Postgraduate K. Krukhmaleva^1
1Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTSOLIFK), Moscow

Keywords: sport dance, Olympic programme, sports component.

Introduction. The issue of including sport dance in the Olympic programme has long been on the agenda of the executive management of the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) founded in 2011. The relevance of solving the issue became a priority and an especially burning one after the recognition of dance sport by the International Olympic Committee and its obtaining full membership in the international SportAccord Convention that unites over 100 international sports federations. In other words, the preliminary issues with dance sport have already been resolved, and what is left is to figure out how to deal with the main problem – drawing nearer and implementation of the prospects for its inclusion in the programme of the Olympic Games.

Objective of the research was to analyze the current state of dance sport and determine the prospects for its inclusion in the Olympic programme.

Research results and discussion. Many researchers believe that prospective development of dance sport depends on several aspects that are closely related to improvement of their sport component. Shortcomings of the Sport Regulations or Dance Sport Competitions Regulations and Rules include: firstly, the imperfect system of judging; secondly, insufficient development of the criteria for performance assessment; thirdly, the system of logic-conceptual framework and management, sports commentary on the judging process and performance of dancers are not quite clear and understandable for the spectators. Numerous experts are unanimous in recognizing the necessity of objectification of the Regulations, avoiding subjectivity of the judging process that is “absolutely inherent in dance sport”. However, it is quite difficult to overcome the subjectivity of the judging process in dance sport as well as in complex coordination sports in general. There are serious disagreements and “undercurrents” related to this issue. For example, one of the projects of the new judgment system in dance sport was already proposed and considered in Stuttgart in 2014, but the project has not been implemented yet. The rules change, and they change substantially, but all this is happening slowly since it requires changing a number of well-established issues traditional for dance sport practices. For example, for the sake of Olympic regulations it is required to prohibit citizens of different states to perform as a couple, which is a strong tradition especially for the leading group of dancers – participants of international competitions.

With regard to the completeness and objectivity of dancers' performance ratings, it is as difficult to introduce “the absolute evaluation system” precisely due to the presence of the artistic or choreographic component, which if exterminated would mean the destruction and substitution of ballroom dances themselves by their sport styles and schools.

One can imagine what verbal terminological product we will obtain as a result of the enhanced implementation of the “Olympic programme” of standardization of dance sport: it will be a complex of English (and more probably – American slang) acronyms-neologisms based on the mass Western culture. Naturally, such language track would require retraining common European spectators and fans (including Russian ones). Otherwise one would not understand the new concepts of dance sport.

More complete standardization and systematization of all the three dance programmes, naturally, will be primarily carried out by the English school of dance sport as a world leader and a trendsetter. We believe it would be naïve to talk about any other social influence here, at least for the short term development of dance sport.

Generally the same can be said regarding the improvement of the technical base and execution criteria of professional dancers. Although in this case one will still have to take into account the best world achievements, trends and technique “discoveries” of the international board (committee, group) for systematization and standardization of dance technique.

In our opinion, the main vectors here were quite adequately described in the article “Milestones in the history of ballroom dance sport and dance programme trends” by A.Yu. Bredikhin. An expert survey conducted by the author of the article in 2010-2011, analysis of documents and specific sources of information allowed him to define the following major trends of the dance programme development:

– “visual appeal enhancement” due to body improvement, a lot of acting moments, original elements and new unusual combinations of basic figures, poses, support, body movements and gestures in the show (this particularly applies to Latin-American dance programme);

– “development of speed and dynamism of the dance”;

– an increase of the level of technical complexity and diversity of the form and content of dance programmes;

– the use of synchronized rhythms (we define this trend separately from the previous one on our own accord);

– “an increase in the amplitude of shakes in the Ballroom dance programme”;

– “excelling technical fitness of athletes” (A.Yu. Bredikhin, 2012, p. 322-325).

The aspect of growth or improvement of the scientific and methodological support of the comprehensive training programme for professional dancers required special consideration. Just an indication of the need to “develop scientific foundation of the system of organization of the training process”, “rethinking the tools, forms and methods of training” will not do here. The thing is that the format of education traditionally accepted and practiced in the Western countries (and in the East as well) – “a master class” – is largely built on the method of copying and learning integral forms, without methodological specification and detailed elaboration. At least the systematic sports scientific and methodological development has always been considered the credit of the Soviet and Russian rather than foreign experts. The latter have always focused on personal image-associative experience and one’s own interpretation of the technical and tactical lines as well as purely practical personal experience of training and competitive activities.

Finally, the following can be noted with regard to the standards and requirements of the International Olympic Committee. Creation and introduction of the “Olympic programme” of dance sport is not limited to the formulation of the “rules of the international standard”, standardization of technique, language and other components. A purely quantitative increase in the number of national federations is a necessary but not sufficient condition and is not an absolute cure-all solution of the issue of expanding the programme of international competitions by means of including ones of groups and shows in freestyle and sequence dance.

Conclusion. The issue raised in the present article is not a linear and single-level one. It requires a thorough research, as many such cases of creation of “Olympic programmes” in other sports (especially complex coordination ones) as possible as well as cases of elimination of some sports from the programmes of Summer or Winter Olympic Games.

References

1. Bredikhin A.Yu. Vekhi istorii sportivnykh bal'nykh tantsev i tendentsii razvitiya tantseval'nykh programm (Milestones in the history of ballroom dance sport and dance programme trends) / A.Yu. Bredkhin // Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie. – 2012. – № 3. – P. 322–325.
2. Peredel'skiy A.A. Fenomen sportivnoy kul'tury v aspekte filosofskogo i sotsiologicheskogo analiza (Phenomenon of sport culture in terms of philosophical and sociological analysis) / A.A. Peredel'skiy, A.G. Alekseev, Yu.A. Tsegel'ny // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. – 2014. – № 8. – P. 94–96.

Corresponding author: alisa.gorba4eva@yandex.ru

Abstract

The prospects for inclusion of dance sport in the Olympic programme are reviewed and assessed in the present paper.

Many researchers agree that the future development of dance sport depends on several aspects that are closely related with the improvement of their sports component.

The problem stated in this paper is complicated and requires a thorough research of a large number of cases of creation of Olympic Programmes in other sports (especially with complex coordination), as well as cases of elimination of some sports from the Summer or Winter Olympic Games.