4: The Polka

In one of this season's less surprising developments, an approximate 98% of teams have shown or indicated plans to present the Yankee Polka pattern in any form but its most obvious. This is, all things considered, not an insensible strategy, despite the disappointment it may mean for devoted lovers of traditional polka.

Thus far, teams are generally opting instead for a diverse but necessarily small pool of variations on the required 2/4 tempo and accompanying permitted rhythm (waltz, march, or more polka). Traditional ballroom, Country-Western, classic musical, and French themes are so far the most popular, and will be explored here in weeks to come, as enough videos of these programs in competition actually become available. For the moment, let's focus on the polka -- Yankee and floor -- itself.

The Yankee Polka pattern is a bit of an outlier for having originated in the U.S., and as (comparatively) recently as 1969, in an apparently polka-friendly period in American culture. As with the blues, Ice-Dance.com provides an excellent reference page outlining the pattern's steps and technical requirements. But also of note is what else separates the Yankee Polka from a pattern like blues or last year's rhumba, and that's a sense of continuity with its source material.

Analyzing a step chart from the polka isn't especially instructive on a technical level, but knowing what most characterizes the style -- the hop or half-step -- is key. A little historical background on this dance is also useful, and this not-historical video gives some idea of how the dance style initially fit within a ballroom context:


Today the style is considered far more as a cultural dance, with Polish and German styles among other variants. This instruction video, however, strips it down to pure technique, which may be more helpful here:


The ISU's Yankee Polka guidelines assert that The character of the dance is achieved through the interesting use of one beat edges and very short steps skated on the "and" between counts. In this well-skated and rather unusual take from Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, we can see two "very short steps" in the first two steps of the compulsory dance proper (beginning at 0:30), followed by a three-turn recalling the dance's contrasting longer steps:


Of course, of almost as great importance to a properly-rendered on-ice polka is the dance's character. The steps give an indication, but the attitude needs to be more full-bodied: the polka and Yankee Polka are sprightly, happy, upbeat dances. A skater may seek out darker-edged 2/4 musical selection, and may be successful in such a search -- but a mournful or angry performance seems unlikely, if not costly. The tempo lends itself to a bouncy character; the required steps reinforce the tempo; the full dance cannot clash in spirit without a team's anticipating some confused feedback.

To conclude, I'll leave you with an überconventional -- and quite appropriately bouncy -- take from former German champions Kati Winkler and René Lohse as a balance for all those untraditional variations on the polka to come,:

3. Swing

The most popular pairing of all for a blues short dance has been, probably unsurprisingly, swing. A few teams, like Americans Madeline Heritage and Nathaniel Fast, have opted to tackle a full blues program; a few others, as discussed last week, are daring the hip-hop option. But swing provides, frankly, the easiest opportunity for a team to showcase their ability to handle multiple tempos and swift mood shifts -- and may also simply be more fun to train daily.

Swing dance saw a popular resurgence in the late '90s, in a story with which many are already familiar involving things like Gap commercials, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and indie films featuring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. Today the major styles primarily competed are West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, and Lindy Hop.

The formalized East Coast Swing and frequently improvisational West Coast Swing bear very little affinity to the swing of ice dance, which generally roots itself in a Big Band-era style. The traditional Lindy Hop is its closet floor companion; The Lindy Circle offers a nice overview of Lindy Hop's origin, as well as swing's development from that original style. Wikipedia, too, provides a cursory but useful guide to Lindy Hop and swing moves. And while many vintage swing videos are available, this montage gives a pretty good glimpse of a variety of moves (albeit missing the component of original accompanying music):


Swing in ice dance was last seen in a big way in the 2008-09 season, with an original dance that called for rhythms and dances of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. One especially spirited senior OD came from Sinead and John Kerr, whose rhythms, interestingly, were officially classified quite specifically as West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop:


For the juniors, who faced the same OD requirement, Maia and Alex Shibutani put out a fun Big Band program:


The advantage that these prior teams had, of course, was the absence of a requisite pattern and mandated rhythm; while they still choose to showcase a variety of rhythms, they're at greater liberty to experiment with movement (within, of course, the ordinary restraints). On the other hand, such restriction as faced by today's teams makes the accomplishment of the more successful SDs all the more impressive. Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, champions at JGP Courchevel, have one of the stronger swing SDs this season, using The Brian Setzer Orchestra's "The Dirty Boogie" for that segment. Note the nice aerial movement from Papadakis, as well as some fairly authentic liftwork: