Gerrard En Pointe and Rooney in a Tutu!

The Football World Cup 2014 kicks off tonight with the home nation Brazil facing Croatia in the first of the group matches. In-between practising their penalty kicks and trophy lifting techniques footballers from every country have found the time to experience Brazil’s other cultural export - dancing! While England players Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck have been attempting to master the Capoeira, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has been showing off his Samba skills at the training ground. Even the Fifa President Sepp Blatter has got into the carnival spirit Samba-ing on stage at the Fifa Congress. Brazil’s national enthusiasm for the ‘beautiful game’ is only rivalled by its love of dance. Indeed as sports writer Hanspeter Kuenzler said ‘Brazilian fans were the first to transform the terraces into a kind of mini-carnival in the 1940s, with their music, dancing and costumes’. This marriage of soccer and samba, however, is not just restricted to Brazil. Across the world many of the most successful footballers have become so because they know their plié from their penalties. English footballer Rio Ferdinand, who has been a member of three World Cup squads, was originally a Ballerino. Aged 11 he won a scholarship at the Central School of Ballet where he studied for four years before deciding to pursue football. Similarly male dancers have often learned many of the techniques they use during competitions on the pitch rather than in the studio. The professional Latin dancer Ryan McShane originally played for Northern Ireland. Dance training helps to develop strength in both of the footballer’s legs as well as improving alignment, co-ordination, movement and balance. As the ‘Divine Master’ Brazilian footballer Domingos da Guia observed the skills learnt at the barre and in the dance clubs are then effectively transferred to the pitch: ‘Samba taught me how to execute those quick dribbles with the little swing of the hips’. The benefits of dancing are so great that now many of the Football Academies have incorporated regular dance classes into their timetables.

So with England’s first match on Saturday here at Dancewear Central we’ve been practising our celebratory Samba in the hope that this combination of dancing and football will be the key to success.