by Alexandra Stevenson
The death of the Georgian luger, who crashed into an unpadded metal pole in practice on the race course just hours before the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics, certainly put into perspective the frivolous nature of skating conspiracy theories. News of the tragedy traveled quickly through the ranks of the other sports but was deliberately kept from his teammate, Elene Gedevanishvili, until after she had completed her figure skating practice. When the small Georgian team walked into the stadium, 50,000 people spontaneously stood up to cheer, a very moving emotional tribute recognizing their loss. The Ceremony was devoted to his memory and a one-minute silence was held towards the end of the proceedings. After having raised the Canadian and Olympic flags to full staffs earlier in the ceremony both flags were lowered to half staff.
Even before the Games started, ice dance had commandeered headlines around the world. At the opposite side of the globe, in Australia, native people watched You-tube and got upset with Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin’s "disrespectful" Aboriginal Original routine and the costumes they wore, charging "cultural theft" of their 60,000-year old dance tradition.
Then, after the Tango Romantica was drawn, some figure skating boards’ uber fans, and their "Sekret Sources," decided this had somehow been engineered to help Shabalin because the man’s steps in the Tango Romanitica are easier than those of the alternate compulsory that could have been drawn, the Golden Waltz. Shabalin has had three operations on his knees, and doctors say such treatment undoubtedly has an effect on flexibility. Many coaches agree with Muriel Zazoui, the well-known coach of the French 2008 world champions, Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoefelder, who has stated that it would have been very hard for Shabalin to execute the Golden Waltz up to a winning standard. Earlier this year, Olympic silver medalist Tanith Belbin casually lamented that she and partner Ben Agosto had had no chance to present the Tango Romantica in competition. She felt "a buzz" that it would be chosen in Vancouver. Was that a premonition?
The Tango Romantica and Golden Waltz are acknowledged as the most difficult of all the ISU compulsories. Compulsories form a segment of ice dance competition which will no longer exist in the next Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014. The Tango Romantica was performed in the 2010 European and Four Continents championships and the Golden Waltz will be executed in the World Championships in March in Turin. Next season the new Finnstep will be back on the schedule. Shabalin fell on the Finnstep in the 2009 Europeans and he and his partner had to withdraw from the event.
On February 4, a draw was made for whether the Tango Romantica and Golden Waltz would be required for the Olympics. The draw was scheduled for the first official Olympic training session, which was at the Trout Lake practice rink. Since the ice dance competition would not begin until February 19, no Olympic competitors turned up. Even if they had, they might have missed the occasion as did the two members of the VANOC Press Corps sent to write a story about the happening, because the draw took place earlier than the published time, due to a problem with transportation. A young Canadian ice dancer, who normally trains at this rink, Madeline Edwards, was asked to pull the marker out of a bag. The draw was witnessed by Peter Krick, Chair of the Sports Directorate of the ISU and the Russian team manager, Sergei Kononikhin. The ranking competitor or the host country’s competitor is generally given the "honor" of making the blind draw at skating events.
Appearances aside, this was all perfectly in accordance with the rules which only requires that:
"If a draw is required, the dance(s) to be skated shall be drawn and announced prior to the first official practice. The draw shall be carried out by one of the Technical Delegates or the Referee in the presence of, if possible, one participating Couple;" (rule 622)
According to this rule, the Technical Delegate (or Referee) could draw the dance alone with no witnesses at all at any time prior to the start of the first official practice!
Immediately following the announcement of the draw, Tessa Virtue, leading Canadian contender, revealed in a press teleconference that she and partner Scott Moir were pleased that the Tango Romantica was drawn, the figure skating world was abuzz with arguments as to the benefits this would provide one couple over another. Domnina & Shabalin, who train in Aston, PA, with Belbin & Agosto with coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, recently won the European title purely because of their over five point lead after the Tango Romantica. They were eclipsed in the Original and Free by the Italians who were 13th in the last Olympics, Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali. Seemingly unforced power and smooth flow over the ice are created by deep and fluid knee action. The greatest praise one can give an ice dancer is to say, "You have such soft knees." So Shabalin, who is 28, with his "old man’s knees", might have been at a disadvantage in the Waltz.
The Tango Romantica was devised by the late Ludmila Pakhomova and her husband, Alexander Gorshkov, Soviets who won the first Olympic ice dance gold medal in 1976. It is well known that Pakhomova was the star of this couple and the better skater. Gorshkov is the current chairman of the ISU Ice Dance Committee and obviously enjoys the fact that their creation is a part of this Olympics. The "Golden" was created by Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko, the 1992 Olympic gold medalists. Technique in ice dance has progressed substantially in the elapsed years between these two world champion couples. In part, that was because a lot of countries did not take interest in ice dance until it became an Olympic sport. The Golden is recognized as not only the most demanding compulsory but also take the longest to complete. Since the new system gives more marks for the second sequence when the dancers begin to tire, the dance demands great stamina. Undoubtedly Shabalin and his partner got a lucky break when the youngster pulled out Tango Romantica.
Domnina and Shabalin have already announced they will change their Original dance costumes, which comprised brown body suits, red loin cloths, eucalyptus leaves, white ropes and facial paint. Sol Bellear of the New South Wales State Aboriginal Land Council said, "They have said that their dance is authentic. It has been absolutely stolen without our permission and without consultation of the relevant dance groups." Apparently only men do the dancing and women never wear red or face paint.
Domnina & Shabalin’s principal mistake appears to be misjudging public opinion by claiming their dance was "authentic" because they did research on the internet. But, come on, no routine which requires twizzles and a lift and is done charging around in an ice rink on blades at a dazzling speed, can be in any way an "authentic" folk dance from any country. The Russians are not even the first to perform this type of dance. The Australians Danielle O’Brien & Greg Merriman presented a version in the 2008 Four Continents Championship in Seoul but they were not criticized because they were able to meet with indigenous representatives to ensure that everything from the costumes to the choreography was respectful to the culture.
In their official ISU bio, Domnina & Shabalin list their music merely as "Aboriginal Dance, arranged by Alexander Goldstein". But the vocal artiste, Sheila Chandra, a UK pop star of South Indian descent, has charged that she hasn’t received royalties for their use of her music. There is even criticism that the piece includes only a limited section of music using the uniquely Australian digeridoo instrument. This is a very unfair criticism. Skaters are required to use music for their performances which, with the exception of that for the compulsory dances, is chosen by the skaters and their coaches. They do not pay for the music. However, if a skating event organizer sells an event for broadcast to a television company, then rights-to-play the music are paid to a world-wide association which relays the money to the relevant music company and/or composer.
In any case, it is too late for Domnina and Shabalin to go back to the Russian folk dance they did for the Original section when this category was chosen a couple of seasons back.
Three mens competitors, one Lady and one ice dancer were chosen as flag bearers to lead their nation’s country into the Opening Ceremonies: Belgium: Kevin van der Perren; North Korea: Choi Ri; Hungary: Julia Sebestyen; Israel: Alexandra Zaretski; and Switzerland: Stephane Lambiel. Alexandra Zaretski, who trains with Galit Chait in New Jersey, said, about skating with her brother, Roman, "Sometimes, I get the feeling that we might get tired of each other because we’re always around each other. But the fact that I’m sharing this experience with my brother is the best feeling in the world. This year we’ve gotten so much attention from the TV and newspapers back home. People are really starting to pay attention." Chait and her partner were the first Israelis to compete in a Winter Olympics. Israel has only one training facility, which is in the north-east of the country, close enough to the border to hear an occasional gun shot. It was built thanks to Canadian money. Her brother said, "I looked around at the French team and there seems like there’s 180 of them and there’s only eight of us. It’s hard to compete because we’re such a small country, - small but proud! Waiting to march in, I wasn’t thinking. My hair is standing on end. I couldn’t wait to get inside that stadium."
Mirai Nagasu’s thoughts on walking in the Opening Ceremony: "Before we walked in, we were standing at the bottom of a pit for like four hours. We were all in white, in white pants so we couldn’t sit down. And everyone wanted to be at the front so everyone was pushing and shoving. It got so hot. We were all sweating." Nagasu also remarked that her coach Frank Carroll marked with her, the first time in his many Olympics that he has marched in the opening ceremony.
Rachael Flatt: "The most special moment for me was when they brought in the Olympic flag. That was a ‘Once in a Lifetime’ moment.
Still going strong: One of those ceremoniously walking in presenting the Canadian Olympic flag was the petite, ageless Barbara Ann Scott, who won Olympic gold in 1948.
On the previous Sunday, Katarina Witt, now 44, and Liz Manley got together. They won the gold and silver medals the last time the Olympics were held in Canada, in 1988.
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