Entries Tagged 'Gymnaestrada' ↓

National Evenings are designed to give participating FIG member federations an opportunity to present a range of Gymnastics for All activities, featuring a blend of folkloric and culturally specific characteristics.

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Of the 5 National Shows I’ve seen so far at the World Gymnaestrada, Portugal was easily the best. Congratulations.

Though Portugal has a population of less than 11 million, they are a Gymnaestrada super power having hosted the largest ever in 2003. They have the 3rd largest delegation in Lausanne.

The theme was Fado, originally the folk music of the Lisbon urban poor. The soundtrack was fantastic.

Even better was the accompanying video / photo slide show. It competed with the athletes at times. At other times it complimented perfectly, the comedy ladder act, for example.

The one clown act in this show was the best I’ve seen in many years. And Portugal includes more Acrobatic Gymnastics than any other nation, always entertaining.

It was conspicuously faster paced than most other performances. Smart.

Leave a comment if you know the name of the choreographer. I’d like to extend my congratulations personally.

Two reviews of the show:

° Portuguese pumped up by the sounds of fado
° Proud to be Portuguese

Great pic. I`m not sure what show this is from, however.
_____

Canada made me proud, opening the PAGU (Pan American nations) show. Nobody in the audience will forget the choreographed Mounties. Happily, the Dreamcatcher prop lost in transit to Switzerland was found in time. In fact, they had manufactured a second, just in case.

Chile was the other outstanding PAGU nation, closing the show.

Germany I missed, but they got a rave review, as well.

Over the coming weeks I will post specific show highlights over on RecGymnastics.com.

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From the excellent Gymnaestrada Media Centre:

The World Gymnaestrada has begun! …

Today, Beaulieu Lausanne hosted 188 performances, each one more astonishing than the last, representing 46 of the 55 participating delegations.

The Swiss Evenings took place at the Sports Center of Malley, each one attended by 5000 spectators. From the start, these evenings generated lively interest. The entrance tickets, which were available from the 18th of March, were in fact sold out in the first two hours. During these evenings, 20 groups from all over Switzerland, with a total of nearly 900 athletes of all ages, presented performances which they had been practicing for two years. …

Aside from Opening/Closing Ceremonies and the FIG Gala, the biggest draws of the week are Les Soirees Nationales, the National Nights, 14 shows in all.

The opening number at the host night was an impressive 12 sets simultaneous swinging rings. (Love front uprise and inlocate on the forward swing.)

Both Men and Women showed a lot of difficulty on this near forgotten apparatus, mats only on the dismount side! (Actually, the gymnastics was VERY safe, over all.)

Swiss engineering and efficiency was evident in the disassembly and removal of the massive structures.

My favourite act was dancer / acrobats inside Swiss pup tents. Hilarious. (I will post video later.)

The crowd loved a bizarre bit, older dancers dressed as Cheese, especially when giant fondue forks arrived.

We saw swinging rope ladders, 6 synchro tramps, hand supported P Bars, silks, scooters, inline skaters, … and much, much more. A dance troupe called “Objectif Gymnastique” impressed by integrating physically and mentally challenged performers.

Gymnaestrada is all good. There’s no downside. Win – win – win. No losers.

I will be posting more on RecGymnastics.com.

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An unusual edit, the forest Parkour does not start until 5min in.

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Meet the Magic is the theme of Gymnaestrada 2011.

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Participants, organisers and spectators at the 14th World Gymnaestrada were all anxiously observing the skies on Sunday afternoon. With a thunderstorm and heavy rain hanging over Lausanne during the day, the risk of a soaking during the Opening Ceremony scheduled for 4pm was very high!

However, it seems the Organising Committee had a direct line to the weather Gods as, just one hour before the big show, the sun came out and blue skies opened up over La Pontaise Olympic Stadium. …

… the 55 international delegations marched in one after the other, waving their national flags, clapping and entertaining the crowd with scattered gymnastic and acrobatic performances on their way around the stadium. …

read more on FIG – Heavens smile on opening extravaganza

It’s a blast marching in as I recall from 1975 and 1982. Watching 19,000 people march-in is not nearly so entertaining. After France I went wandering around the stadium, catching a nap in the sun at one point.

The background music didn’t help, the most current musical selection being Y.M.C.A. (1978). All in all, not much has changed since march-in 1975.

Best dressed, I thought, were Qatar in traditional desert costume. Those nations each person carrying a flag were impressive: Germany and Austria, for two.

The Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel stole the show, as they did last year at the Edinburgh Tattoo. The only performance to get a standing ovation. The Swiss Airforce buzzing the audience was a thrilling finale, too.

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This is my 3rd Gymnastrada, and I couldn’t be happier to be back once again. It has all of the FUN and EXCITEMENT of a major “competition”, but none of the downsides. There are NO competitive events at all. NO judges.

From 10 to 16 July, Lausanne will be hosting the world’s biggest gymnastics event!

About 20,000 participants, of all ages, from all parts of the world and members of 55 national federations will meet to share their passion. …

homepage – wg-2011.com

Meet the mascots - Jim and Cathy

Dominating the city’s skyline, Notre-Dame Cathedral is one of the main landmarks of Lausanne.

… “Jim” (standing for gymnastics) & “Cathy” (standing for the cathedral) in honour of the event.

Opening Ceremonies kick things off tonight.

LIKE World Gymnaestrada Lausanne 2011 (WG-2011) on Facebook.

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I volunteered last week at Renmore, an up-and-coming club. They’ve doubled (or tripled) their membership since moving into a full time facility about 18 months ago.

I tried to work with as many kids as possible,( … though I wasn’t much help with the Rhythmic girls). Renmore offers Tumbling, Rhythmic, WAG and MAG Artistic. And a bit of Acro.

Here’s a brief glimpse of what happened that week, culminating in the Year End Show.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That was one of the club’s first late Blind changes without spot.

GymFest was scheduled during the last few days of the school year, helping motivate kids to keep coming to gym.

See a longer highlights video edit of the year end GymFest on RecGymnastics.com.

Thanks sincerely to Head Coach Sally Batley, the multi-National coaching staff and parents representative Rob Fuller for inviting me.

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In a nation infamous for boring, slow gymnastics competitions, we now have two in the same region – Alberta, Canada – garnering high praise.

If these two meets were hosted back-to-back weekends, it would be a nice trip to do both, training between the meets. (And possibly sneaking off to Banff for some Spring skiing, too.)

In fact, these two competitions were originally scheduled back-to-back weekends, but a venue problem forced the Edmonton meet to change dates.

Wild Rose has a horrible website, but most everything else is first class. It offers only Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

The best write-up on Wild Rose was posted by Couch Gymnast. The highlight past 2 years has been the chance to compete against CHINA.

Sabrina Gill and the Chinese gymnasts

The Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival is a totally different concept. Kyle started modestly this year with only about 500 participants, but plans to grow this event HUGE, adding more acrobatic sports. Kyle wants as many kids as possible to enjoy the fun and excitement of a major event.

The best write up on Shewfelt was posted by Amanda Turner on International Gymnast.

Competition dates are not confirmed, as yet, for these two meets in 2012. But consider one or both for your competition calendar.

The rest of the competitions in Canada, aside from Gymnix, need step up to compete with the innovation and attention to detail offered in Alberta.

Ask your kids what meet they liked best this season?

Photo courtesy of www.daveholland.ca

If you attended either meet, leave a comment. Especially if you have suggestions for improvement.

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… I’m going to add this to the ABOUT page on this site. This is what gymnastics sports are all ABOUT.

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Thanks for the link, Brett.

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14th World Gymnaestrada
Lausanne (SUI), July 10 – 16, 2011

… some 20,000 gymnasts from 52 nations, registered for the 14th edition of the World Gymnaestrada. For the first time since 1969, delegations from Algeria, Malta, Mongolia and Uruguay are among the participants. In terms of statistics, female gymnasts make up 78% of the participants with strong representation of 11 to 30 year olds. Switzerland itself, with 3,300 participants, followed by Germany (1,800) and Finland (1,400), represent the largest delegations, while Mongolia (10), Guatemala (10) and Serbia (13) count among the smallest. …

FIG

(via Rec Gymnastics)

… the world’s largest gymnastic sporting event …

Larger than the North Korean mass games, like the Arirang Festival?

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Full Twist linked to Eileen’s photography site – Where Sport Meets Art – and blog.

Out of the U.K., she’s one of the world’s best gymnastics photographers, as is obvious after seeing her photos.

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The registration package was just posted. Entries are being accepted starting Nov. 29th.

Kyle’s been staying up all night working on it.

photo – Phil Crozier

Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival, hosted at the University of Calgary, the weekend of March 25-27th, 2011.

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