Figure Skating: The basics (Part 3, ice dance)
So far we've covered jumps and lifts.
Casual fans may know ice dance as "The one where they don't jump at all, it's lame." They're not wrong about the jumping but lame it is not. It's certainly not something you can watch and understand the first time out, it's an acquired taste like wine or coffee. And yes I love both and so do you so let's get into it.
Dance patterns
Dance patterns are probably the closest thing to compulsory figures or school figures that still exists in today's skating. And to talk about this adequately we have to go back in time a bit.
So in the old 6.0 days of the sport, ice dance was a 4-phase competition whereas single skating and pairs is 2 phases (short program and free skate). So it was a lot. The first 2 phases were called the compulsory dances. These were 2 dances, that were named after and patterned on ballroom dances. So in a ye olde competition you might see a waltz compulsory dance (CD) and a paso doble CD. The CDs were skated to the same tempo (usually just the same music), and skated the same way by all teams (with the exception of the very beginning and end). The specific CDs would change every year.
The Original Dance was the third phase. While in this phase there was less guidance about the exact steps, holds etc. there were still a number of rules about tempo and type of dance. Essentially, in a competition year all routines needed the same tempo. As to "Type" well that's where it gets interesting. In ye olde days of the 80s and 90s the "type" might be Tango. So for 1 season, everyone had to do a tango set to an approved rhythm. Then, as ice dance started to change with the times a bit they started to broaden what "type" meant. So in 2010 the type was "Folk dance" which is why that year at the Olympics, skaters did Flamenco, Bollywood, Aboriginal, and Scottish folk dances, to name just a few. Honestly, one of the best parts about the original dance at the time was seeing how skaters interpreted the instructions to suit their style (it's also where we find some of the most iconic and unfortunate costumes in figure skating).
Now, the last time that there were 2 CDs skated in a Winter Olympics was 2002, and you can kind of see why they did away with it. Why were ice dancers still skating their version of figures when the rest of the disciplines of figure skating had moved on ages ago (the last school figures was done in 1990)? In addition to being a bit outdated, 4 phases is a lot of phases for competitors, but also for an Olympic audience. People weren't as excited about ice dance and no wonder-it dragged on and on before any medals were awarded. And the way scores were calculated didn't help (small percentage for each CD, slightly higher for the Original Dance, and highest percentage to the Free Dance), it was confusing!
Since figure skating was undergoing a major overhaul after the 2002 Olympics it made sense to rethink ice dance a bit. The first change? We are now a 3-phase competition! I know, a HUGE change right guys? Guys? Well for stodgy old ice dance it was a big change-1 CD was booted out completely. And it did stay like that for a while. For the 2006 and 2010 Olympics, ice dance had 1 CD, 1 Original Dance, and 1 Free Dance. After the 2010 Olympics, it was time for even more change-on a deeper level. But to lose the other CD means to lose what makes the discipline fundamentally ice dance. I mean heck-that's why it has the name! And most fans of the sport at the time really liked the original dance too! It was fun and creative! The solution? Smash them together in some kind of unholy hybrid! It'll be great!
PRESENT DAY
And that's how we ended up where we are today. Thanks Obama! Anyway, the current rhythm dance (or short dance as it was briefly known) combines elements of the compulsory dance in the form of dance patterns, and elements of the original dance in the type of dance that skaters could choose from.
The pattern dance looks like the in the rule book and as you can see it is quite detailed in where the pattern begins and ends, as well as the different holds, edges, movements that each person makes. We won't go too deep on the movements themselves-this is more to demonstrate how strict the judges are on what needs to be done by each ice dance team. And when you watch a couple dance teams now during the rhythm dance, you should be able to tell pretty quickly when they're doing their dance pattern because it will look the same and take place in the same spot on the ice every time.
Step sequences
Ok! Don't worry no more time traveling for the rest of the required elements. We move on to step sequences now. But the elements that make up a dance pattern also make up a step sequence. The main difference being that a step sequence is not tightly regulated in the same way a pattern would be. So dancers may choose a serpentine sequence or a circular sequence (basically an S shape around the rink, or an O-shape respectively) and show a variety of holds, change of edge moves, twizzles, turns etc. Below is an example of a section of a circular step sequence from Weaver/Poje:
And it becomes much clearer in the gifs what I mean about changes of holds, look how many they do in these clips alone-I counted 4 changes in the combined 10 seconds. If we focus on the first clip, we see they're also showing nice edge work, and changes of edge and turn. In the second she does a twizzle-so really showing all these elements that make a difficult step sequence.
In terms of GOE for both step sequences and patterns, judges would look for nice deep edges, confident changes of edge, confident and fast turns, speed throughout and consistent spacing (skating closer together is also harder so typically top teams will be buddy-buddy up close and personal throughout the sequences especially if they're performing close-holds).
Twizzles
Mentioned above, and also easily recognizable to pretty much anyone who watches ice dance, the twizzle sequence is the "quad" of ice dancing. I didn't come up with that description by the way, that's just something the commentators like to say to excite the audience. Anyway a twizzle or a twizzle sequence is basically a spin that travels across the ice. So in the Spins Basics post we talked about how a good singles spin is very centered-not so for twizzles. See an example below:
In most senior elite routines, you'll see a set of 2 or 3 twizzles. This means that a team will skate a set of twizzles in one direction, then put the free leg down and connect into another set of twizzles, maybe on the opposite leg or in the other direction etc. See Maia and Alex Shibutani demonstrate a set of 4 (!!) twizzles below:
So another admittedly extreme example, but again really shows what makes a good and difficult twizzle set. First of all no one does 4 twizzles in a sequence-they really went above and beyond. The judges are looking at difficult entry/exit, position of arms, and free legs, and again total number of twizzles to determine difficulty.
As to GOE, judges will look for how aesthetically pleasing the positions are, how well controlled it is, speed throughout, speed on exit, placement within the music and of course synchronization between partners. Judges also award points for innovation and creativity (similar to points awarded for creative positions in spins for singles skaters) so ice dancers who come up with really unique positions like the one below may be positively awarded:
I don't care what anyone says this is the coolest shit I've ever seen.
Dance spins
Not to be confused with twizzles, dance spins are quite similar to pairs spins (you'll see when we get to pairs skating). In this element (easily recognizable to the amateur eye) skaters will...spin together! And by that I mean-holding on to each other and rotating around a collective point. This is not to be confused with side-by-side spins which are unique to pairs skating.
And similar to how we talked about what makes a difficult spin in singles skating, a difficult dance spin include difficult positions, changes of position, change of direction (not required), difficult entry and exit and good speed throughout.
Looking specifically at GOE, we'll find judges are looking for similar things as they did in twizzles, namely how aesthetically pleasing the positions are, how well coordinated the skaters are, how well controlled it is, speed throughout, speed on exit, and placement within the music.
Lifts
Lifts are one of the coolest things about ice dance especially to the amateur viewer. Why? Because hardly any 2 dance lifts are the same. Pairs lifts have come a long way since the change in judging system, but I still maintain that the coolest and most innovative lifts happen in ice dance. This element is pretty self explanatory, essentially one partner will lift another. What separates a dance lift from a pairs lift is the height. Pairs teams will lift the female partner overhead-locking out the arms often. Ice dancers may not lift their partner over the height of their head. Skaters are getting a little tricky about dancing (hah) around this rule, but you can see the difference below pretty clearly (left is a dance lift, right is a pairs lift):
They must sustain the lift for a certain period of time for it to count as a lift and not a connection between scored elements. There's a variety of types of lifts as well, most of which are dependent upon the person doing the lifting. For example, there's a rotational lift (the man essentially executes a twizzle while lifting his partner), a straight line lift (man skates in a straight line while lifting his partner), a stationary lift (contrary to what the name might indicate, this is a rotational lift where the man does not travel across the ice-hence stationary), a curve lift (man skates an inside or outside edge while lifting partner), and a combination lift (may begin as a straight line, and then transition into rotational). Occasionally (very rarely) you will see the woman lift her partner. This is known as a reverse lift.
Let's break down the gif above for difficulty. You can see from the way Andrew here is skating (on an inside edge spread eagle) that this is a curved lift. So his position in a lift is pretty difficult, then there's also this entry into the lift-displaying a lot of flexibility on her part and strength as well. They then change position during the lift. Not a super difficult exit, but as a whole this was given a level 4 (and yes levels 1-4 are used in ice dance to indicate difficulty just as in singles).
And you probably know by now-a high GOE will be awarded on the basis of creativity/innovative lifts, placement within the music, pleasing positions, speed, control in various positions, and how well timed/coordinated the element is on the part of each skater.
Other choreographic elements
Choreographic sliding movement
Ok and last but not least we find ourselves at "miscellaneous other moves." To be honest, I think the ISU is testing out different elements and how much they like the moves. I say this because some of the required choreographic elements are relatively new-for example the slide move was not a requirement until quite recently. And annoyingly for the skaters, they all have a base value of 1.1 (there's no levels for these elements). The sliding movement is basically the skater sliding on the ice not with the use of their blades (so on their knees usually). Here's an example:
Choreographic character step sequence
This is essentially a shorter version of a step sequence. Hard to find a reason this is called a "character" step sequence since ideally...all step sequences would be done in character, but regardless, this is a shortened version of a step sequence-which should be done around the "short axis" of the rink, meaning end to end but the short way (if you picture a rink as being one big oval). This is a clip from part of that sequence (for context she is pretending to be an alien, he an astronaut):
Choreographic dance lift
And lastly, the dance lift is between 3-10 seconds and has to be done after all the other dance lifts. There really is not a huge difference between this lift and the others in the program-aside from its lower value and placement in the program.
OK AND THAT'S IT. You guys we know so much about ice dance now. I'm tired. Someone fetch me a glass of your finest.
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