U.S. FS launches Solo Dance

[Integrity]

In my area we don't even have ice dance duos at any level in local competitions, never mind solo. It stinks!

There are lots of them that include Solo Dance. A few that come to mind: Colonial Adult Competition, Providence Open, Smithfield Open, Worcester Open.

[Tanja90]

Just few months ago the World roller figure skating took place in Portimao!
This is the lady who won the solo dance competition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQGU5...eature=related

It's interesting seeing the solo dance on the ice! In roller skating it's becoming very popular!

[beepbeep]

Probably. Which can get unfair in dances where the ladies' steps are significantly more difficult than the men's.

In solo roller it's always ladies' steps on compulsories, for men and women. Unless the lady steps are impossible to do solo, they'll go to the men's pattern. But men and women still do the same steps.

[heo-wikki]

Is Patrick Chan thinking of moving south?

[Ozzisk8tr]

Is Patrick Chan thinking of moving south?

[Aussie Willy]

In my area we don't even have ice dance duos at any level in local competitions, never mind solo. It stinks!

If you are interested in solo dance and it isn't happening at your rink or in your area, then get it going. Most things that get introduced to the sport have to come from the participants themselves. You have to get on the committees and create them yourselves. No one is going to hand them to you on a platter.

[plushenkofan]

Jana Khokhlova would have made a great solo ice dance competitior.

[luCN]

I like the idea hope the competition can go worldwide

[heo-wikki]

You don't think he would make a great solo dancer?

[Frau Muller]

Thanks for the explanations. Still very odd...like Ballroom Dancing by only one person in the couple. Imagine Ginger Rogers without Fred Astaire...Does she just smile at an imaginary partner?

[sk8er1964]

Thanks for the explanations. Still very odd...like Ballroom Dancing by only one person in the couple. Imagine Ginger Rogers without Fred Astaire...Does she just smile at an imaginary partner?

No, you smile at the judges!

[skatemommy]

This has actually been around for at least 15 years at non-qualifying competitions here in the Midwest.

[Aussie Willy]

Thanks for the explanations. Still very odd...like Ballroom Dancing by only one person in the couple. Imagine Ginger Rogers without Fred Astaire...Does she just smile at an imaginary partner?

You can still do the steps, demonstrate the technique and skate in time to the music. You do not need a partner to do learn ice dance. I have said this a number of times to skaters who complain that they can't learn ice dance because they don't have a partner.

[personwhoishere]

This is so cool! I competed in freestyle for most of my skating "career", but enjoyed doing ice dance for years -passed my first silver dance a few years back but haven't had time to dedicate to it since. This could be just the kick in the behind I need to start skating seriously again. Sounds like a lot of fun!

[Morelli]

I have mixed feelings about solo dance competitions. One the one hand, yes it is good for people who wish to compete but have no partner, but a male dancer I know says he finds that many of the strong solo dancers are not easy or pleasant to dance with, so maybe it should not be encouraged over partnered dancing. It could be one of the reasons partnerships don't work out so often. If you have been dancing solo for many years, working to accomodate someone else is going to be harder than if you were used to it from an early age.

It also seems to me that here in the UK, once the solo dance competitions really took off, we started having less and less ladies competing in free skating competitions.

In fact, looking back, the decline in the numbers of higher level competitors in all disciplines except men's free skating, and the gradual decline in the social dance scene both seem to date back to the introduction of lots of forward dances and the solo competitions that followed suit.

I don't think it is having solo competitions on a local and club basis that cause this, since dancers do need to be able to do their steps solo. Moving to having National and possibly International competitions is the real culprit. From the point of view of young girls, why go through the pain of learning to jump if you can wear pretty dresses and win medals doing relatively easy compulsory dances.

[taz'smum]

a male dancer I know says he finds that many of the strong solo dancers are not easy or pleasant to dance with, so maybe it should not be encouraged over partnered dancing.

I would like to disagree with this statement, I've found solo dance as a good place for young girls to learn how to dance/compete when there are not enough boys to go around.
I will cite the french ice dancers Géraldine Bott and Tiffany Zahorski as examples. Both had very long solo dance careers before they found partners. In fact neither of them had their first partner until they were 14. Yet, both of them have had little difficulty adapting to partnered dancing and have both gone on to have 2 successful seasons on the international Junior circuit.
The exposure that the national solo dance competitions gave them, undoubtably made it easier for them to find partners.

[gkelly]

I have mixed feelings about solo dance competitions. One the one hand, yes it is good for people who wish to compete but have no partner, but a male dancer I know says he finds that many of the strong solo dancers are not easy or pleasant to dance with, so maybe it should not be encouraged over partnered dancing. It could be one of the reasons partnerships don't work out so often. If you have been dancing solo for many years, working to accomodate someone else is going to be harder than if you were used to it from an early age.

Given a significant imbalance between male and female dancers, if most skaters in the much-larger gender pool are going to get a chance to compete at all, the options would be either solo or in same-sex teams. Or maybe both.

Pro-am competitions where many girls/women all compete with the same male hired partner/coach are another option, but then the skaters have to split that partnered practice time with all the other female skaters using the same partner.

Otherwise you're just telling all those girls that they're not welcome to compete at all and they might as well just quit if they can't find a partner, and that doesn't develop a good pool of high-level dancers with good partnering skills either.

From the point of view of young girls, why go through the pain of learning to jump if you can wear pretty dresses and win medals doing relatively easy compulsory dances.

Well, some girls like to jump and they will want to do freestyle regardless of whether solo dance is an option or not. Maybe they'll do both, or maybe they'll ignore all dance options.

If we're talking about skaters who are doing this for fun, why not let them choose whichever events they enjoy best?

If we're talking about developing world-class elite skaters, the ones who have the talent and the drive will gravitate toward the disciplines that they can have the best success in. We're a long way away from the existence of a world championship in solo dance, so the most ambitious aren't going to choose that path.

[kwanfan1818]

Given a significant imbalance between male and female dancers, if most skaters in the much-larger gender pool are going to get a chance to compete at all, the options would be either solo or in same-sex teams. Or maybe both.

If solo dance is a viable option for women, it might also shift the partner power balance back from the women having to accommodate the men because they are so scarce and because top-level men are even scarcer.

[Skittl1321]

From the point of view of young girls, why go through the pain of learning to jump if you can wear pretty dresses and win medals doing relatively easy compulsory dances.

Your experience with skaters appears to be vastly different from mine. Getting young girls to practice anything other than jumping is often a chore for coaches- suggesting they practice MITF or compulsory dances and not jump at all is laughable to me for anyone at any rink I've skated at, though I'm sure there is an exception somewhere.

The difference may be older girls who can't get their triples and can't find a partner, now they have a place that they can stay in the sport.

Adults I can see this statement working- I hate jumping personally and would gladly be done with it except I really enjoy spinning, so want to skate freestyle. Dance isn't for me either though because the idea of "easy" compulsory dances is something that doesn't work for me. I can't do the step behinds in the Rhythm Blues, which is supposedly the easiest. So I just stick with MITF and easy freestyle programs

[victoriaheidi]

Solo dance is one of the biggest events now in roller. It is at world level and this year for the first time (2011) they are allowing the solo males to skate with their partners in couples too. They hadn't allowed this before, you had to do solo or couples, but all the men chose to do solo so there were only 4 couples at worlds last year. They even do a solo freedance in the event. They also have to do one spin and one single revolution jump.
Watch the numbers in the sport increase over the next few years.

Roller has the great issue of not very many men trying to break into coupled dance (I was just discussing this with someone yesterday, because I sort of want to do coupled dance [since I LOVE ice dance!], but I love freestyle, and the lack of coupling opportunities tips the scale in favor of freestyle). There isn't really that kind of issue in elite ice dance, though.

I don't really mind; I think solo ice dance might be fun!