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Sports Dance for Boys turns 11
Th ere I stood on the dark stage; bowlegged,
thumbs tucked behind my belt
buckle, Stetson rakishly tilted to one side,
butterfl ies swooping around in my stomach.
Th e sound of Copland’s score drift -
ing like heat waves out of the pit. I
remember saying to myself: I did it, I am
a real ballet dancer! Eight thousand hours
of tendus lead me to this place. Rodeo
was the kind of ballet I loved. Th e sword
ghting wise-guy Mercutio in Romeo and
Juliet, the plucky gas attendant in Filling
Station, the wacky Jester in Swan Lake,
Puck, Bottom, Billy the Kid, and countless
pirates and Nutcrackers - those were
MY roles. My mentors were Freddie
Franklin, Paul Sutherland, Flemming
Flindt, and Jacques d’Amboise - men
who could bring characters to life on
stage- not just jump and turn. Men who
could act and love and completely inhabit
their character in that night’s ballet --
all while supporting and framing some
of the most beautiful, strong women who
ever danced. Th ose were my heros. I did a
lot of other stuff to get to that fi rst Rodeo.
I grew up in East Texas and I didn’t see a
ballet on stage until I was in one. I was a
street clown, a musician, a break dancer,
a soccer player- you name it, I tried it- but
no ballet until I saw Mikhail Baryshnikov
in White Nights. He opened that movie
with the fi nal solo from Young Man and
Death, and I remember sitting there and
saying I want to do that. I said this to my
father and he notifi ed me that starting
ballet at 19 was the equivalent of being
5’8” and wanting to join the NBA! But
because I was 19 , I thumbed my nose at
him and left my home town for Dallas.
I don’t think I could have gotten luckier
in fi nding my teachers. Th e fi rst was
Natasha Krasovska. A great ballerina with
the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She led
me to Flemming Flindt at Dallas Ballet.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the
Bournonville style of ballet is one of the
best male ballet techniques and I soaked
it up. Natasha’s Russian character style
Bournonville, my fi rst taste of Balanchine
with Bill and Ann at Dallas Metropolitan
Ballet, Ann’s crazy partnering and Bills
pirouettes and double tours were everything
to me. My fi rst company was Tulsa
Ballet Th eatre. Roman Jasinski Senior
saw on my resume that I had been a street
clown and asked me to stay aft er the audition
to do a funny walk for the character
called Milk Toast in Lew Christensen’s
ballet Filling Station. I made him laugh
and to my amazement he gave me a job
with the stipulation that I rehearse all day
and come back at night and take the kids
classes. My feet ached so bad aft er the fi rst
week I remember thinking I am not going
to make it! I can’t walk much less dance.
I persevered, standing in trash cans of ice
water; starting late I didn’t have the bone
density of the other dancers and had to
endure the growing pains of the ballet
dancer in fast forward. My ballet vocabulary
was so bad I had to watch the others
do the combinations and then mimic
them. Th en Freddie Franklin came along
to teach Coppelia and cast me as Doctor
Coppelius. Freddie loved that I could
break dance and clown. He took me
under his wing and taught me great roles
like Johnny in Frankie and Johnny and
the Peruvian in Gaite Parisienne. Freddie
was the original Roper in Rodeo.
I know what you are saying: What does
this have to do with Sports Dance turning
8 and what the heck is it anyway? Well,
I came up with the name Sports Dance
for Boys aft er a friend of mine in New
York asked me to teach her son ballet. I
saw the scowl on the boy’s face and the
groan of desperation and I thought I can’t
call the class ballet for boys because even
in New York City the boys have a seemingly
built- in prejudice So I called my
class Sports Dance for Boys and I decided
to teach a mixture of dance styles and
sprinkle it with ballet. Sure enough, the
boys loved it. Th ose little classes turned
into Long Island City School of Ballet in
Long Island City, NY. We are just across
the east river from midtown Manhattan
where I ended up aft er 25 years of dancing
in ballet companies all over the world.
We have two hundred or so young ballerinas,
and thanks to Sports Dance, around
40 boys. You ask any ballet school and
they will tell you that is a lot of boys!
Now they don’t all go into the ballet program,
mind you, but I do choreograph
ballets on them. We have been gladiators,
jedi’s, pirates, tomb raiders, zombies, and
of course cowboys. We use stories that I
make up or we make up together -- things
that are from their life perspectives and
experiences. I teach them how to partner
the girls and do split jumps, coff ee
grinders, pirouettes, double tours en l’air,
tour jetes, even the occasional tendu. Of
course, I might not call the movements
by their french names, but I didn’t know
what those steps were called when I started.
It doesn’t really matter to me if they
become great ballet dancers. Some may,
as there are about eight crossovers to the
Graded Level Ballet program. I love this!
If they have the bug for the technique and
precision, it makes me very happy to give
them a head start toward where ballet can
take them.
Th at brings us back to that dark stage.
Th e long gaze out over the imagined
plains of Oklahoma. Morning sunlight in
our eyes. Eight strong, agile men starting
the long day of cattle herding. We ride
off the stage, sliding side to side with the
rhythm of that great music. Th at is what
ballet is to me: not an abstraction of life,
but life itself, personifi ed, to music. I want
those boys to learn they can be whatever
they want to be in this life they are
not stuck with any stereotype. “Mom, I
don’t take ballet, I take Sports Dance,” I
hope will change to “I take ballet and I
am proud of it”. Eric Ragan Director and
Coach, Long Island City School of Ballet
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