It's interesting to point out that while our athletes in Osaka were striving for their second worst result since the world athletics championships began in 1983, our ballet dancers were also on tour in Japan. 
"'That was me shouting bravo,' Masashi Miura, one of the city's foremost dance commentators, told The Australian, and he wasn't alone. At the final curtain large sections of the crowd stood and everyone cheered," said the report on the Australian Ballet tour.
There is a wonderful synchronicity between athletics and ballet as anyone who appreciates both sport and the arts will know. The physical hardship and strain these performers and athletes go through is phenomenal.
A report published in 2000 found that "the injury rate for ballet dancers over an eight-month period was 61 percent. This is comparable to rates found in other studies for athletes in collision sports such as football and wrestling."
It's remarkable that the Australian Ballet even gets to tour, let alone wow audiences and receive gold medal review after gold medal review as they did with their latest Japan trip.
In the same way, the physical journey that the rugby lads are about to go through will be an amazing test of determination and physical strength during the Rugby World Cup. According to that ever trusted source, Wikipedia, the Rugby World Cup is the third biggest sporting event in the world after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. It puts to shame the US appalling habit of calling everything that they do (on their own) a 'world series'.
As I write, there is only 1 day, 19 hours and 59 minutes till the big event starts!
It might surprise those in the anti-arts brigade to know that some of us arts people enjoy sport. In fact, in 1 day, 19 hours and 58 minutes, I will be walking down to a mates place with a slab over my shoulder ready for the start of a month of sleeplessness.
And surprisingly, a lot of other 'arty' people will be there as well. Actors, directors, musicians. Can you imagine?
I think its one of those urban myths that the anti-arts brigade like to push - 'Arts people don't like sport'. It's absolute rubbish of course and to prove it, I won my father's Super 14 tipping competition this year against a bunch of ex-footballers. $500 thanks very much!
It's just as ridiculous to claim that sports people don't like the arts. Take Collingwood's Rupert Betheras who recently jumped from AFL Premiership winner to visual artist. I just hope for his sake he doesn't get any Australia Council funding, otherwise the brigade will be after him! I can see the Bolt headline already - "Footballer Now Painting With YOUR Money."
Here's to a good (and successful) World Cup folks!
Image credit: "ballet by Denis Germain"
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Arts v Sport - Round One
Posted by Nicholas Pickard at 8:42 am
Labels: Arts Funding, Ballet, Sport
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5 comments:
Go Wales!
... and I'd be curious to know how much the Federal Government contributed to the Australian Ballet's tour of Japan. And how that compares to the recent athletics tour-de-failure.
nick, you've been right on the ball with these past few blogs. I wonder if we'll see lil johnny in his tacky green tracky-dacs cheering on ostraya again. Couldn't imagine him doing the same for ballet.
not that we'd want him to, of course...
Tour de Farce more like it.
All too bloody true. Australian artists do amazingly overseas, but we don't often hear about it. (And I'm not merely referring to my husband!) For example, I had to spend six months in Cambridge before I understood that John Kinsella had completely revolutionised the Cambridge English department there - all these Dons spoke of him with a kind of dazed awe. And in terms of the promotion of Australian poetry, he's had knock on effects all over the world. He's very famous, even annointed by Harold Bloom as Canon. Here he's kind of dismissed as a "careerist". V odd.
For the record, I'm sleepless around Wimbledon, unless I happen to be in the UK. And scandals and all, I love the Tour de France.
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