Does Formula 1 have it's own ballet, like NASCAR?
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NASCAR Takes Up Ballet Jenefer Davies Mansfield wants to make one thing clear: Ward Burton will not be wearing a tutu.
The NASCAR driver will, however, be on hand for the debut of Mansfield's NASCAR Ballet next weekend in Roanoke. Burton will help television newscaster Mike Stevens provide live commentary during the Roanoke Ballet Theatre's performance, which should cause blue-blooded dilettantes to blow a few gaskets. Twenty unitard-clad dancers, representing stock cars, will "gracefully careen" around a banked horseshoe-shaped track for 90 minutes, according to the ballet's Web site.
Of course, this being NASCAR, there will be crashes -- "stuff's going to blow up," promised Mansfield, who received her MFA from George Washington University in 1995. But other dancers, belonging to the "pit crew," will be on hand to pick up the fallen dancers.
"I would say this is by far one of the most bizarre projects I've ever been associated with, no question," said an amused Stevens, who described the hooded dancers' appearance as a cross between bobsledders and members of the Blue Man Group.
The "cars" will be adorned with logos of the event's corporate backers -- which also will air commercials on three monitors that will "broadcast" the "race" to the assembled "fans."
"Nobody can understand what we're talking about," admitted Mansfield, whose group has been bombarded with calls from confused NASCAR followers who have seen advertisements for the performance. "They're sort of surprised and excited, and that's kind of our thing; to re-excite people about what dance can be."
The three performances of NASCAR ballet are timed to coincide with the Advance Auto Parts 500 next weekend in nearby Martinsville, Va. Mansfield said a different dancer will finish first at each performance, but she declined to specify who would dance into Victory Lane.
"Everybody keeps asking me that, but I keep saying, 'Well you have to come and see it,' " she explained. "I wish we could take bets."
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