The Paso Doble

The paso doble will be the CD skated at Merano, Madrid, Gomel and Sheffield JGP competitions.

Ice-dance.com provides this reference material for the Paso Doble:
http://www.ice-dance.com/reference/compulsories/#paso

Description
Music - Paso Doble 2/4
Tempo - 56 measures of 2 beats per minute
- 112 beats per minute
Pattern - Optional
Duration - The time required to skate 3 sequences is 51 sec.

The Paso Doble was invented by Reginald B. Wilkie and Daphne B. Wallis, who first performed it in London at the Westminster Ice Rink in 1938.

The Paso Doble is a dramatic and powerful Spanish dance requiring good body control and precise footwork. It can be expressed in terms of it's origins from the music of bull fighting or in Flamenco style.

Here are some ballroom competition performances of the paso doble. The dance is seldom done as a social dance. It is almost always an exhibition or competition dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGeq1aA9ON0
IDFS Grand Slam 2005 Final Paso Doble

Denise Biellmann and Sven Ninnemann Eurovision dance contest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Iw2Plv0Uk

UK Professionals demo the Paso Doble Strictly Come Dancing 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83xGaR-QsQ

The overall pattern of the Paso Doble is approximately
elliptical, distorted here and there by outward bulges. Dick Button described it as a peanut. The opening progressive is on a curve but the next few steps are rather straight. The change of edge produces an outward bulge followed by steps 12 to 25 which form a curve. The cross rolls cause a deviation in the pattern and there is a final bulge before the restart of the dance.


Step chart
http://www.ice-dance.com/reference/compulsories/pasostepchart.jpg
Ladies' pattern
http://www.ice-dance.com/reference/compulsories/pasopatternlady.jpg
Men's pattern
http://www.ice-dance.com/reference/compulsories/pasopatternman.jpg

http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=454
Comments on what is required are taken from ISU Communication No. 992

GOE scale of values for the Paso Doble from ISU Communication 1400:

REQUIRED SECTIONS + + + + + + BASE - - - - - -
#16. PASO DOBLE

1st Sequence
SLIP STEPS Should be skated with one knee bent, not in scissors position with two straight knees and must be on straight line
Steps 1 – 16 1.0 0.7 0.3 1.8 -0.3 -0.7 -1.0
Steps 17 – 28 1.5 1.0 0.5 2.4 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5

2nd Sequence
«BREAK-OUT» Steps 10-11-12 Good shoulder line and unison plus hip control should be maintained throughout with a well refined «Break-out» which must not be two-footed, and well defined cross steps
Steps 1 – 16 2.0 1.3 0.6 2.4 -0.6 -1.3 -2.0
Steps 17 – 28 2.0 1.3 0.6 2.8 -0.6 -1.3 -2.0

3rd Sequence
CROSS ROLLS AND RE-START SECTION Deep edges of equal depth, with partners in a well matched position. Speed and flow should be maintained without toe-pushing. True Mohawk for re-start.

Steps 1 – 16 2.5 1.5 0.7 2.8 -0.7 -1.5 -2.5
Steps 17 – 28 2.5 1.5 0.7 3.3 -0.7 -1.5 -2.5

If a couple is choosing to present the paso doble in the bullfighting motif, the key thing to remember is that it's a march, and that it should be the gentleman's show, primarily, not the lady's. The lady is a relatively passive cape. In a flamenco presentation, both of the performers should show great attitude, IMO.

Here's some performances of the Paso Doble by some amazing ice dancers.

Torvill & Dean teach the paso doble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvaktM6oHQw

In their first gold medal performance, home movies of Torvill & Dean doing the Paso Doble in the 1981 Worlds Championships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL2rwEri_f0

And as part of the coverage of Europeans 1984, paso doble at about the :50 mark. At about 2:30, Betty Calloway comments on their CD's. The crowd was 8,500 approximately at Europeans in Budapest!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg8H74lFeCk

Torvill and Dean's Paso Doble OSP is one of the best interpretations Ever of the paso in the bullfight motif. I feel they skated it best at 1984 Europeans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaJtKHeis_g

The entire 1984 coverage of the Paso Doble CD, which Torvill and Dean won, Dick Button and Peggy Fleming commentating, used to be available online. Youtube has taken it down.

To assist you in watching this and trying to see what the difference between couples should be:

Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill 5.7 to 5.9 (1st, Gold medal) dance on the beat, precision of pattern

Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin 5.4 to 5.7 (2nd, Silver medal) miss the beat, good line, lots of twidgetty addons

Judy Blumberg & Michael Seibert 5.4 to 5.7 (3rd, 4th overall) very smooth, I liked the crossrolls, however this is too tame a paso doble for my taste.

Carol Fox & Richard Dalley 5.1 to 5.3 (6th, 5th overall) show great attitude. I wonder whether they skated a bit slow? Anyway bravo! I like their portrayal of the character of the dance better than the superior couples.

Fox and Dalley paso
http://www.dailymotion.com/glorydays/video/12602788

Elissa Spitz & Scott Gregory 4.9 to 5.2 (probably around 10th to 12th, 10th overall)

Not shown, Klimova & Ponamarenko, 4th in this segment, Barber & Slater (GBR), 5th in this segment,

Olga Volozhinskaya/Aleksandr Svinin URS

8 Tracy Wilson/Robert McCall CAN

9 Petra Born/Rainer Schoanborn

The paso doble was also one of the CDs at the 1992 Olympics.

Looking at both Klimova & Ponomarenko and Usova & Zhulin, I just have to appreciate, once again, Dubova's school. I don't think anyone ever taught compulsories quite like she did!

Bestemianova & Bukin, of course, coming from Tarasova's school, don't do nearly as well with CDs. Perhaps that's what made Klimova & Ponomarenko so special in 1992 - a combination of Dubova's exquisite technique and Tarasova's unique flair.

The ballroom Pasa Doble. I think it is just a fast two-step to music. The music, to me, always reminded me of a March in a Parade type of thing. However, ballroom and figure skating actually show the action of the Toreador and the use of his Cape..

I was very much impressed with Blumberg and Siefert at that Olys. Their ending to me proved she was a cape.