It's been a good week for … podgy dancers
It's been a good week for … podgy dancers
Wayne Sleep has spoken out for chubby children who want to be ballet dancers. He says there are little girls all around the world "traumatised" after being "pushed to the back of ballet class because they are tubby".
Sleep, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, said telling children to give up their dreams to be a dancer is "criminal".
I don't know about traumatised, but I was that hefty five-year-old eager to develop grace and elegance in ballet pumps. Even at that tender age, I realised I wasn't quite cut out for my aspirations. The purple leotard didn't help. All the other wee girls floated about charmingly in shades of pastel. My ensemble made me look more like a big fat plum than a sugar plum fairy.
Then there was the smell that pervaded the community hall where classes were held, a faint antiseptic odour masking the unmistakable whiff of toilet, which got stronger the closer you got to the linoleum. A few years later, when we acquired an unruly puppy, I was to learn that a dog-training club had been using the hall before us on ballet class evenings. The pong had been that of incontinent puppy.
Suffice to say, my ballet career was short-lived. I took up tap, but fared little better, although I loved the shoes. In fact, I insisted on wearing them at every opportunity. My abiding memory of them, however, is of an unfortunate encounter with some dog poo.
After my dismal dancing past, I hope Wayne Sleep can make life in leotards a bit easier for ballet-tubbies. With the launch of TV show Wayne Sleep's Big Ballet, he will attempt to convince the public that "just because you're big in weight or width doesn't mean you can't dance".
Good pointe, Wayne.
It's been a bad week for … the free lunch
A Chinese chancer's cheeky scam has come to an end after he filled up on free food in the VIP lounge at Xi'an International Airport, north-west China. Having bought a first-class, fully refundable ticket aboard Eastern China Airlines, he then rebooked his ticket over and over again to qualify for complimentary meals.
One has to wonder, though, if Eastern China Airlines officials are the brightest blip on the radar screen. They only worked out the man's scheme after noticing his ticket being rebooked 300 times over one year.
They confronted him and put a stop to the scam. Not to be disheartened, however, the frequent freeloader cashed in his ticket for a full refund.
Talk about fly …
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article