Q. about Jason Brown his use of Riverdance music [SPOILER]

[Query]

If you choose to skate to dance music, should you use a skating style that reflects the dance style the music was designed for?

Jason brown uses music from the Riverdance show in [SPOILER!] his routine.

If I remember right, the first half of his music selection was a musical interlude without dance, so I see no reason why he should skate to it with any particular style. But the second half was used in the Riverdance show to accompany Irish Step Dance, the style that show especially celebrated.

When I think of the Riverdance / Irish Step Dance style, I think:

(1) A very rapid fire sequence of closely spaced steps
(2) The steps clearly and audibly beat out the rhythm of the music
(3) A very still upper body
(4) The arms mostly rest still at the sides

AFAICT, Jason twice briefly quoted element (4), but otherwise, he skated a style that was in many respects opposite that of Irish Step Dance.

Contrast this to the "Riverdance on Ice" show of 2010, one of my all time favorite ice shows. The skaters did their best to emulate the Riverdancers' style. Of course that was a show - it's hard to imagine fully incorporating Irish Step Dance styling of into a freestyle skate that figure skating judges would mark well.

If you ignore the dance style mismatch, the music was very well suited to Jason's choreography, and he moved very well with the music. And yet - is that enough - or should the dance styles match?

(BTW, my favorite memory of the Riverdance On Ice show was Shae-Lynn Bourne's interpretation of Spanish Flamenco dance, a quite different style. In some respects she surpassed Yolanda Gonzalez Sobrado's land dance version. Look up their performances up on Youtube.)

[karne]

Thanks for the excuse to watch Jason again.  I love this program.

His Skate America performance wasn't the greatest example to use because he really rushed a lot of the later choreo - I guess panicking over the lost time when he fell and wobbled.

The fact remains that this is figure skating, not Irish Step Dance. Skating with the arms close to the body for the entire program is just about impossible. Just like hitting the beat every time is not going to happen because even with some of the ridiculous transitions Jason does he still needs to set up the jumps. Just like everyone else. If you go into watching a program like this expecting Irish Step Dance then of course you're going to be disappointed.

There's nothing wrong with Jason using the music and NOT using the dances from that part of the original Riverdance. Joshua's Schindler's List isn't based on the movie, either. His program is about how he feels in the music. And in a lot of ways I think that's a better option.

"Riverdance on Ice" was just that, a show. I'm sure Jason and Rohene would have loved to put in more Irish Step stuff. But he still had jumps to land, and spins to do, and footwork that met all the crazy IJS requirements for level four. Something had to give and it was the traditional Irish Step stuff.

Besides, listen to the crowd. When he starts that step sequence, they could not care less that he's not doing Irish Step.

[Skittl1321]

I don't think he needs to match the dance style the music was originally used for.  I think he needs to show he can interpret the music- and without a doubt he does that.   In fact, I think it would be less creative to copy what the original show is and not do something that is his own expression of the music.  He put a few highlights in to reference Irish step dance, and I think that was enough.  Because this is a competitive program he has limitations around elements- he can't do what a show did.

If skated clean, this will be a brilliant program. 

[accordion]

Both my daughters were involved with Irish Dancing and it is a bit of a furphy that they never move their arms. They do move but without gentleness or grace, particularly in group dances. Think marching bands doing rapid precision moves. Also, their arms are not always by their side unless they are doing competition dances. Social ceili dances use different choreography that often involves arm movements. Think square dancing or barn dancing.

My response to the skating is to say that in all dance forms it is important to feel and show the rhythm through your body. That doesn't have to be the feet. I think the skater interpreted the music really well, he used and modified some classic ID moves both step wise and arm. It was clear to me that he felt and showed the music, including the beat.

Lastly - I would love to confirm that the Irish dancers actually listened to the music! Not so, they learnt the steps as told to them by the teacher, but synchronising with the music happened only by happy accident. There was no sense of creating a dance story to complement the music. Frequently the music would be playing and simply stopped (mid-phrase) when the dancer was finished with their routine. Where there were live musicians they also just simply stopped mid-phrase. The better ones were able to bring the music to a decent ending, but not always. At the many competitions I attended I often felt that the dancers would have been just as happy to dance to a metronome.

[Query]

I guess most compulsory ice dances don't resemble their nominal land-dance forms all that strongly either.

Perhaps test and competitive figure skating standards make it impossible to achieve real authenticity with regards to conventional dance forms. For example, the required move, hold pose, move, hold pose rhythms, and the delayed torso rotations during jumps are pretty unique to figure skating.