A Tribute to Pasha, or Why I Can't Help But Love Ice Dance

I admit, I have a love-hate relationship with ice dance.

On my grumpier days, I tend to see ice dance as barely a sport, full of skaters who can't jump and worse of all, full of cheating and conniving judging which account for probably more than half of the underhanded deals floating around the back rooms of skating.


But then again, ice dance is in some ways the most entertaining discipline in figure skating. On some days, I mean this sincerely:



But mostly, I'm referring to how hilariously ridiculous ice dancing truly is. After all, for every blatant instance of injustice and collusion in the results, ice dance also manages to worm its way into my heart through sheer ridiculousness. The best instance of this is one of my ultimate guilty pleasures of all time, the 1998 special "The Dark Side of Figure Skating." Of course, it's utter trash but hilarity abounds. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for the viewing public, there is only a single segment viewable on Youtube--Sex on Ice: An Illicit Affair--but it never fails to make me laugh:



It is difficult to choose the most lulzy bits in the video--is it the sleazy dramatizations of Pasha and Zhulin going at it? Or would it be Maia Usova subtitled as 'Scorned Wife'?--but the star of the segment, as well as in life, is clearly the one and only Pasha Grishuk. Pasha is the ultimate ice dance diva who makes me scorn the viriginal fare ice dance has to offer today. I love how Pasha claims that she was an innocent 18 year old girl when she started to have an affair with Zhulin (oh, Pasha, do tell us more stories).

Pasha makes ice dance so bad it's good.