara High; and Daniel Sommerman, a violinist (and the Youth Symphony concertmaster) and soccer player at Laguna Blanca. Dickinson will attend Wesleyan University, and Sommerman is going to Stanford.

"I was really excited," Dickinson said upon being notified of her award. "Not many people recognize the commitment it takes to play a varsity sport and be one of the top musicians in an orchestra."

Competing at distances from 500 yards to a mile in the pool, Dickinson spends many hours training for her sport. "You can't miss a day of practice," she said.

She also doesn't fail to spend time with her cello every day, "even if it's just a half hour." When the Youth Symphony performs in concert, there are rehearsals before and after the performance, making for a long day.

Sometimes, when she's swimming lap after lap, Dickinson's muscles will respond to the music in her head.

"My stroke will get into the rhythm of something I've played," she said. "The first movement of the Elgar concerto has some fast rhythms. That gets stuck in my head. It works with my stroke."

According to Plato, "The body must be trained for gymnastics and the soul for music." For musician-athletes like Isabel Dickinson, the body and soul come together.