The International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a press release on 2 September 2011 announced that six cities have been put forward by their respective National Olympic Committees to apply to host the XXXII Olympiad in 2020. The cities in alphabetical order are: Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar), Istanbul (Turkey), Madrid (Spain), Rome (Italy) and Tokyo (Japan). The Host City of the 2020 Olympic Games will be chosen at the 125th IOC session to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7 September 2013.
In early July 2011, the IOC had also agreed on a shortlist of sports that will be considered for inclusion in the sports programme of the 2020 Olympiad. The sports are: baseball, karate, roller sports, softball, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu; one of which could be added to the 2020 sports programme to be voted on by the 125th IOC session. It would be great if squash is included in the Olympic Games, as Malaysia is strong in this sport and our chances of winning medals in this event is good.
Hopes for dancesport to be considered for inclusion in the Olympic Games have once again been dashed. In spite of the popularity of dancesport in nations like China, Japan, USA, Russia and the European Union; not much headway has been made. When will dancesport ever make it's way to the Olympics, if ever? The world dancing fraternity must put aside all politicking and work hard for dancesport to be made an Olympic event. Dancesport is now a medals event in the Asian Games and Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The 21st Winter Olympic Games 2010 which was held in Vancouver, Canada beginning February 12, came to an official close on February 28. This Olympiad saw the participation of some 2600 athletes from 82 nations competing in 86 winter sports in 15 disciplines. Canada topped the medal tally with 14 golds, 7 silvers and 5 bronzes followed by Germany with 10 golds, 13 silvers & 7 bronzes and the United States of America with 9 golds, 15 silvers & 13 bronzes for the overall top 3 placings. It is the first time Canada have topped the medal standings at a Winter or Summer Olympic Games.
One of the most popular attractions at the Vancouver Olympics was figure skating, a sport known for its grace, elegance and athleticism - attributes quite similar to those of dancesport. In this event, China won first placing with 1 gold and 1 silver. The United States which also collected a gold and a silver was placed second whilst Canada came in third with 1 gold and 1 bronze. South Korea bagged the remaining gold to take fourth placing. The other medal winners were the Russian Federation and Japan with 1 silver and 1 bronze each, and Germany with a solitary bronze.
There are 4 disciplines in figure skating as explained in vancouver2010.com, the official website of the Games. They are singles (men and ladies), pairs and ice dance. In singles skating, skaters must complete both a short programme of required steps, jumps, spins and combinations and a longer free skating programme, both set to music. The pairs event follows the same format as the singles. In this event one male and one female skater work in unison incorporating lifts, throws and synchronized jumps, spins and spirals linked harmoniously by steps and other movements.
Ice dance is performed by a couple and is based on their rhythm, interpretation of music and precise steps. Unlike pairs skating, ice dance does not include overhead lifts and jumps. Ice dance is similar to ballroom dancing, as the skaters remain in contact throughout most of the programme. An ice dance competition is made up of three parts: one compulsory dance, an original dance and a free dance. Compulsory dance is the skating of prescribed patterns to music incorporating pre-determined rhythm and tempo. Original dance and free dance are created by each couple to music of their own choice.
Michael Phelps of the USA created Olympic history by becoming the first athlete in the world to win 8 gold medals in one Games. He has altogether amassed a total of 16 Olympic medals, 14 of them gold. Phelps is clearly ahead of 4 other Olympians who have won 9 gold medals each. One of them is fellow countryman swimmer, Mark Spitz who won 7 golds in 1972 to add to 2 from 1968. Another is American sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis, who collected his medals at four Games between 1988 and 1996.
The two other nine-gold medalists are Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, nicknamed the "Flying Finn" who accumulated his medals between 1920 and 1928 and ballerina turned gymnast Larysa Latynina from the former Soviet Union who garnered her medals between 1956 and 1964. If Michael Phelps is considered as the greatest Olympian ever, who then are the greatest dancers? If you use the objective measurement of Olympic achievement which is gold medals or if you go by championship titles, then Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather of Scotland should clearly be acknowledged as the best dancers in the world.
Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather have won the Professional Latin World Championships an incredible 14 times from 1984 to 1996 and in 1998. Their closest rivals are Bryan Watson and Carmen Vincelj of Germany who were nine-times Professional Latin World Champions from 1999 to 2007 and who have since retired from competitive dancing. For the ballroom championship title, Marcus and Karen Hilton of England were nine-times Professional Standard World Champions from 1990 to 1998. Richard and Janet Gleave, also of England won the title 8 times from 1973 to 1980.
Will the record set by Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather ever be broken? I don't see that happening in the near future as Bryan Watson and Carmen Vincelj have already hung up their competition dancing shoes. Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti of Italy are the Professional Standard World Champions since 2005 and it would take them one decade to equal the record set by Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather. Only time will tell.
For the Beijing Olympic Games march past, many of the athletes were dressed in their national costumes and the contingents from each country were led by a flag bearer. The team from Denmark added some fun and colour to the Games by wearing costumes of the host country. The ladies appeared in light blue cheongsams and white pants and held Chinese folding fans painted with the Danish flag while the men donned dark blue Chinese jackets. It certainly was a good public relations exercise and the Danes drew cheers from the appreciative crowd.
The flags of all the countries of the world are rectangular in shape with the notable exception of the flag of Nepal which is in the shape of a swallow tail or what is known as a pennon.With the break up of the Soviet Union and the balkanisation of Yugoslavia, many new countries have arisen from the shifting and redrawing of borders. If a "young" country had a name ending with the word "tan" like Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, you could quite safely guess that the country laid somewhere in Central Asia and which was once a Soviet republic. Montenegro which was formerly a part of Yugoslavia is competing in the Olympic Games for the first time and is the newest fully recognised nation in the world.
Many countries had similar sounding names which can be bewildering. Did you know that there are 4 countries with the name Guinea? They are Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea. The first 3 are in Africa while Papua New Guinea lies on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea in Oceania. In the Caribbean, there is the Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Then there is Dominica which is not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. The South Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa are two different sovereign states and not to be mixed up.
The names of some of these countries may be confusing at times. Similarly, it is with certain dance terminology. In my posting (Article 1) titled "What Is Natural And What Is Reverse" dated May 30, I explained that the word natural means right and reverse means left (and not backwards). In another posting (Article 2) titled "Is The Double Reverse Spin Really A Double Reverse Spin?" published on June 2, I expounded that the dance figure known as the double reverse spin is a misnomer because there is no double spin, neither is it danced twice. The word swing dance may also cause confusion depending on whether you are referring to American swing dance or International (ballroom) swing dance. More about swing dances in future posts.
It was indeed a spectacular opening ceremony at the 29th Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing on 08.08.08. A record 204 countries are taking part in this Games and they will be competing in 28 sports over 302 events. Unfortunately dancesport has yet to feature as an Olympic medal event. One of the highlights at every Olympic Games opening ceremony is of course the march past by the athletes from the participating countries. As in previous Olympic Games, Greece had the honour of leading the march and China being the host country was the last to march in.
However in breaking with the tradition of having the countries march past in alphabetical order,the other 202 countries marched past in the order according to the number of strokes their names were written in simplified Chinese characters. Those with the least number of strokes in their first character got to march in first followed by the others with more strokes. The first country to march in after Greece was Guinea. The Chinese name for Guinea is Ji Ni. The word Ji in Chinese has two strokes and that is why Guinea and 4 other countries which had 2 strokes in their first character got to march in earlier.
If several countries had the same number of strokes in the first character, the second character would be compared and if they again had the same number of strokes the third character would be compared, and so on. Marching in at numbers 8, 9 & 10 were the athletes from the countries of Malta, Madagascar and Malaysia respectively. For easy explanation, I will break down the number of strokes it takes to write the characters of these countries in Chinese: Malta or Ma Er Ta (3,6,5); Madagascar or Ma Da Jia Si Jia (3,6,5,12,5)and Malaysia or Ma Lai Xi Ya (3,7,6,6). So now you should be able to understand how the system works. There you have it. The Chinese conundrum has been decoded and demystified!
The United States of America or Mei Guo, meaning Beautiful Country in Chinese marched in at number 140. There are 9 stokes in the character Mei. The last 2 countries to march in before China was Australia ( Ao De Li Ya) with 15 strokes and Zambia (Zan Bi Ya) with 16 strokes. China or Zhong Guo incidentally had 4 strokes. Many agreed that it was a novel idea to have the countries march past in this order.In Part 2 to be publishedon August 20, I will mention interesting trivia of some of the participating countries.
China couldn't have chosen a more auspicious date of 08.08.08 and a more propitious time of 08:08:08 pm for the Olympic Games opening ceremony. There certainly was plenty of pomp, pageantry and pyrotechnics at the opening ceremony of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. Held at the iconic National Stadium, more affectionately known as the Bird's Nest, the spectators numbering more than 90,000 included royalty and dignitaries such as the King & Queen of Malaysia, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, President George Bush of the United States of America and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia. A cultural tableau highlighting 5,000 years of Chinese history was presented to the spectators and to the estimated 4 billion television viewers worldwide before the start of the march past by athletes from the 204 participating countries
Greece led the march past but in breaking away from the tradition of having the countries march in alphabetical order, the countries marched in the order in which their names were written in simplified Chinese characters according to the number of strokes. This meant that the countries with the least number of strokes in their first syllable got to march first followed by those with more strokes, in ascending order. In keeping with the Olympic Games tradition, the host country; China, fielding the largest contingent of 639 athletes were the last team to march in and were greeted with thunderous applause from the crowd. The flag bearer for China was Yao Ming, China's most famous sportsman and Houston Rockets, USA basketball player.
The lighting of the Olympic flame at the cauldron was the climax to a spectacular show. The last person to receive the Olympic torch in the stadium was Li Ning, a former gymnast and 3-gold medal winner at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA in 1984. Hoisted by steel wires to the roof of the stadium, Li Ning "ran" round the periphery of the stadium with visuals of the Olympic torch run around the world projected onto the wall of the stadium and giving the illusion that he was running around the world. At times Li Ning looked like Spiderman traversing the wall and at times he looked like Superman flying through the air! Li Ning stopped before the cauldron which was built in the shape of a giant torch before lighting the flame which had the crowd roaring with approval.
Over the next 16 days till August 24, the 10,500 athletes will compete in 302 events covering 28 sports. I am really surprised that they have included baseball and softball as medal events in this Olympics as they are not popular sports worldwide. These games are popular only in a handful of countries particularly the USA and certain countries in South & Central America and the Caribbean. In Asia they are played mainly in Japan and Taiwan and are hardly ever played in China. Among batting games, cricket is actually more popular and has a huge following in the Indian Subcontinent and Australia. Thankfully, baseball and softball will not feature in the next Olympics in London in 2012.
The world dancing fraternity must now really push hard for dancesport to be included as an Olympic medal event. Dancesport is of course very popular in the Americas. In Europe it is well liked all the way from Great Britain to Russia. In Africa dancesport is favoured in the countries in the south. Nine-times world professional latin champion and seven-times Blackpool professional latin champion Bryan Watson was born in South Africa. Besides water sports, the Australians also love dancing. In Asia, dancesport is popular especially in China and Japan. The Chinese are really crazy about dancing and you can see them doing ballroom dancing in the parks and in the open. My wish list is for the Olympic Games to proceed smoothly, for China to top the medals tally and for dancesport to be included as a medal event in the Olympics soon.
Welcome to Dancesport Malaysia, the website for Ballroom, Latin American, Social Dancing and other related topics like entertaintment, arts, music, lifestyle, health & fitness, etc.
Dance Aficionado, who is an Associate of the ISTD is passionate about dancing, writing, blogging and living life to the fullest. My email address is dancesport.my@gmail.com
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