Editing Rhythmic gymnastics (section)

==History==
[[File:Evgenia Kanaeva RUS Olympiasiegerin.JPG|thumb|upright |Two-time Olympic Champion [[Yevgeniya Kanayeva|Evgenia Kanaeva]] ([[2008 Summer Olympics|2008 Beijing]] and [[2012 Summer Olympics|2012 London]])|alt=Kanaeva revolves a hoop around her bent elbow]]
Rhythmic gymnastics grew out of the ideas of [[Jean-Georges Noverre]] (1727–1810), [[François Delsarte]] (1811–1871), and [[Rudolf Bode]] (1881–1970), who all believed in movement expression, where one used to dance to express oneself and exercise various body parts. [[Pehr Henrik Ling|Peter Henry Ling]] further developed this idea in his 19th-century Swedish system of free exercise, which promoted "aesthetic gymnastics", in which students expressed their feelings and emotions through body movement.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Schmid |first=Andrea Bodó |title=Modern rhythmic gymnastics |date=1976 |publisher=Mayfield Pub. Co |isbn=978-0-87484-281-4 |edition=1st |location=Palo Alto, Calif}}</ref>

Swedish-style group gymnastics became increasingly popular for women from the mid-19th century through to the early 20th century. Although sports became associated with masculinity, group gymnastics were performed in indoor, private spaces and focused on correctly performing movements before an instructor, which fit societal ideals for women. Women's gymnastics also began to focus on qualities perceived as feminine, such as grace and expressiveness.<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal |last1=Johannes Cleophas |first1=Francois |last2=T. Visser |first2=Una |date=2024-02-28 |title=Roots, origins and development of rhythmic gymnastics: A historical insight |url=https://journals.uni-lj.si/sgj/article/view/13566 |journal=Science of Gymnastics Journal |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=67–76 |doi=10.52165/sgj.16.1.67-76 |issn=1855-7171|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Ling's ideas were extended by [[Catharine Beecher]], who founded the Western Female Institute in [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, United States, in 1837. She developed a program where pupils exercised to music, moving from simple calisthenics that could be done in a classroom to more strenuous activities. While she promoted the exercises as being for all children, she emphasized that girls were especially lacking in exercise and that their health suffered for it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beecher |first=Catharine |title=Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families |publisher=Harper and Brothers |year=1856 |location=New York}}</ref>

François Delsarte created a system of movement which was focused on creating expressive acting with natural poses, but it became a popular form of women's gymnastics for developing grace.<ref name=":5" /> In 1885, an American student of Delsarte, [[Genevieve Stebbins]], published her first book, ''The Delsarte System of Expression''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ruyter |first=Nancy Lee Chalfa |date=1988 |title=The Intellectual World of Genevieve Stebbins |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1567663 |journal=Dance Chronicle |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=381–397 |doi=10.1080/01472528708568987 |jstor=1567663 |issn=0147-2526|url-access=subscription }}</ref> She soon began to perform popular solo dances,<ref name=":39">{{Cite journal |last=Mullan |first=Kelly Jean |date=December 2020 |title=Forgotten “New” Dancer of New York City's Gilded Age: Genevieve Lee Stebbins and the Dance as Yet Undreamed |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0149767720000327/type/journal_article |journal=Dance Research Journal |language=en |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=97–117 |doi=10.1017/S0149767720000327 |issn=0149-7677|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and she also went on to combine Delsarte's ideas with Ling's and develop her own gymnastics system.<ref name=":5" /> Dubbed "harmonic gymnastics", it encouraged late nineteenth-century American women to engage in physical culture and expression, in defiance of traditional gender norms. Stebbins provided the means, rationale, and model for exercise for middle-class women.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bordelon |first=Suzanne |date=2016-03-14 |title=Embodied Ethos and Rhetorical Accretion: Genevieve Stebbins and the Delsarte System of Expression |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02773945.2016.1141347 |journal=Rhetoric Society Quarterly |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=105–130 |doi=10.1080/02773945.2016.1141347 |issn=0277-3945|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

During the 1880s, [[Émile Jaques-Dalcroze]] of Switzerland developed [[eurhythmics]], a form of physical training for musicians and dancers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Émile Jaques-Dalcroze {{!}} Rhythm, Music Education, Eurhythmics |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emile-Jaques-Dalcroze |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> Robert Bode trained at the Dalcroze Eurythmic College and went on to found his own school.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Bott |first=Jenny |title=Modern rhythmic gymnastics |date=1981 |publisher=EP Publishing; Distributed by Sterling |isbn=978-0-7158-0772-9 |location=Wakefield, West Yorkshire : New York}}</ref> [[George Demeny]] of France created exercises to music that were designed to promote grace of movement, muscular flexibility, and good posture, and some exercises included apparatuses.<ref name=":0" />

The dancer [[Isadora Duncan]] was also significant in the development of rhythmic gymnastics.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":14" /> Influenced by Delsarte, Jaques-Dalcroze, and possibly by Stebbins,<ref name=":39" /> she developed her own theory of dance that departed from more rigid traditions like that of [[ballet]]. Her free dancing style incorporated running and jumping movements.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":14" /> 
[[File:Девушки из Общества телесного воспитания Богатырь выполняют гимнастические упражнения. 1911.jpg|thumb|Women gymnasts training with clubs in Russia in 1912|alt=Women kneeling in rows holding out clubs]]
In 1929, Hinrich Medau, who graduated from the Bode School, founded The Medau School in Berlin to train gymnasts in "modern gymnastics". He focused on using the entire body in movement and developed the use of apparatuses, particularly balls, hoops, and clubs.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Influenced by German teachers, several Finnish and Swedish gymnastics teachers, such as [[Elli Björkstén]], [[Elin Falk]], and {{Interlanguage link|Maja Carlquist|sv}}, began to develop their own system of gymnastics. They felt the Ling approach was too rigid and dull and sought freer styles of movements. Scandinavian gymnastics emphasized developing partner and group work and use of apparatuses, and many Scandinavian gymnastics groups toured abroad.<ref name=":5" /> [[File:Idlaflickorna.jpg|left|thumb|The "Idla Girls", a Swedish rhythmic gymnastics group, performing in 1958|alt=Five women skip with ropes]]
The teachings of Duncan, Jacques-Dalcroze, Delsarte, and Demeny were brought together at the Soviet Union's High School of Artistic Movement when it was founded in 1932, and soon thereafter, an early version of rhythmic gymnastics was established as a sport for girls. The first competition was held in 1939 in [[Leningrad]] on [[International Women's Day]]. Beginning in 1947, All-Soviet Union competitions were held yearly in various locations across the Soviet Union, and the sport began to spread to other countries in Europe.<ref name=":14" />

From 1928 through 1956, group events with apparatuses were sometimes performed as events in women's [[artistic gymnastics]], such as club performances at the [[World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]].<ref name=":0" /> There were two team portable apparatus events at the [[Gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Women's team portable apparatus|1952]] and [[Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's team portable apparatus|1956]] Olympics, which used similar apparatuses to modern rhythmic gymnastics, before it was decided that it should be a separate discipline.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=6 November 2020 |title=Once a tenet of Artistic competitions, Group Gymnastics found its niche in Rhythmic |url=https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/news/displaynews.php?urlNews=299063 |access-date=2024-08-03 |publisher=[[International Gymnastics Federation]]}}</ref> The portable apparatus events were only performed as a group and lasted between four and five minutes, much longer than a modern group routine. They were performed to music, and the rules did not specify the apparatuses used, only that each gymnast should have one and that they did not need to be all the same.<ref>{{Citation |last= |first= |title=Régles générales et règlements spéciaux aux sports |date=1951 |pages=199-207 |url=https://library.olympics.com/doc/SYRACUSE/35928 |access-date=2025-03-15 |place=Helsinki |publisher=Comité organisateur des XVes Jeux olympiques |language=French}}</ref>

The FIG formally recognized rhythmic gymnastics as its own discipline in 1962, first as '''modern gymnastics'''.<ref name=":0" /> Its name was changed to '''modern rhythmic gymnastics''', then again to '''rhythmic sportive gymnastics''', and finally to '''rhythmic gymnastics'''.<ref name=":5" />

The [[1963 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships|first World Championships]] for individual rhythmic gymnasts was held in 1963 in [[Budapest]]. Groups were introduced at the same level in 1967 in [[Copenhagen]], Denmark.<ref name=":7" /> The FIG first requested that rhythmic gymnastics be added to the Olympics in 1972. It was painted as a more feminine counterpart to women's artistic gymnastics, where increasingly difficult tumbling led to a perceived masculinization of the sport. However, the [[International Olympic Committee]] initially refused the request.<ref name=":14" />

Rhythmic gymnastics debuted as an Olympic sport at the [[1984 Summer Olympics]] in [[Los Angeles]] with the individual all-around competition. However, many federations from the [[Eastern Bloc]] and countries were forced to [[1984 Summer Olympics boycott|boycott]] by the Soviet Union, in a way similar to the boycott forced on many nations by the United States of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. Canadian [[Lori Fung]] was the first rhythmic gymnast to earn an Olympic gold medal. The group competition was added to the [[1996 Summer Olympics]] in Atlanta. The Spanish group won the first gold medal of the new competition with a group formed by [[Estela Giménez]], [[Marta Baldó]], [[Nuria Cabanillas]], [[Lorena Guréndez]], [[Estíbaliz Martínez]] and [[Tania Lamarca]].<ref name=":0" />