Russian world champion ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin are remaining tight lipped on whether any changes have been made to their Aboriginal-themed dance that has angered some Aboriginal leaders.
Asked about rumours the Russians have changed their costumes and music, Shabalin was coy.
"Maybe, maybe," he said after practice.
"You will hear, you will see on the day of the original dance."
Some Aboriginal leaders have claimed Domnina and Shabalin's original dance is offensive cultural theft, with inauthentic steps and gaudy costumes.
The music includes a didgeridoo riff, and Domnina and Shabalin wear brown-toned costumes adorned with leaves and white Aboriginal-style markings.
"We thought (the Aboriginal theme) would be interesting, and we like this. We like the way they dance, and their costumes," Shabalin said.
The ice dancers said they did a lot of research before creating the dance.
"Before we started our Original Dance, we listened to a lot of music. This is not a one-minute decision. We were thinking about it for about one month."
"We did a big research and after the reactions we did an even deeper research. I don't think that it is offensive."
They were surprised when it caused such a furore, and Shabalin said they went back and did more research, including talking with specialists in Aboriginal dance.
"It's not possible to do a 100 per cent authentic folk dance on skates. We have required elements and we have some restrictions for our costumes, too," Shabalin said.
"We are very respectful to all our competitors and all cultures. We're open to discuss it."
"I want to say that I don't know anything about these statements -- that it is disrespectful," said 28-year-old Shabalin.
"This is wrong. Our purpose was the opposite. We want to honour the culture, to show a dance as it was 1,000 years ago in the Southeast Asian region."
And he said they had received a lot of support from Australians.
"A lot of Australian people wrote to our website that they liked the dance," he explained.
The world champions, among the gold medal favourites, open their Olympic challenge in Friday's compulsory dance.
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