Figure Skating

[annzeepark914]

(drumroll, please)...Swan Lake, Don Quixote, choreographed by Tom Dickson.  I'll be wearing a unitard in each program cause my skating skills aren't so hot, but I want to look real good!😉

[Maelstrom]

No one will want to miss my Ave Maria and West Side Story medley choreographed by David Wilson!

[shoregirl]

3 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

(drumroll, please)...Swan Lake, Don Quixote, choreographed by Tom Dickson.  I'll be wearing a unitard in each program cause my skating skills aren't so hot, but I want to look real good!😉

10 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

No one will want to miss my Ave Maria and West Side Story medley choreographed by David Wilson!

That's great for both of you but just wait till you see me skate to Cinema Paradiso and Charlie Chaplin choreographed by Jeffrey Buttle .

[Mellowyellow]

Shoma left his long time coaches (no hard feelings, all very nice) and is going to Eteri's summer camp 👽

Whoever said FS is boring!

[ombelico]

The Twitter comments on this post suggest that Medvedeva was the target. Poor girl. I may not always care for her skating but I've never had the impression that she is anything but a kind, sweet person.

[SeanC]

Well, the Grand Prix assignments are out for the fall.

Every single ladies event is packed.

After the disappointments last year, I'm glad that Gilles/Poirier look to have more favourable assignments this time.

[Mellowyellow]

It's gonna be a bloodbath. But it sure will be exciting. 

I'm super excited to see the boys and their quad throw downs this season too after how exciting Worlds was.

[HartofDixie]

[Sew Sumi]

Congrats to Meryl and Fedor! 

[surreysmum]

16 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

Congrats to Meryl and Fedor! 

It sounds as though it was a lovely wedding. People Magazine's account of it is here:

https://people.com/sports/meryl-davis-marries-fedor-andreev/?fbclid=IwAR20gql6se0PPmvTn1I_AJ0Z8VjMh4Q9S-qQS-CKvKHTzyG0ZghQ8ryB5q0

[ChicksDigScars]

I can't believe that the article touts Meryl as a "Dancing with the Stars champion" BEFORE Olympian. Not even "Olympic Gold Medalist, Meryl Davis," just plain "Olympian." UGH. 

But then again, it's People Magazine. A reality show title gets more attention than a Olympic gold in their world, I guess. 

[BelleBrit]

Eating crow because I didn't think that it would happen, but Vincent Zhou has confirmed that he is joining Mie Hamada's group (though he is also keeping Tammy, so just ditching Tom it seemed...like Camden, lol. I know there were whisperings of Tom also perhaps going to California, but I'm not sure what the latest status of that is). Vincent also confirmed that he is going to Brown, but is just doing one semester to start and then focusing on skating in the run up to the Olympics. 

[Mellowyellow]

I've really grown to like Vincent. I started out side eying him because he beat my precious Junliet but after watching him (haha purely out of resentment to see why he beat Junliet) I'm now a fan.

Yaaaaay to him sharing the same coach as Rika!!!!!! Let the quads fly next season!!!

[displayname]

@ChicksDigScarsH/D have a Star is Born for their FD, and Let's be Bad for their SD. You are semi-safe.

[Mellowyellow]

And here they are practising their quads like good munchkins.

Omg I'm so excited!!!!! It's just going to be crazy in both the men's and ladies field next season.

[Jeddah]

The Skating Lesson talked about YouTube rabbit holes, and which performances they go back to. 

What are the performances you rewatch over and over?

Mine top ten are:

1. Meryl and Charlie’s free dance in Sochi.

2. Sarah Hughes’s long program in Salt Lake City.

3. Zhang and Bartholomay’s long program at the 2014 Nationals.

4. Mao’s short program in Vancouver.

5. Mirai’s long in the Team Event. Before that finally got uploaded to YouTube I rewatched her Nationals long program about 10,000 times.

6. Sasha’s short program in Turino.

7. Johnny Weir’s long program in Vancouver.

8. Savchenko and Massot’s long program in Pyeonchang.

9. Shibutani’s short and long programs from Pyeonchang.

10. Candeloro’s d’Artagnan program.

ETA: I forgot Jason’s Riverdance program! Oh man, I spend way too much time watching figure skating.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Jeddah

[Jeddah]

Also that one because it’s a great skate, but really because of Ashley’s face at 5:35 and Sasha yawning at 6:40.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Jeddah

[IdleBrook]

I can’t believe it has been almost a decade since Mirai’s KinderCarmen program.  I forgot how lovely her arm movements were when she was with Frank Carroll.  Ting Cui really reminds me of her in that respect.  

I am so thankful for the YouTube rabbit hole.  I have finally accepted that my schedule doesn’t gel with keeping up with the skating season, so YouTube is my primary way of getting my skating fix.

[healthnut]

On 7/3/2019 at 8:51 PM, Jeddah said:

The Skating Lesson talked about YouTube rabbit holes, and which performances they go back to. 

 What are the performances you rewatch over and over?

Shen & Zhao Nutcracker Program (2004)

Alexei Yagudin Man in the Iron Mask

Alexei Yagudin Gladiator 

Savchenko & Massot 2018 Olympic Free

Yuzuru Hanyu 2018 Olympic Short

Davis & White Bollywood (2006)

[annzeepark914]

On 7/5/2019 at 2:48 PM, healthnut said:

Davis & White Bollywood (2006)

That program, IMO, never got enough respect from the skating world. Davis & White researched, and then took lessons from a dancer from India.  Their major effort to recreate this dance on ice (with so much respect for its culture) was, to me, just amazing. I still love watching it.  I miss their presence in competitive ice dance.

[Mellowyellow]

Programs I've watched too often to count (in no particular order):

1. Alexei Yagudin Man in the Iron Mask

2. Alexei Yagudin Winter

3. Timothy Goebel An American in Paris - the original quad king! 

4. Alina Zagitova  Don Quixote - I think I've watch this at least once week since the 2018 Olympics. My gosh she was a badass, backloading and nailing every jump.  This program had it all. Adorable and charming presentation combined with badass jumping. Will always be memorable for me. 

5. Rika Kihira Beautiful Storm - one of my favourites. Will always watch the NHK version where she nailed it.  

6.Jun Hwan Cha Romeo and Juliet - Junliiiiiiiiieeeeeeet need I say more. I almost died when the disco broke out and nothing will ever amuse me again like that jump timed right on the Juuuuuuliiiiiieeeeeet screaming. 

Edited July 8, 2019 by Mellowyellow

[MaKaM]

Michelle Kwan's Tosca at Nationals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWQSoIEAxns

[Enero]

On 7/3/2019 at 9:51 PM, Jeddah said:

The Skating Lesson talked about YouTube rabbit holes, and which performances they go back to. 

What are the performances you rewatch over and over?

Mine in no particular order:

1. Hanyu - 2015 GPF LP - Semei

2. Hanyu - 2016 Worlds SP - Ballade 1

3. Anissina and Peizerant - 2002 Olympics Original Dance - Flamengo

4. Anissina and Peizerant - 2000 Worlds Carmina Burana

5.  Sui and Han 2019 Worlds LP

6. James and Cipres 2018 Skate Canada LP

7. Plushenko - 2003 Russian Nationals LP - Tribute to Nijinsky 

8. Sasha Cohen - 2004 Worlds SP - Malagueña 

9. Yuna Kim - 2009 Worlds SP Dance Macabre

10. Shen and Zhao 2010 Olympics SP and LP

[annzeepark914]

While watching Michelle's Tosca video I thought...such attention to detail.  Even her hands were expressive.  Can that style of skating be attributed to Frank Carroll and Lori Nichols?  I don't have a list of skaters whose performances I watch a lot but there are some that I have enjoyed including:

M/D's Olympic LP Liebestram

Michelle's 1996 LP Salome (wish I had a video of this at Nationals because you could see what she did with her eyes as she passed the judges that night...and what I saw again a few weeks later at COI but you can't see it in the World's video). Attention to detail!!

D/W's Bollywood 

D/W's Olympic winner, Scheherezad (I was exhausted at the end, just like them)

Alyssa Czizny's Sabrina (I wonder what she's doing these days...another skater I miss)

Sale/Pelletier's 2002 Olympic winner, Love Story (hated that music until I saw their interpretation of it...didn't Lori Nichols do the chorography on that one?)

Sasha Cohen's Dark Eyes. Loved her interpretation of such an old song + that gorgeous costume!  Hmmm...all of my favorites are from the old days...no current competitors. I must be overlooking/forgetting some memorable recent skating.

[displayname]

28 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

I must be overlooking/forgetting some memorable recent skating.

You're not.

Edited July 9, 2019 by displayname

[Crs97]

Boitano’s gold medal winning performances, both short and long.

[Enero]

1 hour ago, displayname said:

You're not.

Agreed. There are a few programs IMHO that stands out ie those previously mentioned by Hanyu, James/Cipres, Sui/Han etc.  But it seems most of the skating talent today have programs that are forgettable at best. They either have jumps and choreography, but no presence or just jumps and nothing else. 

We seem to be in a lull, at least for me, when it comes specifically to women’s and dance, pairs and men’s do still have have some sparks who are bringing life to the sport. But overall, I’ve become bored with figure skating. 

[annzeepark914]

8 hours ago, Enero said:

We seem to be in a lull, at least for me, when it comes specifically to women’s and dance, pairs and men’s do still have have some sparks who are bringing life to the sport. But overall, I’ve become bored with figure skating. 

Me too & I hate that I'm bored. I love competitive figure skating and want it to once again be interesting to watch. It's too bad that the athletic growth has come at the cost of the artistic side.

Edited July 10, 2019 by annzeepark914

[displayname]

I don't agree that the talent isn't present. It's more that I'm bored with the way programs are choreographed.

[ML89]

3 hours ago, displayname said:

I don't agree that the talent isn't present. It's more that I'm bored with the way programs are choreographed.

I’m bored by the music. They now have a new universe of songs and we’re still being served warhorses. 

[SeanC]

There's as much talent and interesting work being done in figure skating now as at any other point in the sport.  Heck, the most recent Olympics was probably the overall best Olympics of the 21st century.

[displayname]

11 minutes ago, SeanC said:

Heck, the most recent Olympics was probably the overall best Olympics of the 21st century.

A lot of people were bored, but why not. 

11 minutes ago, SeanC said:

There's as much talent and interesting work being done in figure skating now as at any other point in the sport.

Ever checked Twitter? 

[Jeddah]

On 7/10/2019 at 12:38 PM, SeanC said:

There's as much talent and interesting work being done in figure skating now as at any other point in the sport.  Heck, the most recent Olympics was probably the overall best Olympics of the 21st century.

I agree completely. I truly don’t understand the complaints about the state of skating. The last Olympics raised the technical content, but also had unreal artistry. Savchenko/ Massot had one of the best pairs performances I have ever seen. And Hanyu is one of the greatest skaters of all time. Then the Virtue/ Moir and Papadakis/ Cizeron rivalry was crazy. I don’t see how anyone could watch those skaters and be bored.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Jeddah

[Mellowyellow]

I've actually looked up a lot of old programs to see what the complaint is about skating "these days" and I was bored stiff.

There was a lot of what looked to me like skating around and then "hut hut" to get ready for a jump. I'm honestly not sure why that's considered artistic.

Must be just personal taste. I like transitions and jumps. I get bored when I see people holding the same pose for a zillion years and skating around and around. 

***

I thought the ladies were mad awesome at the last Olympics but I wasn't entirely happy with the men. If they'd skated to the level of their 2019 world's performances it would have been insane. 

Next Olympics though will be nuts if they all stay healthy. 

[displayname]

11 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

Must be just personal taste. I like transitions and jumps.

Have you watched the winning and the silver medal performances for the ladies' event at 1996 worlds? All four of those programs were filled with transitions, strong jumps, better skating skills and choreography than what is seen today. The (welcome) difference is the absence of overly long step sequences and spins.

[Mellowyellow]

21 minutes ago, displayname said:

Have you watched the winning and the silver medal performances for the ladies' event at 1996 worlds? All four of those programs were filled with transitions, strong jumps, better skating skills and choreography than what is seen today. The (welcome) difference is the absence of overly long step sequences and spins.

I went and looked them up. Just the gold and silver performances. Really not my cup of tea I think.  

[ML89]

I miss straight line step sequences with speed (Yagudin) and I miss a good spiral sequence. Thankfully, we're seeing more of those coming back.

I don't miss Bielmann spiral sequences, though, except for how they would make Dick Button cross and Terry Gannon just goad him on.

[ombelico]

Dropping in to add the Duchesnays' "Missing" program from 1990 to the lists above.

[annzeepark914]

On 7/11/2019 at 11:58 AM, ML89 said:

I don't miss Bielmann spiral sequences, though, except for how they would make Dick Button cross and Terry Gannon just goad him on.

Thanks for the fun memories of those two.  Loved it when Terry would get Dick going! 

[AshleyN]

On 7/3/2019 at 11:21 PM, Jeddah said:

The Skating Lesson talked about YouTube rabbit holes, and which performances they go back to. 

What are the performances you rewatch over and over?

I don't watch a ton of skating on Youtube, but the most watched for me are:

Yagudin's 2002 Olympic programs (both short and long)

Shen and Zhao's Turandot

Virtue and Moir's Umbrellas of Cherbourg -- I think they may have had "better"/more difficult/more sophisticated programs later on, but there's something about how youthful and fresh this feels that's just magic for me, and makes it endlessly rewatchable. Ice Dance had always been my least favourite of the skating discipline's, and this program is really what made me a big fan.

Edited July 13, 2019 by AshleyN

[HartofDixie]

The Olympic Channel posted this today.

[annzeepark914]

HartofDixie: Thanks so much for such a cheerful video this morning!  I love D/W--esp love their Bollywood program.  I miss their creativity. 

[ChicksDigScars]

On 6/27/2019 at 12:04 PM, displayname said:

@ChicksDigScarsH/D have a Star is Born for their FD, and Let's be Bad for their SD. You are semi-safe.

Oh dear god. All I keep thinking are Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "are they screwing or not" chemistry/controversy while doing Shallow at the Oscars. I can totally see H/D capitalizing on THAT. 

[annzeepark914]

5 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

Oh dear god. All I keep thinking are Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "are they screwing or not" chemistry/controversy while doing Shallow at the Oscars. I can totally see H/D capitalizing on THAT. 

CHICKSDIGSCARS:  Start thinking of what flavor popcorn you'll be munching while enjoying our favorites, H/D, channeling Brad & Gaga on ice.  It's gonna be hot & heavy whenever these two are in front of a camera (on ice or off).  

[Ruby Gillis]

On 6/7/2019 at 9:30 PM, Mellowyellow said:

Shoma left his long time coaches (no hard feelings, all very nice) and is going to Eteri's summer camp 👽

Whoever said FS is boring!

Apparently he is back in Japan and coachless.  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/07/18/figure-skating/story-behind-shoma-uno-not-teaming-eteri-tutberidze/#.XTEU7JNKjOR

From the article

Quote

“Eteri has certain conditions that all her skaters must agree to,” a skating source said of the savant who has wowed the skating world with her work with Olympic champion Alina Zagitova, two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva and others. “Shoma would not agree to them all and that is why he is not part of the team.”

Although that part sounds made up for drama.  It seems more likely he wasn't planning to stay longer than the summer camp in the first place.  But again, not boring!

Edited July 19, 2019 by Ruby Gillis

[Mellowyellow]

@Ruby Gillis I think Shoma's visit to Eteri's camp was very much like Bradie going to Mishin's camp. But yes much juicier when it involves Eteri 😂

Vincent's move to Mie Hamada is exciting as well. I read somewhere on a forum that it was difficult for his parents to afford his skating so the deal Mie Hamada helped secure for him was pretty decent. 

[Enero]

On 7/18/2019 at 9:58 PM, Ruby Gillis said:

Apparently he is back in Japan and coachless.  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/07/18/figure-skating/story-behind-shoma-uno-not-teaming-eteri-tutberidze/#.XTEU7JNKjOR

From the article

Although that part sounds made up for drama.  It seems more likely he wasn't planning to stay longer than the summer camp in the first place.  But again, not boring!

Agreed. I mean surely he wouldn’t move to Russia to train with a new coach without ironing out all the rules and requirements first. 

Still, it does make me wonder though why then dump his coach if he had no replacement. Considering the issues he had last season this doesn’t seem like the time for instability. Whatever his agenda I wish him success. He is one of the most interesting male skaters to watch IMO. 

[HartofDixie]

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/the-scene/weddings/a28470114/meryl-davis-fedor-andreev-wedding/

[SeanC]

The Minto Summer Competition was last weekend.  As tends to be the case with summer competitions (and the early season in general), lots of people just getting warmed up, especially in the singles disciplines. 

The junior dance competition was the real highlight of the proceedings, though.  The rhythm dance debuted a lot of fun Broadway/musical programs, my favourite probably being Makita/Gunara's charming Hairspray one.  Skate Ontario didn't archive the stream this year, so there's no video of it available, but there were some good free dances debuted as well.  The top five:

- Miku Makita & Tyler Gunara's Haley Reinhart/Beth Hart mix.

- Nadiia Bashynska & Peter Beaumont's "Caruso".

- Olivia McIsaac & Corey Circelli's unusual "Nature Boy" and "Danse Macabre" program.

- Utana Yoshida & Shingo Nishiyama's "Don Quixote" (this is a new team representing Japan that trains at the Cricket Club; Shingo has only been doing ice dance for about six months).

- Irina Galiyanova & Grayson Lochhead's very...weird program.  Carol Lane certainly didn't go easy on them, this is pretty much a senior program in terms of the difficulty level of the transitional moves, etc.

[HartofDixie]

Ashley Wagner going public.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2019/08/01/ashley-wagner-olympian-figure-skating-sexual-assault-john-coughlin/1876517001/