Page 107 - Some Dance to Remember

P. 107

Some Dance to Remember 77

And Kick was one of them.
Only a fool lacks desire to become, really become, his fantasy.
Kick projected a manly balance that was his main appeal. He never
betrayed the gift: on the street he was good example; in the bedroom he
was heroic lover; even on the physique contest posing platform where ani-
mal aggression is expected, he charmed audiences and judges and Ryan’s
heart all over again with the virile intensity of his muscular, handsome,
blond charisma.

Indulge the pop culture professor if you please. As I said, there will
be a question to solve the puzzle—theirs, mine, and ours—at the end.
American sports tend to be objective and subjective. In objective
sports, the basketball drops or does not drop through the hoop. The tight
end either catches the football or he doesn’t. The tennis pro makes his serve
or he misses. Objective sports may have referees and umpires, but they are
mostly yes-or-no athletics. Everyone basically sees the same results.
Subjective sports like gymnastics, skating, fencing, and bodybuilding
determine winners or losers not by definitive touchdowns, but by judges’
opinions. Of all sports, bodybuilding is the least understood because it
is the most subjective. If gymnastics has a right way to move on the fly-
ing rings, bodybuilding has several right ways to execute the mandatory
poses that display the bodybuilder’s various muscle groups separately and
together.
Who wins a physique contest is often as much a trick question as
which is the best art form: literature, painting, or music. The results
depend on subjective values and enthusiasms. Most Americans like their
sports cut and dried. For that reason, bodybuilding has been slow in com-
ing to national acceptance as more than a cult sport. Someday it will,
when Calvinism dies, and when it does, bodybuilding will finally become
an Olympic event.
Physique presentation is a sporting objectification of self that is art
and science, logic and feeling. A bodybuilder needs to know his body.
He is dancer, actor, salesman. He is a contradiction in terms: a romantic
existentialist. He strides barefooted across the stage with a dozen other
bodybuilders. He takes his place in the lineup. He stands pumped and
oiled and nearly naked, his two hundred and thirty pounds tucked into
his tiny four-ounce posing briefs. He poses without movement. A perfectly
sculpted statue. He radiates victory. He asserts his Command Presence

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