Greetings from Roanoke, VA! By the time you read this, though, I will be en route back to Asheville, returning home from my week of teaching at the Star City Summer Dance Experience, a dance camp for adult, recreational ballet dancers.

    It's been a lovely week. The devotion, passion, eagerness, enthusiasm, and astounding energy of my students here is, truly, an inspiration. I admire them wholeheartedly and am honored to have the chance to guide them. 

         I've been staying at a hotel here, which means I have something I don't at home: a television! Which also means... that I can watch the Olympics, my once-every-two-years obsession.

          And, for once, I actually got to see history being made, live. Did you see the women's all-around event? If not, please enjoy the below video:

        Now, let's talk about her choreography. And her choreographer.

        Unlike a dance performance, for which the choreographer is prominently noted, the choreographers of gymnastic routines seem to get no noticeable (or any?) public credit. But Simone's routine stands out for more than her utterly astounding acrobatics. Did you notice the intricacies of some of her arm and hand movements? The angles of her body at unusual points in the routine? The rhythms of the "dance sequence"? I'm not a gymnastics expert by any means-- and I do fully acknowledge what the main point of competitive gymnastics is-- but my sense when watching most gymnasts' floor routines is that their "dance" is kind of boiler plate. Like learned from a book instead of a person.

    I really do think Biles is the top in the world not only because of her gymnastic skill but also for the movement quality she brings to routines on the floor and beam.

     And I also think that while she sure has an innate talent for movement, that instinct was shaped and maximized by her choreographer, former ballet dancer Gregory Milan. Milan is a gymnastics choreographer who is also 100% ballet dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School, was one spot shy of being accepted into the Paris Opera itself, and had a significant career in other companies before leaving the ballet world, frustrated and disillusioned with the inequities that too often seemed to outweigh talent. 

        Here is a profile of Milan from the New York Times in July. I'm sorry if it's behind a paywall for you, but I'll leave you with a few notable quotes from the piece.

         On a personal note, I think I have such a fascination with gymnastics because of my own brief experience with it as a very young child. I took gymnastics before giving it up for ballet. I liked it, sort of, but it was just too scary. I was too timid to go upside down and backwards. The vault terrified me.

         But as a ballet dancer, partnering work was my favorite thing. I was always game for the highest lifts, the throws, the risky off-balance catches, the running leaps onto my partner's shoulder. They were exhilarating and I still miss them.

          Maybe that was because a partner is much more adaptable, considerate and and sensitive than a crash pad.