Television: Unbelievable

[Laschwen]

I have been listening to the TV while playing "computer" and just saw the most horrifying thing.

Leah Thompson (actress and former ballerina...supposedly) was just guesting on the Tony Danza talk show and they donned PINK pointe shoes, without ribbons no less, and began basically screwing around for a laugh. He actually tried to go up in the shoes despite them falling off at the back and kind of did the tap dancer on his toes pose for a second.

This was NUTS!

Nobody said a thing about "Don't try this at home" or how ridiculous it is to put an untrained person in point shoes anyway. This was just showing Tony trying something new like he has other guests do quite frequently.

Anybody else see this?

Maybe "educational" nastygrams to the show are in order.......

 

 

Laschwen

[Mel Johnson]

I wonder if he had a guest who used to operate heavy machinery if he'd try to incorporate that into the act? For his audience's sake, I hope not! Can't you see a steamroller taking out a file or two of seats?

[mom1]

I saw it. It was silly. I didn't see what happened before, so I'm not sure why his guest, Lea Thompson (is that her name?) was in pointe shoes either. While she could echappe (sp????), she couldn't do anything else correctly and clearly is not trained in pointe. I sort of chalked it up to a very silly, lapse in judgement that didn't wind up funny at all. If anything, they showed that even just getting onto a pointe shoe is not easy to do.

[Skittl1321]

While she could echappe (sp????), she couldn't do anything else correctly and clearly is not trained in pointe.  I sort of chalked it up to a very silly, lapse in judgement that didn't wind up funny at all.  If anything, they showed that even just getting onto a pointe shoe is not easy to do.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Most websites that list her biography show that she was at least a semi-serious prepro student, although many say something about a "professional career" So I imagine it was more of a case of not having done it in many many years.

For example:

http://www.bttf.com/thompson.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lea_Thompson

http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/lea_...son/index.shtml

I imagine anyone who hasn't done something in years wouldn't be good at it any more.

 

Now as for Tony Danza, I agree it was a silly stunt, and hope others don't copycat, but I think the general public has no idea the "dangers" of pointe shoes. They must have gone through a lot of trouble to find his size!

[puppies_fly]

I'm getting a little worried with celebs doing "ballet." I don't think it was very long ago that Ashley Simpson had a ballet class on her show, and as I recall she was rather disrespectful of the whole thing. Ballet is an art, not just 'haha look i'm standing on my toes' sort of thing. Sometimes you start wondering if maybe dancers ought to make ballet look as hard as it is

[jazzyme]

I don't think it was very long ago that Ashley Simpson had a ballet class on her show, and as I recall she was rather disrespectful of the whole thing.

 

 

I don't blame it on the celebs, really. Apparently she used to be a semi-serious ballet student too. The way they pranced around in that studio, though, was rather ridiculous. There are a few girls in my class who remind me of that episode every week. They only came back for the image.

[Siegelife]

How can you study ballet as an infant?

[Mel Johnson]

Well, considering infancy legally lasts until 18 years of age in most venues, and 21 in others, that's not a reach. Problem comes when you're 45-50 and you're still essentially an infant!

[Laschwen]

Now as for Tony Danza, I agree it was a silly stunt, and hope others don't copycat, but I think the general public has no idea the "dangers" of pointe shoes. They must have gone through a lot of trouble to find his size!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I thought I heard Leah say something about having been with ABT????

Meanwhile the size of those shoes....and the width! They were like boats.

 

Laschwen

 

Meanwhile, Maj. Mel, I think he does try every silly thing his guestd have done. It may be why he seems to be hurt all the time

[Skittl1321]

Laschwen- Based on the bios I've read on her, I think she was with a version of the ABT studio company, before they called it that.

 

It does seem that she did her share of dancing though.

[vagansmom]

Could she have been in the short-lived ABT school under Baryshnikov?

[balletbooster]

I saw an interview with her once wherein she told a story of training for a pro ballet career. I don't recall where she studied. Her dream was to dance with ABT. I don't recall whether she was dancing professionally at the time or not, but she got a private audition with Barishnikov and he told her that her legs were not long enough and she would never be a dancer. She said she was crushed and switched to theater. Seems like that has turned out pretty well for her!

[jimpickles]

Coming back to the TV show - has anyone ever seen variety-type shows where they dress (non-ballet) dancers in a classical ballet rig-out and get them to do some "classical ballet". The results are completely embarrassing, a cringe, make you feel squirmy to see, and so on.

 

I wish we had tapes of these shows to show: "Look children (and adults), you will look like this if you dont do your exercises properly".

 

But these must have been professional dancers, and as such are likely to have had ballet training in childhood. However, someone (presumably the TV producer) must have been happy with the results.

 

Jim.

[Xandra]

I find that more and more kids at school will make fun of any one who dances. If your a ballet dancer your a dork. If your a "Hip-Hop" dancer people think your cool. Same thing with Ashley Simpson and her so called "ballet class." Let's face it she's not that popular anymore. She'll never live on like Pavlova. So who cares what Ashley Simpson thinks.

[Laschwen]

Remember these?:

Ballet class with Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy.

The Gilda Radner "ballet" performance on SNL.

That episode of Leave it to Beaver with a (big for her suppposed age) kid called Judy dancing in pointe shoes doing pique turns with bent knees for a school production.

 

 

At least the first two were for the sake of comedy..... The last was just horrifying.

I have a feeling Lucille Ball and Gilda had at least a bit of training in their lives. They knew just what to do wrong....

 

Laschwen