From Singlets to Dance Shoes

Take ballet. 

It’s advice coaches often give young athletes, but the gulf between sport and choreography is one rarely crossed by practitioners on either side. 

Now a production by Centralia Ballet is seeking to change that. 

“I want to bring more people in ... Ballet should be accessible for everyone,” said Mick Gunter, of the Centralia Ballet Academy. 

As part of its upcoming production, the Ballet Academy is going to present “The Firebird,” a ballet written by the Russian Composer Igor Stravinsky, and first performed in 1910 in Paris, France. One particular scene involves several monsters that aggressively attack and slam the main characters. The scene requires a lot of physicality and movements that, while not entirely foreign to classical dancers, are the modus operandi for martial artists and wrestlers.  

“Because of the scene, just how visceral and how powerful (it) is, I wanted people who have physicality, have strength,” Gunter said. “Fortunately, I got some wrestlers who were interested.”

One of those wrestlers is Jon Cravens, coach of the Onalaska wrestling program and a former collegiate heavyweight wrestler at Southern Oregon University. Cravens’ 8-year-old son, Nate, has been in ballet for four years and wrestled for one. For the father-son duo it’s another opportunity to share hobbies. 

“He doesn’t like my sports too much so I do his,” said Jon. “He really likes the dance, since I’m here helping him out and I figured I’d join and help Mick out with the wrestler’s perspective.”

The five wrestlers will be wearing costumes designed by video game designers and artists from Seattle to create the monstrous costumes. And they will move in a hunched, hands forward pose and use the crab walk to bear crawl steps called a hip heist and pick up other characters using the high-crotch fireman’s carry. 

Gunter and Cravens both see the production as an opportunity to change the conversations around their institutions and hopefully draw more people into them. 

Gunter thinks that by having people who normally wouldn’t go to a wrestling match come and see actual wrestlers using moves and working with dancers might give them a new appreciation for the sport, and vice versa. 

“If I can get one person to see wrestling past the stereotypes I’ll have done something good,” Cravens said. He pointed out that girls in tutus leaping around is the first thing people think of when ballet comes to mind, not the balance and core and leg strength that is required in the jumps, lifts and steps. 

“Wrestling isn’t all about strength. We need to be agile, and ballet will teach you that,” he said. 

Arin Engle, 19, wrestled for all four years of high school, but never gave ballet much thought until the call for his skill set went out. It wasn’t until the first audition that he realized how much effort goes into the dance. He saw the light and fast footwork in ballet was just as demanding as that in his own sport. The stereotypes of the dance never entered his mind. Instead he saw it as an artform people devote their lives to. 

Andrea Jones, 13, and her sister, Courtney, 10, both have wrestled for several years but had taken a dance class before. Although the two are used to being some of the only girls out on the mat, that didn’t necessarily make signing up to dance any easier. Courtney wanted to be in the production, but was scared she might “make a big mistake” while dancing so Andrea signed up to help soothe her worries. 

With the production less than a week away, the two see diverging paths for their futures. Courtney said she’s enjoyed the classes and wants to continue. In fact, the school offered her a partial scholarship to the program. 

Older sister Andrea, meanwhile, said she’s likely to stick with wrestling shoes rather than ballet slippers. 

“It’s fun and everything, but I don’t see me doing it,” she said.