WAG Sia - Chandelier floor routine

[Hayleigh]

I liked the original video, and love how much artistry has been put into this routine. But the dance has been taken straight from the original routine into this one, which regardless of the routine irritates me. I've got ally raisman's floor music from 2012, but the routine is completely different. love the routine tho.

 

[Quadqueen]

Love it or hate it, we can all agree she's a beautiful and talented gymnast! I applaud anyone going out on a limb and trying something different. Out of curiosity, roughly what USAG level is this? I assume other countries have their own systems?

The tumbling equates to about a level 8 in the U.S.

 

[ErinEclectic]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the dancing, don't like the original dance either. But what I do like is how much flow there is from one element to another. The gymnast isn't standing in a corner for multiple counts staring down her upcoming pass, multiple times. I wish there was an emphasis on flow on floor and beam between all the elements.

 

[bogwoppit]

I am not a fan of the lyrical style of dance at all. Her tumbling is beautiful and the extension on her leaps is fabulous.

 

[bogwoppit]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the dancing, don't like the original dance either. But what I do like is how much flow there is from one element to another. The gymnast isn't standing in a corner for multiple counts staring down her upcoming pass, multiple times. I wish there was an emphasis on flow on floor and beam between all the elements.

Under FIG there is no standing in the corner any more. You will see this in all elite level routines and in gymnasts who are going in the direction.

 

[Jenny]

The tumbling equates to about a level 8 in the U.S.

The tumbling in this routine was required for the competition. It is not what would be in her voluntary routines.

 

[Quadqueen]

The tumbling in this routine was required for the competition. It is not what would be in her voluntary routines.

I understand that. I was just answering the question about what level we would see this tumbling here.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

The tumbling equates to about a level 8 in the U.S.

That's funny...I thought she was higher but my 7 year old said she was about an 8! What does Mommy know?! Lol

 

[GymSurvivor]

Personally, I loved the original video. I absolutely love Maddie and the original chandelier video.

I also don't have a problem with this music as floor music. However, I did not really like that her entire floor routine is the same moves as the video. Those moves have already been done. To that song. In that order. So why copy the whole thing. I feel like if she had a choreographer that could create a routine for her for this music it would've flowed better. Maybe use a move or two from the video, but really create her own routine.
I also think those moves were really supposed to portray the message Sia had in mind for the video. In a gymnastics competition these moves are a bit out of place in my mind.
Though her leaps and tumbling were gorgeous and I think she really is a great dancer, just needs her own dance moves and not someone else's.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

It's a complete rip off of the music video, her dance and tumbling was beautiful but the choreography wasn't original at all. Also, have you listened to the lyrics? It's not appropriate at all for a kid in the first place to have even done the music video, as cool as the video/choreography is.

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

The version is instrumental, as you would expect.

If we are frowning upon music which may have inappropriate connotation by inference, we will have problems across every level of the sport.

I mean no more little cuties skipping around to My Boy Lollipop and definitely no girls using classical pieces that may have been used in upsetting or scary films.

Have you watched The Omen lately? Oh, and didn't Catherine Lyons win the British Championship with a routine set to Kissing You? At aged 13?

I think people are missing the point, which is surely a young girl's floor routine?

 

[MILgymFAM]

The version is instrumental, as you would expect.

If we are frowning upon music which may have inappropriate connotation by inference, we will have problems across every level of the sport.

I mean no more little cuties skipping around to My Boy Lollipop and definitely no girls using classical pieces that may have been used in upsetting or scary films.

Have you watched The Omen lately? Oh, and didn't Catherine Lyons win the British Championship with a routine set to Kissing You? At aged 13?

I think people are missing the point, which is surely a young girl's floor routine?

I think the point is that she apparently lifted all the choreo wholesale from the video, which people felt was too adult for her to have viewed/studied. I haven't seen the video and have no idea how her routine came to be- maybe she herself has never even seen the video, or maybe it's not as inappropriate as it has been painted.. But- girls with original routines to instrumental cuts of music is a whole different thing entirely. Although, I have seen a couple routines and immediately thought the music was a poor choice for a child, and occasionally the dance moves too.

 

[happychaos]

The version is instrumental, as you would expect.

If we are frowning upon music which may have inappropriate connotation by inference, we will have problems across every level of the sport.

I mean no more little cuties skipping around to My Boy Lollipop and definitely no girls using classical pieces that may have been used in upsetting or scary films.

Have you watched The Omen lately? Oh, and didn't Catherine Lyons win the British Championship with a routine set to Kissing You? At aged 13?

I think people are missing the point, which is surely a young girl's floor routine?

The difference is, this is a current, well-known song, with a popular but somewhat controversial music video. The video suggests a naked young girl in a tenement, who is either an alcoholic, mentally ill, or both. The lyrics to the song are unquestionably inappropriate for the age that most gymnasts are. If this gymnast had just used the orchestral version of the song, and not COPIED the choreography from the video, I doubt we'd be discussing it.

I just don't see how the gymnastics floor is an appropriate place to imitate the involuntary and undesired movements that plague people with certain mental and physical diseases. Imagine how it would feel to watch this routine if you had an autistic child who engaged in repetitive movements. Or a grandparent with dementia.

It is in very poor taste to have a gymnast, who is the epitome of health and strength, mimic the involuntary motions of a physically or mentally ill individual to score artistry points at a gymnastics meet. It is things like this that further stigmatize people who suffer with these things every single day.

 

[Dr Maleficent]

I seriously doubt that Sia's intention was to mock people with mental or physical illness. Whilst I obviously have no idea what her thought process behind it was, I saw the video as a very powerful piece of dramatic art which raises awareness of some of the complex emotions around addiction.
The gymnastics routine was done to a piece of instrumental music and quite probably used the moves because they are interesting, challenging and thought provoking.
After all, look how much discussion it has raised on this thread alone. If that makes people stop for five minutes and spare a thought for mentally ill people whom they would otherwise never think about, that is a good thing. And I too have worked with mentally ill people, in a rehab unit in one of the most deprived areas of London and I didn't find it offensive and definitely not a mockery in any sense.

 

[happychaos]

I seriously doubt that Sia's intention was to mock people with mental or physical illness. Whilst I obviously have no idea what her thought process behind it was, I saw the video as a very powerful piece of dramatic art which raises awareness of some of the complex emotions around addiction.
The gymnastics routine was done to a piece of instrumental music and quite probably used the moves because they are interesting, challenging and thought provoking.
After all, look how much discussion it has raised on this thread alone. If that makes people stop for five minutes and spare a thought for mentally ill people whom they would otherwise never think about, that is a good thing. And I too have worked with mentally ill people, in a rehab unit in one of the most deprived areas of London and I didn't find it offensive and definitely not a mockery in any sense.

IMO, the "story-line" of a floor routine should not include addiction or mental illness, especially when the gymnast is not even old enough to understand what her movements are portraying. There are many places where it is appropriate for art to raise complex emotions or address an issue like addiction. I don't want my child's sport to become that avenue. For goodness sake, I don't want gymnastics to turn into Dance Moms.

There are many works of art that are dramatic and thought-provoking, but that doesn't mean they are valuable. Just because art causes people to think about mental illness or addiction doesn't mean that it is "good". Especially when the piece of art serves to reinforce stereotypes that most people would like to move away from.

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

My issues are: choreography lifted straight out of the music video for the song, ugly flexed feet (yes, from the video), a terrible ugly fall out of the full turn which has me wondering if it was part of the routine or just a mistake. I, too, hope this doesn't mean a trend is coming where floor routines begin looking like "Dance Moms" routines and/or are lifted straight from music videos verbatim. It IMO was just plain ugly. Yeah, her leaps were beautiful, great... The rest was not beautiful at all.

 

[profmom]

I just don't see a reasonable place to draw the line with that principle, Happychaos. One of DD's teammates does her routine with music and some choreography from Swan Lake. That one's pretty heavy too. And I agree with Gymmum -- I think you are misinterpreting the intent of the video. I cannot follow your argument that this floor routine stigmatizes the mentally ill.

Floor is always going to incorporate some element of taste, and tastes can legitimately differ. Some people love Lloimincia Hall, and some . . . don't (as we've discovered here). I suspect that when Simone Biles goes to UCLA, she's going to be able to cut loose and do some really interesting and potentially controversial stuff as well. My feeling is that in order for an artistic sport to progress, you have to have some people out there who are willing to push the envelope. The dance world is infinitely more interesting and diverse because Alvin Ailey entered it in the 1950s.

I also don't think that one floor routine makes a trend.

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

I agree with GMIF here. To respond, I will need to veer off topic but probably no further than we already are.

Artistic gymnastics, particularly floor routines, should be about technicality and expression, which I think we all agree this young girl has both of, in abundance. But art, in any form, is open to interpretation and can not appeal to everybody. Perhaps the main point of art is to stir reaction, of whatever kind. Again, f that is the case, the routine has succeeded. I suspect the audience reaction at the actual competition would have been equally as divided as those here.

Again with the individual video. I have watched it only once, as a result of this post, and I found it powerful and evocative. Not entirely comfortable but very moving. My interpretation, given that a child was specifically chosen to star, is that her being a child is fundamental and therefore entirely appropriate. To assume that children have no experience, understanding or way to express the effects of addiction/mental illness is to disregard the very real effects they can and do face. If the video depicts, as I feel it does, a child's expression of a frightening reality, then I have to say it does it very well. It's not happy, it's not easy, but it is certainly art.

To contradict that, I would also like to point out that modern life, and certainly modern music, does tend to address sides of life we would perhaps prefer our children to have no reference to. Not every child will interpret things the same way. Some kids might just like the tune and the dancing. For example, my own daughter has been repeatedly singing a pop song for the past few months. I have to say, the lyrics and the dancing she is copying have made me cringe a lot and I've even asked her not to repeat it. It wasn't until I overheard her tidying her room and singing it while she did it that I realised that she thought that 'all the right junk in all the right places' was actually a reference to recycling.

 

[profmom]

SGML, that is toooooo funny about your daughter!

 

[bogwoppit]

Wow, so much angst over a piece of music.