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From: knight@rlgvax.UUCP (Steve Knight)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: USA Nordic Combined RIPOFF! - (nf)
Message-ID: <1757@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Feb-84 13:56:50 EST
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.1757
Posted: Sun Feb 26 13:56:50 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Feb-84 13:45:20 EST
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> From Beth Mazur ({ima,harpo,esquire}!inmet!mazur)

> One other specific instance I can recall was in the final judging for the
> Ice Dancing competition.  The US pair was third going into the long program.
> They chose to do a dance to "Scheherazade".  They received good marks except
> by the Italian judge who chose to give them a 5.6 (out of 6.0).  The US pair
> lost the bronze medal to the Russians who were in 4th place.  The Italian 
> judge, when pressed for a reason for her low mark, pulled out the Ice Dancing 
> rule book and pointed out that couples are required to change tempos in their
> long program.

> The injustice?  England's Torvill and Dean (easily the best ice dancer's in
> the world) did their long program to Ravel's "Bolero".  No major tempo change
> that I can recall.  The Italian judge gave this pair (who performed *after*
> the US pair) a 6.0, a perfect mark.  
 
That's not exactly the rationale that the Italian judge used.  Ice dancing
*permits* couples to dance to four different tempo/meter changes in their
long program, but does not require them to.  It is, however, very standard
to change tempos/meters the maximum number of times allowed, in order to
demonstrate versatility, etc.  Torvill & Dean's "Bolero" was first presented
before the Olympics at a competition in South America, I believe, and was
a radical departure from the norm, but well within the rules.

The Italian judge's criteria for marking Blumberg & Seibert down (the
American couple, whose names I hope I am spelling correctly) was that the
music *is* supposed to be something to which you could dance on a ballroom
floor--i.e., "ballroom dance" type music, as opposed to ballet, etc.  Her
argument was that "Bolero" fits this criteria, but "Scheherezade" does not,
which strikes me as a fairly worthless nitpick.  In any event, Blumberg &
Seibert's getting marked down is supposed to indicate that ice dancing will
return to its old conventions after Torvill & Dean retire, instead of
continuing in the direction they started with "Bolero."  Pity.
-- 

	Steve Knight
	{seismo,allegra,some other sites}!rlgvax!knight