Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease
Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease
Joined: 12/31/69
Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#1
Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:24pm
I seem to recall gymnastics Olympic gold medallist Dominique Dawes appeared in the Grease revival back in 1996 or 1997. Whom did she play? And did anyone here see her in the role?
I guess you could consider having her in the show was stunt casting, since the "Mag 7" were so popular after they won the Olympic gold. Have any other Olympians made a Broadway debut?
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#2
Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:26pmCathy Rigby
Understudy Joined: 10/15/06
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#2
Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:26pmre: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#3
Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:32pmand don't forget about Bruce Jenner in the movie musical, "Can't Stop The Music"!
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/07
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#4
Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:35pmDidn't see it, but Dawes was a cutie and as the mother of a gymnast I can tell you they are Drama Queens and well trained performers... As I recall the strength of her floor routine was knowing how to play to the crowd.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#5
Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:41pm^ That's true. Though I think that was both Dominique's strengths. Haha. I didn't know she did that. And I was OBSESSED with the magnificent seven.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#6
Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:43pmShe played the Cheerleader, of course.
Stand-by Joined: 10/10/06
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#7
Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:43pma gymnast as a peppy cheerleader?? not quite a stretch
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#8
Posted: 3/26/07 at 6:53pmEb- I don't even know how to respond to that. Gymnastics does not equal cheerleading.
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#9
Posted: 3/26/07 at 7:02pm
I saw her. She wasn't very good. Not horrible, but not great.
They also threw cheesy gymnastic stunts in there for her and it looked forced and out of place.
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#10
Posted: 3/26/07 at 7:04pm
ashley-
I think it was drawing a comparisson, the two have a lot of similarities, and, at least at the school level, a lot do both.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#11
Posted: 3/26/07 at 7:20pmHonestly, the only similarity is the small amount of tumbling cheerleaders do. I see no similarities beyond that. There's certainly no pyramids in gymnastics. And I don't see cheerleaders on a balance beam or vault. What other similarities are there? And any gymnast does not have time to do both. As a former competitive gymnast, I know no one that did both at the same time. I could go on with this argument, but it's really not the point of this thread.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/07
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#13
Posted: 3/26/07 at 8:17pm
ashley-
I think it was drawing a comparisson, the two have a lot of similarities, and, at least at the school level, a lot do both.
I can say with all confidence that C has no time for cheerleading -- in fact she only gets three weeks off from 20-26 hours per week of training during the year. One in Spring, one in summer one between Christmas and New Years...
and once they go Optional they only get one week off.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#14
Posted: 3/26/07 at 8:32pmExactly.
Broadway Star Joined: 10/26/05
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#15
Posted: 3/26/07 at 9:13pmYou might want to check your memory tobiasragg... GREASE revival did not play the Broadhurst. It played the Eugene O'Neill for all 4 years. The original GREASE played the Broadhust for a spell.
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#16
Posted: 3/26/07 at 10:54pmMany gymnasts become cheerleaders once they retire from competitive gymnastics. Cheerleading today is very competitive and they do plenty of advanced tumbling, so ex-gymnasts fit right in.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/07
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#17
Posted: 3/27/07 at 12:56am
Yep.
Those would be the ones who can't cut it in Optionals.
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#18
Posted: 3/27/07 at 1:01am
Okay, all gymnasts, nobody here is belitteling you or anything, everyone be happy.
I think that the point is, a cheerleader in Grease seems like less of a stretch for a gymnast than say, Mrs. Lovett... not that cheerleaders and gymnasts are the same, but it's pretty obvious that a cheerleader would be a better fit than most roles in the musical theatre cannon for a competetive gymnast.
Stand-by Joined: 5/21/03
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#20
Posted: 3/27/07 at 7:42amI was in my teens at the time... and loved grease!....(that production had the exclamation point on it!lol)...and I saw it a few times. I loved it...now...I know it wasn't such a great production of the show....(I can still see that theater painted hot pink! yikes)...and it was at the Eugene O'Neill Theater. Dominique Dawes played Patty Simcox, and although of the few times I saw the show, I never saw Dawes in the role...The role, at least as I remember it, in that production, was pretty much a nothing role...with one tiny song in the first act.
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#21
Posted: 3/27/07 at 10:06am
"Yep.
Those would be the ones who can't cut it in Optionals."
Or maybe they would be the ones who want to have a life.
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#22
Posted: 3/27/07 at 10:50am
The original production did run at the Broadhurst.....
Grease, a rock musical about high school students in the 1950s, which moved from the downtown Eden Theatre to the Broadhurst and became the second-longest-running musical in Broadway history (A Chorus Line surpassed it in September 1983)
Grease first opened on February 14, 1972 off Broadway at the Eden Theatre. It ran 128 performances. The rock 'n' roll '50s piece then moved uptown to the Broadhurst Theatre. The amazing production ran a total of 3388 performances, moving to two additional Broadway Theatres.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sanfran/s294.html
Playbill Broadhurst History
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/07
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#23
Posted: 3/27/07 at 3:56pm
"Yep.
Those would be the ones who can't cut it in Optionals."
Or maybe they would be the ones who want to have a life.
Let me just clarify myself a bit-
I have nothing against cheerleading...indeed the irony is I actively try to encourage C go to college on a cheerleading scholarship rather than to pursue gymnastics after high school for exactly that reason,. I want her to have a life, alas she is only 10 and her only goal is to make the elite level so there is no discussing this with her is any form or fashion right now.
But, to compare them is like comparing success in community theater to being successful Broadway. While they have the same basic essentials -- tumbling, smiles, magnetic personalties -- put them side by side and compare the handstands, tumbling, and energy and there is just simply no comparison.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#24
Posted: 3/27/07 at 4:13pm
Radigal- you are my new favorite person. 
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/07
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#25
Posted: 3/27/07 at 4:45pmashley - -- that's sweet, thanks. Call me a stickler if you will, but one ought never compare apples to oranges.
re: Gymnast Dominique Dawes in Grease#26
Posted: 3/27/07 at 4:57pmI am a former gymnast and a former flag girl. Neither one is cheerleading. Gymnastics is ways harder. I doubt that flag twirling is harder, but it's different.
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