Ski ballet
The ski ballet or acroski , or acro (acrobatics) for short , is a freestyle skiing discipline . It is practiced on slopes with a slight incline and combines simple skiing techniques with elements of gymnastics and figure skating . From 1980 to 2000, the ski ballet was a valuation discipline in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup organized by the FIS .
history
In addition to moguls (moguls) and jumping (aerials), the ski ballet is one of three classic disciplines of freestyle skiing. In the USA the sport experienced an upswing in the wake of various youth movements and was considered a counterculture to the established alpine and Nordic skiing sports. The first professional competition took place in 1971 under the name National Championships of Exhibition Skiing in Waterville Valley , New Hampshire . The first European venue was Bayrischzell the following winter . The very first competition combined the three disciplines in a single run, which consisted of a mogul slope, three jumps and a short ballet freestyle. The three parts were held separately for the first time during the first season as part of the Rocky Mountain Professional Freestyle Championships .
When the freestyle competitions finally became independent from the middle of the decade, they were able to win lucrative sponsors such as Colgate-Palmolive , Marlboro or Stuyvesant . Large television companies like ABC or ARD / ZDF broadcast the competitions live and brought them closer to an audience of millions. During this heyday of the ballet discipline, the prize money amounted to up to 30,000 German marks . Initially still a free form of expression in the spirit of the early freestylers, ballet was increasingly regulated and formalized, which caused some advocates of the freestyle idea to drop out. Finally, with a view to an Olympic bid, decision-makers agreed to transform freestyle skiing into an amateur sport .
Subsequently, the FIS took over the hosting of the competitions and summarized them in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup . The first ballet world cup took place on January 9, 1980 in the Pocono Mountains , the first held in the context of world championships on February 6, 1986 in Tignes . Freestyle skiing, with its three disciplines, was first represented as an Olympic demonstration sport in Calgary in February 1988 . While Moguls were accepted into the Olympic program four years later in Albertville , aerials and ballet were again there with demonstration competitions. Eventually the IOC decided to include freestyle jumping as well, but dropped ballet. The reasons given by contemporary witnesses are, on the one hand, a lack of support for the discipline by the national ski associations, insufficient numbers of practitioners, as discussed at an FIS meeting in Istanbul in 1988 , or the unwillingness to take up another discipline with judges . In 1995 the FIS officially renamed the ski ballet Acroski (ing) . The hopes of still including the discipline in the Olympic program came to an abrupt end when the FIS announced that it would be removed from the World Cup calendar. The last Acro World Cup took place on March 4th, 2000 in Ovindoli, Italy.
description
Tricks, costumes and music
Like the other freestyle disciplines, the ski ballet started as a free form of expression. Early scene greats like Wayne Wong or Bob Howard tried to outdo each other by inventing new tricks that were named after themselves. While the athletic-gymnastic and ultimately also competitive aspect of the discipline came to the fore, representatives such as Alan Schoenberger, who appeared with clown make-up , relied on theatrics and costumes. Many ski ballerinas had a background in dance, gymnastics, or figure skating . The trademark of the former ski racer Suzy Chaffee became the Suzy contortion spin , in which she lifted a leg above her head, touched the ski with both hands and performed a pirouette . She often costumed herself in skin-tight, sequined ski suits and headbands with rhinestones . Her colleague Genia Fuller counted an Axel in her repertoire, which she performed by jumping off with her ski tips. The pole flip , a somersault with the help of ski poles, optionally with screw and / or crossed skis , has become the most famous element in ski ballet .
In 1971, Chaffee had the trend-setting idea to combine the ski ballet with rhythmic music. The music could be chosen by the athletes themselves and had to harmonize with the performance. While some performed rock 'n' roll , others preferred classical music . In the mid-1970s Genia Fuller chose the title Rock Around the Clock , Hermann Reitberger in 1988 music from Carmen and Oxana Kuschtschenko 1997 the Russian songs Kalinka and Katjuscha .
FIS regulations
With the de-professionalization and takeover by the FIS, stricter rules found their way into freestyle sport. The ski ballet or acro was described in the official FIS rules 1996 as follows:
“Acro competition shall consist of one run on a prepared course. Acroskiing consists of jumps, spins, inverted movements and linking maneuvers blended toghether with artistic and athlethic aspects into a well-balanced program, performed in harmony with music of the skiers choice. "
“An acro competition must consist of a run on a prepared course. Acroski consists of jumps, turns, reverse movements and connection maneuvers combined with artistic and athletic aspects to a balanced program in harmony with music selected by the skiers. "
When connecting maneuvers were small jumps, acrobatic movements or dance steps and arm movements, for example standing on the ski tips, between the main tricks (eg. As Axel or pole flips ), respectively. The competition rules of 1996 stipulated a slope length of 160 meters and a width of 35 to 40 meters and a slope of 13 to 16 degrees. The skis were also regulated, with a maximum of 140 centimeters for men and 130 centimeters for women, which had to be significantly shorter than alpine skis . The particularly stable, mostly shoulder-high sticks were not allowed to exceed the height of the athletes.
Most recently five judges were used in national competitions and six in international competitions. The following were rated 1. the technical difficulty, e.g. B. the number of turns of the individual jumps, 2. choreography, overall impression, composition and style, for example in terms of posture, charisma, originality and versatility and 3. the physical execution of the tricks. At an FIS meeting in Munich in 1988 the ski ballet working group was founded to improve the evaluation system. In order to get the IOC excited about taking part in the Olympics, the running time was reduced from two and a half to one and a half minutes and the length of the slopes was originally 250 meters. Falls, dropped sticks or other mistakes led to point deductions from 1989 onwards. In addition, the weighting of the individual evaluation criteria changed several times.
Successful athletes
World cup
The Americans Bob Howard and Jan Bucher became the first stars in the World Cup . While Howard retired from competitive sports after two winters in which he had won 13 out of 14 competitions, Bucher was able to win the discipline rankings and 57 World Cup competitions seven times in a career that lasted more than a decade. The most successful male athlete was the West German Hermann Reitberger , who won the discipline classification five times and won 44 World Cup competitions. Other highly successful World Cup participants in ski ballet were the Norwegian Rune Kristiansen with 38 and the Swiss Conny Kissling with 34 individual victories.
World Champion
Hermann Reitberger and Jan Bucher were also the most successful participants at the Freestyle World Championships , each with two titles, and French Fabrice Becker and Bucher's compatriot Ellen Breen were just as victorious twice . The demonstration competitions as part of the Olympic Games were won by Hermann Reitberger and the French Christine Rossi (Calgary 1988) as well as Fabrice Becker and Conny Kissling (Albertville 1992). Becker is the only athlete with three international gold medals.
The 1988 Olympic demonstration competitions count as the second Freestyle Skiing World Championships.
reception
Even during its time in the international spotlight, ski ballet was often ridiculed and not taken seriously by competing sports, but at times also within the freestyle scene. In addition, the discipline struggled with an identity crisis early on . On the one hand, the different styles, the traditionally tricky and the dance ballet inspired by Suzy Chaffee collided, on the other hand the decision to give up the status as a professional sport created tensions. As far as the audience's interest in the 1988 Olympic competition is concerned, there are different statements: According to Aerials specialist Jeff Chumas, then US freestyle head coach, the competition did not convince the audience. However, the later World Cup medalist Annika Johansson wrote of a great success with a total of 85,000 spectators. The reasons why the IOC was ultimately not convinced are the subject of speculation and are justified, among other things, with poor marketing. One of the discipline's earliest stars, Bob Howard , said of its decline:
“There's a point in life where something that you think is really cool, you know, it's no longer cool. It's like a sociological turnoff. "
“There comes a point in life where something you think is cool just isn't cool anymore. It's a sociological abandonment. "
In the 21st century, ballet videos are shared on social networks and often rediscovered as a curiosity. Ironically, to maliciously sometimes appearances are with puffed sleeves or hair metal Hairstyles commented. Back in 1984, a Warren Miller clip made fun of the discipline. In the same year, a re-enacted ballet scene was seen in the hit ski comedy Hot Dog ... The Movie . 1986 Suzy Chaffee and showed John Eaves in Willy Bogner Fire and Ice one studded with ballet tricks couple dance in front of a glacier backdrop.
More recently there has been a hot dog party in Whistler, Canada every year at the end of the season , where a ballet event open to all participants is held.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Eva Holland: The Rise and Fall of Ski Ballet. Grantland, March 19, 2015, accessed March 31, 2020 .
- ↑ Annika Johansson : Acroski - en bedömningssport. Bedömningarnas tillförlitlighet och relevans. PM No. 138 (1998), p. 16 (Swedish).
- ↑ Georg Fürmeier: You saw us as competition. taz , February 21, 2014, accessed on March 31, 2020 .
- ↑ Jason Daley: Last Mime Standing. In: Skiing , February 2007, pp. 64-67 (English).
- ↑ Annika Johansson : Acroski - en bedömningssport. Bedömningarnas tillförlitlighet och relevans. PM No. 138 (1998), p. 18. (Swedish).
- ↑ a b c d e AJ McDougall: The Boom and Bust of Ski Ballet. Tahoe Quarterly, 2019, accessed March 31, 2020 .
- ^ John Fry: Where Are They Now? In: Ski , January 2009, p. 85 (English).
- ↑ a b Wong Bangers and daffy stands: Whatever happened to ski ballet? CBC / Radio-Canada , February 9, 2018, accessed March 31, 2020 .
- ^ Johannes Knuth: How Olympia destroyed the ski ballet. Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 29, 2016, accessed on March 31, 2020 .
- ↑ Valeria Mironov: ФРИСТАЙЛ ЧЕМПИОНАТ МИРА. Sport-Express , February 9, 1997, accessed March 31, 2020 (Russian).
- ↑ Freestyle general rules and regulations. Rules for specific competitions. FIS 1996 (English).
- ^ A b Annika Johansson : Acroski - en bedömningssport. Bedömningarnas tillförlitlighet och relevans. PM No. 138 (1998), pp. 19 ff. (Swedish).
- ↑ Annika Johansson : Acroski - en bedömningssport. Bedömningarnas tillförlitlighet och relevans. PM No. 138 (1998), p. 17 (Swedish).
- ↑ Freestyle Ballet Skiing From 1984. Warren Miller Entertainment / YouTube , June 6, 2013, accessed March 31, 2020 .