2023-2024 Rhythm dance

[Rukia]

This is going to be a disaster and/or the most boring thing ever (and probably both) I can't wait

 

[On My Own]

I want my Impressionist RD. I'd love to see it. ISU, please make it happen.

 

[Frau Muller]

Is the ISU trying to turn-off traditional fans? End of elegance and beauty?
The essence of ice dancing was ballroom dance on ice. Waltzes, jive, polkas, blues, foxtrots, marches, tango, flamenco, paso doble, etc.

 

[litenkyckling]

I'm not against this weird theme (like how can an entire decade be a theme??) however, the RD themes and the pattern dance is not what is turning people away from the sport. Make it accessible, actually promote it and fix some of the poor judging. That's what will bring people in. They seem desperate to be "down with the kids" or to go viral. This is a sport - push your athletes, challenge them and the audience will come with that.

 

[BlueRidge]

They seem desperate to be "down with the kids" or to go viral.

So they choose a theme of forty years ago... they kind of are out of touch in many ways.

 

[Aussie Willy]

So they choose a theme of forty years ago... they kind of are out of touch in many ways.

Hmmm no different to having a jive or blues theme and then using music from the 1950s. Or how about a whole bunch of Strauss waltzes from the 1800s.

Why not Baroque?

 

[tony]

Well, I was born in the mid-80's, never went through an 80's phase of any kind, and I'm really looking forward to what the teams can do. There have been so many misses in ice dance the last few years and the pattern being removed was just the topping on all of it. This at least has potential to be fun and if it's awkward, it won't look as bad as some of the others themes we've seen attempted/stretched with the music choices.

But I will tell you, I think some of you greatly underestimate how viral some of this stuff can turn into and how it could pull in a whole new set of fans. Stranger Things had a really huge influence on bringing back a lot of 80's vibes, Dua Lipa and The Weeknd and many other top artists came out with music that has a very 80's electric pop sound to it (and those songs rose to the top of the charts), and things like Nintendo were reissued and sold out almost immediately to fans both new and old. Generational stuff always circles back somehow, and we see it now with songs being 'discovered' again and making fans out new people.

Of course, I'm sure some teams will find the safest, slowest, least dynamic music to skate to but I'm all in for a Madonna, Laura Branigan, Blondie, Whitney, whatever set of programs. Oh and of course Come on Eileen. Big hair, scrunchies, neon outfits-- all is good by me.

 

[Karen-W]

All I really want of an '80s theme is for some team to embrace Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers and use "Islands in the Stream". Is that too much to ask?

 

[chameleonster]

The ISU never fails to show how out of touch they are and their inability to promote the sport in any real way. What, will ice dancers never get to do a waltz again because it's not exciting enough? How is that any way to treat the sport and the athletes? Why should they be limited because the ISU can't figure things out themselves. I know they're all out of touch, but they could have the younger skaters promote themselves more or at least ask their grandkids or something. The ISU fundamentally misunderstands how to reach a broader audience and how to go viral or whatever, and what the casual non skating fan might be impressed by.
A non exhaustive list of ice dance tiktoks that reached at least a million views:
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir 11.5M
Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu 2.1M
Holly Harris/Jason Chan 6.3M
Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron 1.3M
Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue 1.2M
Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko 10.8M
Haley Sales/Nikolas Wamsteeker 9.5M

I tried to grab programs that apparently don't count as "fun" and audience friendly( although some of these are edits, something else the ISU doesn't understand). I also picked only one tiktok per team, tried to include some lesser known teams, skipped Russians, and also just on the strength whatever I found within like ten minutes lol. There are a lot of things that can capture the attention of the once every four year audience.

On another note, why is it always on the on the ice dancers? You don't see the pairs having mandatory disco SPs or the women having to skate to 90s pop divas or something. Everyone else needs to start pulling their weight here. Only when the men are required to skate boyband programs will we have true equality.

 

[overedge]

There were ice dance programs that went viral before TikTok. Like Davis/White's Indian program. I wouldn't judge the popularity or broad appeal of a program by how many hits it gets on the most recent trendy app.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Well, I was born in the mid-80's, never went through an 80's phase of any kind, and I'm really looking forward to what the teams can do. There have been so many misses in ice dance the last few years and the pattern being removed was just the topping on all of it. This at least has potential to be fun and if it's awkward, it won't look as bad as some of the others themes we've seen attempted/stretched with the music choices.

But I will tell you, I think some of you greatly underestimate how viral some of this stuff can turn into and how it could pull in a whole new set of fans. Stranger Things had a really huge influence on bringing back a lot of 80's vibes, Dua Lipa and The Weeknd and many other top artists came out with music that has a very 80's electric pop sound to it (and those songs rose to the top of the charts), and things like Nintendo were reissued and sold out almost immediately to fans both new and old. Generational stuff always circles back somehow, and we see it now with songs being 'discovered' again and making fans out new people.

Of course, I'm sure some teams will find the safest, slowest, least dynamic music to skate to but I'm all in for a Madonna, Laura Branigan, Blondie, Whitney, whatever set of programs. Oh and of course Come on Eileen. Big hair, scrunchies, neon outfits-- all is good by me.

I see a number of kids who wear t-shirts that are being produced these days of bands from the 70s and 80s. And you talk to them and they know a lot about music from those years and are big fans of it. Tiktok actually has really increased the profile of music from those years.

If you think that the ISU is on the wrong track with this, I totally disagree and I think you might be the ones out of touch with current music trends.

 

[tony]

The ISU never fails to show how out of touch they are and their inability to promote the sport in any real way. What, will ice dancers never get to do a waltz again because it's not exciting enough? How is that any way to treat the sport and the athletes? Why should they be limited because the ISU can't figure things out themselves. I know they're all out of touch, but they could have the younger skaters promote themselves more or at least ask their grandkids or something. The ISU fundamentally misunderstands how to reach a broader audience and how to go viral or whatever, and what the casual non skating fan might be impressed by.
A non exhaustive list of ice dance tiktoks that reached at least a million views:
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir 11.5M
Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu 2.1M
Holly Harris/Jason Chan 6.3M
Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron 1.3M
Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue 1.2M
Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko 10.8M
Haley Sales/Nikolas Wamsteeker 9.5M

Well yeah- you chose a bunch of clips that have music playing over the actual performance music except for a few, including P/C's Forest Blakk which it seems like most of FSU really can't stand, so I'm not sure that you are getting your point across with that. Also, liking a TikTok of a 15 second clip of skating isn't always going to equate it into people showing any interest past the like because it's impressive, and then moving on. It can also depend on popularity of the accounts sharing said stuff and maybe some accounts are just there to post 'wow' stuff rather than even trying to get people into skating.

On another note, why is it always on the on the ice dancers? You don't see the pairs having mandatory disco SPs or the women having to skate to 90s pop divas or something. Everyone else needs to start pulling their weight here. Only when the men are required to skate boyband programs will we have true equality.

Different technical committees. I was liking what the dance committee was doing circa 2018, and then even came out with excellent instructional videos on the new judging process. But now the choreographic step and slides are often.. not great.. and the pattern being removed was another huge no.

But I've said before that RuPaul's Drag Race has really hit mainstream media, especially considering it started off on a tiny network that no one even had and the budget was clearly very little. There are a lot of parallels to skating (there have been quite a few queens that were skaters), and I'm not saying gay it up and make it exclusively LGBTQ marketable, but all of us know that the target audience COULD be there and it's attracting plenty of young LGBTQ to stick with the sport as it always has.

So while I am a total skating historian and I love the roots of the dances and especially the patterns, I'm excited to see what can happen with this.

 

[skategal]

I just keep thinking of the most popular RDs from the last 2 Olympics and 3 of them were 80s compilations.

Virtue/Moir 2018 - Prince
Hubbell/Donahue 2022 - Janet Jackson
Fear/Gibson 2022 - KISS

You just know that at least one team is really going to nail this theme and it will go viral.

 

[litenkyckling]

Well, I was born in the mid-80's, never went through an 80's phase of any kind, and I'm really looking forward to what the teams can do. There have been so many misses in ice dance the last few years and the pattern being removed was just the topping on all of it. This at least has potential to be fun and if it's awkward, it won't look as bad as some of the others themes we've seen attempted/stretched with the music choices.

But I will tell you, I think some of you greatly underestimate how viral some of this stuff can turn into and how it could pull in a whole new set of fans. Stranger Things had a really huge influence on bringing back a lot of 80's vibes, Dua Lipa and The Weeknd and many other top artists came out with music that has a very 80's electric pop sound to it (and those songs rose to the top of the charts), and things like Nintendo were reissued and sold out almost immediately to fans both new and old. Generational stuff always circles back somehow, and we see it now with songs being 'discovered' again and making fans out new people.

Of course, I'm sure some teams will find the safest, slowest, least dynamic music to skate to but I'm all in for a Madonna, Laura Branigan, Blondie, Whitney, whatever set of programs. Oh and of course Come on Eileen. Big hair, scrunchies, neon outfits-- all is good by me.

I think the key to going viral is by not trying to. As someone who has very much grown up on the internet, I’d say that what becomes popular and what goes viral is usually very organic.

 

[tony]

I think the key to going viral is by not trying to. As someone who has very much grown up on the internet, I’d say that what becomes popular and what goes viral is usually very organic.

But it doesn’t have to get 15 second TikTok hits to bring in fans! Some people will maybe just be fans of the programs because they like the artists and they come across the performances that way. Madonna has her 40th anniversary tour coming up and I’m quite certain that it’s not exclusively a bunch of 50 and 60 year olds buying those tickets. I’m also pretty confident that we will see summer interviews with skaters saying how much fun they are having with this theme.

I’ve also grown up with the internet. I think there’s a lot of out of touch sentiments on this board, and while I personally love and grew up having a strong classical music knowledge and playing piano, a season full of waltzes isn’t going to get the younger generation exactly thrilled. I don’t know what people want, and I’m saying that as someone who has gone back and watched virtually every single available competition video of skating and know the roots of the sport. The times have just changed completely.

ETA- I think no matter what the theme, a part of FSU would be terribly disappointed and start with the ratings and lack of interest talks again.

 

[overedge]

I just keep thinking of the most popular RDs from the last 2 Olympics and 3 of them were 80s compilations.

Virtue/Moir 2018 - Prince
Hubbell/Donahue 2022 - Janet Jackson
Fear/Gibson 2022 - KISS

Not at the Olympics, but Gilles/Poirier's disco RD also got a fair bit of attention, especially because of Poirier looking like Greg Brady from The Brady Bunch

 

[Aussie Willy]

I just keep thinking of the most popular RDs from the last 2 Olympics and 3 of them were 80s compilations.

Virtue/Moir 2018 - Prince
Hubbell/Donahue 2022 - Janet Jackson
Fear/Gibson 2022 - KISS

You just know that at least one team is really going to nail this theme and it will go viral.

Let's not forget this one. Manta/Johnson skating to Sweet Dreams. Not a well known team but this program went viral.

#USChamps19 Manta/Johnson Free Dance

Karina Manta and Joe Johnson's rendition of "Sweet Dreams" received a standing ovation at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Their performance was one of the h...

www.youtube.com

BTW - I couldn't remember the name of the team but I sure as hell remember the program. Googled "US ice dance team sweet dreams". It brought up an article which then enabled me to find the program. A singles adult skater I know used this music for her program because she saw this program.

 

[skategal]

Let's not forget this one. Manta/Johnson skating to Sweet Dreams. Not a well known team but this program went viral.

#USChamps19 Manta/Johnson Free Dance

Karina Manta and Joe Johnson's rendition of "Sweet Dreams" received a standing ovation at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Their performance was one of the h...

www.youtube.com

BTW - I couldn't remember the name of the team but I sure as hell remember the program. Googled "US ice dance team sweet dreams". It brought up an article which then enabled me to find the program. A singles adult skater I know used this music for her program because she saw this program.

I just finished reading Karina’s book where this program and its development was discussed.

 

[chameleonster]

Well yeah- you chose a bunch of clips that have music playing over the actual performance music except for a few, including P/C's Forest Blakk which it seems like most of FSU really can't stand, so I'm not sure that you are getting your point across with that. Also, liking a TikTok of a 15 second clip of skating isn't always going to equate it into people showing any interest past the like because it's impressive, and then moving on. It can also depend on popularity of the accounts sharing said stuff and maybe some accounts are just there to post 'wow' stuff rather than even trying to get people into skating.

Different technical committees. I was liking what the dance committee was doing circa 2018, and then even came out with excellent instructional videos on the new judging process. But now the choreographic step and slides are often.. not great.. and the pattern being removed was another huge no.

But I've said before that RuPaul's Drag Race has really hit mainstream media, especially considering it started off on a tiny network that no one even had and the budget was clearly very little. There are a lot of parallels to skating (there have been quite a few queens that were skaters), and I'm not saying gay it up and make it exclusively LGBTQ marketable, but all of us know that the target audience COULD be there and it's attracting plenty of young LGBTQ to stick with the sport as it always has.

So while I am a total skating historian and I love the roots of the dances and especially the patterns, I'm excited to see what can happen with this.

I mean again this was a brief sampling, but of the clips I posted, two were from On Ice Perspectives, and the rest were from dedicated fan accounts who only post figure skating edits that they make in their spare time. Making people interested in even just one skater or team makes them just that much more likely to start looking things up. It's how many people move from being once every four years to actual fans. I'm not saying that this alone is reviving the sport or anything, but the most unexpected of things can go viral, and sometimes actively trying to go viral can flop. In fact having a wider variety of programs means you have a wider range of people who might be into at least one program.
Also seriously, are the skaters just going to be required to do fun, upbeat programs for the rest of their careers? I don't actually hate decade themes in theory, and I could honestly be really into an 80s theme, it's just that I'm growing increasingly skeptical with the direction this is going. We're increasingly ditching the pattern which is an important of an ice dancers development, and they're not having to adapt to different styles because apparently we're just doing the midnight blues until the end of time. We can't have waltz RDs with a modern music requirement, we can't even get new a new jive or whatever patterns for the mandated fun programs. There's growing the sport in terms of getting more fans, but there's also growing the sport in terms of the athletes getting to stretch themselves with different styles of dance and performances.

I know it's a different committee, and was mostly joking about the 90s pop diva off, but also not entirely? The ISU wants figure skating as a whole to become more popular and grow the fanbase, so figure skaters as a whole should be trying to appeal to the general audience in my opinion. I don't necessarily think having three different men in a BTS showdown trying to podium is the necessarily the answer either, but at least the ice dancers wouldn't be carrying the ISU's hopes and dreams on their back alone.

Edit: I think some people are underestimating the range of things the younger generation can get into, just in my personal experience, but waltz only has to be in 3/4 time, it doesn't necessarily have to be classical music only. I have no idea how the ISU would try to define a "modern" waltz program to make everyone follow, but I fail to see how teams waltzing to a Billie Eilish song would be less audience friendly than an 80s theme.

 

[MacMadame]

Only when the men are required to skate boyband programs will we have true equality.

BTS, BTS, BTS! Army has spoken!

 

[overedge]

I don't have any problem with compulsory ice dances, or with the set dance that's part of the RD. They're one small part of the overall competition, and no one is being forced to watch them except the judges. If the priority for the entire structure of skating competitions is being "audience friendly" then we might as well toss out all the requirements and turn it into Stars On Ice, and use an applause meter to select the winners.

There are always going to be people who don't want to watch skating because they don't enjoy it, or because they think real athletes don't wear costumes and makeup, or because there's not enough "action", or because they don’t understand the judging. IMO the ISU would draw in more viewers by doing things like better, more visible explanations of how the marks are calculated. Not by trying to attract marginally interested viewers.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

I’m trying to think of 3 count songs from the 80’s…

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

IMO the ISU would draw in more viewers by doing things like better, more visible explanations of how the marks are calculated. Not by trying to attract marginally interested viewers.

My father shocked me recently by watching US Nationals. He asked a lot of questions about how it's scored. His last comment was that I probably enjoy it more because I understand more about the rules and how the points are awarded. He had a lot of intelligent questions about what was going on and why it was worth more points.

 

[CantALoop]

\Let's be real though. Go look for a "Best of the 80s" playlist on Spotify and that's what 85% of the dances will be to.

You say that like it's a bad thing

The Americans is DH’s and my joint favorite TV series ever...And the music was only exceeded by the period clothes and all those wigs Keri wore.

This is going to be a disaster and/or the most boring thing ever (and probably both) I can't wait

It may be a bit on the nose, but if nobody skates to Dead or Alive's You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) complete with velvet kimonos, silk tangs, or Pete Burns' voluminous hair (bonus points and GOE for eyepatches), I will throw a fit and officially declare the 80's theme a flop

 

[myhoneyhoney]

it just hit me, we’re gonna be hearing The Wedding Singer soundtrack

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

For @myhoneyhoney - I did a little research and came up with "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

 

[overedge]

I’m trying to think of 3 count songs from the 80’s…

Eternal Flame by the Bangles
Against All Odds by Phil Collins
Almost Paradise from the Top Gun soundtrack
Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners
Cruel Summer by Bananarama
Purple Rain by Prince

There's more than a few of them. But I endorse @CantALoop 's recommendation for You Spin Me Round

 

[Karen-W]

Almost Paradise from the Top Gun soundtrack

Just a tiny correction... Almost Paradise was from the Footloose soundtrack.

 

[barbk]

I see a number of kids who wear t-shirts that are being produced these days of bands from the 70s and 80s. And you talk to them and they know a lot about music from those years and are big fans of it. Tiktok actually has really increased the profile of music from those years.

If you think that the ISU is on the wrong track with this, I totally disagree and I think you might be the ones out of touch with current music trends.

This. I have two students who work in the local vinyl records store, another that showed up in a Billy Idol t-shirt, and a fourth with a Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA sticker on her computer. 80s music is definitely popular with a lot of the high school kids I see.

...but I think we won't see Sexual Healing featured at ISU events. Or NWA.

 

[Aussie Willy]

This. I have two students who work in the local vinyl records store, another that showed up in a Billy Idol t-shirt, and a fourth with a Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA sticker on her computer. 80s music is definitely popular with a lot of the high school kids I see.

...but I think we won't see Sexual Healing featured at ISU events. Or NWA.

Or re-enacting the Girls on Film video.