Not only did she help me with the story, but she also offered to do a short blog comparing elite tennis players to famous dancers. What follows is an exchange between Sulcas and Claudia La Rocco, another New York Times dance writer:
Roslyn
“I suspect that most dance-lovers (and, I have a feeling, 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. And tennis has the same quality of individual endeavor as dance –- the player/performer is always pitted against his or her own achievements as much as anything else. Dancers recognize that when they watch great tennis players at work.
“In that sense, I’ve always thought of Roger Federer as the Baryshnikov of dance, 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 not just easy but inevitable. I commented on this recently to Claudia La Rocco, a fellow dance-writer at The New York Times, adding that Nadal then had to be Angel Corrella at American Ballet Theater (muscle-power over grace, virtuosity, fireworks, excitement).
“I like this game!” she responded, together with the following note.”
Claudia
“The more I think about this, the more it seems that we would have to expand it to include different genres of dance, no? For me, Fed would remain a ballet dancer, and the person that comes to mind first is Herman Cornejo – like Federer, 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.
“But Nadal on the other hand, let’s you see how hard he’s working –- and in ballet we think of that as a negative, right? 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 (though maybe Monfils is the truer b-boy, in terms of psyching himself up and 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. The great tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith also comes to mind when thinking of Nadal, for his explosiveness (he’ll be at the Kitchen Oct. 22-24, as will the great Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards; she’s much smoother than Serena Williams, but in terms of fierceness, I think the two share some elements of style).
“I agree with you about the affinity between dance and tennis, Ros -– and yes, perhaps particularly ballet. All that mental toughness and grit laced through ridiculously difficult physical tasks -– how alone the athlete/artist is on that stage, yet how much communion there is between a star and an audience, how electric and intimate it can become. I’m thinking of Agassi, or Nina Ananiashvili. And how about when we know it will be someone’s final match or performance?
“Now what about the women? So many Russian divas to choose from, and so much drama. I can think of more than a few dying swans …”
Roslyn
“I think you would definitely have to think beyond classical ballet to find parallels for most of the women, since toughness isn’t exactly a characteristic that female ballet dancers are encouraged to display –- even though, of course, female ballet dancers are fit enough to arm-wrestle most men to the ground sipping a coffee (black, no sugar) with the spare hand.
“And speaking of toughness, the Kim Clijsters comeback story does make me think that it’s interesting that when a major female ballet star has a baby –- and they do -– no-one makes the kind of fuss over a return to physical form that Clijsters has received, even though the physical demands of performing principal roles are just as grueling. And a ballet dancer has to conform to a certain look too. Which is to say: very, very thin.
“But back to the women. Venus Williams reminds me a bit of Maria Kowrowski at City Ballet; the same long-limbed cool, the same slightly impassive reserve that makes you feel that they are holding something back. Serena is more like a Paul Taylor dancer; grounded yet fleet, virtuosic yet somehow making the movement look natural rather than supremely athletic.
Melanie Oudin? A corps de ballet dancer who suddenly turns out to be a star (Gillian Murphy!) with a will of iron.”
By GREG BISHOP