The Evolution of Compulsory Dances

[Sylvia]

The Evolution of Compulsory Dances by Morgan Matthews Pennington (May 7, 2024):

The Evolution of Compulsory Dances – Ice-dance.com

www.ice-dance.com

Whether or not pattern dances should still be competed at the Junior and Senior level is debatable. However, the current, as of the 2023-24 season, pattern dance requirements in the rhythm dance don’t pose the same challenge to ice dancers as full compulsory dance patterns did. Compulsory dances at the Junior and Senior level were very challenging. And the challenges that compulsory dances posed made it easier to rank ice dance teams, since all the skaters had to perform the same steps to the same music. It provided judges with an apples-to-apples comparison of ice dancers’ skills that doesn’t exist in the rhythm dance and free dance events, where teams select their own steps and can optimize those steps both to highlight their strong suits and minimize their weaknesses.

 

[purple skates]

Great article!

 

[skateboy]

Bring back compulsory dances!