How much art is there in artistic gymnastics today?
The Olympic Games in Paris ended a few days ago. I was fascinated by almost every sport. Certain disciplines always stand out. Be it through their extreme, almost inhuman performances, through their unmistakable specific challenges or through personalities who lend this sport special glamour and glory.
In artistic gymnastics, for example, there have always been individual personalities who have left their mark on this sport throughout the ages, who have invented new elements through their unmistakable way of moving on the apparatus, which have been named after them and have thus demonstrated their special status not only for the moment, but also for decades to come.
Of course, it is admirable when elements are performed on the individual pieces of apparatus that are astonishing in their high risk, enormous complexity of twists, somersaults, grip changes, flights and balancing acts.
Of course, everything is evolving and becoming more spectacular. Training methods are breaking new ground and aesthetics are constantly changing.
And yet something is missing.
Originally started as ‘artistic gymnastics’, the sport has become higher, further and more dangerous. The art of gymnastics has become a circus. Expression, elegance and lightness are mentioned by many commentators, but for me they are hardly portrayed at all. The connections between the individual highlights degenerate into pause-fillers and almost annoying shish kebab.
Women's floor gymnastics has always been accompanied by music. In the 1980s, the music was combined with a mixture of choreography, acrobatics and sporting elements.
Nowadays, the music is merely an accompaniment that is rarely actually used, but rather conveys a mood than is interpreted. The three to four rows of jumps are the highlight. Everything else: nice accessories, rarely performed with expression and it is almost impossible to stand securely on the almost trampoline-like gymnastics surface, so people just carry on jumping.
The situation is similar in figure skating, for example, especially in the men's and women's individual competitions.
A lot has changed here in dance too, and in some performances I have more eyes for what the dancers dare to do physically, how they explore boundaries, what acrobatics and daring they throw into the ring, than for the fashionable intensity of emotions, choreographic compositions, dramaturgy or personal interpretations, which are not conveyed here, not really transported.
I lose my fascination for the story, for the original.
If I want to experience people with borderline experiences, I can also do that to some extent in the circus, in variety theatre or at Red Bull events.
The most powerful moments in sport are when emotions come into play, when the human element becomes visible and tangible.
A little more art, permeability, sensuality and less risk, daring and spectacle.
Move on and enjoy.
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