Every time the Olympics take place, I always get into a certain argument with my family or friends. Namely, that of whether or not the Olympics should contain dance. The answer, I thought, was most certainly! It\u2019s simple enough: if figure skating and gymnastics can be in the Olympics, then why not dance? After all, they\u2019re just\u2014in my clearly not at all biased opinion\u2014less pretty types of dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it\u2019s a matter of being too subjective, then so is figure skating (Not to mention rhythmic gymnastics and ice dancing, but I didn\u2019t know about those back then). If it\u2019s about not being athletic enough, that\u2019s just bogus. If it\u2019s a matter of there being too many types of dance, then they can just put ballet in: it has an incredibly strict set of techniques and rules, unlike hip-hop (probably; I\u2019ve never done hip-hop), and besides, it\u2019s somehow become basically universal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after the recent debacle of the Russian skaters at the Olympics, I\u2019m honestly glad that dance is not in the Olympics. Though I\u2019m not the first, the most interested, or even at all qualified to speak about that event, I\u2019m going to do so anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thing is, now, when I think of figure skating, I think of those three Russian girls in Beijing: the champion, sitting alone; the runner-up, furious; and a child younger than me sobbing her heart out, trapped in a doping scandal. Three wonderful skaters brought to misery on the stage of what should be their greatest triumph. I think of Eteri Tutberidze, lauded as the world\u2019s best coach two years ago despite her damaging training methods. And I think that, if she and her conveyor belt of ever-younger champions is the herald of the future of female figure skating (for it can hardly be considered \u201cwomen\u2019s\u201d figure skating anymore), well then. Damn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For such a beautiful sport to be reduced to that terrible event in my (and likely many others’) mind is an honest travesty. And even after this all blows over (if it ever truly can, on stage at the Olympics as it was), the legacy it represents will live on. The legacy, that is, of winning no matter what, at the cost of frickin\u2019 children\u2019s wellbeing; that of a competition of who can jump most, of who can be the lightest, of who can suffer through the most dangerous, painful falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No friggin\u2019 thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honestly? I blame the artform\u2019s current state (for that\u2019s what it should be: an artform) on the Olympics. I blame it on their scoring methods, which place jumps above all else, rewarding the 3 Ultra C jumps regardless of form or aesthetics\u2014and, subsequently, the damaging methods, both mentally and physically, that Eteri Tutzberidze and other similar coaches employ. I blame it on the stage it proffers, upon which certain countries can enact out their Cold War-esque rivalries to their heart\u2019s content with no regard for the people actually winning the competition for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if keeping dance from the Olympics can keep it from deteriorating the way women\u2019s figure skating has these past few years, then keeping dance from the Olympics is what we should do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Probably, the Olympics is likely far from the only, perhaps even the main, reason that figure skating has become what it is now. But humanity is all about shifting blame and finding scapegoats, so that is what I\u2019ll continue doing until I find some better way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And humanity is also all about hope and improvement. Thus, though I know there must certainly be similar destructive elements in dance as there are in figure skating, I am (not wilfully ignorant) a dreamer, willing, hoping, to see only the beauty. Though I\u2019m absolutely over-idealizing the dance field, leave me to my blissful idealization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And who knows? Perhaps in a few years, figure skating will improve as gymnastics did (somewhat) with additional regulations, and dance in the Olympics will be a worthy goal once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My research for this involved an essay on YouTube and many, many videos of ice skating and rhythmic gymnastics. It was absolutely productive, thank you very much.
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