Elena Kapitanova remembered - a great choreographer

Olga Mostepanova does her daily work at the 'stanok' or barre.  Novosti

Elena Kapitanova, a choreographer who worked at the Moscow Dynamo gymnastics club for over thirty years with such stars as Olga Mostepanova and Maria Filatova, recently passed away.  She was, of course, greatly loved by her family - husband Viktor (RIP) and children Yulia and Vladimir - and leaves behind her a legacy of unforgettable gymnastics, much of which represents the best of a golden era of the sport.

Great choreography was at the heart of the Soviet aesthetic of women's gymnastics.  The daily attentions of a choreographer transformed gymnastics from the execution of skills to the performance of an aesthetic; a simple cartwheel could become an expression of delight, joy, a journey into the realms of expression.   Many of us dream up floor routines, but the mystical powers of the choreographer go beyond the meshing of gymnastics and music into the realm of emotional evocation.  A good choreographer can make a good gymnast look very good.  A great choreographer can make a great gymnast transcend her abilities, and produce gymnastics that forms lasting memories.

Elena Kapitanova, one of the best choreographers Russian gymnastics ever had, was one of these special choreographers, someone who described herself as a kind of 'sculptor' of gymnastics.  Out of sight of the gymnastics spectator, Kapitanova worked hard, expressing her creative imagination and producing works of gymnastic art that remain unmatched to this day.  You will definitely remember some of her work.

Kapitanova herself expressed the role of the choreographer best in an interview with Vladimir Zaglada (2010).

Floor routines have to be designed based on the principle of just the right proportions of all components: dance elements, jumping and tumbling combinations, plastique, and visual effects.  Too much of any of these components can leader to a lacklustre floor routine.  This is why you have to strive to have someone flexible, while remaining flexible, show herself off in tumbling and work on increasing the level of difficulty, and have a girl who lacks extension and seems a bit wooden jumping high, so that she will stretch out as quickly as possible, and get someone who lacks the ability to 'act' during floor routines to start acting like a star of the stage.

There are few sources on Elena.  If you remember her, please leave a comment, or send a photograph to me at rewriterussiagym@btinternet.com.

Finally, I'll let Elena's work speak for itself, in the work of three very different gymnasts, Maria Filatova, Olga Chudina and last, but not least, Olga Mostepanova.  Olga, in an interview with this blog this summer, cited Elena as one of the most influential people in her gymnastics career.  Listen to the commentary on this video from 1983 - Elena's name is mentioned at the very end.





Find Maria Filatova's 1976 floor routine here.