Comments on: Fat Ballerina?

By: Mari

Mari — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:10:07 +0000

I remember trying to master flying splits. One of the tricks about it was that I had to be able to do a substantial oversplit on the ground before I could do a full split in the air. I’m tired just thinking about the number of jump splits I practiced. Jump straight in air, try to split, come down, use rebound to bounce back into another air split. Sets of… 20, I want to say. For gymnastics though.

I see the poses you post, and wow! For the ones with a gymnastics equivalent, I know how much flexibility and strength they require. You have fantastic form in the pictures!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 03:18:07 +0000

Ha! Well if I had any rhythm I’d try dance so we can trade. I actually live in Austin and would really like to see you perform some time!

By: danceswithfat

danceswithfat — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:21:00 +0000

Hey Molly,

Yup, she is FLYING! So incredibly amazing

By: danceswithfat

danceswithfat — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:20:32 +0000

Thank you! If I new what a sugarplum was I might send a box to Alastair!

By: danceswithfat

danceswithfat — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:19:41 +0000

Thanks Susie, if it’s true it’s absolutely a shame!

By: danceswithfat

danceswithfat — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:19:20 +0000

Hi Liisa,

That is funny, and a really interesting point. I do kind of wonder how the composer would feel about critics complaining about the people who are working so hard to give physical form to his music

By: danceswithfat

danceswithfat — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:16:12 +0000

This looks really interesting Jenna. Thanks a bunch!

By: danceswithfat

danceswithfat — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:15:37 +0000

Hi Kate, I don’t mind you asking at all, it’s a great question! Thus far, I haven’t found any issue with my dancing that wasn’t solved through improving my technique, strength, stamina or flexibility. I’m currently working on a standing back tuck, I’ll definitely keep my blog readers posted on that progress

In partner dancing there are a couple of issues that have come up:

Lifts – there are tricks where physics can be leveraged and the trick can be done but some lifts just haven’t been possible for me and probably won’t be possible for me.

The only other area has to do with size and not weight – in partner dancing there are moves where my partner wraps his arms around me. If I have a partner who also has a large body and/or short arms then some adjustment is necessary and depending upon the issue some moves may not be possible.

To be clear I am extremely lucky in that I have one of those bodies that can build a lot of muscle and is also able to be very flexible. Like most dancers, my physiology is atypical, so I’m not sure how much my experience will apply to you. It is completely awesome that you do kung fu. If I had free time I would definitely get into martial arts so for now if you don’t mind I’ll be living vicariously through you

By: Holly

Holly — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:22:14 +0000

That book looks fascinating. Thank you for sharing the link!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:34:14 +0000

I hope you don’t mind me asking this but do you ever feel like your weight negatively affects your dancing? I’m of a similar size/build to you and a martial artist (kung fu specifically). We have a few leaping/twisting moves and while I keep up pretty well I do feel like physics is kind of working against me. Just wondering if you’d ever experienced that.