The Story from APM

The Battle and Ballet

Thursday, December 03 2009

The Battle and Ballet

Roman Baca

We are all trying to make sense of the wars that we're fighting overseas. Some servicemen and women coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq have taken to writing about their experiences. Roman Baca has taken his experiences in war and transformed them into pirouettes and plies.

Roman performed professionally for a few years. But he always felt that he was viewed as less-than-manly because he was a male ballet dancer. So Roman joined the Marines. And he kept his dancing past to himself.

Roman was deployed to Fallujah during some of the worst fighting in Iraq. It was there that he opened up to his fellow Marines about being a dancer. And when he came back home Roman blended his love of dance with his experience in war to create a series of ballets. Roman talks with Dick Gordon about making sense of war and his own masculinity through dance.

• Learn more about Roman's dance company 

A Win on the mat

Josh Cagle and Ed Kane

Josh Cagle was a scrawny young wrestler who couldn't seem to win a match. Then he met coach Ed Kane. Ed saw that Josh was losing and lacked confidence, but he also saw a glimmer of potential and took young Josh under his wing. Josh and Ed join Dick Gordon to talk about the one conversation that turned things around for Josh, and how Josh eventually became a national wrestling champion.

• See Coach Ed Kane now