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| Irina Baraksanova on her best piece, beam, in 1985. Photocredit : Tom Theobald |
The gymnasts you will see in the following videos are all astonishingly athletic and powerful. They are innovative. They aren't performing on the most up to date sprung floors, and they don't have to rely on muscle to perform their difficult acrobatics. They have outstanding line and choreography (in the fullest sense of the word). They are individuals, each performing routines with a unique style. Their work goes beyond difficulty + execution, embracing the principles of risk, originality and virtuosity. They don't rely on rushing from skill to skill to blind the judges to the odd unbalanced landing, imperfections in their technique, or ragged performance. They haven't picked their skills from a catalogue of moves (the Code) or assembled requisite combinations so as to maximise their D value.
What they do is pretty impressive, ahead of its time. The way they do it is as important. They aren't ballerinas. They aren't modern dancers. They are artistic gymnasts.
It was a different time, and a different Code. A different sport. A better sport, don't you think?
Irina Baraksanova, 1985
Tatiana Tuzhikova, 1987 (full twisting double layout)
There is no rationale to my selection of these particular floor routines; there are many, many more I could choose that would arguably be superior artistically, technically, gymnastically, acrobatically, choreographically. This random selection is history; some of you might say that to detract from its importance. Gymnastics is different now; it's more exciting to see the girl next door in winning style, to be able to add up the scores for yourself, to see how the acrobats bounce and fly.
But to me, these videos are history, and to me they are a source of both learning and delight. They show a point in time in our sport's development, a sourcebook from which we have drawn to develop the gymnastics we have today. The sport has gained some things and lost others. What has been lost? What can we add back in to make our gymnastics better?
What can we learn from this past?
No words to describe the beauty, the art, the perfection. Thanks for sharing some of the best stage of artistic gymnastics with us.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you can go back in time, however it was a much more interesting and beautiful sport.
ReplyDeleteBallet training rather than weight training, do you see a difference?
And having said all of this, I have just seen a video of Simone Biles' floor routine at yesterday's Classic, and she has improved ... She really is a watchable gymnast on floor now, and her tumbling is even better. That FX is a step forward - if all power gymnasts could perform like that ...
ReplyDeleteIt comes to something when having watched the commonwealth games that the men are more stylish, technically accurate, fitter and dare I say it more elegant than the women. For me, it is not only that the elegance has been lost in womens gymnastics through a base of ballet training BUT it is worse than that, even basic form, neatness and tidiness, landing accuracy is so far from the forefront of the womens sport. The men in large have managed to keep this and has seen a natural progression of difficulty but keeping style. I have my theory as to why this has occurred but that's another topic.
ReplyDeleteI have puzzled over this too. I would be really interested to hear your opinion - please feel free to roam 'off topic' if you would like to post here.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I have to come clean at this state and admit that this post was written in a moment of sad resignation at the response to the performance of the British girls and in particular Claudia Fragapane at Commonwealths. I can see she satisfies the Code but what is being presented as a different 'style' of gymnastics is actually just ragged to me.
You can imagine that I feel like the wicked witch in making this point; there are lots of people taking great emotion from the apparent turnaround in WAG fortunes in Britain. Sometimes I even wonder if I have lost my eye for the sport and just am not seeing things in the way I should. Then I watch the men and realise that something vital HAS been lost in WAG. Gymnasts can't be to blame if they take advantage of the limitations of the judging to pass off work of an inferior quality as a winning performance.
At least Simone Biles looks like an artistic gymnast ... I really am impressed with that floor routine.
Anyway, I am burbling on ... Would be interested to hear what you think.
I have to agree. Fragapane has poor form and almost seems to be chucking skills. Like many gymnasts are skipping basics and going straight to difficulty. This seemed common in Glasgow. A couple of beam finalists had rather unfortunate back handsprings...pausing forever and bending way forward before take off.
DeleteWas the 1985 World Championships team the best ever assembled? I'm inclined to say that it was. There were four huge names in Mostepanova, Omelianchik (whose floor routine remains unmatched), Shushunova, and Yurchenko. Of the other two, it's Kolesnikova who has the famous daughter, so Baraksanova is the most obscure, and yet as we see here she was fantastic in her own right. What a remarkable squad.
ReplyDeleteI think you could argue for any of the teams from the 1980s and late 1970s as the best ever :0)
ReplyDeleteI know that lots of people love the Baraksanova floor routine; she floats, and all of the movement and music is so harmonious.
If there was any rationale for choosing the videos at all, it was to demonstrate that girls were doing very difficult tumbling more than two decades ago, without the need for poor form. The remarkable thing about three of these routines is that the gymnasts were not outstanding artists; Priakhina in particular was criticised in her time for her poor line; yet in comparison to many of the very top gymnasts today, they are exemplary.
Surely we have hit the lowest point ever for the sport. Many are calling Fragapane's floor routine the likely silver medal winner in EF at Worlds. I remember recoiling with horror when Camelia Voinea scored 10 on floor at the World Championships in 1987, but her form was perfect compared to Claudia's.
I don't want to bitch about a young girl who has in her own way made it to the top of her sport, thanks to strong efforts.