Beautiful Composition

L. Savarina
Choreographer, USSR gymnastics team

At all of the world's largest competitions - Olympics, world and European championships - gymnastics fans have admired the beautiful floor compositions of the Soviet athletes. At the Mexico City Olympics, the gold on floor was won by Larisa Petrik (we remember her famous "Tsiganochka"), at the 1969 European Championships Olga Karaseva had the highest all-around floor score to her routine to "Russian Kaleidoscope" and at the world championships in Ljubljana, Ludmila Turischeva performed to Dunayevsky's "Output March" one day and in the finals used the music of Franz Gothe from the movie "The Girl of My Dreams" to become the floor exercise world champion.

The Soviet gymnastics school is famous for good formulation of optional exercises. The foundations of this school are artistic performance, gymnasts with high musical culture, modern choreography and professional treatment. For a long time these people have worked with the national team: accompanist E. Vevrik, choreographers A. Selezneva, L. Sokolova, and the author of these lines.

The formulation of a routine is complicated but very creative. It's not only required to choose the music but to think about which gymnasts will "display the ornament" better. One needs to know the nature, temperament, and performance possibilities of the athlete. Complex acrobatic elements should be added very skillfully and beautifully so that the composition does not look broken. Sometimes it may just be a wonderful composition. We think the "Output March" for Turischeva was very fitting for her. Energetic, bright music, bravura chords. Yet Lyuda learned the floor exercise to the music "The Girl of My Dreams" which showed new talents of this gymnast. Coquettish, sort of playful, and even mannerisms. All this combined with a fast tempo and a zest for life. Actually, Turischeva is the only gymnast who performed two different floor routines in the same competition. The search for daring was justified - she was awarded a gold medal.