Rhythmic Gymnast Bachar Just Loves to Face the Music

Say, just who does Carmit Bachar think she is?

She shows up for the Olympic Festival and what does she do? Acts as if she were on vacation.

True, there have been those tedious 2 1/2-hour training sessions each day. But that’s it. Here in Texas, there are no dance classes, no auditions, no work.

Others might fear tonight’s rhythmic gymnastics finals as a rigorous competition. Let them. Bachar (pronounced Car-meet Ba-CAR) is too busy enjoying herself. Let the medals fall where they may.

“I don’t want to worry about this,” the Encino 19-year-old said. “I don’t want to be on edge. I want this to be fun.”

Stage fright shouldn’t be a problem.

In her career as a professional dancer, Bachar has faced far more daunting situations.

She has boogied on stage at the Academy Awards.

And on a Richard Gere cable television special.

And in a Rob Reiner movie.

And with Pauly Shore on an MTV special.

And on a Johnny Gill video.

Hand Bachar a gymnastics prop and she makes like Fred Astaire with a mop.

She is so poised, confident and graceful that the athletic challenge of her sport gets lost in the delivery.

While other athletes were training full time for the festival, Bachar was sprinting between jobs.

From July 5-12, she pranced like a cowgirl in the still-to-be-released Reiner film “North,” starring Dan Aykroyd and Reba McEntire. From July 16-19, she danced in an industrial show in Las Vegas.

In between, on a typical “day off,” Bachar followed a regimen that called for her to rise for a four-hour gymnastics session beginning at 8 a.m., race to dance auditions at 1:30 and 4:30, then attend dance classes from 6:30 to 10.

And on Wednesdays she teaches gymnastics at the Glendale YWCA.

“It’s been hell,” she said of her hectic schedule. She also called it “the best month of my life.”

Why does that not sound like a contradiction?

“Some days I am totally dead, too tired to eat,” she said. “But this is exciting to me. I am doing what I love every day.”

Rhythmic gymnastics rates somewhere in the middle of her various interests.

“Dancing is definitely No. 1,” Bachar said. “That is where my career is going. Gymnastics won’t always be there.

“Rhythmic is hard because it is not just performing. If you flip your wrist the wrong way you look foolish. That’s why I stuck with it. It challenges me.”

Dancing, conversely, comes naturally. Bachar’s mother, Dina VanMinnen, is a dance instructor at Bancroft Junior High in Hollywood. Her father, Shlomo Bachar, tours the world teaching the art.

“My mom tells me I was dancing before I was walking,” Bachar says. “I never felt any pressure to get better. It just happened.”

From the age of 5, gymnastics has been part of her training, along with ballet and conditioning. Bachar hooked up with Alla Svirsky, the rhythmic coach at the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics, eight years ago. Svirsky was an artistic gymnast in the Soviet Union until she was 16. She then made the transition to the rhythmic elements because it was “more feminine.”

“What better way to express yourself as a woman is there than to perform so beautifully with the music and dance and ballet of rhythmic gymnastics?” Svirsky asked.

Bachar, in many aspects, is the perfect pupil.

“The touches she adds, a little dip with her shoulders, she fills out the music the right way,” Svirsky said.

If Bachar has a flaw, it might be that she is too demonstrative.

“Sometimes she gets so involved in the music she forgets to concentrate,” Svirsky said.

Mental lapses are costly in rhythmic gymnastics. The tools of the sport--rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon--constantly are tossed, twirled, thrown, juggled and otherwise manipulated in routines that require both tumbling and dance expertise.

One false move with that ribbon and. . . . oops! Hog-tied.

In rhythmic gymnastics, Bachar’s best effort in three trips to the national championships was ninth place this spring. Were she able to devote more time to her sport, she might be among the best in the world.

“I know she wants me to win a championship once,” Bachar said of Svirsky. “She knows I can, and I know I can, too. But I’m scared. If I won it, I’d have to hold it. Then it might not be so fun anymore.”

Svirsky says she understands.

“She is happy,” she said of her protege. “Better to have her this way than to work with a boring champion.”

Even if Bachar does win tonight, her career plan won’t change.

That Laker Girls tryout is still Aug. 28.