IN THE fiercely competitive world of international figure skating, performers will do anything to get an edge. For Russian world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the desire to stand out from the crowd has led them to unveil a new ''Aboriginal dance'' to perform at next month's Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
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In dark-toned bodysuits, complete with what they claim are authentic Aboriginal paint markings, the pair easily won their national ice dance competition three weeks ago at their first performance of the routine, making them favourites for gold. But while the judges in St Petersburg may have been impressed, many in the Aboriginal community are not.
''I am offended by the performance and so our other councillors,'' said Bev Manton, chair of the NSW Land Council yesterday. ''Aboriginal people for very good reason are sensitive about their cultural objects and icons being co-opted by non-Aboriginal people - whether they are from Australia or Russia.
''It's important for people to tread carefully and respectfully when they are depicting somebody else's culture and I don't think this performance does.''
Although The Age was unable to contact Domnina, 25, and Shabalin, 27, they recently spoke to ice-skating website Golden Skate about their motivations for the dance.
''We did not want to create another Slavic dance and have considered a lot of options, including Scottish folk,'' said Domnina. ''But eventually we settled on this one. I thought it was just crazy, but once we have tried it, we immediately fell in love with it.''
Asked about their research of Aboriginal culture, Domnina said: ''We've watched video clips on the internet of these dances and it is really like this - complete with the leaves around the knees.''
The music the Russians perform to has also raised questions. Ice-skating fans have identified the track as being composed by Sheila Chandra, a Briton of Indian descent.
But the anger at Domnina and Shabalin's performance is not confined to Australia's indigenous community.
Within ice-skating circles there are suspicions the Russians may have ''borrowed'' the idea for an Aboriginal dance from Australian rivals Danielle O'Brien and Greg Merriman.
The Sydney-based pair first performed an Aboriginal dance at a Korean competition in 2008 - after spending a year in consultation with the indigenous community to ensure their performance, music and costumes respected Aboriginal culture.
O'Brien and Merriman will not perform at Vancouver after missing the qualification through injury.
''I don't think there's any integrity to the Russians' dance, and given Danielle and and Greg performed their version some time ago, it's at the very least suspicious where they got their inspiration,'' said skating commentator Belinda Noonan.
