Monday, February 22, 2010

THE ONLY TIME YOU'LL EVER SEE ISRAELIS COMPETE IN THE OLYMPICS: Gretchen, on last night's Olympic Ice Dancing original dance competition:
With flamenco, Bollywood, country, and an Australian aboriginal dance, last night's Original Dance competition felt a whole lot like So You Think You Can Dance On Ice. Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir slid into first place with a really wonderful flamenco that managed to be technically accomplished and intricate without losing the feeling of the dance. They have incredible lifts and their footwork was just terrific. By contrast, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto performed a Moldavian folk dance that, while clearly challenging, just never took off. The music had so many tempo and tonal changes that by the time the audience caught up with the melody and pace, the music had switched gears again. It just made it hard for the audience to really get into the performance. Nevertheless, I think Belbin and Agosto were underscored -- they were far superior, in my view, to Domnina and Shabalin.

Speaking of Domnina and Shabalin, I was just embarrassed for them. The ridiculous facial expressions, the faux foliage coming out of her ponytail and skates, the simple choreography -- I think they're clearly benefiting from some sort of a Russian Halo Effect. They just weren't very good. I obviously have no expertise to speak to whether the dance was authentic or not. I can, however, point you to this video of an Australian ice dancing team doing their own aboriginal dance. The Russians did most of their research on youtube; by contrast, O'Brian and Merriman worked out their choreography in consultation with actual aboriginal elders. To me, the big difference is in the facial expressions -- instead of mugging, the Australian team seems to be treating the choreography with respect.

I was, however, entertained by the sight of Shabalin on the sidelines, waiting for the prior couple to finish skating, grooving to the music. At least he was having fun!

Virtue and Moir have been beating Davis and White in the free skate for much of the competitive year, so I'm predicting gold for Canada tonight. I'd love to see Belbin and Agosto on the podium, partly because they've been so good for so long and really kicked down some doors for North American ice dance. One possible hope for Tanith and Ben is that the international judging panel will treat their free skate, which has religious themes, as more serious and thus more pointworthy than the Davis/White free skate to Phantom of the Opera. But I'm not optimistic.
Last night's videos are all here.

15 comments:

  1. Joseph J. Finn12:45 PM

    Yael Arad has an objection to this headline....

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  2. I await Yentl On Ice.

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  3. The Pathetic Earthling1:27 PM

    Israel has never won a gold in anything, summer or winter, but has a five (two silver, three bronze) total in Canoeing, Sailing, and Judo.

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  4. SEEN competing.  Not exactly a sport that gets much airtime, though some here may remember my disproportionate coverage of the Israeli rhythmic gynmastic team of 2008.

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  5. The Pathetic Earthling2:21 PM

    Wait, something on the internet is not gospel truth?  

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  6. Joseph J. Finn2:48 PM

    1 gold in Wind Surfing, 1 silver in judoka, and 5 Bronzes (wind surfing (2), K-1 500 m and judoka (2)).

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  7. Joseph J. Finn2:48 PM

    OK, fair point on TV, I was reading it in a more general sense.  Also, I refuse to conced that rhythmic gymnastics is an Olympic sport (though it's very pretty).

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  8. It's something I've argued here before: if props are okay in gymnastics, why not in figure skating as well?  Imagine giving Johnny Weir a ribbon to twirl.

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  9. Joseph J. Finn3:47 PM

    I'm waiting for a combination of ski cross and biathlon, with paintball guns.  Points for hitting fellow competitors, demerits for being hit.

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  10. Genevieve4:15 PM

    Imagine giving the Israelis a chair to hoist while they're skating to "Hava Nagila." 

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  11. Jenn.7:58 PM

    Dammit, I wanted Davis and White to win the gold.  I suppose it would be poor form to hope for the nice Canadian couple to trip or something.  Being a good sport is so hard.

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  12. Okay, I admit it.  The nice Canadian couple are simultaneously both adorable and quite good skaters.  I almost feel bad for hoping that they would have some obvious flaw that would put them behind David & White but still ahead of the Russians.  Almost.  I'm also hoping someone can explain to me the scoring for Belbin & Agosto vs. the Russians.

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  13. sconstant10:00 AM

    Also, some people say that Coroebus, who won the first stadion in 776BCE, had actually changed his name from Cohen and was secretly from the Kingdom of Judah, sent by Azariah after he lost a bet with the king of Assyria.

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  14. gretchen11:46 AM

    I can't explain the scoring.  I think Belbin and Agosto were totally underscored for a really amazing free dance.

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