Never before has an Ice Age show received so much press and so much heated discussion on the Internet, as after the number of Tatiana Navka and Andrei Burkovsky. The skaters performed it on Saturday, November 26, in an episode dedicated to world cinema.
Photo: fragment of the Channel One show “Ice Age”
From all the diversity of cinema dancing couple chose the Oscar-winning film by Italian director Roberto Benigni, “Life is Beautiful,” the existence of which the mass Russian television viewer might not have even suspected until last Saturday. The film, which tells about the Holocaust, was shot in a comedic manner - despite the horrors of their lives, its characters laugh and clownish, trying to convince their child that the concentration camp is just a game. Such a rare approach to covering tragic historical events Only a comedian with a jeweler's flair and a sense of proportion could afford it. Having told the same story through an ice show, the skaters received not only positive reviews, but also accusations of mocking the victims of the Holocaust.
The bad press started, as usual, from the West - an article about skiing on the English Daily Mail was published on the website of the English Daily Mail. thin ice wife of Vladimir Putin's press secretary. Although the performers are dressed in striped camp uniforms with Stars of David sewn on them, their beaming smiles have little in common with such tragic theme, complains Daily mail. The Internet has not remained aloof from ambiguous number "Ice Age“- now in the Russian blogosphere you can find the whole gamut of assessments from “this is disgusting” to “Bravo, Tanechka!” By the way, the figure skater’s husband Dmitry Peskov has already stated that he is proud of his wife. Tatyana Navka herself was surprised by the reaction Western media. In her opinion, it turned out to be one of bright numbers"Ice Age", made with pure and good intentions.
The head coach and producer of the Ice Age show, Ilya Averbukh, who came up with this number, felt that the press was too biased because of Tatyana Navka. In his opinion, any other figure skater would not have attracted so much attention to her performance. So, in the previous program of the ice show there was a number by Ekaterina Barnabas, touching on the topic of the Armenian genocide, which no one paid attention to. Averbukh also recalled that no one attacked Yulia Lipnitskaya, who performed a program under musical theme from the film "Schindler's List", also dedicated to the theme of the Holocaust. True, Yulia Lipnitskaya’s costume did not contain such direct associations with the concentration camp; the skater used only a musical theme.
The question is how ready our public is to see ice show skaters of people in the uniform of prisoners of Auschwitz, a representative of the Jewish community has already commented. The Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Chairman of the Council of Rabbis of Europe, Head of the Rabbinical Court in the CIS and Baltic countries Pinchas Goldschmidt recalled that the Holocaust and everything connected with it is too big a wound. In his opinion, in such cases, in order not to touch a nerve, you need to consult. At the same time, the rabbi did not doubt the good intentions of the performers of this dance.
Tatyana Navka's recent performance in the Ice Age program caused huge wave discussions. It’s not about the skater’s impeccable technique or difficult jumps, but about the theme of the performance: Navka and Andrei Burkovsky’s performance was dedicated to the Holocaust. Dressed in striped robes with Stars of David on their chests, they portrayed Auschwitz prisoners dancing on ice. Many considered this performance frivolous, and the smiles on the faces of the skaters and their gaiety were journalists and public figures was considered almost an outrage against the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. British edition Daily Mail dedicated an entire page to Navka, in which journalists cited user statements about the number. “Vladimir Putin should oblige Tatyana Navka to apologize for her speech,” “Have you forgotten how people suffered during the war?”, “This is disgusting, she should be ashamed,” these are just some of the comments that the scandalous video collected. The other part was concentrated on the figure skater’s Instagram: Tatyana posted photos from the performance, noting that it had become one of her favorites, and advising everyone to show it to their children. “Creatures, dance and have fun in the costumes of concentration camp prisoners, you will be responsible for this, cow,” they immediately wrote to her under the photo. “You hit the ice and hit your head?!” The Holocaust is not a topic that can be used for entertainment,” wrote subscribers. At the same time, there were those who thanked Tatyana in the comments for her performance, because she “doesn’t let people forget all this horror.” The skater herself does not see anything offensive in the number and assures that it is dedicated to Roberto Benigni’s film “Life is Beautiful.” In this film, the parents who ended up in a concentration camp assure the child that everything that is happening is a funny game. According to Tatyana, that’s why the skaters smiled while skating - it was feigned gaiety that the characters in the film had to play.
But the point here is not even in the smiles of Navka and Burkovsky: if they were gliding across the ice with mournful faces, it would hardly change the situation. The problem is as old as time - we just still can’t decide which themes can be used in popular culture, and which ones are not. There is no single standard, so everyone speaks for themselves: some are offended by figure skaters in the uniforms of Auschwitz prisoners, while others consider this an excellent opportunity to remind humanity of the terrible tragedy. What some call an outrage against values, others consider a creative act that no one has the right to prohibit, otherwise it is censorship, restriction of personal freedom and creativity, and the like. When Pussy Riot danced in the temple, many public figures fiercely defended the right of a person to dance anywhere and talk about anything, and if it hurts your feelings, then that’s only your problem. So Tatyana Navka danced - so it is absolutely unclear what complaints those who previously advocated creative freedom might have against her. It turns out that we can fiercely demand our own freedom, but we have not yet learned to respect someone else’s - be it freedom of thought, speech, or even ice dancing.
From a conversation on Facebook:
“The theme of the program - foreign cinema - and the tasks facing the ice dance directors are absolutely clear. Averbukh, to the best of his abilities, undertook unsuccessful attempt recreate the theme of a very subtle and undoubtedly talented film. I’ll try to explain why it’s unsuccessful. Any replica from the genius work of art- this is a slippery and dangerous path. Because trying to “outsing” a genius is almost impossible. There are no such examples in the history of art. Nevertheless, works that are aimed in advance at “imitation” of the author-genius exist. And no less brilliant. Only one condition must be met - a change of genre. Classics/expressionism, post-classicism/modern, modern/pop art, etc...And here the laws of artistic ethics come into play, which inextricably accompany any aesthetic work that is offered to the public. There is a range of topics that, by default, according to the established laws of ethics (I’m talking about our modern times, perhaps in two hundred years they will be corrected, even most likely!) are impossible for such “exercises.” These are, for example, scenes of extreme cruelty - dismemberment, scenes of sexual violence, images of child nudity with sexual overtones, images of mockery of physical disabilities, etc. This does not mean that the same topics cannot be covered in creativity in the form of allegories or associations that do not directly relate to the topic!
The topic of genocide is not an absolute taboo, but the Holocaust has its own framework for depiction and interpretation. Why? Because any genocide is a consequence not only mass extermination people, but also a consequence of the massive participation of people in this extermination. Television is a mass media that not only entertains, but also shapes the tastes, preferences and worldview of TV viewers, educating them in a certain way. There is a whole science on this subject - about the impact of audio-visual information sources on the worldview. Therefore, the way the Holocaust theme is presented on screen must be strictly subject to the author’s internal censorship (or editorial censorship) and the corresponding legislative acts concerning this. This is exactly how things are in civilized countries.
In the case of Averbukh, many of the above traditions were violated: inappropriateness, objective depiction of images of prisoners in a non-stereotypical (non-standard) form, separation from the proportion of the image of the tragedy, which was observed in the original (film), bad taste in the image/production and unscrupulous use of obviously advantageous themes with for the purpose of receiving personal dividends. All this is in no way consistent with the traditional use of the Holocaust theme either in art or in sports (!) (The way the theme was used in Lipnitskaya’s Olympic performance, where exactly an allegory was used - similar to the one that Steven Spielberg used in his film, but not less talented!). The educational moment, the goal that is traditionally pursued in depicting the Holocaust, was absent, and any other goal is an outrage on the topic."
This is the art critic’s detailed answer.
Whether you argue or not, you still can’t find such words.
A new stumbling block and a reason for loud disputes between Russia and the West suddenly became figure skating. Moreover we're talking about not about the big ones sports competitions, and about one number from television project"Glacial period".
On November 26, 2016, in the next episode of the Ice Age program, the couple Tatyana Navka - Andrey Burkovsky presented the number “Beautiful That Way”, in which the participants appear as Jewish prisoners Nazi concentration camp. The performance received the highest scores from the project judges.
In the West, this issue attracted unexpected attention from the press. The reason was primarily due to her partner: Tatyana Navka, Olympic champion in sports dancing on ice, is the wife press secretary of Vladimir Putin Dmitry Peskov.
The Western media considered the issue “tasteless” and taking an incorrect tone towards the victims of the Holocaust.
“They sunk to such lows for the sake of fame”
“Vladimir Putin's Spokesman's Wife Under Fire for Ice Dance About the Holocaust,” Time headlines.
“Tatyana Navka, the wife of Putin’s aide, drew criticism with her Holocaust-themed ice performance,” The Huffington Post writes.
CNN quoted the words director of international relations Australian Israel Council Jeremy Jones:“The frivolity that led to the decision to stage this number is maddening... After they are forgotten as skaters, they will remain in memory as people who sunk to such baseness for the sake of fame.”
The Russia Today TV channel published a commentary by the chief rabbi of Moscow, chairman of the Council of Rabbis of Europe, head of the rabbinical court in the CIS and Baltic countries Pinchas Goldschmidt:“I would like to believe that the dance directors wanted to convey the will to live and best hopes concentration camp prisoners. Many people liked it, but many were offended by the dance. Because the Holocaust and everything connected with it is too big a wound. She won't be alive anytime soon. Almost not Jewish families, in which none of the ancestors would have suffered from Nazism, would not have worn yellow stars, like on the costumes of figure skaters. The feelings of the victims and their families had to be taken into account. Consult. Probably, the intentions were good, but every nation has its own pain, and we must try not to touch a nerve. I wouldn’t like to see anti-Semitism here.”
Some Russian users of social networks also reacted quite emotionally, among whom, however, there were many Ukrainian ones:
“Do they really think that everything is fine?”
"Ernst in the furnace"
“In Germany they would definitely have given a sentence”
“It’s time to ask Santa Claus for a fence with Mordor. I don’t see any more options"
“You can only discuss skates”
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov noted: “I don’t think that this is an issue that in any way concerns the Kremlin, and due to my work, I am significantly limited in my ability to comment on this. I'm proud of my wife. That's all I can say."
The reaction was extremely emotional official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. On her Facebook page she wrote: “I would name it, but they’ll ban me....
Haaretz, Daily Mail, Huffington Post and dozens of others have all written about dance number on the theme of the Holocaust performed by Tatyana Navka.
They didn't like the number! The image of the prisoners of Auschwitz, you see, is not embodied on ice as it should be. Defenders of tolerance? Nothing like this! Hypocrites and liars. Moreover, they are cowardly hypocrites and liars fulfilling a political order.
Where are you all hiding when monuments to those who fought the Holocaust are being demolished in Europe? For 30 years in the Baltics they humiliated World War II veterans by denying them citizenship - where have you been? It was you who mocked the victory parade in Moscow in 2015, calling it a “manifestation of militarism.” And when shaved guys with swastikas and torches march in Ukraine, which way do you turn? And where do you run when the Waffen-SS legionnaires organize parades? And when officials in Poland said that Auschwitz was liberated by Ukrainians, not Soviet troops, thereby insulting the memory of soldiers of many nationalities, why didn’t you point out to them the inadmissibility of politicizing an immortal feat?
Then you were all silent. You can only discuss skates.”
What really happened
Tatyana Navka herself said in an interview with Life: “This is not the first time that the themes of war have been raised in our project; personally, this is not the first time I have performed a performance in the clothes of concentration camp prisoners. This is our creativity, and before it somehow did not cause any reaction in the world. And this means that we make people think. I hope that many simply have not seen this film, and when they do, they will look at our wonderful act with different eyes,” she added.
The idea of the act that Navka and Burkovsky showed belonged to Ilya Averbukh, Vice-champion of the Olympics and world champion in ice dancing, and now a successful producer of ice shows.
In the Ice Age project he acts as a coach and producer.
The number is a reimagining of the film Roberto Benigni"Life is Beautiful", which in 1998 was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and two Oscars.
According to the plot of the film, the Italian Guido, a Jew by nationality, ends up in a concentration camp with his son. Trying to protect the child from horrors, Guido explains to his son that everything that happens around him is a game. The boy in it needs to score 1000 points to get Grand Prize: tank. Points are given upon unconditional compliance with a number of rules: it is forbidden to show your face to the soldiers, cry, complain or ask for food. The child believes his dad, despite death, pain and blood around him.
At the end of the film, the prisoners are freed, the boy is reunited with his mother, but his father dies at the hands of a Nazi.
For Navka and Burkovsky’s number, music was taken from the film “Life is Beautiful.” Just like in the movie, in the room main character dies: machine gun fire is heard, and he disappears into the darkness.
“90% of speakers did not see the number at all”
Ilya Averbukh reacted very harshly to criticism of the number: “90% of the speakers did not see the number at all, they don’t understand what was being discussed. For such people, I am ready to explain once again: the theme of the program was “world cinema,” the performance was based entirely on the great film “Life is Beautiful,” directed by Roberto Benigni, which received three Oscars. A family ends up in a concentration camp, where in order to save their child, they act out the story throughout the film that it's all simple big game. For those who have not watched the movie, a text was played specifically for 15 seconds, a direct quote from the film, when Tanya and Andrey really stood with faces full of sorrow, where it was said: “Son, it’s just a game.” It was for him that this number was played, which had everything: and dramatic story, and struggle, and ridicule, and the severity of loss when Andrei passes away, leaving his family. This is an exceptional quote from the film. An absolutely normal reaction associated with the fact that you really want to bite. There is a direct road: Navka - Peskov - Putin. That's all. A photograph was taken of people dressed as concentration camp prisoners smiling. Without thinking about anything, we might as well grab a still from the movie “The Great Dictator.” Charlie Chaplin, where he depicts Hitler, this level is exactly the same, just to yap.”
Head of the Public Relations Department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia Borukh Gorin in an interview with Interfax, he said: “The turn that the discussion of this act has taken - an attempt to condemn it from ideological or moral positions - seems to me completely inappropriate, since addressing the topic of the Holocaust as such, especially with artistic interpretation, when performers associate themselves with the victims , worthy of all respect and gratitude... All the condemning reactions that we have witnessed are not just exaggerated, but catastrophically exaggerated... To talk in 2016 about whether it is worth creating on the topic of the Holocaust various kinds works, it’s the same as arguing whether wind is needed. It exists, and it is part of the cultural space.”
Daily Mail “replaced” Navka Totmyanina
And one last thing. The British newspaper Daily Mail, which considered the smiles on the faces of Navka and Burkovsky unacceptable, since they “do not fit well with the monstrous theme” of the Holocaust, managed to make a gross mistake in the material. In the material on the website, under a photograph with the explanation “Peskov’s wife is to the right of Putin,” they posted a photograph in which it is not Tatyana Navka standing next to the president, but Tatiana Totmyanina. She is also a figure skater, also an Olympic champion, but not Dmitry Peskov’s wife, but figure skater Alexei Yagudin. It is clear that the Daily Mail knows little about Russian beauties and Olympic champions. But maybe then you shouldn’t talk about what you don’t understand?
Navka and Burkovsky's dance about the Holocaust caused criticism in Western media.
The dance, which was performed by Tatyana Navka and Andrei Burkovsky in the Ice Age program, caused a lot of criticism and misunderstanding. After graduation next program, wherein Navka and Burkovsky performed a number on the theme of the Holocaust, unflattering reviews about the theme and nature of the performance appeared on the Internet and in the Western press.
The main reason that some users and journalists began to write negative and sometimes even offensive reviews about the Ice Age participants was simple ignorance and inattention. What is striking about this dance is that the dancers, dressed in the uniforms of concentration camp prisoners with the Star of David on their chests, smile, have fun and seem to be fooling around. This may seem like a mockery of the Holocaust theme only to those who did not know that Navka and Burkovsky took as the basis for their speech famous movie, a tragicomedy by Roberto Benigni " Life is Beautiful", which received three Oscars at once. According to the plot of the film, father and son end up in a Nazi concentration camp, where children and old people are killed in gas chambers. To save his son and protect him from all the horrors that are happening around him, the father convinces the child that everything around him is just funny game. To become the winner of this game, you need to follow certain rules - don’t cry, don’t complain, don’t ask for food, don’t show yourself to the soldiers.
However, despite the fact that the film was identified in the speech as the main plot, some foreign media, including CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, published unflattering comments about the speech, without failing to say that Tatyana Navka is the wife of the press secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
Tatiana Navka and Andrey Burkovsky dance “Life is Beautiful” video
