Ballet as Sport: Athletes on Pointe

Author(s): Pamela Patrick

Source: Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 1978), pp. 20-21
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3345985
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Ballet As Sport: Athletes On Pointe
Pamela Patrick

The instructor raises her voice above the chatter. dancers themselves do not wish to be identified as
"Let's begin, please." Twenty students, mostly athletes, but rather as performing artists.
women, move to the barre. All are in tights, leotards, Maybe dancers are not considered athletes because
leg warmers, sweaters, T-shirts-odds and ends all the blood and sweat that comes with dance (the
wrapped or tied on the body to keep cold muscles same brand of blood and sweat that comes with any
warm until the blood begins to pump and the sweat sport) is so well hidden under layers of white tulle
begins to flow. As the smooth piano music fills the and pink satin slippers. Or perhaps it is just that
room, the dancers arrange themselves: left hands on ballet is almost always seen from a distance of at
the barre, heels squeezed together, pulling thigh and least fifty feet and there are few "up close and
stomach muscles up tightly. personal" televised interviews with dancers between
As instructions pour from the dance mistress, acts.
muscles twitch and tremble, jaws tighten, and the Not many audiences have the chance to wander
sweat of the dancers begins to drip from noses and backstage during a performance as I have and see a
limbs. This is a class, a practice session, training. It dancer fly into the wings with chest heaving, lunging
is similar to the endless routine any athlete must for the oxygen machine that is often backstage,
repeat in order to reach for perfection. Some of the though network television cameras commonly pick up
world's greatest female athletes have been dancers, sweaty football players doing the same thing. Ballet
beginning with La Camargo, the first ballerina, who audiences only see the smiling dancer leaping onto the
made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1721. And as stage again. Football fans and many other audiences
ballet has grown as an art, so too has it grown toward of televised sports events see every second of the
being the most demanding sport of all. agony.
But despite the 300 years of technique development An injured football player who lies stricken on the
and millions of hours spent in training, somehow field, attended by doctors and trainers is finally
dancers are still not considered physical; not neces- carried off to resounding applause . . . a bit of sweet
sarily strong, not "in shape," not athletes. Female victory out of a small defeat. When a dancer
dancers may be considered beautiful, skilled, crumples to the stage as the final curtain rings down,
capable-"artistes" even-but they are not viewed moaning and gasping for breath because of a cramp-
as athletes. And male dancers-even the most ing diaphragm, there are no cheers and ap-
muscle-bound and virile-must endure sly referencesplause . . . only the sound of feet shuffling up the
to their sexuality because they have chosen a aisles and out the doors of the emptying theater.
"woman's" sport. Whatever the reasons, dance has been rather
Perhaps it is because the popularity of the artsconspicuously left out of the realm of sports, leaving
rises and falls, or because the public has not paiddancers-perhaps the most well-trained and
well-developed of all athletes-out in the cold as
consistent close attention to ballet. Perhaps society
chooses to ignore the athletic component of ballet athletes.
because dance is more acceptable for women than Just how physically well-developed dancers are has
field hockey: how can it be sports if it looks so been established in a chart compiled by Dr. James A.
feminine? Or perhaps it is because many ballet Nicholas, Director of the Institute of Sports Medicine

Pamela Patrick is a journalist and a "ballet jock. " She has written for The Denver Post and various local and
national newspapers and magazines, including womenSports. She began studying ballet late in life, at the ripe
old age of twenty-five.

FRONTIERS Vol. III, No. 1 @1978 Women Studies Program, University of Colorado

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 Patrick 21

and Athle
physical training and ability that makes all else
York possible-the
City.[1 same kind of training, perseverance,
muscular discipline, competition, and teamwork that makes any
endurance sport appealing and even compelling to its players.
first place. Trailing by one point was football. Women have done this-been superb athletes of the
Trailing by two was basketball. Hanging in there at dance-and as women embark in this century upon
third place were judo and gymnastics. many other kinds of sports, it is good to know that for
When the psychometric and mental factors such as almost three centuries women have been among the
intelligence, creativity, motivation and discipline were best athletes in the world.
added in, ballet still easily held first place. Football
trails by two and basketball by five. The only sport
that comes close to ballet is bullfighting which,
according to the scale, rates one point below ballet.
When environmental factors come into play, ballet NOTES
does assume second place. The importance of playing
1. James A. Nicholas, "Risk Factors, Sports Medicine and the
conditions, equipment, and practice bring football Orthopedic System: An Overview," Journal of Sports Medicine
(scoring higher in playing conditions and the (September-October, 1975), 243-58.
importance of equipment) up to first place with a
total of fifty-six. Ballet garnered fifty-five points.
Bullfighting also finished with fifty-five points.
What else does ballet, or more specifically, what do
women dancers need to do to prove that they are
athletes of the first order? They have hours a day of
strenuous training, the usually conservative medical
profession even recognizes them as top athletes, but
the general public does not. Perhaps the public thinks
that ballet lacks an essential ingredient to any sport:
a healthy measure of competition. Teamwork is
another factor most people might think is missing.
And teamwork is important. It has been said that
adult women today are feeling the lack of Little
League training in their ventures in the corporate
boardroom-no teamwork experience!
But, anyone who has seen a ballet has seen
teamwork in action. A New York City Ballet produc-
tion especially involves teamwork to the extreme-
forty or more dancers on stage at once, dancing their
hearts out and not a single black eye or bruised back-
side to show for it.
Any dance except a solo is a study in interweaving
movements, the play of one dancer against another, a
contrast or a melding of movement. There have been
pieces produced where the stage is so dark during
the performance that dancers must count to the music
and sense where the other dancers are on stage.
Sensitivity in action-teamwork.
As for competition-(for better or worse) there is
constant competition of the sharpest kind in a ballet
company. Two brands and maybe three always exist.
Competition among company members for better
roles and higher standing in the company,
competition with oneself to best what one has already
done, and sometimes there is a kind of competition
between companies for audiences, notice, or critical
acclaim.
Of course ballet is not only a sport the same as
rugby or football. It is that, but more-it is an art.
Something to be done with considerably more dili-
gence, with a more exacting attitude, with a great
deal more concentration, love and spirit-and with
the intent to convey a message of some sort to who-
ever is watching. But still, at bottom, there is the

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