Spanish themes in pairs and ice dance before 2001-2? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Spanish themes in pairs and ice dance before 2001-2?

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Dear all,

My pandemic entertainment has (so far) included a couple of skating related viewing projects. First, I went through ladies and men Top 5 in the Worlds from 1980 until last year. That got me interested in how the music tracks and programs were composed over the years and especially how quite a few pieces of music from Spain have become important parts of the war horse collection.

I have now tracked about a 1000 programs with Spanish music for single skaters since the late 1960s by watching videos available and browsing a massive number of skater Wikipedia pages. However, my list is seriously lacking in pairs and ice dance. Before 2001-2 you have to find a video of a program which is a time-consuming process - after that the program info starts getting collected in Wikipedia and it is possible to collect with relative ease. In the end, the time I can devote to my favorite hobby is limited (and I admit, am not super keen to watch a lot of pairs and ice dance).

But I would like to have a more complete list of Spanish themed programs for pairs and ice dance from the 1960s to about 2000. I am ultimately interested in documenting the development of creating programs and numbers are a part of that process – when does it start? how often is a certain type of music used? how is it used? which disciplines? etc. What will become of all of this I still don't know exactly, time will tell. But the single skater data is alrealy indicating certain trends and I would like to see whether they take place also in the other two disciplines.

Would you like to help me collect data? How many pairs/ice dance programs with Spanish themes you know from before 2001-2?

I am interested in all kinds of musical themes related to Spain. The big three are obviously Carmen, Malaguena and Concierto de Aranjuez. Espana Cani is probably the fourth most popular singular piece of music. Flamenco has become more and more popular starting from the 1990s and a great number of songs have been used. I have also included Minkus’s Don Quixote, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, the soundtracks to The Mask of Zorro and Don Juan DeMarco, etc. Basically anything that sounds “Spanish” and gets used with the kind of movement that is associated with Spanish dance styles (and costumes). I am also interested if any of these was used as parts of medleys without specific themes in the way programs were mostly constructed before the 1990s.

The only limitation is that the original/short/rhythm dances from ice dance are not needed. The styles of music have been predetermined in them for each season, so almost every team gets to do a paso doble or flamenco etc. during their careers.

Below a list of what I already have which is pitifully short compared to what probably was. I will take programs from junior, senior, international, national, and if you have a link to a video, I will be super excited.

I hope you wish to share your knowledge with me – I will be eternally grateful for every bit of data!

Eppen

Ice Dance
Bestemianova & Bukin USSR 1984-5 Carmen
Duchesnay & Duchesnay CAN 1986-7 Malaguena
Anissina & Averbuch RUS 1991-2 The Barber of Seville
Winkler & Lohse GER 1992-3 Spanish medley
Anissina & Peizerat FRA 1993-4 Flamenco
Krylova & Ovsyannikov RUS 1994-5 Flamenco
Krylova & Ovsyannikov RUS 1997-8 Carmen
Ottaviani & Scali ITA 1999-2000 The Mask of Zorro
Weaver & Clavey USA 2001-2 Carmen
Grushina & Goncharov RUS 2001-2 Barcelona

Pairs
Gordeeva & Grinkov USSR SP 1987-8 Carmen
Gordeeva & Grinkov USSR SP 1988-9 The Barber of Seville
Mishkutionok & Dmitriev RUS SP 1991-2, 1993-4 Don Quixote
Gordeeva & Grinkov USSR FS 1993-4 Flamenco
Bilousivska & Morozov RUS FS 1997-8 Carmen
Beránková & Dlabola CZE FS 2000-1 The Mask of Zorro
Kawaguchi & Markuntsov JPN FS 2001-2 Carmen
The first two are gold! Thank you!

Tangos I still put in the Latin American category, but the second one shows an interesting mix of costume and dance style - the guy is clearly wearing a bull fighter outfit which I don't associate with tango at all at any level...



It is a classic (one that even I have seen), but as OD/RD/etc. have a set musical style, am not really interested in these - everyone has to find the music style so it is not the kind of choice I am thinking of. If the dance teams do Spanish music in the free, on the other hand, yes please.

What surprises me here a little bit is what seems to get regarded as "Spanish". Language is certainly the same (or sameish) between Old and New World Spanish speaking cultures, but the music and dance styles are quite different. Those rhythms could not have been born on this side of the Atlantic... Or is this just my Old World point of view??

It is kind of funny that tango happens to be a very important music and dance style here in my native Finland - a place about as far away from its South American origins as possible in every possible way. But we have (had?) a thriving culture of social dancing and tango has been an integral part of it (it looks and sounds a little different from the Argentinian versions, though: here danced as a competition style dance and here La Cumparsita sung in Finnish, Olavi Virta from the 1950s and finally, at an open air dance hall). The origns of the dance is frequently discussed and so, there is really no way, a Finn could regard tango as anything Spanish :biggrin:

But I do hope you still walk down the memory lane on those pairs and ice dance programs! That surely cannot be all!

E
Quite the List! You might want to check out Carmen on Ice starring, Brian Orser, Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRy0_31zny0
 
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