EXCERPT: I began to worry that ballerina Misty Copeland was beginning to be unnecessarily eroticized rather than being celebrated more for her ground-breaking accomplishments and amazing talent. And then I began to notice all the rising ballerinas, who perhaps after getting too tall or too round as they got into puberty figured out their aspirations to join a Ballet company were over, comment on how Misty is their hero and is inspiring them to stick it out and continue dancing. And then it hit me! Perhaps Copeland will be that body change for a field that is marred by stigma of anorexia, bullemia and flawed body images. She could be the Serena Williams of Ballet because before the Williams sisters entered the professional Women’s Tennis field, Grand Slam champs were 5’5 - 5’8, small to medium framed women like Martina Hingis (5’5”) who was dominating the game at the time. Justine Henin (5’5”); Tracy Austin (5’5”); Conchita Martinez (5’7”) Enter the “Serena Williams effect” and within years, it became impossible to ascend far into championship rounds of the Major tournaments unless you had the strength to ace a tennis ball at the speed of 120 mph and above — and large strong biceps and shoulders with the power to match. Since then, the championships, when not won by a Williams sister, have been won by women 5’7 to 6’2 inches tall with large muscular frames and mainly hailing from Eastern European countries that historically, have been known to have strong super larger-framed female athletes. Think: Svetlana Kuznetsova (5’8”), Petra Kvitova (6’0”), Amalie Mauresmo (5’9”), Kim Clijsters (5’8”), Victoria Azarenka (6’0”), Maria Sharapova (6’2”), Ana Ivanovic (6’)Marion Bartoli (5’7”) , Lindsey Davenport (6’2”) and Anastasia Myskina (5’9”) READ MORE...
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 16:29:37 +0000