Alexander Alexandrov: 'They performed like artists with a classical style'

I posted a link to this 2011 article on Facebook in response to a request for more videos of classical gymnastics. A follower called Vince Miller posted a response:

'I was there and it was the most incredible 15 minutes of artistic gymnastics I've ever seen!'

That is exactly how I feel about this 1989 team. I feel privileged to have been there, in the flesh.

They were led by Russian coach Alexander Alexandrov, who won his first Worlds gold with Dmitri Bilozerchev in 1983, capped his Soviet/Unified achievements with gold for the WAG team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, pulled the Russians back to first at the World Championships in 2010, and brought back from the 2012 Olympics the Russians' best medal haul for many years.


In the autumn of 1989 I travelled to Stuttgart, Germany, for the World Gymnastics Championships. There, I was enthralled by the performance of the best Soviet women's team I ever saw, and the six best floor exercises there have ever been.

The videos you will see below are not the best quality, but they have been selected for atmosphere, presenting the exercises in the order they were performed that evening, accompanied by audience sounds. We were all vocal supporters of the Soviet team, that night.

National team coach Alexander Alexandrov, interviewed after the competition by a local newspaper (I think it was the Suddeutsche Zeitung) explained how the team had worked with choreographers from Moscow's world famous Bolshoi Theatre.

One thing that really strikes me today is how different each floor exercise is, drawing on diverse dance traditions, from the folk-inspired work of Sazonenkova to the modern dance of Boginskaya. Each gymnast's work is a short, consummate performance, embracing dance, gymnastics and powerful, intricate tumbling. Dudnik's moving performance to Gershwin makes incredibly effective use of pauses in the music. Laschenova's spritely yet powerful gymnastics interprets Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King to perfection. Boginskaya's modern, lyrical dance is full of personality, humour and sophistication. Olga Strazheva to Stravinsky's Rites of Spring is unique, drawing on Nijinsky's original choreography first performed by the Ballets Russes in May 1913 in Paris. I love the way that even the tumbling emphasises the drama of the music.

Svetlana Baitova



Link to it on Youtube.

Elena Sazonenkova



Link to it on Youtube.

Olessia Dudnik



Link to it on Youtube.

Natalia Laschenova



Link to it on Youtube.

(I cannot find a video of Laschenova's performance in the team final - but you will find here a record of her floor exercise in the all around final.)

Svetlana Boginskaya



Link to it on Youtube.

(There is an alternative, better quality, video here, but it cuts off the beginning of the floor exercise.)

Olga Strazheva



Link to it on Youtube.

You can view an extract of Nijinsky's choreography, danced by the Kirov Ballet, here.