If the whole football thing doesn't work out for Crimson Tide wide receiver Ryan Williams , joining the Alabama Ballet is a good back up plan.
Williams' flashy, twirling catch-and-run into the end zone to help Alabama football stun Georgia this past Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium still has football fans everywhere in a chokehold. Even the dance world has been left in awe of the 17 year-old phenom.
University of Alabama dance professor Rita Snyder was watching the game and thought, "Too bad he's not a ballet dancer."
Lynn Swann. Barry Sanders. Willie Gault. Herschel Walker.
All have football in common, but they're tied together by another unexpected thread.
All of them were in ballet classes.
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Sure, their explosiveness made these guys emulate bulls in china shops more than ballerinas. However, dance instructors and football fanatics alike can identify the similarities in footwork, balance and body control.
"Ballet is very athletic, and so there's a lot of athleticism in what I do," said Snyder, who is in her 27th and final year teaching ballet at UA. In her tenure, she's seen a number of Alabama athletes from all sports, former Crimson Tide offensive lineman Von Ewing proving the most memorable with his then-6-foot-5, 292-pound build.
"It's kind of odd, because when I'm watching the game I'm not really thinking about dance specifically. Just enjoying the game," she said.
At the same time, it's hard for Snyder not to think about dance when she sees Alabama football players executing "jetés" – the French word for "thrown" that translates to leaps in the language of ballet.
Or what Williams did to make the 75-yard game-winning catch – a "tour on l'aire," which means "turn in the air" in French.
"It's something that's more common for men's technique. … It's when the guys jump up in the air and they make a rotation and then they land back down," Snyder explained.
"Now, ballet dancers do that action more refined – you know, pointed toes – but the general coordination is basically the same."
The move takes a heap of coordination and what dancers call "air sense."
This means that Williams displays an exceptional awareness of exactly where he's at when he's in the air and how to manipulate his body while he's flying, so to speak.
Snyder compared football players like Williams to dancers like Mikhail Baryshnikov.
"I think it's just natural for humans to recognize the athleticism and the coordination, so they they show their appreciation," Snyder said. "There were a lot of people that weren't dancers that really liked Baryshnikov.
"Why? Well, because he could do these tour on l'aires that Ryan can do."
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football WR Ryan Williams compared to ballet master Baryshnikov
