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Basketball and ballet: Two sides of the same coin? By
Jessica Johnson In all my years of dancing, it never occurred to me how many sports resemble dancing. Let's start with football. When my brother was trying out for the high school team, they made him run grapevines as a drill where you creatively place one foot in front of the other, and then put that same foot behind the other. Confusing? It was for my brother. Grapevines are also used in most dancing, especially in country line dancing. It's also a cool thing to amaze your not-so-coordinated date with. Just look at where grapevines got Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Basketball resembles Ballet. There are leaps, jumps and blocks that come right from the stage at Ballet West. The only thing missing is the music, the choreography and the dancers on the court occasionally send each other sprawling on the dance floor. Just let them near the tutu closet and we'll be fine. Hockey makes me think of a Nordic warrior dance. The dancer, or goalie, waves his arms to ward off the evil puck. Then the other dancers wave sticks at it trying to make the evil spirits in the puck go towards the goalie. Occasionally, the puck gets past the goalie and he becomes a possessed man. Then the Lord of the Rink, or the referee, takes the evil puck and restarts the dance. Soccer reminds me of Irish step dancing. When you see a nimble player dribbling the ball down the field, prancing and pawing at the top of the ball, you are mesmerized by his fancy footwork. Then there are those amazing foot throws where they kick up their heels. I just wish they'd all dance with their shirts off. NASCAR Racing is like the two-step to any Charlie Daniels song. The dancers and racers go around and around the floor, or track, at a thousand miles an hour and they still don't get anywhere. At least the race car drivers get to wear helmets--I've been hit several times. Baseball is definitely the swing. The players swing the bat, or the girl, and try to knock her for loop. This fast paced game is likely to keep you amused for hours, because each person you dance with is like playing a different team. You have to figure out just what their strategy is. Hunting is probably the most like dancing. You go out when it's still dark and set up your camp. You find a deer trail and camp on it. The girls are looking for the biggest buck; the guys are looking for the best doe. There is always that frantic moment between songs when you go searching for someone to dance with, I call this the moment you reach for your gun and fire. Sometimes you miss on the mountain and on the floor. That brings me to the last and final dance, or sport move, everyone must learn. I refer to the sport of rodeo. When you get bucked off, you need to get right back on. Dancing is a lot like life and rodeo, you just need to get back on and ride.
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