Hello hello... did you miss me ? :)
I've been busy ...
So, I would like to talk about the leotards of the Spanish National Group team!
I've been going through some of the video footage I have from our meetings with the designer we first started working with. There was a man we met in Madrid, that had done some pretty good work and we were going to use him as our leotard maker! We had meetings, where we talked about the ideas behind the choreographies, the music, designs and went through the materials he was going to use! After all of that, the RFEG (Spanish Gymnastics Federation) told us that they can't afford him and they gave us a young, unexperienced, but "hungry" girl to do the teams leotards! And here is where all the chaos began.
The girl was trying , but her lack of imagination and poor technique produced such a bad quality leotards that were falling apart. Till the last moment , she was sawing and fixing and just trying to make it work! In my past experiences working with leotard makers, I always look for perfection ... not just a way to make it work! So, the Group competed with the leotards at WC Mie, 2009. When it was time to start the 2010 competition season, the Group needed to change the leotards! I travel to Madrid to make some changes on the choreographies as the Code Of Points allows. And 2 weeks prior to my arrival in Madrid, we made an appointment with the same girl (seamstress) so we can meet face to face and we can talk about the new leotards that she's supposed to make for the Group Team's Ribbon & Rope routine! When I arrived there, we called and waited, but she never showed up for the meeting! I travelled across the world and I was there for 2 weeks and she never showed up! I went home really upset, because we could not use anyone else to do the leotards, because RFEG chose this person and this person only! So we were stuck with her! Weeks before competition starts, the girl offers to make the team new Ribbon & Rope leotards for free! YAY! However, the design she brought in for the team was not only unexceptable, but for lack of a better word - ugly! In our attempt to make it work, we started going through some of the old leotards that the team had from previous years. Obviously the sizes are totally different and the leotards needed to be fitted and fixed and updated! And we were still saving the RFEG money , so they can use them to make better leotards for the next season's routines! We asked the seamstress to fix and update the leotards chosen for the Ribbon & Rope routine. She came into the gym and took the leotards, only to change her mind by the time she reached the top entrance of the National Training Center. She left the bag full of leotards to the security person there and sent a nasty unprofessional message to the coaches of the National Group Team!!! Yes, she refused to fix the leotards!! So, now the coaches of the Spanish National Group Team had to figure out how to fix the leotards , so that the girls can compete with them! One of the parents takes pity on the team and fixes the leotards days before they leave. And 2 days before Europe championship, while everyone else was resting after a long day of training in the gym, the girls of the Spanish National Group Team along with the assistant coach stayed up all night gluing Swarovski rhinestones to their leotards, so that they can look presentable enough for their country!!! That's right everyone... the gymnasts themselves glued all of those rhinestones to their own leotards, because the seamstress demonstratively refused to do her job! So, I ask you ... who does this seamstress think she is?? After "We" gave her such a Publicity with the Group Team's leotards, she went ahead and started a busyness making leotards for others but mostly the team of Ritmo. So, have you been seeing the boring, unoriginal and badly made leotards that team Ritmo has been wearing? Well, it is thanks to that same seamstress that I have been talking so fondly of :) I hope that they live happily ever after, cause they truly deserve each other. :)
Let's hope that in the future RFEG get's a better and more professional designer/seamstress to do the National Teams leotards!
Here is a video of the leotards in question :
Comments
¡Alto y claro!
That's what Rhythmic Gymnatics needs, that's what everything needs, transparency, good and contrasted information, articulated opinions in the public eye; it needs to move on from the plain gossip to the debate. This is the only way to grow up, the only way to mature. If only there would be more Rhythmic Gymnatics professinals doing it as you do here. All you there, this is a good chance, don't be afraid of it, it's just that we are not used to it, so sadly so. Provechemos la oportunidad, no la lapidemos, si nos molesta tanto es tristemente por falta de costumbre.