Compulsory dance

The compulsory dance (CD), now called the pattern dance, is a part of the figure skating segment of ice dance competitions in which all the competing couples perform the same standardized steps and holds to the music of a specified tempo and genre. One or more compulsory dances were usually skated as the first phase of ice dancing competitions. The 2009–10 season was the final season in which the segment was included in International Skating Union (ISU) junior and senior level competition. In June 2010, the ISU replaced the name "compulsory dance" with "pattern dance" for ice dance, and merged it into the short dance (SD) beginning in the 2010–11 figure skating season.

For the artistic roller skating segment, see Compulsory dance (artistic roller skating).

A man and a woman ice dancing; the man, on the left, is wearing black tie and tails; the woman is wearing an off-white dress with a fluffy skirt.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir performing the Golden Waltz

The first CDs were developed during the 1930s by teams from Great Britain, who dominated ice dance for most of the early years after the sport was contested at the 1952 World Championships. The prominence of the CD in ice dance slowly declined, until it was removed and replaced by the SD in 2011, the year that the ISU voted to restructure ice dance competitions by removing the compulsory dance and original dance (OD) and replacing them with the short dance and free dance (FD).

Ice dancers performed the same pattern around the rink once or twice, to the same step sequences and the same standardized tempo. The competitors were then scored based on their execution of the various elements of the dance. The CD allowed the judges to compare the technical skills of each dancer.

Background
A man and woman ice dancing; the man, on the left, is wearing a classic tuxedo with a white-ruffled shirt, and the woman is wearing a knee-length light blue dress with a ruffled pink hem
Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali performing the Golden Waltz at the 2010 World Championships

Ice dance was contested for the first time at the World Championships in 1952; for most of that period, the British dominated the sport, winning 12 out of the next 16 championships. Many of the first CDs were developed during the 1930s by teams from Great Britain, some of which have been used by ice dance teams throughout the history of the sport.[1] The CD's prominence in ice dance slowly declined; in 1952, CDs accounted for 60% of the total points dancers could earn, but when the original dance (OD) was added in 1967, it replaced the second CD.[2] In 1988, the same year compulsory figures was removed from women's and men's single figure skating, CDs were decreased from three to two.[3]

In 2010, after urging by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to decrease the number of segments from three to two "for some time",[4] the ISU voted to remove the CD from competitions, replacing it with the SD.[5][6] According to then-ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta, the change was also made because "the compulsory dances were not very attractive for spectators and television".[6] The SD had to incorporate a compulsory element in which each dance team must perform the same two patterns of a set pattern dance. Its rhythms and themes are determined beforehand by the ISU.[7][8] The ice dancers are judged on how well they integrate the pattern dance into the entire SD.[9]

The 2010 World Championships was the last event to include a CD (the Golden Waltz), with Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali from Italy being the last dance team to perform a CD in competition.[4]

Dances
A man and woman ice dancing; the woman, on the left, has red hair pulled back tightly and is wearing a dark pink and white peasant dress, and the man is wearing a black and white shirt with a dark pink lapels and black trousers
Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski on a backward outside edge as they perform the Yankee Polka
A man and woman ice dancing; the woman, on the left, has dark hair pulled back tightly with a rose tie and wearing a short black dress, and the man is wearing an open-collar black shirt and black trousers
Meryl Davis and Charlie White performing the Argentine Tango
A man and woman ice dancing; the woman, on the left, is wearing a white and silver knee-length dress, and the man is wearing a classic tuxedo with a white shirt and bow-tie
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte performing the Finnstep

The dances that have been performed in junior and senior international competition include the following, which is not a comprehensive list:[note 1]

Name First performed Creators
Fourteenstep1889Franz Schöller
European Waltzbefore 1900
American Waltz
Kilian1909Karl Schreiter
Tango1932Paul Krechkow, Trudy Harris
Foxtrot1933
European Waltzbefore 1900Eric van der Weyden, Eva Keats
Argentine Tango1934Reginald J. Wilkie, Daphne B. Wallis
Blues1934Robert Dench, Lesley Turner
Rocker Foxtrot1934Eric van der Weyden, Eva Keats
Viennese Waltz1934Eric van der Weyden, Eva Keats
Paso Doble1938Reginald B. Wilkie, Daphne B. Wallis
Quickstep1938Reginald J. Wilkie, Daphne B. Wallis
Rhumba1938Walter Gregory
Westminster Waltz1938Eric van der Weyden, Eva Keats
Silver Samba1963Courtney J. L. Jones, Peri V. Horne
Starlight Waltz1963Courtney J. L. Jones, Peri V. Horne
Yankee Polka1969James Sladky, Judy Schwomeyer, Ronald Ludington
Ravensburger Waltz1973Angelika Buck, Erich Buck, Betty Callaway
Tango Romantica1974Lyudmila Pakhomova / Aleksandr Gorshkov, Elena Tchaikovskaia
Austrian Waltz1979Susi Handschmann, Peter Handschmann
Golden Waltz1987Natalia Dubova, Marina Klimova, Sergei Ponomarenko
Cha Cha Congelado1989Bernard Ford, Kelly Johnson, Laurie Palmer, Steven Belanger
Finnstep1995Susanna Rahkamo, Petri Kokko, Martin Skotnicky
Midnight Blues2001Roy Bradshaw, Sue Bradshaw, Mark Bradshaw, Julie MacDonald

Footnotes
  1. List taken from ice-dance.com[10] and U.S. Figure Skating.[11]

References
  1. Elton, Cheryl. "A Brief History of Ice Dancing" (PDF). Ice Dancers.com. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  2. Hines, p. 12
  3. "No More Figures In Figure Skating". The New York Times. Associated Press. 9 June 1988. p. D00025. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  4. "ISU Congress News". ice-dance.com. 20 June 2010. Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  5. Hines, p. 91
  6. Kany, Klaus-Reinhold (9 July 2011). "The Short Dance Debate". International Figure Skating Magazine. No. August 2011. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  7. "Partnered Ice Dancing Events". Ice Skating Information & Resources. San Diego Figure Skating Communications. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  8. Zuckerman, Esther (14 February 2014). "A Quick GIF Guide to Ice Dance". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  9. "Dance Format 2011" (PDF). Havířov, Czech Republic: Kraso Club of Havířov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  10. "Pattern Dance Descriptions & Charts". ice-dance.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  11. "Pattern Dance Scale of Values with Sequences/Sections for Pattern Dances Judged Using IJS with NO Key Points" (PDF). usfsa.org. March 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2019.

Works cited
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