The dancer as athlete, the athlete as dancer

Last night, ABC announced its new cast for the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars, and Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson will be among the celebrity dancers. Hence, today's post has a theme: athletes and dance—an opportunity to visit a connection that isn't noted often enough.

Dance requires considerable strength ("core strength" if you like). Ballet, for instance. Though mostly thought of as performers, which they are first, ballerinas are athletes as well. And when, for example, they shift to film and television, where former ballerinas Summer Glau and Jennifer Garner have been so successful, their ballet training favors them in action roles, with a manner that is at once puissant and graceful.

I close with an illustration which is also an entertainment. A wonderful clip produced by the Anaheim Ballet: