Clueless, the pair of them.
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
From: keithbjohn...@comcast.net
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:01:15 +
Subject: [scifinoir2] OT: Russian ice dance tribute offensive to Aborigines
When oh when will people learn! Don't mess with cultures so far from
your understanding like this. check the pics: they look stupid, like
kids wearing costumes in a school play! I like the one quote saying the elders
in the bush would probably laugh themselves silly at the pair.
***
[Yahoo sports]
Russian
ice dance tribute to Aborigines offensive to Aborigines
By Maggie
Hendricks
Oksana
Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the favorites for ice-dancing gold in Vancouver,
wowed the crowds with their routine at the European Championships. They sit in
the lead after their original dance, a tribute to Australian Aborigines.
Except, Aboriginal leaders don't see it as a tribute. They don't really see
how it has anything to do with their culture at all.
"They have got the whole thing wrong," said Stephen Page, artistic director
of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company. Page said there
were no traditional movements in the routine, the music sounded more like it
came from India
or Africa than Aboriginal Australia
and the body paint looked like "a three-year-old child had drawn it on"...
"Probably the elders in the bush would be laughing because they would be
saying,
'Look how stupid these fellas are,' " he said.
Domnina and Shabalin are required to do an original dance that is
representative of a country's culture. The U.S.
pair of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who won silver in Torino, perform a
Moldavian folk dance. Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie Davis won the Grand
Prix
Final with an Indian-inspired dance.
The dances are not required to be strict interpretations of the culture --
they are meant to represent those cultures -- but Domnina and Shabalin
completely miss the mark. At this point, it's likely too late for the pair to
change their routine. Hopefully, an Australian will be on the panel who judges
their original dance, and marks their unauthentic and offensive dances and
costumes accordingly.
_
Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390706/direct/01/