Dancer Urges Ballet Training For Athletes

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28323, 8 July 1957, Page 7

Dancer Urges Ballet Training For Athletes

•-There is no better all-round -- training for s P° rt and athletics j Snbaßet.” said the New Zea■s Sd-born dancer from the Royal BaTet. Covent Garden. Bryan 5 Ashbridge. in Christchurch yesterJ £y. Many athletic and football .** caches in Britain were most enabout ballet training, he ** **Walt Davis, the American high <4 tamper, had set a new world | 2 record of 6ft 11 Jin and added 5 Sree inches to his previous best ' ran? after six months of ballet 3 training, he said. This led the i British Amateur Athletic Associa--1 con t 0 approach the Royal ■ Academy of Dancing. A meeting ias held, presided over by Dame; v jfergot Fcnteyn. and attended by ; heading male dancers, including' > Michael Somes. Alexander Grant 4 asd Mr Ashbridge, and leading' , jthietic coaches including Geoffery Dyson. ,: We asked to see the athletes’ ri exercises- We were staggered to J £sd that they did not do any j ?. joecial exercises but only pracused the events,” said Mr Asht bridge. “In particu’ar we could ! 51 understand how high jumpers 1 - hoped to attain any take-off power Jithout exercises for strengthen-! ' jug the legs. Take-off Power "We saw slow-motion films of! iumpers in action and found they! 5 rere not fully using their take-off *. sower and they lacked body and > breath control. They were not preMred to accept anything we said. jio we had to prove it,” he said. 1 Coaches and five dancers had e gone to a place where high .; jumpers were training. “In ex--4 reriments controlled by Geoffery > Dyson one dancer jumped over 2 i bar at 5 feet 6 inches, with his 4 body vertical. "Dyson immediately saw the - 3 advantages if this take-off power could be applied to high-jumpers. If The dancer was taught the westn era roll style and he cleared 5 u’= feet 9 inches a little later. The coaches were then completely convinced,” said Mr Ashbridge. “Twenty-five athletes longg jumpers, high jumpers and 4 hurdlers —went to classes at the -s Eoyal Academy five nights a week for 12 weeks. The training os voted a complete success and * fee scheme has now been expanded. They do exactly the same 3 exercises as a male dancer.” Arsenal and other big London \ football clubs were doing ballet, Ashbridge said. “When the | Wolverhampton Wanderers re--g filmed from Moscow, Billy Wright said that all the footballers in J Russia were dancers and all the «* dancers were athletes.” Boys Doing Ballet At one English boys’ college | til the boys were doing ballet of gymnasium work.

They don’t know though, as all names have been disguised. Th** headmaster reported a big increase in sporting proficiency after a year.”

pallet was ideal training for cricket, Mr Ashbridge said. At Auckland Grammar School, Mr Ashbridge was in the first eleven and he still plays in the London New Zealand Cricket Club. Ballet developed footwork, timing and co-ordination for batitng as well as developing muscles so that they were suited for fast movement in bowling and fielding. ‘I would like to see it in the schools here,” he said. ‘‘As soon ?? they got rid of the cock-eyed l° e dancing is effeminate the better. We want to get rid of the prejudice that male dancers are effeminate.

‘Most men who have not been to ballet think it is sissy but ballet training for sportsmen is creating a new audience. What men admire in fine batting or football is just the same as what is admired in ballet,” said Mr Ashbridge.