Dancing With Anton

[billiey36]

Thanks for the offer of donations, Tina, but I think we have it under control.

[billiey36]

Epiphaniii, I think Rusty got in an argument with a ref at his very last competition. Nothing like going out with a bang! Well, he didn't have anything to lose.

Mellie, what kind of dance did you take? And were you serious about it?

[mellie]

Billiey,
As my little saying under my avatar says, I luv to dance. I took ballet classes, but not en pointe classes. I also took jazz, modern, and hip hop. I was considering dancing as a profession, like on Broadway, when I was in high school. Injuries ended that thought, and now I just go through bar warm-ups, and a few dance techniques as exercise.

[billiey36 guest]

Wow, Mellie, you were serious about dancing. That's too bad about the injury ending your career. That happens all too often.

Were you under any pressure to keep your weight down when you did ballet? I've heard horror stories about anorexia.

[billiey36 guest]

Whoops, just realized you were in high school at the time, Mellie. I don't imagine there was the same pressure about weight as there would be later on.

[epiphaniii]

Billiey, I thought I'd read something about that argument, too. I wish I could have seen that! Bad Rusty.

Mellie, it's nice to see another dancer here! I took ballet, modern and jazz as a child and in high school. Like you, I still dance on my own for exercise and it is very effective as well as fun.

[mellie]

Hey Epiphaniii, it's cool that you are a dancer too. It's fun to do and it keeps you in great shape.

Billiey, my dance teachers didn't put pressure on me about weight, but my dance instructor for high school dance team did pressure on the members. We had weigh-ins every Wednesday to make sure we were within our weight limit. The weight limit was based on your height and I don't remember what else. If you went over your weight limit, you could not dance or participate for a week. I do remember girls not eating much. There was even a joke about the dance team diet. It was a diet coke for breakfast and two slices of an apple; For lunch, a diet coke and a small salad; For dinner, a diet coke after throwing up everything you ate during the day. I think the largest sized girl on the team was a junior size 9.

[Bella on her way to work]

Hi girls,

Just wanted to chime in about dancers and eating & weight management. At one of the theatre's I worked at in New York there was a very prestigous Ballet School housed in the same building as our administrative offices. Both the school's classroom and dorms were in that building. I saw dancers everyday in the cafeteria on the ground floor. Mostly, they would eat enormous salads or fruits and not much of anything else. All that dancing coupled with low calorie, healthy fruits and vegetables made for pretty lean ballerinas.

Also, at another theatre I worked at, we presented a ballet company from Moscow. These kids were lean, as all dancers are, but they ate like it was Christmas. I know, cause it was my job to provide "hospitality" for them. They first day I brought them the typical American fare before their morning class: pastries, muffins, bagels cream cheese and juice. I bought a small bag of oranges, just in case. I left the green room area to get a sthingy to measure out coffee and when I returned, the oranges were already gone, but the pastries were untouched. I saw one of the principles come out to the green room. He had an orange in his hand. He did not speak any English but he held the orange up to me and said something in Russian and I said back "More?" and he said some more Russian and nodded his head. Then I noticed he had stuffed one orange into each of the pockets of his warmup pants.

I went back to the store and bought more oranges, grapes, apples, pears, bananas etc. I bought enough fruit for an army each day and everyday within minutes of setting it out it would be gone. This was in addition to catered meals provided by the company. I guess when you are burning that many calories dancing, as long as you indulge in low calorie, high energy foods, you end up burning anything you consume.

Hahahaha, they literally danced their butts off!

[evie5]

It's amazing that we've been dancing with Anton for months....Now he's Dancing With The Stars!!!

[CrimsonAngel]

I used to be a dancer. I stopped dancing professionally when I was 25.

I had been dancing a long time. Really actively since I was around maybe 12 or 13.

[mellie]

Wow Crims, I didn't know that you danced professionally. What type of dancing did you do? As mentioned a few of us took dance classes, but we never danced professionally.