- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
Extension is important, and often the so-called artistic skaters tend to have great extension, because it's an important foundation upon which many components of artistic expression can be built. But merely having extension does not mean the skater is artistic or a good dancer. People used to criticize Cohen for striking beautiful positions which always appeared more impressive in still frame photos than in motion. This criticism applies to Lip even more IMO. The fact that you want her to hold it for 10 more seconds kind of proves my point about it being better in still frame than in motion. Like another poster said, figure skating / dancing is about motion. She may have good stretch (flexibility definitely helps) and hits nice positions, but the way she transitions from one move to another through time is frantic, one-pace, lacking real awareness of her body in space, and rarely in tune with the phrasing and dynamics of the music. There are so many times when the music calls for softer, more subtle movement but she would just rush through the same exact way as any other time. She's a talented skater and has done incredibly well ticking all the tangible boxes of PCS that can be more or less measured. But to me she is just not one of those skaters who really feel the beauty of music and movement, but that's not covered by PCS. What's interesting (but not surprising to me) is that even her choreographer has said that she has a very calculating personality and admitted that he doesn't consider Schindler's List to be one of his outstanding works.Ok so about this
That's why I brought the Ina Bauer and Spiral up. While achieving a very good Ina Bauer Yulia lends her entire body to the music and conveys a lifeless body very fitting of a Schindlers program for obvious reasons. My only wish would be that the rink was longer so she could keep going for 10 more seconds. It isn't the fact that it's an Ina Bauer. It's the way she does it that strikes me as artistic.
I'd welcome other examples of other young skaters doing similar gestures and how their fans are moved by them. That would be a better direction for this thread.
Having "soul" has nothing to do with the program being light-hearted or solemn. Mozart wrote so many compositions that are light-hearted and vivacious, but to me he was one of the most profound and soulful composers of all time. To me Radionova has so much soul because her skating has real passion, genuinely feels the music from within, generously opens herself up to the audience, and loses herself in the choreography.I'm sorry but no. The thing Yulia has is soul compared to say Radinova who is a natural born performer. While Elena is more light hearted and I'm sure more enjoyable to some Yulia is more of a dramatic actor/interpreter.