Folk ODs: Are skaters showing the "character" of the dance?

[Joesitz (RIP)]

BTW, if you want to get a bit of an understanding of various folk dances as they get adapted to other dance forms, AND understand some about where the Russian modern tradition of performing folk dances comes from, keep an eye out on Moiseyev Company. It's a famous group that was headed by Igor Moiseyev (he died in March); I would say that they are the baseline for the genre. BTW, Katya Gordeeva's father used to dance with that company. Personally, I went to their concert in Boston about a month ago, and I enjoyed it very much.

I have seen the Moseyev many years ago and those dances I saw were called Soviet Folk Dances. I have since learned that one of the dances, the Ukrainian Hopek or Gopek which is the dance that stole the show angered my Ukrainian American friends when it was reviewed as a Russian dance. For figure skaters that is where the so called Russian Split comes from - the Hopek.

Joe

 

[waxel]

I don't know much about the actual dances themselves, but I think the costumes are waaaaaay over the top.

 

[Tonichelle]

which ones? most I've seen this season are very tasteful

 

[cassieandcheetah]

I don't know much about the actual dances themselves, but I think the costumes are waaaaaay over the top.

could I venture and guess that you're perhaps talking about the second russian team??

 

[dorispulaski]

Kalinka Kalinka Kalinka My Head Aches

Russian folk, Part 1, Kalinka

Many teams this year have chosen to skate to Russian & Ukrainian folk music. And it isn't just the fact that their coach or their choreographer is Russian or Ukrainian. Frankly, the judges on balance, are more likely to be from one of the former SSR's than not. And these judges, as a class, are more likely to have grown up seeing the Moiseyeva ballet and the musical stylings of the Russian Army on television than Appalachian clogging & zydeco dancing.

Here's an annoyingly edited clip of the Moiseyeva Folk Ballet dancing to Kalinka, with handkerchiefs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWo9lPKEFFk

Another view of the Moiseyeva dancers (turn up volume, it's low)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV5rTIXpmwM

And here's a Russian Army ensemble presenting Kalinka:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_A7Hu0uKNw
Note there are clown dancers with funny hair and funny shoes. This is not the first time I have seen Kalinka presented with comic overtones.

And another ensemble, Moscow Nights/Golden Gates, again performing Kalinka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CB9tg0XC4k
And there is also another Moscow Nights/Golden Gates production including a comic dancer dressed as a dancing bear or wolf.

Although everyone knows Kalinka, it is more pseudo-folk than folk, and was composed by Larionov in 1860. The lyrics on their face, are nonsense, more or less, but have double meanings, so this article says.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinka_(song)

In addition, all the judges have seen ice skaters skate to Russian folk music for years and years. In any case, familiarity allows all those judges to better judge whether a team has correctly portrayed the character of the dance. The first performance to Kalinka that I remember seeing was by Rodnina and Zaitsev. Here's a version from 1980:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csfFpqLQBj4

Bestemianova & Bukin skated their 1984 Olympic program to Russian folk music. (I'm sorry. I don't have a clip of it.)

Why would so many skaters pick Kalinka and Gopak and Cossack music to dance to for the Folk OD? One reason is that the Russian folk dance tradition includes spinning, similar to twizzling, random jumps of different sorts, and a wide variety of random athletic movements. The dance doesn't require Nancy Kerrigan's "poetic license" in too many places to fit into COP.

Kalinka is a favorite because it includes very fast sections, good for twizzling, and much slower sections, handy for showing long edges. And everyone knows it. Consquently, we were doomed this year to see many Kalinkas.

From these Kalinka clips, what kind of movements might we say had Russian dance character ?

1. High leaps by the guys, of all sorts, not just Russian split jumps. Anyone who has complained about the random jumps by
Charlie White is wrong. Charlie is right in character there.
2. Fast turns with the arms on the hips, elbows akimbo.
3. Preening gestures, especially by the man, with the hand behind the head and the elbow out (Now I understand why Russian male skaters have been making this annoying gesture all these years. It's traditional)
4. Non pointed toes, in fact agressively pointed heels are all good
5. Arms crossed on the chest during movements
6. Grabbing or slapping the foot
7. Turns with the free leg bent flexed up at the knee and sharply brought down(Rodnina brings this to the ice very nicely)
8. Handkerchief props
9. Low lunges & lunge poses, especially by the guy
10. Kicking the leg sharply to the side
11. Throwing both arms up in the air, Hooray

Not much in the way of pair spins, except with the team with their elbows locked.

Davis & White are skating to Kalinka, as are Huang & Zheng of China, Bobrova & Soloviev of Russia, and Samuelson & Bates in
the junior ranks.


Here's Davis & White at Skate America with the handkerchief prop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLVMye29CWU
Davis and White at US Nationals (Russian coverage) with no handkerchief
http://www.youtube.com/v/v3pB5IvnIsQ
The Russian character in the dance spin is pretty weak (relying on Charlie's hand behind his head and his leg out to the side in part of the spin, but the Russian folk dance character in the rest of the dance is pretty good. I'd like to see their heels pointed more, rather than the toe. But they have a nice semi-comic touch.

Bobrova Soloviev COR OD Kalinka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhm6gLaPlc
You'd think that the Russian Kalinka would be the best one, but this is quite weak, especially considering they are last year's Jr. World Champions. They are way too balletic here.

Samuelson/Bates Kalinka JGP Vienna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_ZRstbEOD0
Nice pointed heels and a good semi-comic touch. Unfortunately, the sound on this clip doesn't do them justice. And the bird tweeting in their music doesn't help.

Huang & Zheng Kalinka NHK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj2BKHuczE8

This has gotten long, so the Ukrainian & Cossack dances will be in a separate post.

 

[Ptichka]

I have since learned that one of the dances, the Ukrainian Hopek or Gopek which is the dance that stole the show angered my Ukrainian American friends when it was reviewed as a Russian dance. For figure skaters that is where the so called Russian Split comes from - the Hopek.

Moiseyev's two signature dances have always been Ukrainian and Moldavian. I was rather disappointed that they did not have the Ukrainian one on their tour this year, and wondered if that had anything to do with Ukrainian/ Russian politics. As to mistakes in the reviews - I can only sympathize; especially it this happened back in the USSR days, Americans had a tendency to call everything Soviet "Russian".

Moiseyev troupe is indeed very special. It's quite astounding that Moiseyev himself managed to be a promoter of the cultures of the USSR constituents without ever having joined the Communist Party. Trust me, that in and of itself is quite a unique achievement! As for his dancers, my mom was once in a summer camp with a bunch of kids from the dance school of the Moiseyev company. She says she's never seen such work ethic in her life - they would practice literally every single free minute they had. Now, it remains to be seen if the company can survive without the master.

Why would so many skaters pick Kalinka and Gopak and Cossack music to dance to for the Folk OD?

I think at least a part of it is that the music of those dances is such that it's hard not to "join in" on some level as a viewer.

I really do not have that much to say about Russian dances, unfortunately. My only exposure to it has been through the dances I participated in as a child in my dance classes. Overall, it was always clear that the Soviet Government was very heavily promoting SSR folk dances; in people from the social layer I come from, this created a certain aversion to the genre. In fact, while to see the Moiseyev company when it came to Boston with my mom and grandmother, none of the menfolk of the family came along - my husband, father, and grandfather all refused to go see such a "Soviet" entertainment.

 

[dorispulaski]

Ptichka, Thanks so much for the extra information. I do wish you had been able to pay more attention to those "Soviet" dances, though.

And you're right. Another attraction of the Russian/Ukrainian folk dances, including Kalinka, is that they are very catchy and the audience really gets into them and keeps clapping.

In fact some Ukrainian folk tuns are so catchy that you can't keep them out of your head. While I was looking for examples on youtube, I came across this clip of an updated version of a Ukrainian folks song that I'm still humming "Pidmanula pidvela".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFCy1PlZ4Mw&feature=related

 

[Tonichelle]

if I never have to hear a version of Kalinka again I will die very very happy....


why do I want to get into sports broadcasting/figure skating again?

 

[dorispulaski]

Toni, Ah, the costs of getting to see skating for free!

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

My complaints about the Moiseyev ,in the late 50s or early 60s, were more on the program notes, that introduced the dancers as coming from work in the fields and mines to do these dances. Yeah,

They were then a well organized company and it was a great spectacular in NYC during the cold war. I would imagine they kept up their excellent standards.

Doris - Would the ISU accept a folk dance from the US other than the 'hillbilly' type? I was thinking about the Texas Two Step which has a lot of intricate arm moves or a folk Blues dance such as the boogie woogie both of which have their origins in the populace and not as with choreographers.

Joe

 

[Mafke]

Doris - Would the ISU accept a folk dance from the US other than the 'hillbilly' type? I was thinking about the Texas Two Step which has a lot of intricate arm moves or a folk Blues dance such as the boogie woogie both of which have their origins in the populace and not as with choreographers.

I remember asking a similar question about regional US dances like Chicago Steppin', Carolina Shag, Cajun etc. (with helpful youtube links) but no one seemed interested (no more than when I suggested there's lots of interesting SEAsian dances that would be interesting to try to translate to the ice)

If the ones I mentioned, my idea was that cajun dancing should be allowable (why didn't anyone?), steppin' was probably too urban and shag was right in the middle. I'd love to see someone trying to translate the shag to the ice (how many men would be up to it?)

 

[Piel]

Doris - Would the ISU accept a folk dance from the US other than the 'hillbilly' type?

Joe

As a native West Virginian I consider the term hillbilly derogatory....as do most residents of Appalachia. Originally it did not have the same connotation as it does today. Appalachian folk dancing which includes square dance, clogging, and contra dancing originated from dances from the British Isles....England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

 

[Ptichka]

In fact some Ukrainian folk tuns are so catchy that you can't keep them out of your head. While I was looking for examples on youtube, I came across this clip of an updated version of a Ukrainian folks song that I'm still humming "Pidmanula pidvela".

Ah, that one... it's a catchy one indeed! Even I know the words to it (at least the refrain), and I don't speak a word of Ukrainian!

 

[Tonichelle]

Toni, Ah, the costs of getting to see skating for free!

I wouldn't say *free* I'd still have to suffer through five bazillion CDs to teh same song every competition and however many Kalinkas teams decide to use

 

[dorispulaski]

Now, now, AFAIR, aren't there usually 4 different songs that they cycle through in the CD? Granted they're all not so wonderful, but at least they're not all the same

 

[Tonichelle]

they might as well be, they all blend together after the second flight

 

[Mathman]

This is a time of tremendous opportunity for ice dancing in the U.S. We have some teams that are great technically as well as being charismatic crowd pleasers. Not to wish anyone else bad luck, but it could very well happen that our ice dancers will be our only realistic chance to medal at the next Olympics.

Recognizing that possibility, USFS and NBC TV ought to be giving as much attention as possible to this discipline.

 

[dorispulaski]

Mathman, from your lips to US Figure Skating & NBC's ears.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

As a native West Virginian I consider the term hillbilly derogatory....as do most residents of Appalachia. Originally it did not have the same connotation as it does today. Appalachian folk dancing which includes square dance, clogging, and contra dancing originated from dances from the British Isles....England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

I apologize for the term although I was not specific to whom it concerns. I'm well aware of clogging since my people are Welsh, the Square Dance comes from France and Spain and is called Cadrille or Escadril. Contra Dancing comes from the French Court although modified and many of its steps are in square dancing. Again, sorry for the unintended slur.

There is a web site on the origins of dance. Fascinating if you like the history of Dance. Who knew the tango came from the bolero?

Joe

 

[Piel]

Thanks Joe!