# data[].attributes.body
ACROBATIC TECHNIQUE HAS BECOME FUNDAMENTAL.

CLEAR EVIDENCE OF GROWING EXPECTATION TO BE A CERTAIN  STANDARD IN ACROBATIC DANCE REGARDLESS OF BEING A MAN OR WOMEN.

FRAGMENTED THE GENDER NORMS AND VALUES IN SOCIETY.

THIS HAS RESULTED IN A CRISIS IN MASCULITY AND CONFLICT ON A MACRO SCALE.

# data[].attributes.headline
TRYING TO DIVERT A FEMININE OUTLOOK.                 TO MAINTAIN MALE ACROBATICS AS A SEPARATE PROFESSION

# data[].attributes.subject
TRYING TO DIVERT A FEMININE OUTLOOK.                 TO MAINTAIN MALE ACROBATICS AS A SEPARATE PROFESSION

# data[].attributes.body
'It caused schools to cut a lot of men’s programs. Gymnastics was an easy target - lots of expensive equipment, not a lot of revenue.' (Shen, 2012)

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/D85B2KP

# data[].attributes.body
RESEARCH TECHNIQUE: THE METHODOLOGY

# data[].attributes.body
"I feel a lot of pressure from both the peers and the teacher to be really flexible and already of a good standard." - Emily Smith (A 18 year old dance student)

TEACHER LABELLING

"I didn't think my poor level of flexibility would have such an impact on me because i'm a boy." - Ryan Thornton (A 20 year old dance student)

# data[].attributes.headline
HIGH CULTURE RESPONSES- A CRISIS IN MASCULINTIY/ THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

# data[].attributes.subject
HIGH CULTURE RESPONSES- A CRISIS IN MASCULINTIY/ THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
uring the first day of apparatus finals in the gymnastics competition, Alex Naddour won the bronze medal on the pommel horse. It was the first medal for the US men's gymnasts at the 2016 Olympics. They'll have a couple more opportunities on Tuesday to pick up additional medals in Rio but regardless of the final total, their performance has already been deemed a disappointment in some corners of the media.

Last week in USA Today, Nancy Armour described the US men as "mediocre" after their respectable fifth-place finish in the team competition, and suggested that they look to their female counterparts for ideas on to how to improve. Her suggestions included holding the men accountable "to the exacting standards" that national team coordinator Martha Karolyi demands of the women, and "regular, high-stake mock competitions so gymnasts can handle the pressure when it counts."

This is not the first time Armour had scolded the men for not being up to the standard of the women. She did it last year before the 2015 world championships when she said it was a mistake for the men's team to be chosen so early, and suggested that they take a page out of the women's book and wait until the last possible minute.

The mistake that Armour and many others have made is assuming that men's and women's gymnastics are directly comparable, when they're barely the same sport. The men compete in six events, the women in four. There is only direct overlap on two apparatuses - the vault and the floor exercise - though in the latter, the women have dance requirements in addition to the tumbling. The uneven bars is similar to the high bar though not exactly the same, and the women don't perform on any apparatuses like the pommel horse or rings.

The extra events and the additional physical requirements mean that it's much harder to draft a men's team of just five to cover six events in a team final. The women get the same number of team members to cover four events. Bringing a gymnast like Madison Kocian, who the US women only used on the uneven bars, would be next to impossible for a men's team to do while effectively covering all six events in a team final. (The British men, however, did do so with star Louis Smith, who can only contribute on pommel horse, so it can work.) The women's selection committee has a much less complicated job than the men's when it comes to putting together a team of five that can contribute high scores across all the events.

Armour also tried to brush off the fact that the US men and women compete in very different international fields, but that's a big part of why the results between the two programs differ. At the moment, the competition on the women's side is fairly weak. The Americans are phenomenal but they don't have have a real rival the way that the Soviets had in the Romanian and East German teams during the Cold War era. These countries, especially Romania, challenged the gymnastics superpower on a regular basis and occasionally bested them. And even when Romania didn't beat the Soviets, they were breathing down their necks, so close that the USSR knew they couldn't make a mistake and claim the top spot.

This year, Romania couldn't even qualify for the Olympics. Russia, the silver medalists, have struggled with injury. And though the Chinese won the team title in 2008, they have failed to return to the form that won them gold. In Rio, the US women won by eight points, which means they could have recorded multiple falls and still ended on top of the podium. That tells you a lot about how good they are ... but also about the relative weakness of their competition.

By contrast, men's gymnastics is great if you're the kind of sports fans who likes to watch tightly-fought encounters. At present, the men's field has never been stronger. The final in Rio saw legitimate challengers to the supremacy of Japan and China. Japan emerged on top but China, the leader after team qualifications, were edged by Russia for the silver. It was the first team medal for the Russian men in 16 years. Right behind China were Great Britain, the 2015 world championship silver medalists. And in fifth were the US, who won the team bronze in 2014 at the world championships. To be in the mix with some of the strongest teams on the planet in one of the most competitive men's team finals in history doesn't exactly make you "mediocre" as Armour ungenerously put it.

But this isn't about being generous or kind to the US men. It's about assessing their performance accurately in the context of their sport, which is not the same as women's gymnastics. Amanda Turner, writing a response to Armour in International Gymnast, pointed out the ludicrousness of this comparison. "Comparing these two teams' results would be like saying, 'The US women's soccer team wins every Olympics and World Cup, so it's time for the men to stop accepting mediocrity and winning the World Cup too! They must not train as hard as the women or they are clearly not as mentally tough when they allow goals."

Anyone who regularly follows soccer would know that such a comparison is ridiculous. Yet this is exactly what people do when they make these sort of blanket statements about the competitive outcomes of the US men's and women's gymnastics teams. But since so few people understand gymnastics and even fewer understand men's gymnastics, it's easy to make the kind of claims that Armour and others have made without receiving any pushback.

This doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement but if we are serious about improving the outcomes of the men's program, we have to talk about more than discipline and believing that Karolyi is magic. It's not just about "bucking up" and "working harder". We have to acknowledge that there are major differences between the men's and women's side of the sport. We must admit that women's gymnastics enjoys certain material and structural advantages in the US. Women's gymnastics is much more popular and as a result, there is much higher level of participation. This means a deeper talent pool out of which to find those unique specimens who become champions.

The men have seen key resources, such as Division I NCAA programs, disappear over the years. There are now just 16 men's NCAA programs left and they have at most 6.2 partial scholarships as opposed to the up to 12 full scholarships available to women's teams. In the past, the college system had been one of the main training grounds for world and Olympic team members. (See: the 1984 gold medal winning men's team, primarily fielded from UCLA, which no longer has a men's program.) How can we encourage participation among high level male gymnasts if there is little incentive to continue beyond an Olympic dream that can only come true for a lucky few?

If there is anyone the US men should be looking to for guidance, it's their British counterparts. Team GB have gone from doing so poorly that they lost most of their funding to picking up multiple medals over the last quad, including two golds for Max Whitlock in Rio. Instead of focusing on training camps and centralization, which cost a lot, they poured their limited resources into local clubs to provide guidance to the coaches and gymnasts in their home gyms. This increases the number of clubs capable of training up elite gymnasts. As they've received more funding and success, they've invested more money into this approach. Perhaps the person the US men should be consulting is Eddie Van Hoof, not Karolyi.

But even if the American men improve their results, they will be unable to achieve the dominance of the US women unless Japan, China, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and others stop producing medal contenders. I sincerely hope this doesn't happen. Part of what has made the men's gymnastics in Rio so much fun to watch is how many teams and gymnasts had a credible shot at the medal stand. The men's team and all-around final was edge of the seat excitement. Nothing was a foregone conclusion.

Dominance is only fun for the team that's on top but a truly open field where almost anyone can win, well, that's fun for everyone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Comparing men's and women's gymnastics is futile: they're barely the same sport

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
USA's male gymnasts have been compared unfavorably to their female counterparts. But the men face different challenges at the Rio Olympics

# data[].attributes.body
Bhat, S. (2016). Acro Dance - A Rhythmic Amalgamation of Acrobatics and Dance. Available: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/information-about-acro-dance.html. Last accessed 7/03/17.

Knopp, J. (2014). Cirque du Soleil's hand-to-hand act challenges traditional gender roles in acrobatics. Available: http://www.straight.com/arts/646146/cirque-du-soleils-hand-hand-act-challenges-traditional-gender-roles-acrobatics. Last accessed 07/03/17.

Shen, J. (2012). Why Are American Female Gymnasts Consistently Dominant, Whereas American Male Gymnasts Are Overall Not Nearly as Competitive in the World Stage?. Available: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/why-are-american-female-g_b_1758412.html. Last accessed 09/03/17.

Meyers, D. (2016). Comparing men's and women's gymnastics is futile: they're barely the same sport. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/16/mens-womens-gymnastics-comparison-olympics. Last accessed 09/03/17.

# data[].attributes.body
'...While with the partner, the performers can do tricks such as double cartwheel, pitch truck, swizzle, the lawnmower, etc. A variety of tricks are performed in a dance routine.' (Bhat, 2016)

# data[].attributes.body
''Do people feel intimidated by high expectations in acro-dance, despite gender?'

# data[].attributes.body
COVERT PARTICIPANT OBSERVATIONS-CLASS PARTICIPATION

LOCATION: Pineapple Dance studios.

DATE/TIME: Saturday 3pm-4:45pm

WHEN: (11/02/17)

COST: £8

GENDER : MALE AND FEMALE

AGE: 10-30

ETHNICITY: Mixed

OCCUPATION Students/Amateurs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Watching Alevtyna Titarenko and Gael Ouisse perform their hand-to-hand act for Cirque du Soleil's touring show Totem is truly breathtaking. As they gracefully move from pose to pose, balancing on each other by using incredible feats of body strength, the sweat on their firmly toned muscles catches the spotlight.

Titarenko and Ouisse form two parts of the rings trio, and are the back-up hand-to-hand act. The Ukrainian and French natives have been doing gymnastics their whole life, and their act draws on every one of their skills.

Throughout the demonstration, given on a recent media performance at the Orpheum Annex, they bend backwards and forwards, leaning on each other in an implicit act of trust. Titarenko proves her strength as much as Ouisse, as she leans backward, holding him behind her with nothing but power. The piece demonstrates the blurred lines between yin and yang as the acrobats switch seamlessly between male and female roles.

After their performance, the Georgia Straight caught up with them to ask a few questions about Totem.
Georgia Straight: How'd you get involved with Cirque?
Titarenko: For me, it was 17 years ago, and I was an athlete. I was not in circus; I never wanted to be in circus. I was doing acrobatics. And we had a casting team from Montreal come in to audition acrobats and gymnasts for the newest creation at that time, which was O, a water show in Las Vegas, and I got auditioned and I got chosen.

Ouisse: For me, it was after seeing a show based in Las Vegas called Mystere; the performance affected me deeply. I fell in love with the quality, and the emotion I was feeling was just, "Right, this is what I want to do." I was gymnast at the time so of course it helped, and then I went through auditions and they like enough my work that I'm here now.
GS: How do you deal with the intense demands on your body and mind?
Titarenko: I think it was more intense before. When you're trying to build an act, it's very intense. You go through, not necessarily injuries, but problems with your body and so on. But when an act is established, it's much less work to keep it alive, to keep performing. But in general, if you have one to two shows a day, you have about 30 to 40 minutes to warm up before the show, so you already have an hour of mandatory training for yourself. And the older you get, you add five minutes to your training routine, you know? Of course as you perform it's up to you to keep your body in shape, so we have one, sometimes two days off, when we really let our bodies relax, but then if you have one week off, you really want to go back to training because you already feel you're starting to lose it a little bit. It's a drug.

Ouisse: The physical part, when you explore at the beginning during the creation of acts, is really the main thing. After some time, you move more towards the psychology part of it. How do you prepare yourself to perform at the same quality each performance? You get emotionally involved to make sure the audience feels what you want to share with them, which is really towards where we're going now.
GS: What makes Totem special?
Titarenko: I think there are many keys to it. First of all, the idea is great. The set is wonderful, the music is great. We do have great acts and great cast. We have a great cast not just performance-wise, but also relationship-wise between us; we are a really good, tight cast, and on-stage you can really feel the support. People when they come they just leave happy, they leave with smiles on their faces, is the most important thing. We make them dream.

Ouisse: I would add the transition is really smooth between the acts. It makes the show really as one piece, and the quality of the projection is really, I would say, something we haven't seen until now.
GS: How does Totem compare to other Cirque du Soleil shows?
Titarenko: Every show is different; you can't do that, you can't compare them....Every show is unique.

Ouisse: But you feel really connected. Because it's exactly the same people who are there, and we know a lot of them of course, and we've been both in different shows before that, four for her, and two for myself, so it's really uniting.
Totem runs from to July 6 in the Big Top at Concord Pacific Place.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cirque du Soleil's hand-to-hand act challenges traditional gender roles in acrobatics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watching Alevtyna Titarenko and Gael Ouisse perform their hand-to-hand act for Cirque du Soleil's touring show Totem is truly breathtaking. As they gracefully move from pose to pose, balancing on each other by using incredible feats of body strength, the sweat on their firmly toned muscles catches the spotlight.

# data[].attributes.body
THE GROWING CHANGE IN GENDER NORMALITIES - CHALLENGING TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES.

THE PATHS OF MALE AND FEMALE ARTISTS IN THE PROFESSION ARE NOW BLURRED.

THERE ARE HIGH LEVELS OF PRESSURE IN THE COMMUNITY TO BE ADVANCED VERSIONS OF THEMSELVES, REGARDLESS OF GENDER.

# data[].attributes.body
SECONDARY SOURCES:

"CIRGUE DU SOLEIL'S HAND TO HAND ACT CHALLENEGES TRADTITIONAL GENDER ROLES."
The piece demonstrates the blurred lines between male and female roles.

# data[].attributes.body
DURKHEIM - GENDER ROLE SOCIOLISATION

FUNCTIONALISM AND THE LATENT FUNCTION

# data[].attributes.body
A focus upon trends in modern popular culture, whether there are certain expectations as an individual of your ability to complete Acro-dance practice.

To discover which feelings/ emotions are encountered as the agent.