Skip to main content

Artistry and body type - choreographer Kapitanova speaks

By
Reading up for a piece of writing, I coincidentally came across this passage in an interview Vladimir Zaglada conducted with Moscow Dynamo choreographer Yelena Kapitanova.  I'll quote it here word for word.

'As I see it, the most important thing is that gymnastics dance fortifies and inspires the body of the gymnast, sometimes even concealing certain superficial defects.  When you are watching a powerful, elastic, pliable body exploding skyward, do you really think about the fact that the gymnast's legs are short or long?  You appreciate the line of the body and how beautiful it is in motion.  Everything else is forgotten.' (Zaglada, 2010)

Interesting in light of some of the discussions surrounding 'The Artistry Fallacy'.

Comments

  1. Anonymous8 June 2012 at 19:35

    It's an interesting opinion

    "When you are watching a powerful, elastic, pliable body exploding skyward, do you really think about the fact that the gymnast's legs are short or long? You appreciate the line of the body and how beautiful it is in motion. Everything else is forgotten"

    Exact noticed !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lilia10 June 2012 at 08:15

    So well said!! I couldn't agree more!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown23 May 2014 at 00:28

    Thank you, Queen for using an excerpt from the book which I really like. But something what suppose to be important for gymnastics' professional was always for me just a regular rules of my work. Got more and more questions about One Coach's Journey...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More thoughts on US gymnastics, Karolyi - and Zaglada

By
I’d like to add some thoughts to my earlier post about USA gymnastics and Bela Karolyi:  1. What Bela did, he did. He would agree that his actions were his responsibility. 2. Abusive relationships in USA gymnastics (and no doubt elsewhere) pre-existed Bela’s move to the USA and still exist today. 3. Harsh training existed and exists in all of the ‘artistic’ sports and dance-related forms - eg ballroom dancing, ballet, ice skating, circus.  The training involved in most of these activities is founded on an assumption of the benefits of early specialisation.  It revolves around  ‘ideal’ forms, shapes and postures that are difficult to achieve without early years training - women especially.   4. Wherever prodigious early talent exists, there are predators whose main desire in life is to take advantage of that talent - music, entertainment, maths, sport.  The boundaries very easily become confused.  Who owns the talent?  Who decides how many hours to work, at what level?  FOR WHOSE BENEFI
Post a Comment
Read more

RIP Bela Karolyi

By
RIP Bela Karolyi. We were all mesmerised by the gymnastics that Nadia Comaneci brought to the world.    Some of us wanted to be like Nadia.    Others wanted to share her glory. When Kerri Strug saluted the judges with a hop and a cry of agony, thousands of adults cried for joy, felt inordinate pride that a love of country had inspired such courage and strength.   When generations of elite gymnasts, many of them gold medal winners, spoke out about the abuse they had experienced whilst practicing their sport, those thousands and millions of cheering adults didn’t stop appreciating the gold medals. They did start to look for someone to blame, someone who could take responsibility for the entire systemic nastiness that enabled the abuse to take place.    Some chose the man who came to fame as Nadia Comaneci’s coach, and went on to shape elite gymnastics training in the USA, Bela Karolyi. But who facilitated and enabled Karolyi?    Who endorsed the training that earned the medals?   It was
Post a Comment
Read more

Vladimir Zaglada - coach, author, friend, father

By
It is with great sadness that I report here the sudden and completely unexpected death, on 5th October, of our friend Vladimir Zaglada.  I send my love and condolences to his daughter, Olesya.  My thoughts are with the whole family.   Vladimir was born in Lvov, Ukraine, in November 1944.  His father was a progressive lawyer of great courage who was known to defend those who challenged the Soviet authorities.  Vladimir trained as a sports acrobat under the developing Soviet sports system, working in the same club as Olympic champion Viktor Chukarin.  After moving to Moscow, he became a leading coach of women's gymnastics, supporting the development of high level acrobatics.  He worked particularly closely with the up and coming young gymnasts of the early 1980s - you can see him at work in the video 'You in Gymnastics'.  At the national training centre, Lake Krugloye, he worked with Filatova, Mostepanova, Yurchenko, Arzhannikova, Mukhina and more.   Around the mid 1980s Vlad
Post a Comment
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more