the Year of Glad collapse: watching ballet out there
On court he's gorgeous. Possibly a genius. [...] We were watching ballet out there, a mate remarked, after. [...] This boy is a balletic athlete, a player.
Context
Coach White's defense of Hal is the theme's cleanest split: the body is flawless — "gorgeous," "a balletic athlete," ballet — precisely while the self is illegible and thrashing on the men's-room tile. The academy has perfected the instrument and left the person unreachable, so the only Hal these men can recognize is the one that plays; the on-court body is the whole legible surface. "We were watching ballet out there" is the compliment that is also the diagnosis.