9. Bollywood and Bharatanatyam

With Alexandra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton taking on traditional Indian dance in their 2013-14 season free dance, it may be timely to review Indian dance's on-ice history -- a lengthier one than some may know.

Most demonstrations of Indian dance in Western outlets, whether an ice dance program or a routine on So You Think You Can Dance, is termed Bollywood, drawing its inspiration from the somewhat hybridized style of movement presented in the lavish dance sequences from that world of film. The best beginner's guide to Bollywood dance, complete with image and video, may come from BBC. Also worth consulting is this excellent brief history of Bollywood dance, from its earlier days rooted in classical Indian styles to later influences from Western popular dance. Movement is thoroughly explored here, but perhaps the central point worth noting is the foundation of Indian dance upon gesture. While this specific characteristic can mark out the style and make it perhaps rather subject to mimicry, the import of each gesture is great and thus Western dancers -- and ice dance teams -- have more often than not taken an effort to learn from teachers of the style.

The most famous take on Bollywood on ice, of course, belongs to Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who were well-placed to make a big splash with their interpretation. The team and coach/choreographer Marina Zoueva worked with a former professional dancer in an effort to understand and faithfully reproduce the dance's arm and body movements to the ice, while also paying mind to relative authenticity in costuming:


The program's callbacks to its source material are many. Davis's pose at 3:36 is quite explicitly a reference to the image of the Nataraj. Gesture and shape are utilized throughout the dance, including in element work, and take note as well of the head and neck movements at 0:56-0:58, 1:28, and 1:53, and the body positions at 1:13-1:15 and 3:02-3:05, which harken to traditional bharatanatyam's demi-plie in first position, as discussed in the above article.

But as a comparative note, it is worth taking a look at the original dance sequences from which the music for Davis and White's program was drawn: Kajra Re, Silsila Ye Chaahat Ka, and the purest of the dance numbers, Dola Re Dola:


Strongly-choreographed as their effort is, though, Davis and White were not the only or even first team to explore the possibilities of Bollywood and traditional Indian dance movement on the ice. In a twist of fate, in the same season in which Davis and White's original dance appeared, the novice team of Madeline Heritage and Nathaniel Fast also competed a Bollywood program using one of the same music cuts:


The team's opening pose, primarily Heritage's position, is its own take of sorts on the Nataraj, which they immediately follow with several quick side-by-side steps and a twizzle and glide into the demi-plie position. Despite the requirements of the free dance, nods to Bollywood are continued in their subsequent footwork, including the knee bends at 1:19 and 1:20 and dynamic arm positions from 1:31-1:34, and carried through the entrance and interstitial steps in their twizzles at 1:40 and the arms in the second spin position at 3:07, leading into a return to some side-by-side dance work. Heritage's lift positions, too, also reflect snapshots taken from Indian dance. Although imperfectly executed, the team's free dance can rival Davis and White's OD as the most consistently carried-through attempt at reproducing Bollywood movement on ice.

Of course, despite the nods made by both teams in some steps and positioning, the lower body components of the original Bollywood examples -- the hip motion and isolations, the light and swift-moving footwork, the weight-shifting -- are, like genres previously explored along the lines of hip hop and modern, not easily translatable to ice. But what most marks out Bollywood dance -- and most challenges its interpretation in a competitive ice dance program -- is its scope and scale. The Bollywood dance sequence is not created to be much less than spectacle, a feat rather difficult to replicate by two parties in a brightly-lit but sparsely-accoutred ice rink.

But presenting its own challenges is classical Indian dance, of which bharatanatyam might be the most well-known example, as well as that style which informs Aldridge and Eaton's approach. While bharatanatyam is too comprised in large part of gesture, it is equally reliant on footwork. The building block of the bharatanatyman is, in fact, the adavu, a combination of hand, leg, and overall body movements. While some attempt might, again, be made to nod to these postures when choreographically permissible, it is again down more to the mudras, or hand gestures, to suggest traditional Indian movement in a program. An exceptionally thorough index of gestures, including photos, is linked through this page, while this video also offers a detailed rundown.

Maureen Ibanez and Neil Brown's 2007-08 original dance, set to the Bollywood number "Bole Chudiyan," is dominated more often than not by a fairly standard approach to the elements, but a number of choreographic touches do work to establish almost something more in line with a classical Indian approach than the flashier, bouncier Bollywood of the other dances:


Take, as one example, their opening sequence from 0:35-0:46 and compare with this invocatory bharatanatyman performance from Savitha Sastry:


Another, somewhat less faithful go at classical dance, also set to a Bollywood cut, was delivered in the same season by Zoe Blanc and Pierre-Loup Bouquet, adorned in rather less traditional costuming than the other examples offered here. While their opening sequence, too, points to the source genre with the gesture work, the overall movement and choreography is more ice-based than otherwise. The team works in their Indian movement primarily through occasional returns to gesture, such as the transition from the in-hold sequence moving into the no-touch step sequence at 1:55, creating a kind of patchwork of Indian-inspired dance and standard elements. But the gestures, though not especially well-articulated, can be traced to the mudras, such as Blanc's hamsasya while in lift at 2:49 and again in end pose.

While an attempt to reproduce similar gestures and body movements is clear in these more traditionally-inspired programs, one additional component is both quite evident in her performance and quite clearly absent in general from its on-ice counterparts: the use of eye movement, another layer of meaning in classical dance that may be of fairly minor consequence to a judging panel more concerned with larger and more skating-bound detail as well as simply difficult to carry through while executing elements and constant on-ice motion -- though a little nod is offered, as noted by commentators Tom Hammond and Tracy Wilson, in the opening moments of Davis and White's original dance.

One last, rather loose take on the concept of the Indian dance or Bollywood program may come from Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmitt, who in 2009-10 skated their free dance to selections from the Slumdog Millionaire score. The team focused their movement efforts almost exclusively in the lyrical vein -- yet they still opt to include a few gestural moments at midpoint:


In wrapping this look at Bollywood and bharatanatyam, it's important to note a certain irony of bringing either genre to a coupled-dance discipline: for as much a cornerstone as dance is of the Bollywood film, dance sequences between only a hero and heroine are infrequent or less dance-intensive than group sequences; classical dance, meanwhile, is traditionally a solo art. So ice dance by its nature, then, might be challenged by more than physics to most faithfully replicate its source matter -- but the most faithful efforts can also reveal the surprising possibilities for its on-ice recreation.

Modern and Contemporary Dance: 2012-13

Moving on for a time from the short dance, let's consider the ambitions of a few teams this season who, with the assistance of dance choreographers, tackled one of the less readily-adaptable genres of movement: modern dance and its offshoots.

Ice dance is more than familiar with Carmen. The dance realm has also tackled the composition with regularity, with one noteworthy version, featuring prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, scored by husband and composer Rodion Shchedrin's 1967 percussion-focused rearrangement of Bizet's suite -- the arrangement utilized in, among others, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's take on the story. Despite this musical borrowing, the Plisetskaya ballet bears little kinship to Virtue and Moir's free dance. Roland Petit's sensual 1949 version, however, offers up perhaps the best-known modern ballet take, and it's worth a view:


(As an aside, note the sequence beginning at 4:04, and this lift from Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte's own interpretation of Shchedrin's Carmen.)

But Virtue and Moir tackled not modern ballet, but modern dance -- a different beast, to be sure (and one the team has previously visited), even as skating's restrictions lend themselves to a sometimes more balletic approach. Modern dance is typically defined more by what it is not than what it is, with an emphasis on its freedom of spirit and movement, but a slightly more technical analysis is useful, as is this documentary clip which is rather technically vague but offers a bit of background and footage.

Carmen was the product of collaboration with choreographer and teacher Jennifer Swan, and like both a traditional dance work and a critically judged program, it underwent numerous revisions and tweaks over the season's course, though remained rooted in its modern aims. The program's final performance is a good starting point for an overview of the general grounded aesthetic, including the low center of gravity movement emphasized in the opening sequence and the conclusion of the twizzles, but take particular note of the two side-by-side passages beginning at 4:33, which showcase the most typically modern of all gestures in the piece, as well as Virtue's lift positions; the curve lift at 2:20, rotational at 5:30, and choreographic lift at 5:41 showcase more wild, free movement -- modern -- while the control exerted in the first half of the combination at 4:09 provides for a startling moment, one more reminiscent of the modern ballet concept.


It's helpful also to revisit an earlier conception of the program, here in its first outing at Skate Canada International. Notice the original spin, primarily its exit at 2:17. Movement is rooted as much as feasible in modern vernacular, but even truer to the spirit, it's never wasted; every motion matters, and every motion is tightly bound to the music.

While Carmen was the year's only top-level modern program, two elite teams tackled a related style -- contemporary -- with input from traditional choreographers. Contemporary dance, discussed in detail here, draws from many of the principles underlying modern, but incorporates more of ballet's emphasis on the leg, as well as borrowing some movement from non-Western dance.

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje worked with dancer and choreographer Allison Holker, of So You Think You Can Dance fame, to create the initial draft of their "statue and sculptor" free dance, as discussed in these two articles. And while Weaver and Poje's program follows its own path, a good point of direct style comparison might be this So You Think You Can Dance contemporary routine choreographed by Travis Wall -- the opening pose certainly stands out:


The restructured version the team presented at Worlds loses the direct comparison offered by that moment, but retains, if not enhances, its contemporary attributes. Both partners, but Weaver especially, use great line and extension in the lifts, moving fluidly with a free sense of flow. The original version of the dance includes a mostly out-of-hold sequence from 2:12-2:25 which suggests the sort of side-by-side movement common in partnered contemporary and lyrical; the revised program, as posted below, loses this particular sequence but does offer a multi-level transitional moment from 2:47-2:54 as well as a more complex, rhythmic transition between the first two sets of twizzles at 2:35. The second program is, more than a general contemporary piece, a lyrical take on a wordless composition: catch the percussive heartbeat sequence beginning at 3:11 and the gradual, slight stiffening of Weaver's posture and movement as the music and narrative draw to their conclusion.


Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmitt's Adele-scored contemporary free dance did not originate with an off-ice conceit, but was revised late in the summer with input from choreographer Stacey Tookey, who was responsible for a So You Think You Can Dance contemporary number with a connection to the team's program:


Kriengkrairut and Giulietti-Schmitt's program deviates from the other two in another significant way as a kind of hybrid piece, with the second half, set to "Rumour Has It," based somewhat more in jazz movement. But the first half certainly draws from contemporary inspiration, particularly in its emphasis on extended movement -- watch her leg at 1:22, and watch the free legs of both partners during the step sequence beginning at 1:28. The opening movement from 0:39-0:55 is also notable for the immediate dynamism and flow it provides the program -- important given the slower, relatively heavy nature of the musical selection.


As a sidenote, when outside the confines of the rulebook, Kriengkrairut and Giullietti-Schmitt have had the chance to tackle more floor-inspired contemporary movement, as shown here in this selection from 2012's Young Artists Showcase, choreographed by Robert Mauti. But of course, freedom from rules makes a free-flowing genre more possibly even granted ice's own impositions; it's interpreting that style within competition's confines that makes the true accomplishment.

5. Country Western

To resume a lesson as though several months hadn't passed: the 2/4 tempo can be found in more than one musical -- and dance -- genre. And one utilized by a few teams this season is that associated more with a honkytonk than Oktoberfest.

This history of Country-Western dance in fact emphasizes the polka heritage of country dance, traceable to the Central European heritage of many settlers in Western areas such as Texas. This glossary gives a little more useful detail on the actual movements of today's dance and its substyles. Naturally, the Yankee Polka step requirements proscribe any team from fully adapting the rhythmic requirements to another genre; every dance will share the pattern and carry a little polka flavor. But careful music selection and cohesive choreography can greatly minimize the disruption potentially offered by the compulsory.

Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmitt made a particular effort to incorporate floor stylings -- check out the skips in the program's first four seconds:


Though the overall performance was one of their weaker of the season -- better outings from Skate America and the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic are not readily available -- for choreographic purposes it will do well enough. The first minute takes some two-step inspiration, while the changes of hold reflect a little taste of the shuffle:


For another taste of CW dance on the floor, a number of instructional videos are available, but also miss a bit of the flavor. This lesson is rather less formal, but it might be among the most authentic tastes of contemporary CW dance on YouTube:


Akin to that informality, Nicole Orford and Thomas Williams's take on CW is a little grittier in style than Kriengkrairut and Giulietti-Schmitt's, taking on a bit of the stomping rodeo feel reflective of William's native Calgary:


The transition movement from 2:17-2:22 works effectively as a free-feeling break -- it's choreography, but it appears more like an incidental element. They sell it, they're loose, and they've got the right spirit.

On a final note, one might recall that a few top teams took a CW approach to 2009-10's folk dance OD; worth observing is the significant differences in pieces like Evan Bates and Emily Samuelson's Dixie Chicks medley and Pechalat and Bourzat's own take from the above short dances. While both programs have an obvious CW feel, they're also arguably a bit more open in movement and theatrical in style. The Yankee Polka and rhythmic requirements may have forced certain choreography, but at the same time seem to have had the intriguing effect of establishing programs that bear a slightly closer resemblance to their floor forebears.