Just Dance!

There's been such an uproar about the Russian ice dancing pair that tried so unsuccessfully to highlight an Australian aboriginal dance in their Olympic routine. We didn't see their performance, but let me ask a question here. Whose bright idea was it to have the ice dancers skate their impressions of ethnic folk dances, dances that people have kept alive through centuries of tradition? Did they not think that the addition of ice and skates and compulsory elements like 'twizzles' would pretty much mangle the dances they tried to feature? I think about the Canadian couple dancing that Paso Doble knock-off. It was striking, but not much to do with a Paso Doble, or a bullfight. That red skirt could have been a lot more dramatic with a sharp assymetrical hemline to symbolize the matador's cape. Or the American couple in the Indian garb, and him with those wild blonde locks. I'm just saying... I am not myself ethnically offended by any performance I saw. Nobody was crazy enough to ice dance a polka. But I was mildly put off by the French interpretation of a hoedown. It wasn't so much the chaps or the Daisy Dukes or the bow-legged swagger, but that they were, well, the French!

Tempest in a tea cup?

The America's Cup race Monday was called for lack of wind. Wednesday's race had a good stiff wind, but a sea state with waves above 1 meter, and was postponed again. Tomorrow's race forecasts even larger waves and will likely postpone yet again.

 

I wonder if it is time to say something obvious. Alinghi 5 and USA are undoubtedly the fastest sailboats ever afloat. The two giant multihulls reach at multiples of wind speed. But a Catalina 42 sailed by a club champion in any local yacht club could have completed two races by now and walked away with the title, while the big boats sit in their berths.

 

The America's Cup is an ocean race, and these two contenders may be a match for each other, but not for the sea. A ninety foot boat that cannot contend with 40 inch seas is poorly designed. Perhaps Larry Ellison can build a bath tub big enough for the contest to procede, but clearly neither boat is up to the Cup.