(Untitled)

[artemisiabrisol]

via ohnotheydidnt's original post

I am not a figure skating choreographer. Nor I am on the planning committee of the European Figure Skating Championships (though my 2010 schedule has an opening). So I was not privy to the meetings that lead to the decision to require ice dancing pairs to perform a routine that was "representative of a country's culture."

Because

Comments

[chandri]

Ha ha, Metaquoted. :)

[annoyedwabbit]

(here from Metaquotes! ^_^)

Yeah, Russians paying some kind of deranged "tribute" to the Australian Aborigines is several kinds of special. On the other hand, it wasn't all bad. A friend of mine was skating for Estonia - so she and her partner did an Estonian folk-dance theme for their routine. Apparently the Russians have just never heard of cultural sensitivity.

[ocelot_eyes]

(over here from Metaquotes too

[sleepinbeast]

...and another one via metaquotes.

I dunno, maybe Germany is too close to Russia or something, but I don't get what's soooooo offensive about their choice? Is there some kind of history between Russia and Australian Aborigines that isn't taught in German schools?

Someone please enlighten the insensitive kraut that is me?

[dornbeast]

It's not what they did, it's how.

Imagine that somebody wanted to do a dance representative of Germany, and thoughtlessly decided it involved goose-stepping and lots of "heil Hitler" salutes, and ignoring the deep well of culture that is far more representative of Germany.

That isn't an exact representation of what's going on here, but it's close.

Here from Metaquotes

[daiq]

Oh My Goodness! That is, well, I am trying to think if i have seen worse. Were there any Aussie's competing, what did we do?

Re: Here from Metaquotes

[naath]

European Figure Skating Chams. ergo... no, no Ausies.

I doubt they intended to offend; if they intended to offend it would probably have been all "LOL, Georgians are STUPID" or something. But that somehow makes it worse from my pov; they are just thoughtlessly fooling about with someone else's important cultural stuff.

Re: Here from Metaquotes

[daiq]

I am an idiot, i thought it was the World Skating championships, i didn't realise it was Europe.

[jennifergale]

Wow. :sigh:

[naath]

OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK

Dear stupid committee of FAIL. Allow me to amend your requirement:
"representative of a YOUR country's culture."

(here via metaquotes)

[b_phil]

Yeah, I was about to say, are they even FROM Australia? Something was telling me "No" (I don't have sound on my computer, so it wasn't the announcer or anything telling me that)

[naath]

They are from RUSSIA, which... has an interesting folk dance tradition all of its own (actually it probably has MANY, I don't know much about Russia). Why they picked Aboriginal Australians... I just do not know.

[artemisiabrisol]

No. Kidding.