Low on the Go!

okay so i LOVED LOVED LOVED this article that warren sent me from the Toronto star :)

have fun reading.
-----



Undercover at Swan Lake
Nov. 18, 2005. 07:37 AM
PAUL HUNTER


Until yesterday, I wouldn't have known Swan Lake from Jamie Rivers.

To me, a Nutcracker was that Bryan McCabe one-timer that almost neutered Darcy Tucker the other night. They were the Winnipeg Jets not the Jetes.

I've been a sportswriter for some 20 years but there I was on the Hummingbird Centre stage, mesmerized by the grace, beauty and sheer exertion of the National Ballet company as it performed Swan Lake, which I've been told is an old classic — not unlike Jason Allison only faster moving.

I was one of those novelty walk-ons — think Steve Thomas at Leafs' camp — given the opportunity to get an insider's look at the production as a supernumerary, which is similar to an extra in movies.

I was one of the courtiers, draped in heavy cloaks, sweating while standing still at the back of the stage.

My boss saw it as a chance to compare the athleticism of dancers with the sports figures I normally cover. I clearly misunderstood the invitation to belly up to the barre.

But over the years, I've seen several Tie Domi swan dives and I always thought Vince Carter should have played here in a tutu so I was, perhaps, not completely without credentials. However, the first ballet I ever saw, I was in.

I was impressed with the performers as artists and astounded by them as athletes. There were no chubby Keith Tkachuks in this troupe.

Ballet is all illusion. It flows so elegantly that you forget there is incredible muscle with the motion. For an outsider, it seems physically impossible that the dancers hold some of those poses, or defy gravity, for as long as they do. The women playing the swans may be tiny but try lifting a dead weight like that and then swashbuckling about the stage without popping a codpiece. I'd guess most of the Leafs and Raptors couldn't do it.

The pas de deux between Odette and Siegfried may have been romantic but I haven't seen a body tossed around like that since Zdeno Chara ragdolled McCabe a couple of years ago.

Perhaps Albert Einstein was right when he said, "Dancers are the athletes of God."

He also might have said, "Art can hurt."

It is when the dancers traipse off the stage and drop the elegant facade, that one gets a better understanding of how hard they push themselves. Unheard over the orchestra is the panting as they gasp for their breath and grab for water bottles, not unlike a hockey player after a tough shift. Unseen are the pained expressions as they stretch and contort their bodies, limbering up for the next scene.

There's nothing like the image of a swan maiden, doubled over, spitting in to a garbage can to dispel the notion that this is easy.

"It takes a really long time to learn not to let yourself puke or hyperventilate (on stage). It's a really difficult thing. It's something you're taught from when you're very young," said Christopher Body, a first soloist with the National Ballet of Canada.

"I think the athletic component gets lost a lot because we try to put on a veneer, a gloss, so everything is beautiful at the ballet."

Quite a few years ago, football legend Herschel Walker took up ballet which forced people within the sports world to view ballet dancers as less — how do we say this in a politically correct manner — effete. Then there was that study in The Journal of Sports Medicine that examined 61 different activities and ranked ballet as the most physically and mentally demanding, just ahead of bullfighting and football.

Still, preconceptions die hard. Matt Nichol, the Maple Leafs' strength and conditioning coach, used to work with ballet dancers from the national company and he recalls being initially astounded by the endurance and strength of the performers.

"You figure it's a pretty artsy-fartsy kind of thing," he recalled recently. "Then you go and see what they do and you meet some of these people ... I mean some of these guys were absolutely ripped — not an ounce of body fat on them. I don't know what you call it when they do their workouts or practices but it's unbelievable. I had a new-found appreciation for them as athletes, not just as artists."

In hockey, a typical practice lasts about an hour. In ballet, a dancer, working on several productions simultaneously, is more likely to put in a seven-hour day. It's understandable then that Nichol says dancers would often come in to the clinic where he worked with repetitive stress injuries, shin splints, and tendonitis. They would get treatment, suck it up, and get themselves ready to perform that night.

"They push themselves to the limit day after day, after day, after day. It's pretty brutal the training that they do. I would say those dancers were just as physically tough as any other professional athletes I've ever worked with," he said.

"I think everyone is aware of their exceptional flexibility and balance but underestimated is how strong they are. Just look at their ability to propel their own bodyweight or support other dancers overhead."

The company, like a sports team, has a roster of medical support staff including a doctor, athletic therapist, chiropractor, four massage therapists, an oesteopath and a sports psychologist. Therapist Paul Papoutsakis, with the ballet for five years, says he treats mostly foot and ankle injuries with the women; back and knee pain with the men "because of all the lifting they do."

And, unlike a hockey player, it's tough for a dancer to support a wonky ankle or knee.

"It's not easy to tape and put on a show," said Papoutsakis. "Everything shows."

Careers in both fields are short. Dancers, like pro athletes, are often too broken down or physically and mentally spent to continue much beyond their late 30s or early 40s.

Doug Gilmour, as hard-nosed a hockey player as has even come through this city, was a "super" last year along with Steve Thomas during the company's production of The Nutcracker.

He said he was awed by the dancers.This is from a guy who is remembered for his own dance routine, with legs painted black and white, in those old milk ads.

"But I was strapped on a girder. We'd start the dance, then when you just saw the legs, that was professionals. I could never do what some of those dancers are able to do. It's pretty remarkable," he said.

As for myself, my task at yesterday's matinee consisted mostly of standing and nodding the odd time, a role made for a sports reporter. Still it was fascinating to see how much sweat goes into a performance and though I'll probably always prefer a frozen pond to a Swan Lake, I'll be back to see these athletes perform from the other side of the stage.