Aboriginal leaders: Russian ice dancers' routine still offensive

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Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:30 am EST

Aboriginal leaders: Russian ice dancers' routine still offensive

By Maggie Hendricks

This year, the theme for the ice dancing original dance was folk dancing. The

dance was supposed to represent the " flavor " of one country or another.

Some skating pairs, like Israelis Roman and andra Zaretsky and Georgians

and Otar Japaridze, chose folk dances that represented their own

country. Others chose to honor other cultures. Canadians Tessa Virtue and

Moir did a flamenco, Americans Meryl and Charlie White did an Indian

dance, and Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin did an Australian

Aboriginal dance.

When the Russian pair did the Aboriginal dance at the European Championships in

January, they drew criticism from Aboriginal leaders who found the dance and

costumes offensive. Domnina and Shabalin toned down their costumes and removed

their face paint, but made no changes to their Aboriginal dance.

The dance they did was more likely their interpretation of Aboriginal dance,

though they claimed to have done research. Watching the dance Sunday night, one

can understand why Aboriginal leaders were offended.

At times, Shabalin led Domnina around by her ponytail. They mugged, stuck out

their tongues and mimicked the hand over mouth gesture that was once associated

with American Indians. (See it here and judge for yourself.) After the dance

ended, the crowd gave the Russians what could generously be called a lukewarm

reception.

After seeing the dance Sunday night, an Aboriginal dancer wrote in Australia's

Herald Sun newspaper:

The dance is certainly unlike anything I've seen, and other than a few complex

lifts, the performance didn't really entertain me. It looked wrong on so many

levels. ... When creating a dance or theatre work, even as contemporary

indigenous dancers, it is a part of our practice to follow cultural protocols

and consult with traditional elders who understand the meaning behind the

movement. It is respect for our traditional cultural laws, language groups and

elders for this information to be passed on correctly.

An Aboriginal leader agreed, telling The Australian newspaper:

" I am offended by the performance and so are our other councillors, " Bev Manton,

the chairwoman of the [New South Wales] Land Council said.

" Aboriginal people for very good reason are sensitive about their cultural

objects and icons being co-opted by non-Aboriginal people – whether they are

from Australia or Russia.

" It's important for people to tread carefully and respectfully when they are

depicting somebody else's culture, and I don't think this performance does. "

Watching this dance was like watching an old movie – like seeing Mickey Rooney's

offensive portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in " Breakfast at 's " – or seeing a

period show like " Mad Men, " where one of the main characters dressed in

blackface. The dance was anachronistic. Considering that the pair slipped from

first to third, it was not a winning routine, either.