About 10 years ago, I started taking ballet lessons for the exercise, (had to quit a couple of years later because of plantar fasciitis and then never got back to it).
Our teacher was “retired” from the stage circuit and had been teaching quite a while, so she was probably in her late sixties then, and I don’t remember where all she worked — California and Utah IIRC.

The point of this digression:
I remember her remarking once that, when she started her career, the gay dancers had to pretend to be straight, often with a suitable marriage to carry the illusion; but by the time she retired, “you had to be gay to get a job.”

Another digression, since this is a male dancer post:
At one point, a young man joined our class, which had a large age range — I was among the oldest, but there were also young & middle aged women and a couple of guys who had danced awhile decided they just didn’t want to do that as a career.

Anyway, Matthew had already earned about 5 or 6 black belts in all the martial arts he could find locally, and one of his teachers suggested he take some ballet to improve his balance and flexibility.
He loved it — within the year he was dancing most of the male parts other than the lead (always an imported pro) in our annual “Nutcracker” — at the end of his second year, he became an intern in a Utah dance company.

I didn’t keep up with him after I left the class, but it’s a great example of unusual cross-training.

There is an old story of football teams being sent to the college ballet class for the same reasons, and getting beat into the ground by the regimen.
Different muscle groups and so forth.

There’s an internet post about everything.
https://www.balletbarresonline.com/blogs/news/93291073-why-do-football-players-practice-ballet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQQRvt3ipCU
Football Players take Ballet HD –
Spring 2017: Six football players took 10 ballet classes as a method of injury prevention

And don’t forget the classics.
I went with my teacher to see them in Denver about a year or so before this was filmed.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
TEATRO DEGLI ARCIMBOLDI, LUNEDÌ 26 DICEMBRE 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0MyFrvaxf0

They play a lot of things for laughs, of course, but are really very good.
In a distance shot of a serious passage, it’s hard to realize they are (often quite large) men in tutus.

It’s accomplished through amazing strength in thighs and butt, and also wonderful timing, as well as the right breathing. Nijinsky used to say this about the process:

When asked if it was difficult to seemingly hang in the air when jumping, he replied: ‘No! No! Not difficult. You have just to go up and then pause a little up there.”

That may seem preposterous, but it’s not. It goes without saying that I’m no Nijinsky, but in my own little (very little) way I would try to do the same. I can’t explain it, but I think it has partly to do with holding the breath for a moment and also freezing the motion for a moment, and keeping the same tension, as though you’re freezing for a snapshot.

Note that photos of Nijinsky reveal a similar thigh-to-torso ratio as with Baryshnikov.

Again, about heights in ballet – see this post, in which I mention how most dancers are quite small and look taller onstage. As for Leslie Browne, she is not 5’7″. During the filming of “The Turning Point,” I saw her nearly every day in the dance class I took. I stood near her many times. I am 5’4″, and she is either my height or maybe one inch taller. Nowhere near 5’7″. I don’t care what some website says.

Also, about the womanizing. It’s true that quite a few male dancers are gay, but quite a few are straight. And the straight ones have a field day, for the most part. Lots of women from which to choose, and everybody lean and lovely.

Got it all.

I think this true of many New Yorkers. The Best in the performing arts means a level of skill and focus that simply lets the audience be drawn into the work… “making it look easy” makes it look convincing and inevitable, believable. You don’t need to be a connoisseur to “get it”.

OTOH it is relatively easy to identify performances that fall short – when the spell of a performance is broken by distracting technique (good or bad, as Neo has shown us with her examples of inexpressive hyperextension) or lack of direction, focus, or committment by the performers.

“Making it look easy” is a necessary first step to enchanting an audience.

I really liked The Turning Point, with the reality of decisions made (I said this …17 years ago, too, here on Neo’s blog).

In the trailer
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4143644953/?playlistId=tt0076843&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi

Mikhail looks about Leslie Brown’s height of … 170cm = 66.9 inches. 5-7, but likely just a bit shorter.

Unlike so many male ballet dancers, he was quite a successful womanizer in real life, as in that movie.

It’s so hard to improve from very good to truly great – the best, perhaps the GOAT (greatest of all time). He did so.

Basketballs Michael Jordan appeared to float but that was an illusion. At the apex of his leap the ball is held near head level and as he descends he lets his body fall away from the ball by extending his arm to keep the ball at its initial height. Followed by a tremendous dunk of course.

I watched that first clip of Baryshnikov a dozen times and can’t determine how the illusion is accomplished. Absolutely amazing.

Great story – you have so many of them, and have been so generous in sharing them with us.