controversial figure skating dance

[shootingstar]

Latest articles. lst article they interview a dance leader of a contemporary indigneous group in Australis. Last link gives videoclip.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2...891/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2...891/story.html

While they may be technically great in terms of manoeuvre execution, I was trying to figure out their dance story. The routine just didn't elicit excitement in me. Personally I felt emotionally dead / empty. Maybe I was influenced by the news story.

A great figure skating dance routine should generate inspiration and emotional excitement/wonder.

I've never seen an aborigine Australian dance. But after yesterday afternoon's dances that I saw from each of the 4 different First Nations traditional dance groups, this is a complete contrast to what I feel. Yesterday it was inspiring, one shared with the groups and spectators there --celebration, reverence and grace.

I also went around looking at the museum's exhibits before seeing the dance numbers. It was a good thing I did for my own understanding. I've seen similar twice in the past 8 years since it's a beautiful museum with stunning views overlooking to the mountains and water. But this time, with the museum's retrofit the masks, head-dress artifacts, were displayed with better arrangements and new display cases. There's all sorts of complex legends and beliefs conveyed through the designs...one would need to read several books. But probably simple obvious ones: ie. raven is trickster (in Chinese mythology the monkey is the trickster, little that I know there), bear, etc.

In my last job, which was part of a large engineering construction project, our organization did work with local First Nations group (Katzie Nation) that occupied the land where we were building the highway approaches to a brand-new bridge. To capture the spirit of the local area, the bridge was designed with several First Nations and natural things emblematic of the area. There are golden eagle sculptures attached high above near the bridge cabling, the bridge fencing (which was also built to be anti-suicide) emulates fish traps that were used by the Katzie with fish-shaped designs along the fence rail along the whole 1 km. bridge and there are permanent posters. It was an really interesting engineering project on several different fronts...one of them because it involved working with the First nations group and there was also a tandem archaeological dig to recover as much as possible before the area was covered over by concrete....they did find some stuff several hundreds years old which will take several years of cleanup, cataloguing and historical analysis.

The organization's handyman was also a Katzie elder (or near elder, in his late 50's or older) who would do his cultural blessings at various functions, outreach work with local schools on their history and culture. That's when he told me of "ancient fish" in the river that our bridge was going over....which was the endangered sturgeon. (This plus the disappearing salmon that did swim annually from the Pacific.)