Like many dancers, I adore tennis. It has been great to see at this year’s Wimbledon Championship a local Wimbledon player Arthur Fery do so brilliantly. And I have loved seeing some of Wimbledon Dance Academy’s students being ball girls!
There is great affinity between tennis and ballet. Both combine athleticism, power, dexterity, speed and coordination to produce performances of compelling beauty, strength and grace.
It is not for nothing that Roger Federer was called the Baryshnikov of tennis and now commentators talk of the ‘Carlos Alcaraz arabesque’ to describe the exceptional, ballerina-like court coverage and extreme flexibility of Spanish super-star Carlos Alcaraz. Sadly Carlos has been injured this year but I am hoping to see him back at Wimbledon next year!
So if you want to improve your body movement then ballet and tennis complement each other wonderfully to improve mobility and flexibility. And even if you never play on Centre Court or dance at the Royal Opera House, you will still feel like a champion!