Skip to main content

The six best floor exercises I ever saw

In the autumn of 1989 I travelled to Stuttgart, Germany, for the World Gymnastics Championships. There, I was enthralled by the performance of the best Soviet women's team I ever saw, and the six best floor exercises there have ever been.

The videos you will see below are not the best quality, but they have been selected for atmosphere, presenting the exercises in the order they were performed that evening, accompanied by audience sounds. We were all vocal supporters of the Soviet team, that night.

National team coach Alexander Alexandrov, interviewed after the competition by a local newspaper (I think it was the Suddeutsche Zeitung) explained how the team had worked with choreographers from Moscow's world famous Bolshoi Theatre.

One thing that really strikes me today is how different each floor exercise is, drawing on diverse dance traditions, from the folk-inspired work of Sazonenkova to the modern dance of Boginskaya. Each gymnast's work is a short, consummate performance, embracing dance, gymnastics and powerful, intricate tumbling. Dudnik's moving performance to Gershwin makes incredibly effective use of pauses in the music. Laschenova's spritely yet powerful gymnastics interprets Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King to perfection. Boginskaya's modern, lyrical dance is full of personality, humour and sophistication. Olga Strazheva to Stravinsky's Rites of Spring is unique, drawing on Nijinsky's original choreography first performed by the Ballets Russes in May 1913 in Paris. I love the way that even the tumbling emphasises the drama of the music.

Svetlana Baitova



Link to it on Youtube.

Elena Sazonenkova



Link to it on Youtube.

Olessia Dudnik



Link to it on Youtube.

Natalia Laschenova



Link to it on Youtube.

(I cannot find a video of Laschenova's performance in the team final - but you will find here a record of her floor exercise in the all around final.)

Svetlana Boginskaya



Link to it on Youtube.

(There is an alternative, better quality, video here, but it cuts off the beginning of the floor exercise.)

Olga Strazheva



Link to it on Youtube.

You can view an extract of Nijinsky's choreography, danced by the Kirov Ballet, here.

Comments

  1. Thanks for posting these. I have, of course, seen most of these routines before, but seeing them all in a row is enlightening. In particular, the arrangement highlights the cool strangeness of Boginskaya's routine, but its placement before Strazheva ends up naturalizing the even more unusual and modernist choreography of the latter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for those clips. All the routines make sense, and notice that the gymnasts perform better without those stupid requirements concerning jumps and spins, where they have to stop before performing them, sometimes not fitting in with the music.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

Rodionenko responds

Rodionenko about Melnikova’s words about the level of gymnastics in Russia: “Such comments are not from a great mind. I don’t think Angelina has the right to judge.” The coach criticized Angelina Melnikova for her words about the level of Russian gymnastics. Earlier, Olympic champion Melnikova said: “In Russia there are two or three gymnasts who can qualify for the level of the European and World Championships, the rest cannot. The level of competition in Russia is also low.” “I am skeptical about her comment. I don’t think that Angelina has the right to judge the state of gymnastics in Russia and talk about who can qualify for prizes. We have enough competition, it is no coincidence that Angelina was only third at the Russian Cup. Such comments are not from a great mind. We are Olympic champions in team competitions. Not individually, but as a team! This is a special victory and it says a lot. That’s all,” said senior coach of the Russian artistic gymnastics team Valentina Rodionenko....

Mustafina Interview 2 of 2 : 'I will only perform under the Russian flag'

Argumentyi i Fakti interview with Aliya Mustafina Translated by Marina Vulis ‘I have no fear’, says Aliya Mustafina.   ‘My father [Farhat Mustafin, the bronze medallist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1976 Olympics] took me to my first gymnastics class.   In his opinion children need to do sports, and he saw gymnastics as useful for my general development.   He had no goals – just to let us practice.’ It did not end with ‘just practice’ – she became the World Champion at 16, but then had an ACL injury the next year (2011) at the Europeans.   Even just returning to gymnastics is a feat; then she came back to win four medals at the 2012 Olympics. Aliya Mustafina – That injury.   I do not know why I was ashamed – so many people were watching me and I could not even walk.   My parents!   They saw everything on TV (the coach had to carry her from the podium).   Of course I was aware that anything could happen in gymnastics, but I di...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more