LINE BREAKS & OTHER VIOLENT CRIMES

I suspect that most dance-lovers (most particularly ballet-lovers) adore tennis. There is a great affinity between the combination of athleticism, power, dexterity, speed and coordination demanded by tennis, and those very same qualities that can be particularly evident in ballet.

In that sense, I’ve always thought of Roger Federer as the Baryshnikov of tennis, possessing a similar ability to apparently bend time to his will as he executes the most difficult of physical feats -– and to do it with both grace and clarity, making it look … easy. He never seems to be pushing, and he always has more time, as if it slows down for him: more time to remain in the air and land softly, more time to get to that seemingly out of reach drop shot. Stealthy and elegant, and rarely ruffled. Nadal then ha[s] to be Angel Corrella at American Ballet Theater (muscle-power over grace, virtuosity, fireworks, excitement). Nadal … lets you see how hard he’s working — and in ballet we think of that as a negative. It’s an extremely difficult art that’s supposed to seem effortless, and not as if the dancer is pushing to attain great heights. Nadal makes an art out of pushing — in a way he’s like a b-boy, going for broke and delighting in stretching himself to the limit and beyond (really playing with the idea of tennis as performative competition). This isn’t to say that he, or a b-boy, lack elegance and grace; it’s just a grittier, more street style of play/dance.

NYTimes: Tennis’ Connection with Ballet and Dance (via unwordinglanguage)

Federer and Baryshnikov are two of my favorite bodies, so.