| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: ice dancing |
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| Dictionary of Dance: ice dancing |
The speed, rhythm, and fluency of skating are all qualities associated with dance, and dancing on ice, either solo or in couples, has a long social history (Samuel Pepys is recorded as dancing with Nell Gwyn on the Thames during the Great Frost of 1683). The modern form of ice dance, i.e. skating based on ballroom dances, was introduced in Vienna in 1868 by the US skater Jackson Haines, and for decades vied for prominence with the figure-based skating popular in Britain. Since the Second World War ice dance has been established world-wide as a professional sport and performance art, with the first World Championships being held in 1952. Competitions include compulsory dances, in which specific ballroom dances are performed with the dancers also tracing a set pattern on the ice, and original dances. These have incorporated an increasing range of elements from ballroom dance, disco, and classical dance. Ice dancers are judged on the same qualities of grace, line, co-ordination, and invention that are expected from floor-bound dancers, although in some competition events there can be a tension between the aesthetic content of the work and the need to display the appropriate range of skating techniques. It has been individual dancers rather than choreographers who have tended to advance the form most radically, for example the Russians Oleg and Lyudmila Protopopov who took the World Championships by storm in 1962 with their (then) startling use of classical adage and big Soviet-style lifts. In 1976 John Curry won the European, World, and Olympic titles with performances heavily based on the idiom of classical ballet. His choreography was a serious interpretation of the music and within the limits imposed by ice and skating boots he introduced a range of classical jumps, turns, batterie, and ports de bras. He was equally successful in the theatre. Tharp choreographed the performances he gave at Madison Square Garden, New York (Nov. 1976), and Darrell and MacMillan both choreographed solos for his Theatre of Skating which was premiered on 27 Dec. 1976 at Cambridge Theatre, London. In 1984 Torvill and Dean's Olympic winning duet Bolero (mus. Ravel) took ice dance to new heights of dramatic expression, although some of Dean's innovations, such as guiding his partner by her leg or skate were deemed illegal in subsequent amateur competitions. Professional competitions which became popular during the 1980s allowed for much freer styles of choreography. During the 1990s ice dance versions of musicals became very popular, for example The Phantom of the Opera.
While ice dancing has been influenced by the theatre, dance choreographers have in turn exploited the poetry of ice dance for the stage, such as Ashton in Les Patineurs (1937), which mimics the swooping flight of skaters and their fluent turns as well as mining the comic potential for falls. In 1996 Christopher Dean choreographed Encounters for English National Ballet, a work which did not take skating as its subject, but which did draw choreographically on Dean's own ice dance style.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: ice dancing |
| Wikipedia: Ice dancing |
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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. 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.
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There are three components in an ice dance competition. The compulsory dances ("CD"), worth 10% of the total score; the original dance ("OD"), worth 40% of the overall score; and the free dance ("FD") which is worth 50% of the total score and used as a tiebreaker. Some competitions, such as the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, do not have a compulsory dance.
Compulsory dances are a part of ice dancing in which all the couples perform the same standardized steps and holds to music of a specified tempo. One or more compulsory dances are usually 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 publishes the step diagrams and descriptions of the dances that are competed internationally, and also provides a set of standard music recordings for each dance with uniform tempo and introductory phrasing for use in competition.
The original dance is a part of an ice dancing competition. It is usually the second of three programs, sandwiched between the compulsory dances and the free dance.
For the original dance, the International Skating Union designates a rhythm or set of rhythms each year that all dancers must perform to, but unlike the compulsory dances, the competitors choose their own music (within a specified tempo range) and choreography. The original dance could be compared to the short program in singles and pairs. The length of the program is shorter than the free dance, and the skaters have more rules they must adhere to. The dance must be choreographed so that the steps do not cross the midline of the rink. There are certain exceptions for this rule that take into account required step sequences such as the diagonal footwork sequence. Closed partnering positions and close skating is also important for the original 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.
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.
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.
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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.[1] In the 1970's, top Soviet dancers began to develop a more theatrical style of ice dancing incorporating elements of ballet and often based on narrative program themes.[2] The Russian style of dance emphasized extended line and speed, rather than difficult rhythmic footwork.[3] In some cases, elaborate choreography for the upper body was used to camouflage fundamental deficiencies of skating technique.[4] By the early 1990s, however, all the top dance teams were performing routines in the theatrical, rather than ballroom, style.[5][6]
At this point, the International Skating Union began to try to restrain the excessive 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. The effect is that there is now more emphasis on technique and athleticism in the judging, and less on dramatics. 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 vocal music with lyrics in competition.
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 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Dictionary of Dance. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Copyright © 2000, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ice dancing". Read more |
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