Holocaust: Controversial ice dance routine

[samson]

I debated sharing this story in Le Cafe since it does have potential for sparking political debate, but ultimately it's a story about figure skaters and figure skating so I thought it should go here.

Tatiana Navka is participating in competition that looks similar to Dancing With the Stars but for skating in Russia and I guess this was the routine that aired last night
http://time.com/4582849/tatiana-navka-holocaust-ice-skating/

This video is embedded in the article

I know NHK was this weekend but I'm a little disappointed I haven't seen any reference to this routine from anyone in the skating world. It feels wrong for us not to be discussing work like this.

I'll try to temper my words here so I can get at saying something productive about this skate, but I have to admit I was really offended by it. And yet, sadly I'm somehow not surprised that the Russian figure skating world has managed to produce it. We have after all dealt with Olga Markova playing a drunk floozy to "Let My People Go" not to mention the cheap and exploitative narratives we get from the Eteri camp (I will admit Julia and Evgenia both deliver the material very well but that doesn't mean the material is worthy of the praise it receives).

Tatiana Navka is a great figure skater and an Olympic Champion who absolutely deserves all the respect for the great career she had, and it seems from her own statements about this piece she actually thinks she's doing some good by doing a tribute to a movie she loves and reminding people of the horrors of our past.

But even if you let that slide (and I think those statements also reveal a certain amount of privilege/savior complex but I digress)... this cheapens figure skating. This cheapens storytelling. It cheapens the athletic endeavor and art form we all so love so much. If she wanted to remind us about the Holocaust she could have certainly done so in a more tasteful, nuanced, and sensitive way. If she's going to tackle such a topic she could have also tried to push the aesthetics of storytelling on the ice rather than rely on the cheap miming that is oh so popular in Russian choreography (Manfred Symphony is about the only routine with that approach that I think works).

At best, this approach is vulgar and and at it's worst it displays a lack of a larger understanding of the dangers of having a flippant approach to our not so distant history that enables a complacency that's puts us at risk for repeating ourselves. Content matters. Art matters. Art has the ability to be an agent for change and move the conversation forward. This was a missed opportunity and brought the conversation backwards.

Anyway, obviously I have a pretty strong reaction to what I saw. I'm curious how other skating fans feel about the work?

 

[skateluvr]

I think it was not something I would want to see done in any kind of setting but I think the sentiment is true. I don't think that the Russian skaters and choreographers mean to offend but what they see as artistic doesn't always play well in other major skating countries. The miming does seem what Russians are doing in skating. One difference I want to point out is that these are at least adults who are very aware of history.

As far as Eteri is concerned- I really do not know what she explained to Julia or Evgenia or what these two teens know about the sad events they skated about. But it seems the skating judges are buying it. And the judges were seriously applauding Tatiana and her partner. I really did not care for this. To be honest I did not like the movie nor the music when Gracie skated to it a few years back.

Schindler's list has been skated to very tastefully years ago by Witt and Wylie and likely others. I really was touched by those performances. This one? Hmm not so much but I think they were trying to be sincere. That is all I will say as this likely ends up in politics or closed.

 

[NaVi]

Averbukh(a Russian Jew) of course is the producer of the show... and I'm not sure if he choreographed this dance but he is one of the choreographers for the dances.

I know NHK was this weekend but I'm a little disappointed I haven't seen any reference to this routine from anyone in the skating world. It feels wrong for us not to be discussing work like this.

If feels wronger to me that there was little discussion of the show before this dust up... I don't care one bit though... it's a Russian show for a Russian audience... I don't care what the american liberal click-bait outrage machine wants me to be outraged about.

 

[sandraskates]

I've seen the film Life is Beautiful several times; it's among my favorites so I *get* what they were attempting to project on the ice.

If the pair had skated to the same music selection in different costumes then it would have or could have been a lighthearted routine. To me it was wearing Holocaust prison garb as costumes that made this gravitate to the side of poor taste or offensiveness.

 

[winky97]

I've seen the film Life is Beautiful several times; it's among my favorites so I *get* what they were attempting to project on the ice.

If the pair had skated to the same music selection in different costumes then it would have or could have been a lighthearted routine. To me it was wearing Holocaust prison garb as costumes that made this gravitate to the side of poor taste or offensiveness.

This was my thought as well. Before they even started skating when I noticed the costumes I was like no and ready to turn them off

 

[Alexz]

I'm an American with Jewish background. I'm totally fine with this choreo. Was it Aberbukh who created it? Artistically speaking and choreography wise this program is weak, but I presume that Navka's partner is not a pro? He looks like he just learned how to skate few months ago. What did Navka (is she Belarussian or Ukrainian?) and Averbukh (Russian Jew) said themselves about this performance? They had to explain why they choose this message.

 

[Khoai]

It is not too much offensive but I agree it's cheesy.

 

[Blades of Passion]

Terrible.

 

[gsk8]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/europe/russian-ice-skating-holocaust-trnd/index.html

 

[lavoix]

If this is offensive then one should call Lipnitskaya's LP from Sochi offensive too. Anybody who thinks so should just lighten up. I don't understand why the western media is blowing it out of proportion.

 

[Mango]

Tasteless and insensitive. I understand there are cultural differences and perceptions but there are limits to what one should and should not do. What's going to be next? A child rape program? A recreation of the Bataclan attack? Ridiculous.

 

[brightphoton]

Figure skating on the front page of CNN. That's rare. I think what really looked bad, from a public image standpoint, are the still images of those two in the concentration camp costume while doing jumping jacks.

The juxtaposition of the concentration camp costumes and the happy happy faces doesn't sit well with me. It's like this aboriginal dance by Oksana and Maxim. Yes, you can see they wanted a homage to native people of Australia, but it also looks very ooga booga bone-in-noses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9K2YmS0Km8

 

[lappo]

I know NHK was this weekend but I'm a little disappointed I haven't seen any reference to this routine from anyone in the skating world. It feels wrong for us not to be discussing work like this.

/QUOTE]

Thank you for making it a thread. I posted it yesterday in two sections (the gossip section actually, because I found the video on a gossip journal first, and the thread on 11.09 on the Café) but I feared making a thread (as I explained in both of the sections) because I didn't want it to become a Medvedeva (or Yulia) bashing. Now I'm going to read the answers, thanks again!

 

[moriel]

As for holocaust and geneal perception in Russia...
While holocaust was a terribl event, WW2 took a comparable toll on russians. There is no family where noone fought in WW2, and in most families, someone died.
Maybe that affects a bit of how holocaust is seen: citing my grandma, everybody died, not just jews.
Its not like we are insensitive, we went through it too.

Same applies to terrorist attacks. Someone mentioned Bataclan. Why not Beslan?
Some people seem to forget that russia too had it list of terrorist attacks.


Said that, summing up the oppinion of my circle of relations:
Yulia's shindler list program: fine
Evgenia's LP this year: fine
Navka's dance: over the top and tasteless

 

[lappo]

I think people should really avoid skating to La Vita è bella because the risk of producing something extremely distasteful is too high. While the film was brilliant in trying to convey a sense of hope in the most awful possible situation, I don't think that the same can be done in 4 minutes time with lighthearted skate and a smile on your face.
That said, as I previously stated, here is Katarina Witt in 1994 skating a homage to all the victim of Sarajevo, which I think was a pretty touching tribute (she skated also to SL): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GrhyrZOdtM

 

[iluvtodd]

Dubreuil & Lauzon did a very tasteful dance to the soundtrack music of "Life is Beautiful" many seasons ago. Nothing offensive about it whatsoever.

I haven't seen Navka's program yet, so I'm not going to defend or attack it. However, context is everything!

 

[andromache]

I always want to assume intentions are honorable - though at times these kinds of programs can feel somewhat exploitative. But assuming intentions are honorable....

In Western perceptions of art, particularly art dealing with real life tragedies, it is desirable to be UNDERSTATED. If you can reference something tragic symbolically and represent it well, telling the story without getting into horrific detail, that is what we consider to be beautiful in art. Too many literal references and gruesome details veer quickly into tasteless and yes, starts to feel cheap and exploitative.

The symbolism of Yulia's Schindler's List is why it's so universally beloved. It represents tragedy without seeming to revel in it. The voice overs and sounds of Evgenia's program, for Western audiences, feel too literal to be truly artistic. Same with the costumes here, IMO. (Don't think I bring myself to watch the program.)

Standards of taste can differ internationally, so note that here I have tried to explain Western taste in general, and Russians may feel differently. Would it be considered okay for an American skater to act out Stalingrad or perform a historically-accurate Anastasia program, complete with, idk, gunshots in the music and a bloody costume?

ETA: If a program relies upon cheap details like a Holocaust costume in order to get its message across, it's really just lazy choreography and/or interpretation by the skater. The combination of choreography, music, and interpretation can and will speak for itself in a high-quality program. See: Josh Farris's SL. Yulia gets an honorable mention for only relying on a red dress from a film. Evgenia has the interpretive ability and the music is good enough that she should not need sound effects to convey her message, but I blame Averbukh for that one.

It's really not about the subject matter; it's usually about the level of overly-literal detail like costumes or sound effects or acting out genocide on ice that make a program so bad. All those cheap details are used to mask other weaknesses, IMO. Perhaps instead of looking at them from a "I am offended" POV, it's better to discuss them as contributors to a program of poor quality.

 

[lappo]

Whole post

Thanks for putting it so well, I feel the same about everything. Btw, another recent commemorative program I didn't like, for the same reason, is Joubert TDF Gala. The blooded shirt was so literal that I cringed the second I saw it.

 

[solani]

I have no problem with this ice dance routine but I've seen the move "Life Is Beautiful" so I get what they wanted to portray immediatly.
It shouldn't be necessary to know the movie to understand an ice dance routine or any dance routine. There is the explanation in Russian in the routine, that they are playing a game etc., but I doubt that this is enough for someone who hasn't seen the movie. Same goes for Medvedeva's FS program this season by the way. When too much background information is needed it isn't done well and maybe it cannot be done well.
So if someone is indeed offended by this routine you'll have to explain but this really isn't scandal worthy imho.
It's just a ice dance routine that's not fully able to transport it's meaning without additional background info.

EDIT: I remembered that someone told me once that the TIME magazine movie review of "Life Is Beautiful" was very negative, I've found this quote from the review:

In this climate, turning even a small corner of this century's central horror into feel-good popular entertainment is abhorrent.

 

[shmay]

a historically-accurate Anastasia program

I just spit out my coffee from laughter.

Anyway, Israeli media is having a field day with this trash