On Basketball(et)
The economists at Freakonomics pose an interesting question this week:
Over the past half-century, ballet dancers who perform Sleeping Beauty at London’s Royal Opera House have been raising their legs higher and higher. So why, over the same time period, have professional basketball players not improved their free-throw shooting?
The question* supposes that a raised leg in ballet is a technical benefit, much like better free-throwing. The trend of higher legs in ballet however, is not an improvement (if anything, it’s an injury-riddled detriment), but instead, simply a change in style.
There is an old phrase that says “The Italians invented ballet, the French gave it language, the Russians made it perfect and the Americans turned it in to gymnastics.” For the latter, we have George Balanchine to thank. Balanchine was among the Russian dance émigrés who came to the United States in the mid-1930s. Although his foundation was the classical, St. Petersburg training, Balanchine began to create a neoclassical technique that aligned ballet with the work of modern American and European artists and composers. Eventually cofounding the School of American Ballet and the NYCB, he institutionalized his method, becoming, arguably, the single largest influence in ballet since the 1800s.
What does the Balanchine method entail? To start, technically difficult steps, done at break neck speeds. On top of that, Balanchine was mad about the look of hyper-extensions. Once asked the difference between the Russian style of ballet and the style he created, he said, “The Russians divide the dancers body horizontally - heads, bodies, legs. I divide it vertically.” This strong vertical line meant that in arabesque, the extended leg would go much past waist level, to look like a split, done standing up. The overall illusion of the Balanchine Method is that dancers utilize more space in less time.
It is not surprising that a little change to the old ballet didn’t catch on in Stalin’s Russia. Ruling czars found these higher extensions a vulgar imposition and as a result, the experimental choreographers of Balanchine’s generation were suppressed, leaving European ballet stuck in its old traditions. No bother for “Mr. B,” however. Across the pond, he was launching his first ballet, Serenade, featuring this neo-classical technique. In 1934, the American ballet tradition was born, “replete with gymnastics,” as one reviewer claimed.
Today the dancers of Balanchine’s New York City Ballet are leaner and leggier than dancers in any other company, with huge extensions, extreme flexibility and - shocking - more hip and knee injuries than more traditionally trained dancers. Around the world, Balanchine’s “American” style is instantly recognizable and characterized by modern, rigorous technique.
In all athletic activities, including dance, technique is the underpinning of style. When the Williams sisters rally, they make tennis look graceful and effortless. That’s because their groundstroke technique involves a fluid follow through and sturdy footing. When Phelps swims, he looks like a dolphin, thanks to his impeccable rhythm and unique head positioning. Michael Jordan was famous for “flying” on the court (style), due to his ability to jump higher and longer than anyone else (technique).
To return to the Freakonomics question then, ballet and basketball are wrongly compared here. Free-throw shooting is a technique necessary to win. Once in place, it can be executed in a variety of styles. The exaggerated leg extension of the Balanchine tradition is the style, the final product. Delivering such grueling choreography required a newer kind of technique, namely open hips, greater flexibility and 180 degree turnout. At least in basketball, they let you keep your skeleton!
* Oddly, a team of academics studied and peer reviewed this very question.