Slavik&Elena showcase

[simpsdance]

Slavik and Elena finally revealed themselves in public, and they look awesome! Enjoy:

Rumba:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTN_gv4H2zc

Cha Cha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw9JmWplL68

[pygmalion]

Better watch it while it's hot. And it is hot. Whew! :)

[Becca]

:O :O :O !

I've just been sat here, gazing open mouthed at the screen in front of me, shivers rushing through my body, tears pricking my eyes. I cannot believe what I have just seen!

I LOVE IT! :D

[Vince A]

Yeow . . .hot, Hot, HOT! The only way to dance . . . total sex on the floor. The slower the better . . .

She was awesome . . . I didn't notice him. Was he OK?

Loved the back of that dress . . .

In some venues though, you can lose points for not having at least one foot on the ground (the walk in the air at the beginning) . . . have no idea what their rules are . . .

[Ithink]

Un-freakin'-believable!! Bryan Wayson has nothing on Slavik. I'll say it before and I'll say it again - he's the best male dancer in the world, period, end of story... Elena is good but IMO not good enough for Slavik.

Now if only he'd partner Yulia Z. - they'd be unstoppable! I think skill-wise and stylistically they're a perfect match.

[Ithink]

That was a show - there are no rules in a show.

And yeah, btw, he was pretty OK. I actually hardly noticed her and that is rare for me - I always almost exclusively watch the woman.

[Vince A]

OK, I re-watched it . . . he is awesome in the cha . . . I'd kill for those hips, but at my age . . . I'd break something!!!

I did realize that it was a show, and anything DOES go . . .

I think the video is OK. Probably someone bought the DVD at the event, and put it on YouTube. I don't see any profit being made off of showing it.

[JohnLL]

*stares in awestruck wonder*
Unbelievable! I don't know what else to say.

[dancesportgirl21]

they look AWESOME!!!!!! so are they going to compete for the US?

[Twilight_Elena]

Woah. Unreal. Her Rumba dress I found too... fabricy. It hid her lovely lines.

T_E

[Becca]

I heard that they are going to, yes.

[Sagitta]

Woah. Unreal. Her Rumba dress I found too... fabricy. It hid her lovely lines.

T_EI agree. Yuck! IMO, naturally. ;-)

[cy_phi]

Wow, that was incredible. Thanks for the links simpsdance. If the represent the US, that's good for us!

[tanz15]

I thought they were dancing for Russia, so the cold war resumes (or maybe it's a hot war, given the video).

[dancesportgirl21]

I found this from when they first announced they would dance together in Dec of 2005:


Slavik and Elena dance together
Submitted by from dancesport.ru
01 Dec 2005
We've just learned from the Russian dancesport.ru website that Slavik Kryklyvyy and Elena Khvorova will dance together. They haven't decided yet what country they will represent. Between others, it will depend on what country Dmitri Timokhin and Karina Smirnoff decide to dance for - if Dmitri and Karina go for USA, Slavik and Elena will dance for Russia.

Does anyone know whether Sergey Ryupin will still be dancing and if so whether he has found a partner?

[DancingJools]

I beg to disagree about all the oohs and aahs. And please don't kill me for it.
I've had the recording of this show (all four dances, unfortunately not the jive, and I don't know if they performed it), just after the performance. I've watched it many, many times.
If you watch it carefully, they are still practicing their routines. Not to detract from the quality of either one of them. But they are still practicing. Quite a few near misses, and she looks lost in a couple of steps.
Still practicing. They will need to polish it up significantly before Blackpool. I have no doubt he is capable of it. For her, it will be quite a jump in quality. (Again, please don't kill me for saying this.) She is a beautiful dancer, but still has a long way to go.
That is strictly my own personal take on this. As I said, I've watched this recording many, many times (on a much bigger screen with much better resolution).

[Twilight_Elena]

Admittedly, Jools, there's something... harsh in their movement. A bit wooden. I still think it looks incredible (from a Bronze dancer's point of view) but yeah, not the best I've seen.

T_E

[dancesportgirl21]

Jools, sure they aren't perfect yet and there's still tons of work to be done, but I was surprised how great they look together considering it's a new partnership and I think there's lots of potential. Like anything else, it takes time- but I can't wait until they compete!

[Ithink]

Jools: I agree with you in one respect, that she has a long way to go to catch up to his quality of movement, body rhythm, etc. I do think he is already there in terms of readiness for competition but maybe as a couple they still are not...

Still, the dancing is quite awesome. And I just love that MJ rumba!

[smoozer]

I would have to agree with Jools. Nice, yes. Potential, yes. Great, not by a long shot.

[mamboqueen]

I usually look at the woman more, too, but that dress (especially the print) completely turns my eyes away. She's got such a stunning figure, too....

[bluetango]

Its interesting to watch these top latin dancers shuffle partners. I find it more often then not, the top male latin dancers all define a very distinct movement style of their own, that then spawns hundreds of clones, ie younger dancers trying to look like their idols. I'm thinking in the recent past of Bryan Watson, Slavik, Paul Killik, etc. Their dancing is so distinct, you could put a bag over their head, and easily figure out who is dancing. A lot of other top dancers define a unique dynamic to the partnership, but thats a bit different. However, when I think of the women, I have a very hard time coming up with any who have defined their own style of movement so to speak. The top latin ladies are all obviously amazing, really are more or less "generic" in their dancing I feel. I don't mean 'generic' in a bad way, but also not in a good way - its kinda neutral. Sure some have a certain "personality" on the floor, or certain manerisms that you can identify, but they don't move in a way characteristically different from everyone else. You can prefer certain ladies over others simply because you think they are better, faster, more charismatic, better personality, etc. then the others, but I can't find any one that has really created a whole new interpretation of Latin movement like Bryan, Paul, or Slavik. For me comes to mind unique ladies such as Carmen, Joana, or Yulia Z. However, when it comes down to it, they more-or -less move much more similarly to eachother, than the three guys I mentioned before. Their difference is in the intensity of the on-floor persona. It is so powerful that it makes them extremely unique and amazing to watch.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, its interesting to watch dancers such as Slavik pair up with new partners. Its often hard to accept a partnership quickly when one of the two has such a distinct style, and the other is more generic, but of course still one of the best. It takes a while for a partnership like that to find a golden center. In my opinion, Elena has a lot of growing to do not in terms of being better in her technique, but she needs to grow in her personal interpretation of the music, so that she can balance out Slavik, as both unique and complimentary to his movement.

That said, I look forward to great things from this partnership!

[Ithink]

Wow, what a well-thought-out and interesting post. I tend to agree with you, although if you put a bag over Yulia's head, I think I'd still know who is dancing because I do feel like she's unique in her style and movement.

Another lady dancer, I think, who defies (or is it defied, since she is no longer dancing) your generalization is Anna Bezikova. I think it was HER dancing that defined her and Dmitri's partnership. Her charisma, her very feminine movement on the floor, softer and more elegant than most other latin ladies, was really what made their partnership successful. I think in that partnership it was Dmitri who was "generic" and Anna was the one who made them stand out and be different and interesting. She (along with Yulia) are still by far my favorite female lady dancer for those very reasons. I was really sad to find out she quit dancing:(

[pygmalion]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but where did the video come from? A pro-show where audience videotaping was allowed? :cool:

[bluetango]

Ithink: I definitely agree with your view of Yulia. However, I have not really seen Anna Bezikova dance enough to really have an opinion. I've only seen her and Dmitri dance on the 2001 world amateur latin championships in slovenia, and since it was a PBS show, you really can't see anyone long enough to see if you like their dancing in particular or not. But if what you say is right, then its too I missed them, I always enjoy a unique girl :-)

[mamboqueen]

I like the idea of bags on the head. Maybe we can stone them....

[tanz15]

I find it more often then not, the top male latin dancers all define a very distinct movement style of their own.. I'm thinking in the recent past of Bryan Watson, Slavik, Paul Killik, etc. Their dancing is so distinct, you could put a bag over their head, and easily figure out who is dancing. A lot of other top dancers define a unique dynamic to the partnership, but thats a bit different. However, when I think of the women, I have a very hard time coming up with any who have defined their own style of movement so to speak. The top latin ladies are all obviously amazing, really are more or less "generic" in their dancing I feel. I don't mean 'generic' in a bad way, but also not in a good way - its kinda neutral. Sure some have a certain "personality" on the floor, or certain manerisms that you can identify, but they don't move in a way characteristically different from everyone else. You can prefer certain ladies over others simply because you think they are better, faster, more charismatic, better personality, etc. then the others, but I can't find any one that has really created a whole new interpretation of Latin movement like Bryan, Paul, or Slavik. For me comes to mind unique ladies such as Carmen, Joana, or Yulia Z. However, when it comes down to it, they more-or -less move much more similarly to eachother, than the three guys I mentioned before...

I'm curious to what extent people think this might be a reflection of the intrinsic lead-follow structure? Can a lady have a truly unique style without detracting from the overall picture of the couple? If the man and lady have styles that differ too much, then they won't look quite like a couple even if they are evenly matched in ability. If the lady is even slightly stronger or more distinctive than the man, then the man looks weak; this was the case with Elena's partnership with Ryupin, and I would argue that this was also a problem for Timokhin/Bezikova and also Malitowski/Leunis.

I suppose there must be cases where the man adapted his style to the lady's, but I can't think of any obvious examples. I do think Joanna had a distinctive look/style that she maintained through her partnerships with Slavik and Louis, but I haven't seen her often or recently enough with Michael to have an opinion on how she's adapted to him, or him to her (or more likely, both to each other).

[pygmalion]

Eh. Ballroom dance is led by men. So it's not surprising that men shape the style for any given couple. At least that's my perception. *shrug*

[bluetango]

Eh. Ballroom dance is led by men. So it's not surprising that men shape the style for any given couple. At least that's my perception. *shrug*

There is certainly a point here. The man initiates all the movements, so often he has a little more freedom to style them to his choosing. However, this may only be true in social dance. In competitive dance its a routine, so the woman knows whats coming. There is no excuse then to argue that the man shapes the style. The woman has plenty advanced knowledge of whats going to happen to develop her own unique way of interpreting it.

I think Michael and Joanna's showdances have very interesting choreography, but still neither of them have a unique way of moving their bodies. Again going to my paper bag statement, you have to ask yourself, if I put a bag over their heads...will I still be able to know who it is by virtue of the uniqueness of how they move their body. I bet you could only count on 1 hand those people. Everyone else, unfortunately is generic. That is why the final has only 6 couples. And in my opinion, is why Michael Wentink was so highly ranked. I never thought he was a great latin dancer, but his interpretation was different and unique enough to grant him finalist status. Certainly there have been much better latin-dancers than he - but they didn't stand out, and never made the final.

If I had to give a short description of what I see as unique in each dancers movement I'd say probably:

Bryan Watson - doesn't explore the rhythm as continuously as paul killick normally does, but where paul killick is constantly showing the rhythm through his hips and legs in a more or less straight forward way, Bryan (when he chooses to) moves his body in a characteristically un-latin kind of way. Its like this little chaotic rhythmical explosions - and as quickly as they happened, they are gone. He's also not afraid of creating a lot of weird shapes with his body, but again, doesn't stay in them long - just enough to break the symmetry, make it look interesting, and then back to latin. You'll notice though that when his upperbody or hips are doing something really weird, his legwork is in perfect technical precision. Similarly, when he does fast synchopated craziness with his legs, his upperbody is still and technically sound. He is a master of contrast, but in a different way than slavik. I think Bryan's technical prowess is the best of all the latin guys, and his un-reproducable explosive way of moving his body is what makes him consistently the champ.

Paul Killick - dances pretty much all the rhythms of the music. You'll almost never see him just taking walks or basic steps, he explores the rhythms to the maximum with his hips, arms, and legs. However, I found that his upper body tends to be quite still. His style is very continuous and has almost no stillnes - its just never ending rhythmical movement. Sometimes it actually annoys me a little :-)

Slavik Kryklyvvy - extremely fluid movement that I would describe as simply "organic". he seems to like to stransfer most of the rhythmical movement to his leg action, and partner work. He makes the girl explore the rhythm, while he opts instead to dance the music through his upper body. You can see how the melody of the song actually travels across his body, into his arms and of course....hips. He contrasts almost no movement and pure stillness, with exaggerated hip and arm movement. If you watch carefully, you'll see he doesn't move as much as you think he does - its the contrast between the movements that gives his fluidity such an accent. Occasionally you'll see him exaggerate the rhythm of the music with his chest, or extreme leg work - this of course gives the impression that the dance is permeated with this, but its his rapid switching between types of movement that give him such a unique look.

Michael Wentink - high energy staccato movement with a lot of wild arms thrown around, and very very basic technique. no rhythmical embelishment whatsoever, minimal hip action. lots of spinning!

[Dance4Ever]

Excellent post, bluetango, very informative. I looked at the Slavik and Elena video again and think your characterization of Slavik's dancing is right on the money.

[DancingJools]

I think Michael and Joanna's showdances have very interesting choreography, but still neither of them have a unique way of moving their bodies....
Hmmm. Totally disagree. They have an absolutely unique and identifiable movement. Especially her. Checkout out their Jive interpretation of "Fever" (the classic foxtrot, by Diana Krall). I think the MIT folk are bringing them to the Boston area in a couple of weeks. If they perform that number, you'll see what I mean.

[chica latina]

There is certainly a point here. The man initiates all the movements, so often he has a little more freedom to style them to his choosing. However, this may only be true in social dance. In competitive dance its a routine, so the woman knows whats coming. There is no excuse then to argue that the man shapes the style. The woman has plenty advanced knowledge of whats going to happen to develop her own unique way of interpreting it.



Totally disagree. Even in open positions /coreography the lady has to match the man movements and shapes.. to create the right look for a partnership and I do beleive that the ladies are the ones that need to adapt to their partners interpretation of the music, even if it wasn't their own natural style/preference.

[bluetango]

Hmmm. Totally disagree. They have an absolutely unique and identifiable movement. Especially her. Checkout out their Jive interpretation of "Fever" (the classic foxtrot, by Diana Krall). I think the MIT folk are bringing them to the Boston area in a couple of weeks. If they perform that number, you'll see what I mean.

I have seen the video. I believe its on the 2005 latin festival. They have certainly created a unique partnership, and a unique kind of movement _together_, however, I still don't see the magnitude of uniqueness in her own personal movement that I see in people like paul killick or bryan watson. I can point to other latin dancers see very clearly if they are emulating slavik, or paul, or one of those. However, I don't really think I can point to a latin girl and say, oh she is obviously trying to emulate joanna.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Michael and Joanna. In fact, perhaps what they have created is superior. They are such a matched partnership I think, and what they create together is amazing. Since ballroom dancing is a partner dance, is the goal really to stand out as an individual so much as some of the finalist males do?

[alemana]

youtube is apparently down at the moment. wah.

[yanka]

youtube is apparently down at the moment. wah.
back up.

[skwiggy]

Even in open positions /coreography the lady has to match the man movements and shapes.. to create the right look for a partnership and I do beleive that the ladies are the ones that need to adapt to their partners interpretation of the music, even if it wasn't their own natural style/preference.

Ditto. I'm with chica on this one. Part of being good at the followers part is adapting to follow the style, even when you know what steps are coming.

[alemana]

hm, the video was good but a little far away, but... didn't do much for me, i have to say.

[fenixx]

I would have to disagree to a certain extent with BlueTango's opinion that the women do not define a style like the men. Take, for example, Shirley Ballas. Say what you will about her dancing, but she has definitely defined a style of dance for women. If you are familiar with her teaching and her philosophy on dance you can see her influence from beginners to the very top. Now, lets take Carmen. I do not think you can say Brian Watson dances the same with Carmen as he did with Karen Hardy, nor can you say Allen Tornsberg danced the same with Carmen as he did with Vibeke or Serena. Vibeke and Paul Vibeke with Allen is also very different than Paul with Hanna, etc. These top women have a great influence on the partnership and help define the parameters in which the man can operate. These women also produce clones.

Take Serena. When she was dancing with Allen, every Italian girl in Blackpool was Serena look-a-like (which I was not complaining about). Before Paul brought Karina from no-name Brooklyn dancer to world finalist, there weren't any Karina clones; now you see them everywhere. I would say too many people focus on dominant ability of the top men and forget that they are there to support the dancing of these amazing women.

[fenixx]

But Joanna is generic.

[alemana]

what is the imprint of Karina-ism?

[Dancebug]

IMHO, Joanna's is too much acrobatics and not enough dancing.

Having said that, I need to add I have seen a lot of her dancings on the show cases, not in the competition settings. I don't deny a lot of what she does is amazing stuff, either.

[dancesportgirl21]

As far as unique latin females, I'd say Viktoria Franova has definitely got a special style. I was watching an old comp tape from when they hadn't been dancing together for too long and she appeared much more dominant than Klaus. It seems that after dancing together they have reached a great balance. If you look at Val and Valeriya w/previous partners as compared to now, I think he definitely adapted more to her as well, not vice versa. I think when these couples start dancing together (as fenixx provided great examples of) they influence each other to produce a new style and balance. Whether the male or female is more unique and influencial on the other definitely shows in the end result and generally changes their individual styles, or at least what we see of it when they perform/compete.

[bluetango]

I think this is a great discussion. Too often people make generic statements about certain dancers without backing it up with a more detailed and learned discussion of why it is.

fenixx: I would tend to agree with your statement, but probably about many dancers in the mid to late 90's, when the current form of latin really took its shape. Trailblazers like (obviously) Donnie, Bryan, Allan, Jukka, and Paul with their partners Gainor, Vibeke, Karen, Carmen, Serena, Sirpa, Karina, and Hanna and a few others such a Shirley Ballas really defined what the modern male and female latin dancers should dance like and look like on the floor.

However, around that "new norm" that they created, there are still those who go routinely above and beyond, those who ornament their dancing with extra bits and pieces that arguably only they can do they way they do. They go beyond what has been established (even by themselves) to do what no one can copy (but many can try). I find that in general, recently, the men have gone further 'above and beyond' than the women, thats not to say the women haven't, but its an observation that I continue making time and time again, and which is why I began this line of conversation. If you look at older video tapes from, say 10 years ago - what I notice is that the man's style has evolved significantly more than the women's style. When I watch the women on the tape, of course there is a difference from what I see today, but in a sense, I feel that women used to be way ahead of the men in terms of what they could do, embelishment, styling, hip action etc. The men look to me stiff, and there only to partner their women.

Today (with the help of those like Donnie, Bryan, Paul, etc...) the men have a ton more freedom of movement in their bodies that only the women used to enjoy. It has become ok for men to have the size of hip movement that women have (and even bigger in some cases!). But now, it seems like a reversal. Where before women were the picture, and men were much more the frame around them - today I often see the exact opposite. We have these phenomenal male dancers that can do everything the women can, and now routinely go above and beyond that - often becoming the focal point of the partnership (Bryan, Slavik, Paul...to name a few), and its suddenly up to their girls to adapt to their style, frame them, and rise to the challenge!

However, if the pattern I vaguely see is true to life, then in the next few years, we should see some phenomenal female dancers rising to the top and reinventing what women do on the floor, and creating new types of movement and new interpretations of the music - such that suddenly the men are trying to catch up again! I see this as a constant push-pull "battle of the sexes" of which sex is currently the one a little ahead, and the one innovating the dancing. I guess someone has always got to be a little ahead, which is what I see from the top men right now....but that can't last forever :-)

These are just my general observations from watching a lot of recordings from the past 10 years and trying to make sense of my own dancing and where I want to take it + what I want out of my partnership.