Olena Tkachenko, rope 1999

Olena Tkachenko , rope 1999

(by Jonathan Wright)

Her Starting position, in a fantastic A balance with the rope platted around her head like a crown,(on the photo) as if she is the queen she goes on to her toe and salutes the her worshipers, then pulls of her crown and if by magic her rope is in a straight formation, In one easy fling. She quickly swings the rope in a side scale, and puts on a dazzling smile. Then she seems to drift through the air in a split leap whilst doing a double turn of the rope, she then settles and inches around in a split balance then releases the rope and catches behind her back.Then she ties the rope round her leg and goes down into splits on the floor from yet another beautifully extended side scale, whilst swinging the rope and then, she starts the choreography, her cheeky, but not plastic smile just

Olena Tkachenko's rope starting. Courtesy of the photo: Jonathan Wright

makes the routine complete, she holds the rope round her neck, like a pair of braces, pulling them, in a traditional dance, then she leans back slightly to make way for her leg in a balance stretched, then she runs over and in a beautifully extended ring leap, she thoughts the rope in swing under her front leg, gaining extra difficulty, then another split leap underneath she catches with her arms crossed then skips through the rope and after a high fish leap she throws the rope with effortless accuracy and performs an easy double illusion turn, she catches one end of the rope and whips the other end down to the floor and as if by magic it comes to her other hand. She jumps around the area and performs a turning change leg ring leap through the rope to a relatively simple split leap, then links it in with a needle stand pirouette with no hands, very difficult!! Then she links it in with a triple attitude pirouette then some cheeky choreography with the rope wrapped around her neck and upper body and swings the top part of her rope above her head in a very charismatic slightly bent down posture whilst inconspicuously shuffling her feet towards the far corner of the floor area, then skips backwards through the rope, then in a fish leap she produces a lofty throw and then runs, and takes her eye off the apparatus, performs a beautifully extended over split leap and catches the rope in one hand then performs a donut leap on to the floor and whips the rope around her neck then in a wrist flick flings her arms and head up to the ceiling of the arena, as if to be looking up to the heavens!!