Russians Offensive Ice Dance Routine in 2010 Olympics

World ice dance champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin made slight alterations to the costumes for the Aboriginal-themed original dance that caused such a stir at last month's European championships. - Feb 22, 2010 -

This year, the theme for the ice dancing original dance was folk dancing. The dance was supposed to represent the "flavor" of one country or another.

Some skating pairs, like Israelis Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky and Georgians Allison Reed and Otar Japaridze, chose folk dances that represented their own country. Others chose to honor other cultures. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir did a flamenco, Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White did an Indian dance, and Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin did an Australian Aboriginal dance.

When the Russian pair did the Aboriginal dance at the European Championships in January, they drew criticism from Aboriginal leaders who found the dance and costumes offensive. Domnina and Shabalin toned down their costumes and removed their face paint, but made no changes to their Aboriginal dance.

The dance they did was more likely their interpretation of Aboriginal dance, though they claimed to have done research. Watching the dance Sunday night, one can understand why Aboriginal leaders were offended.

At times, Shabalin led Domnina around by her ponytail. They mugged, stuck out their tongues and mimicked the hand over mouth gesture that was once associated with American Indians. (See it here and judge for yourself.) After the dance ended, the crowd gave the Russians what could generously be called a lukewarm reception.

After seeing the dance Sunday night, an Aboriginal dancer wrote in Australia's Herald Sun newspaper:

The dance is certainly unlike anything I've seen, and other than a few complex lifts, the performance didn't really entertain me. It looked wrong on so many levels. ... When creating a dance or theatre work, even as contemporary indigenous dancers, it is a part of our practice to follow cultural protocols and consult with traditional elders who understand the meaning behind the movement. It is respect for our traditional cultural laws, language groups and elders for this information to be passed on correctly.

An Aboriginal leader agreed, telling The Australian newspaper:

"I am offended by the performance and so are our other councillors," Bev Manton, the chairwoman of the [New South Wales] Land Council said.

"Aboriginal people for very good reason are sensitive about their cultural objects and icons being co-opted by non-Aboriginal people whether they are from Australia or Russia.

"It's important for people to tread carefully and respectfully when they are depicting somebody else's culture, and I don't think this performance does."

Watching this dance was like watching an old movie like seeing Mickey Rooney's offensive portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" or seeing a period show like "Mad Men," where one of the main characters dressed in blackface. The dance was anachronistic. Considering that the pair slipped from first to third, it was not a winning routine, either

Category:

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• Offensive
• Ice
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• in
• 2010
• Olympics

[dinavienna]

@Branmuffin911 When you are clearly impersonating a people (shown by their dress and colours and announcement to do so) ethics demand they do their best to not misrepresent or insult the people. This goes even more for Native cultures who have suffered tremendously by colonization and Europeanization of their own countries.

[jozsefkacsa]

For fuck sakes they did the number out of respect to Aboriginese.This is Ice Dance they don't just copy the Aboriginal dance they put their own style in with it.It's a type of an ART!!!! The same here in Canada the Indians are bitching because the Vancouver Canucks using the Haida Orca symbol.Or in the States the're pissed off cause of teams like the Cleveland Indians,Washington Redskins.SICK'N TIRED OF THE BULLSHIT

[Lumberjackshorty]

Personally I really liked this program. I thought it was funny and light hearted, unlike most figure skating programs. And really it's figure skating who cares if a team decides to do a program based off of another culture, Tanith Belben and Ben Agusto skated to a Greek folk song and nobody cared.

[rentcarotid]

You definitely need to look up the word 'racist', because you don't know what it means. The fact that they are wearing those ridiculous costumes does not signify in any way that they believe they are racially superior. It only signifies that someone didn't have the balls to tell them how absurd they looked before they stepped in front of cameras. Colonization is in the past. Most people who lived during the European imperialist era are dead. It's time for racial sensitivity to die as well.

[irishgodfatherchris]

@jozsefkacsa but the problem is by law in Australia any representation of a native dance or person must be approved by the tribe in question

[dima9944]

I thought it was gonna be naked stuff.

[cicada300]

@jozsefkacsa

sometimes people are too sensitive...to be perfectly honest, it's only racist when somebody goes out and yells out that it's racist...It's not as though they painted themselves black, wore afro's, and put absurd amounts of red lipstick to make them look cartoonish and actual black face ;:|

[DoTaDAwg]

lol

[dinavienna]

@Dusty8417 I do not know about North Carolina dance - being inspired by something and making it your own folk dance does make it your own, right? As long as North Carolina folks do not claim to represent Irish dance by making changes to it that is a different thing, would you agree? One always builds a culture upon another culture, and is inspired by other dances. That is not the same as using another culture for a quick show! Right? I do not know enoug about iceskating to judge them :)

[Dusty8417]

@dinavienna  You know I was just using a example, I also enjoyed the Russian couple. But you are right, we fall into our own little world of what 'we' like and do not accept the new age art. I hate hip hop, but dont judge it some is actually good.

North Carolina folks call clogging is actaullay taken from Irish dance.

I went back and watched the Russian couple and they were not perfect. The routine was as not syncronized as most routines, and maybe that was a reason.