If the great French impressionist Edgar Degas were alive today, I think he might find some inspiration in rhythmic gymnastics, artistic's more flexible cousin.
The movement, color and flowing lines championed by impressionists like Degas, whose paintings of ballerinas are considered amongst the most and in the collective are on display this week at the 2011 World Rhytmic Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier, France. (Click here to watch the lovely artistic promo video, featuring France's Alice Dufour.)
At last month's U.S. Rhythmic Championships in St. Paul, held next door to the artistic gymnastics nationals, Getty Images photographer Ronald Martinez spent an afternoon among the rhythmicists and captured the competition using long exposure to create images that are deliberately blurred -- and beautiful.
Ronald's slideshow features some of the top names in U.S. Rhythmic Gymnastics, including national hoop champion Olga Pavlenko and ribbon champ Polina Kozitskiy. The gallery also shows top juniors Rebecca Sereda and Jazzy Kerber, who split the event titles in St. Paul. Sereda won the ball and clubs, Kerber hoop and ribbon.
The U.S.'s World Rhythmic team consists of Kozitskiy, 2011 U.S. champion Shelby Kiesel and 2010 national champion Julie Zetlin. Zetlin, who was rehabbing a torn meniscus all summer, was recently profiled by the Washington Post as the U.S.'s best chance of qualifying to the London Olympics.
Like artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnasts will have two shots to assure themselves berths to the Games: this week's Worlds and a test event in London in January. The U.S. did not qualify a gymnast to the 2008 Olympics for the first time in several quadrenniums.
Photo gallery! Click on the image of the Pavlenko off to the left (with the clubs) to access Ronald's slideshow, or simply click here. Enjoy.
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