ice dancing

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2011 World champion ice dancers Meryl Davis & Charlie White perform a dance lift. Dance lifts differ in many ways from pairs lifts.

Ice dancing is a form of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It was first competed at the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, but did not become a Winter Olympic Games medal sport until 1976.

As in pair skating, dancers compete as a couple consisting of a man and a woman. Ice dance differs from pair skating by having different requirements for lifts, requiring spins to be performed as a team in a dance hold, and by disallowing throws and jumps. Typically, partners are not supposed to separate by more than two arm lengths; originally, partners were supposed to be in a dance hold the entire program, though this restriction has been lifted somewhat in modern ice dancing.

Another distinction between ice dance and other disciplines of skating is the usage of music in the performances; in ice dancing, dancers must always skate to music that has a definite beat or rhythm. Singles and pair skaters more often skate to the melody and phrasing of their music, rather than its beat; this is severely penalized in ice dance.

In some non-ISU competitions, solo dancers can also compete.

Competition components

There are two components in ice dance competitions: the short dance ("SD"), and the free dance ("FD"). The free dance is the most heavily weighted in the scoring and is used as a tiebreaker. Until the end of the 2009-10 season, competitions included one or more compulsory dances ("CD"), an original dance ("OD"), and the free dance.

Compulsory dances

Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski on an outside edge during a compulsory dance.

In compulsory dances, all dance teams in a competition perform the same standard steps and holds to music of a specified tempo. One or more compulsory dances were skated as the first phase of competitions in ice dancing, but they are also popular as a form of recreational or social dance among skaters. The patterns for most dances either cover one-half or one full circuit of the rink. The International Skating Union (ISU) would publish the compulsory dances that would be performed prior to each season, and CDs were later drawn for specific events.

The compulsory dance was discontinued in all ISU competitions after the 2010 season. The 2010 World Figure Skating Championships were the last event to include a CD (the Golden Waltz), and Italians Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali were the last dance team to perform one in competition.^[1]

Original dance

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir perform a flamenco as their folk dance original dance.

Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali perform an Italian folk dance.

The original dance was the second of three parts in ice dancing competitions. For the original dance, the ISU would designate a rhythm or set of rhythms each year that all dancers must perform to, or a specific theme, such as folk dance. The competitors were allowed to choose their own music and choreography. The length of the program was shorter than the free dance, and the skaters had to adhere to more rules. The dance was to be choreographed so that the steps dis not cross the midline of the rink, with certain exceptions for this rule that took into account required step sequences such as the diagonal footwork sequence. Closed partnering positions and close skating were also important for the original dance.

The OD and CD were last performed in the 2009-10 season and were replaced by the Short Dance in the 2010-11 season.

Short dance

Following the 2009-10 season, the ISU congress voted to change the format of ice dance events and make them more similar to pairs and singles skating. Thus, the new short dance was introduced at the start of the 2010-11 season. This segment of the competition combines features of the discontinued CDs and ODs; each team performs a required pattern from one of the compulsory dances for about one half of the dance, then performs its own choreography, with some required elements, to a theme or rhythm specified by the ISU. Skaters are free to choose their own music, so long as the tempo is appropriate.

Free dance

The free dance is a part of an ice dancing competition. It is usually the third and final part of the competition to be contested, after the compulsory dances and the original dance.

In the free dance, teams are free to choose their own rhythms, program themes, and therefore music. Creativity is also strongly encouraged. Since 1998, dancers have been required to include certain elements in their free dances, including step sequences, lifts, dance spins, and multi-rotation turns called twizzles. Senior level free dances are four minutes long (plus or minus 10 seconds) and usually include multiple music cuts and tempos that help bring variety to the routine. The hand holds and positions are much more open and free than in the compulsory and original dance categories. Often teams strive to skate in difficult or unusual positions to gain difficulty points. There are more lifts in the free dance than in the original dance.

Competition elements

Lifts

A rotational dance lift.
(Elena Ilinykh / Nikita Katsalapov)

Lifts in ice dancing differ from those in pair skating in prohibiting the man from extending his hands above his head, but allowing a wider variety of holds. The more change of direction, flexibility, and height in the lift, the greater number of points a team can earn from the judges under the Code of Points scale.

Jumps and spins

Multi-revolution jumps are not permitted. "Half" jumps are now allowed. Spins must be performed by both skaters revolving around the same axis, the same as in pair spins.

Ice dance history

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Ice dance has a strong tradition in the United Kingdom. Many of the compulsory dances which are still competed today were developed by British dancers in the 1930s, and 12 of the first 16 World Championships in ice dance were won by British couples. The British team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously won the Olympic gold medal in Sarajevo in 1984 with a dramatic free skate to Ravel's Bolero which earned unanimous 6.0s for presentation.

The British style of ice dance originally emphasized upright carriage and strong edges achieved by deep knee bend. Beginning in the 1960s, Eastern European skaters started a trend to dance in more open positions, which allowed for greater speed over the ice, more upper-body involvement, and greater projection towards the audience.^[2] In the 1970s, top Soviet dancers began to develop a more theatrical style of ice dancing incorporating elements of ballet and often based on narrative program themes.^[3] The Russian style of dance emphasized extended line and speed, rather than difficult rhythmic footwork.^[4] In some cases, elaborate choreography for the upper body was used to camouflage fundamental deficiencies of skating technique.^[5] By the early 1990s, however, all the top dance teams were performing routines in the theatrical, rather than ballroom, style.^[6][7]

At this point, the International Skating Union began to try to restrain theatricality in ice dancing, first by attempting to return it to its ballroom roots by adding more restrictions on music and dance holds. Later, amid complaints that ice dance had become too boring, these restrictions were removed and replaced with requirements that dancers include specified technical elements in the original dance and free dance. Dance lifts became more complex and new elements, dance spins and twizzles, were introduced. In the original dance and later short dance, a no-touching step sequence was added to evaluate whether both partners are on the same level technically, while other step sequences are in holds. While the requirement that dancers skate to music with a definite beat remains, ice dancing is currently the only discipline of figure skating which allows music with lyrics in competition.

Historical results

See:

• Figure skating at the Olympics
• World Figure Skating Championships
• European Figure Skating Championships
• Four Continents Championships
• United States Figure Skating Championships

References

• ISU Judging System at the International Skating Union
• ISU Judging System: Ice Dance at the International Skating Union

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ice dancing

• Ice-dance.com
• ISU Home - International Skating Union website