Eye of the Beholder: Mote or Beam?

Special post from a contributor.

Looking back at the Grand Prix series and the outrage against scores given out at the Rostelcom Cup (aka Cup of Russia) in the short dance is – comical.

Having read posts at various figure skating forums, one could find it rather amusing that all of a sudden some posters think that there is something wrong with the judging system. Not only did they gave a Russian ice dance couple the lead after the short dance, but gave them a huge lead. Because it’s so massive (in terms of how a team could possibly catch them, not likely to happen), might as well just call it a day. The Russian team was gifted. It’s a travesty how “those two” who made very noticeable mistakes were still given levels on elements that should clearly have had reductions.

Not fair, you say? How can this be? Do the judges and tech panel not see what’s taking place right in front of them? Is this another case of judging “who” is skating and “where” rather than what is actually taking place? Hmmm …

Shoot the duck as performed by D/W in their FD at SA

Shoot the duck as performed by B/S in their SD at CoR

Looking at both photos above, are there any who would suggest that both of these moves are equally done well? If so, then here’s a suggestion of what to look at

·         The man – one male is slightly bent at both the waist and at his knees and using one hand, the other is severely bent at the waist (with his butt clearly bent outward), knees quite bent, using both arms

·         The woman – one female has her legs rather close together and her body well off the ice; the other has her legs spread apart as though having a gynaecological examination and her butt is so close to the ice it almost touches

Should both of these moves be given the same credit in any of the PCS criteria? Oh, you don’t know what the judges use as PCS criteria – will address that later. Would anyone suggest that by looking at the photos, that these two moves are equally well done?

And then there’s the posture when both of these teams are skating in general. Both of these teams show terrible posture at times – especially when in dance hold. When in hold (open or closed) the hips of the two skaters should be close together not so far apart that you could fit a third person between them. One team gets called out for their bad posture (B/S) on figure skating forums while the other hasn’t and still doesn’t. Why? Reputation judging? or something else? Pick a theory and explain why.

Well let’s just say that this isn’t the first time a team has benefitted in scoring and it doesn’t always reflect what’s taking place on the ice. You want an example of over scoring? How about what has been given to Davis & White of the U.S. over the past few seasons. It all starts when they skate “at home” at Skate America. The marks are inflated. Why? Good question but it could be a number of answers, not the least of which is they know exactly how little they need to do to reach the top level. Never mind if it’s same twizzles they’ve been doing for years or lifts where Charlie hauls Meryl into place – as long as it is “ticking off the boxes” to reach the level, that’s all that matters. GMAB.

They make a mistake and it’s either “not seen” or just plain not deducted. Curious as to how that happens. It used to be known as SWR (skating while Russian) but now it seems to be SN D/W (skaters named D/W).

The level on their Finnstep should have been reduced by at least one for it. Did that happen? No way! They were skating “at home”. If another dance couple had made the same mistake would they have gotten a lower level on that pattern? Maybe, perhaps, likely. How can I say such a thing? What happened far too often occurs when other dance couples make mistakes, the mistakes are almost ALWAYS seen and are docked quite accordingly/heavily for it. As a result, the team in second place is so far behind the first place team that the competition is pretty much over.

How can such a thing be, you ask? Well it does happen in other disciplines and there’s a great deal of “wuz-robbing” that goes on about them too. However, most times you can see that deductions were made for mistakes and yet the superiority of the skater and the program still makes up for that (Patrick Chan anyone?).

What’s even funnier? The irony of some of the same people who laugh at fans for thinking the judging is fixed in favour of one team over another are the same ones freaking out over the results in Russia. They even use the same reasoning of why their team should always be in first for the team that finished in 2^nd place (Weaver/Poje of Canada) at CoR: they have worked incredibly hard over the past few years; they deserve a fair shot at a medal; they're not going to get one; it's ridiculous and it's sad; can't imagine what it feels like to be them. How do you wake up and have the motivation to train, knowing what's happening behind the scenes and what it means for you, is beyond me.

If they really want to know the answer to that last “question” ask the rivals of Davis/White what it’s like. Oh yeah, and they share the same training rink AND coach.

Is “turning a blind eye” something new in dance? Not if you ask people who have been fans dance for decades.

Some Background

When ice dance first appeared on the World Championship stage (1952) what differentiated it from pairs was that it was to be a disciple that drew from the world of ballroom dancing. At that time the British style of ice dance was usually followed which 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. The 70’s saw top Soviet dancers develop a more theatrical style of ice dancing incorporating elements of ballet and often based on narrative program themes. The Russian style of dance emphasized extended line and speed, rather than difficult rhythmic footwork. In some cases, elaborate choreography for the upper body was used to camouflage fundamental deficiencies of skating technique. And then ice dance joined the Olympic scene (1968 as demonstration sport, 1976 as an official sport).Who were the first Olympic Gold Medalists you ask? Lyudmila Pakhomova & Aleksandr Gorshkov – from Russia. Because this style of dance was continually used as the barometer of all that was “supposed” to be ice dance and what was being awarded, by the 1990s rolled around you found all the top dance teams were performing dances in the theatrical, rather than ballroom, style. It seemed that if you wanted to beat the Russians, you had to become Russian in your skating.

Did the Russian teams really deserve all those titles? Well that depends upon who you ask and what you “thought” ice dancing should be about. The scores for all teams Russian – were they really merited? Many thought not. Just because one team was “faster” (and usually in open hold) didn’t mean they were better – at least not to the ice dance purists. Those who followed ice dancing thought that teams from the Soviet were getting generous marks aka “over marked”.

Shortly afterward, many discussions took place about the “over scoring” on the “far too dramatic” style of ice dance. Many other members of the ISU began to lobby for a return of ice dance to its ballroom roots.

Why? Quite likely because it seemed one country of dancers was benefitting by a style preferred by a group of people representing many countries who had at one time represented one country – the one that was doing all the winning with the “theatrical” style of ice dancing.

So here we have it. Fans of one dance couple, complaining about the scoring (or over scoring) of a team who makes mistakes yet cannot/will not acknowledge that their own team makes mistakes and are either not docked for the mistake or are over scored far too often. They really should remove the beam in their own eyes before pointing out the mote in others.