Olympic gymnastics would be more enjoyable on TV and in the arena if choreography were less of an afterthought, our critic writes.
Women’s artistic gymnastics may be one of the few Olympic events to feature music and choreography, but it doesn’t mean the sport takes it truly seriously. In 2016, in the middle of the Rio Games, the specialist publication Dance Magazine declared that today’s floor routines “insult dance.”
Gymnastics, this line of thinking goes, has distanced itself from its artistic roots by emphasizing acrobatic difficulty, with choreography now just generic filler between the real fireworks.
As a dance critic and gymnastics aficionado, I hoped to feel differently last week as I headed to Bercy Arena, the Olympic stage for the sport in Paris. After all, gymnastics officials have made attempts since 2016 to reprioritize artistry in the sport’s official rule book, with “poor expressive engagement” and “insufficient complexity or creativity of movements” among the deductions judges can now take on floor.
To an extent, it has helped: Some gymnasts, and national teams, are taking advantage and putting clear thought into the overall impact of their floor exercises. Yet at Bercy Arena, dance still felt like an afterthought — and the overall competition format is preventing further progress.
While TV viewers are typically shown one routine at a time, live gymnastics competitions are chaotic. Different athletes go on several apparatuses at once; in a women’s team final like the one the U.S. won last Tuesday, the live spectator’s eye must constantly darts between key competitors. Eager to watch the effervescent Brazilian team on floor? Good luck following a full routine when Simone Biles or the Chinese star Qiu Qiyuan are on beam.
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