Skating's version of the original shaggy dog joke
One thing that I'd like to see in the folk OD is a requirement that the skaters submit a video recording of the dance they are emulating to a judging committee before any of these dances are danced on ice. The judging committee would rule whether the dance/music is acceptably folk. And the recordings would be passed on to judges for events that these skaters were competing in.
A real weakness of this year's OD's was that the judges' were fairly clueless about the dances they were judging and yet there was a requirement that each move show the character of the folk dance.
I actually think the judges did a fairly good job with Russian folk and gypsy rhythms. And we have had flamenco and polka many times, so they understand them well. Other than that? Not.
IMO, there were 3 kinds of problems.
1. Dances criticized for not being folk that actually were, particularly the B&A Skate America version of Appalachian hoedown, resulting in B&A's struggling to find what the judges wanted all year. I can't help feeling that if a judging committee had reviewed a tape of Appalachian dancing, as I did, they would have come to the conclusion that B&A's first version, other than costumes was excellent.
There was also a Jr couple with a blues that was considered 'not folk' (which is also :banghead: worthy decision. If blues is ruled out, it should be ruled out as tango is: a rhythm that is already competed separately, not because it's not folk, because it is.
2. Dances where the music was a zipped up or cartoon version of folk that was somehow more acceptable to the judge's than real folk.
B&A replaced the first part of their OD music with the Rednexx's version of Cotton Eye Joe which is a Swedish Europop style version of an old folk tune. The version of Cotton Eye Joe I knew as a kid was practically a dirge. It appears that B&A did this because Wester and Barantsev got a good reception, winning Nebelhorn, with Rednexx's Cotton Eye Joe.
However, B&A weren't the only occurrence of this. Carron and Jost's Degeneration is a Canadian zipped up version of an old contradance number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCRHhmHvjg
Hann McCurdy & Coreno's Logdriver's waltz was based on a Canadian TV cartoon The cartoon starts partway into the clip.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPDi9DzihrE
And the Jr. couple, Mysliveckova and Novak did a charming number to Ieva's polka which again did relatively well for them, but which is a modern popped up version, and has also been used in a cartoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNDh_tFIHn4
Now I enjoyed all of these numbers a lot, but since authenticity was supposed to be stressed, this seems rather questionable to me. I think a judge's review panel would help make it clear to both competitors and judges what was folk and what wasn't, and what the typical movements of obscure dances should be.
3. Deliberately obscure dances that looked like what one thinks ought to be folk, but have limited resemblance to their original. BTW, I loved both of these dances as dances, but especially Delobel and Schonfelder's dance was kind of manufactured. F&S did a pizzica, which is an obscure form of tarantella, that was borderline the same problem.
Here's a real pizzica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YQyrzqDeDU&feature=related
Here's F&S's pizzica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2eMggbubQ
For Delobel & Schonfelder's here's a real Breton gavotte:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr7HNtfqX-s
And their Breton gavotte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNpwZOAIT3E
All 3 of these problems could be solved by a credential committee approving the choice of dance and music well in advance.
If that isn't done, I definitely advise US couples to do zydeco, which is very peppy and very few judges will have any idea what it's supposed to look like.
