"More than" ballet dancers

[toursenlair]

This is a cliche I see a lot in the media about dancers. From an article in today's links from the Irish Independent article about Iain MacKay and Jenna Roberts of BRB:

"These two are ballet dancers, sure, but they're more than that – they're athletes at the top of their game."

This bugs me so much. It implies that being a mere ballet dancer is not enough! Being an ATHLETE is so much better.

I know the writers are playing to the non-ballet public who don't realize (because ballet insists on making everything look effortless) how much physical exertion goes into it. But surely, shouldn't the statement be "These people are athletes, but they're MORE THAN athletes: they're artists!"

Just venting. It bugs me every time I see or hear it.

[Jan McNulty]

I couldn't agree more Katherine!  Dance is about so much more than athleticism  it is much more about artists who need to have the relevant degree of fitness and athleticism.  And furthermore, you wouldn't see a dancer publicly keeling over in exhaustion at the end of a performance unlike long distance runners or even sprinters (even if that is what they may feel like doing!).

[Bruce Wall]

If Ballet is an Athletic Sport ... then I think it is MORE than high time that it has an official stable (or a few) at the Olympics.  

 

Answers on an 'official' postcard ...

 

That coverage alone would ensure the artform a bigger client base that it has perhaps EVER known previously!!

 

Now who would be your Gold Medal Winner? .... (and, remember, this is not restricted to Team Britain) .... 

Edited June 26, 2013 by Meunier

[Anjuli_Bai]

Picking up from what Janet said about runners kneeling in exhaustion...

 

You also don't see dancers gasping for breath, or spitting, or groaning, or giving themselves kudos in the middle of the dance, or slapping themselves in public when they are unhappy with a performance, or chewing tobacco, or making all those twitchy gestures, or yelling out, or other posturing (unless choreographed), or looking for excuses,

 

I would never want to see ballet in the Olympics - that would make it a sport/competition.  I already rue the several competitions that already exist.

[Bruce Wall]

 

I would never want to see ballet in the Olympics - that would make it a sport/competition.  I already rue the several competitions that already exist.

 

 

I agree, Anjuli, but IF people REALLY WANT to SEE it as a form of athletics ... then the Olympics is where it will belong ... ALWAYS .... Nowhere else!!!  

 

Why?  Cos it's the top ... It's the Coliseum .... (and I don't just mean St. Martins Lane ...  )

Edited June 26, 2013 by Meunier

[Nina G.]

Meunier:...." IF people REALLY WANT to see it as a form of athletics ... then the Olympics is where it will belong .... Nowhere else!!! "

 

Ballet is not about what people REALLY WANT, it IS what it IS: ART!!!!   and the Olympics DO NOT belong to the ARTS.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Nina G.

[Dance*is*life]

I started thinking about Olympic categories for ballet - most fouettes/ longest balance/ most beats -and then I remembered Wayne Sleep on Record Breakers performing an entrechat douze - wonder if anyone has ever beaten that - as far as I know it's still in the Guiness Book of Records.

[Bruce Wall]

!   and the Olympics DO NOT belong to the ARTS.

 

 

 

Really???? .... Oh, dear.  Then why was the Olympics office lodged within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

 

Call me simple minded ... (Believe me, Nina, I don't mind!!! .... I wear this title frequently now as a banner of pride!!) .... Please go ahead.  You have my sincere blessing.

 

Bless all. 

Edited June 26, 2013 by Meunier

[zxDaveM]

Really???? .... Oh, dear.  Then why was the Olympics office lodged within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

 

 

 

Cos its SPORT - the hint is in the title...

[Bruce Wall]

Bless you, Dave ... but I was ... I think .... speaking with tongue mit cheek .... Still, with the government you can never tell ... even when you think they think they are being obvious  

[Nina G.]

...... Then why was the Olympics office lodged within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

 

 

Simple: that Department is an "umbrella" including Media and Sport and Culture.

The Olympics fell into the category "Sport".

Ballet falls into the category "Culture".

[Bruce Wall]

Sorry to have led to this off-shoot discussion on the DSMC ... Please know that was not my intent.  I was trying to be humorous and it seems I failed.  Ah, well.  Certainly I didn't mean for the comment to be taken literally.  OF COURSE Culture IS culture; sport IS sport .... and I used the word 'IF' in my sentence as an operative.  I WILL I promise strive NOT to apply what I thought MIGHT be classified as wit in the future IF I feel it will be misunderstood.  I have a much more clear idea now of the Board's boundaries.  My apologies to ALL for time wasted unnecessarily.  

Edited June 27, 2013 by Meunier

[Jan McNulty]

I think that we all have different senses of humour and we just didn't get that one Meunier - it doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep trying to amuse us!

[blackdove]

Well if Natalia Osipova goes to the Olympics I might bother watching it!

[aileen]

I enjoy reading your contributions to this forum, Meunier. You have seen so many ballets, companies and dancers going back many years and still find much to enjoy and appreciate in the performances which you go to see. It's nice to see that you have not become jaded.