but weren't we dying anyway?

1. Look how they lead the movement as they step back. Baryshnikov moves his leg following a hip/torso movement. Hines comes very close to leading with his knee. You’ll see that knee-leading motion in a later step, too. You can probably do this yourself: stand with your feet and hips square to the front, then turn your hips towards the left and use the pull of it to lead your leg into the step. Then go back to square, and take a step back by letting your knee open to the side and go backwards. You should be able to feel the muscles working pretty differently – the first movement engages a lot more of your core, the second relies more on your various thigh muscles.

2. The leg extension in the air – that perfect straight leg is ballet to the core – and look at how differently their hips and feet are when they land! Baryshnikov’s hips are squared to the side and his feet are aligned; Hines’s hips are angled and his back foot faces the front and is flat. If a ballet dancer had his foot like that – and he might – his hips wouldn’t be doing that angle.

3. This is a tap sequence and it’s where that knee-lead comes in again. Hines’s hips are loose and his knees seem to be leading the movement – almost like they are pulling both his hips and his ankles along for the ride. You can see where his feet will strike by watching the knees. Baryshnikov is not a tap dancer and it really shows here! Once again you can see that he moves his hips in order to shift his knees and weight.

4. There are a few things here but the biggest to me is how they land out of that jump. Hines lands…well, like a tap dancer. He comes down hard and flat – you can see the little jolt as he hits – like he’s slammin’ that tap shoe down to make a big ol’ noise. Baryshnikov’s landing foot isn’t as easy to see, but he comes down toe-first, as is correct for ballet.

5. Again there are a few, but what I find most striking is the looseness/rigidness of posture. Both of them have immense body control, but Hines is letting his joints flex more in the air. It looks to me like again he brings his heel down harder, as well, on both back and front legs – in fact I kind of wonder if the heeled boots Baryshnikov has on are to make it easier for him to match Hines’s foot movements in certain sequences, since he won’t have to bring his foot down as far. (They’re both in shoes with some degree of heel, but Hines’s are much less so.)