those crazy skating outfits

1. usa goes bollywood!
2. british hillbillies!!

3. russian aborigines!!!

4. canadian class!!!!!


blog reprint from here

Honestly I did not know that ice dancing was an Olympic sport until 2010. I may be really behind the curve, but it never seemed to interest me. I loved when the pairs figure skaters would leap and lift, twist and twirl, in awe defying stunts done on figure skates. Ice dancing does not have that same awe feeling that I like to have when watching the Olympics.

This year, however, ice dancing has been a huge focus in the Vancouver Winter Games. Was it the controversy of the Russian pairs aboriginal outfits during the ice dancing free skate. More information that I did not know about ice dancing is there are three parts to the ice dancing competition: compulsory dance, the Tango (which was decided for these games), and the free skate. History shows that during the free skate the ice dancers usually get "silly." The theme for the free skate, or original dance, was folk/country dance. It was quite strange because you have the German's doing Hawaiian, Chinese doing Greek, American's doing Bollywood and Moldovian, and Canadian's doing Flamenco.

In the end the Canadian's held their place on the center podium, American's Davis and White pulled into second place, and Russian's Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shaballin won third. The Russian's were in first however after the free skate they dropped, could it have been the costume controversy?

To watch videos of the Ice Dancing go to nbcolympics.com

culture vultures

culture vultures or artists?
what do u think.

reprint:

By Maggie Hendricks

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the favorites for ice-dancing gold in Vancouver, wowed the crowds with their routine at the European Championships. They sit in the lead after their original dance, a tribute to Australian Aborigines.

Except, Aboriginal leaders don't see it as a tribute. They don't really see how it has anything to do with their culture at all.

"They have got the whole thing wrong," said Stephen Page, artistic director of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company. Page said there were no traditional movements in the routine, the music sounded more like it came from India or Africa than Aboriginal Australia and the body paint looked like "a three-year-old child had drawn it on"... "Probably the elders in the bush would be laughing because they would be saying, 'Look how stupid these fellas are,' " he said.

Domnina and Shabalin are required to do an original dance that is representative of a country's culture. The U.S. pair of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who won silver in Torino, perform a Moldavian folk dance. Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie Davis won the Grand Prix Final with an Indian-inspired dance.

The dances are not required to be strict interpretations of the culture -- they are meant to represent those cultures -- but Domnina and Shabalin completely miss the mark. At this point, it's likely too late for the pair to change their routine. Hopefully, an Australian will be on the panel who judges their original dance, and marks their unauthentic and offensive dances and costumes accordingly.