Programs by Dean | Golden Skate

Programs by Dean

Doggygirl

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
This thread is prompted by a question Emma posed in the Sasha music thread. To paraphrase, she was wondering what Dean may have envisioned for MK's Bolero program. Of course I think many of us would love to know, but probably never will - which is fine.

It got me thinking though. What other single skater competitive programs has Dean choreographed? There are a couple of "show" programs he's choreographed that I thought were very amazing - one for Kristi Y (can't remember what the music was - but the intricacy of footwork, etc. was amazing) as an example.

Since it's still the off season, I'd love to dig up some video clips of some of his competitive program work. Not sure how much is actually out there - does anyone know of examples? I'm just curious now.

Thanks!!

DG
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Chris Dean is one of my favorite choreographers... the work he's done with Stars On Ice as well as his shows with Jayne and their own programs is just WOW

He has choreographed for Kurt Browing, Ilia Kulik, and Sale & Pelletier in the last few years. My favorite Kulik program of all time Chris choreographed "Baseball Cap" it was a very interesting program complete with a baseball cap prop ;)


Kurt Browning's Red Hat program in 97 was also done by Chris... and is one of my favorite programs of all time. :agree: also with a hat as a prop ;)
 

hrmsk8ngnutt

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Besides Michelle, I don't know if Christopher Dean has choreographed for Olympic-eligible singles skaters.

He has worked with a number of ice dance teams: IIRC, there is Bourne/Kraatz (Meet Her At the Love Parade - 99 Worlds), Lang/Tchernychev (Anytime, Anywhere - 2000 Worlds), Anissina/Peizerat (Carmina Burana), Roca/Sur (96 Worlds OD), and Drobiazko/Vanagas (96 and 97, IIRC it was mentioned during the OD telecast). I'm sure there are others I have left off. He may have also worked with Chalom/Gates for their 99 programs (I think also mentioned during 99 Nationals or Worlds broadcast).

Besides some of the professional skaters mentioned, he also choreographed for Mrs. Christopher Dean, aka Jill Trenary. He created These Boots Are Made For Walkin'. The program he created for Kristi Yamaguchi was to The Triplets of Belleville.

Herm (sk8ngnutt)
 

tdnuva

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
He created two programs for Joanne Conway in the 91/92 season which I still hunt for. They were praised for the choreography when she obviously skated them at the Europeans, but she struggled too hard to cope with them so she resurrected old programs for the Olympics.

In 2000 (probably for the 00/01 season) he choreographed iirc a short program for Naomi Nari Nam to Sway. Never found that either yet.

Same season he developped Rush as short program for Kwan which you might be able to find. I got it and it should be available on rinkside e.g.

Besides those I only know of (quite many) routines for single pro skaters plus dancers and pairs (and ensembles) in amateur and pro scene.
 

Frau Muller

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Dean choreographed the Duchesnays' programs in the early 1990s. He was briefly married to Isabelle Duchesnay, in fact.
 

mememe

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
Chris Dean choreographed two programs with Brian Boitano -- one of my favorites of Brian's that unfortunately never made a TV broadcast, "Mo Ghile Mear" ("Our Hero") by Sting/the Chieftans. It was ab absolutely stunning bit of choreography, in my opinion. He also worked with Brian on a tango number that he performed at the 1999 Landover (World Pro) competition, I believe it was. Brian was working with some injuries at the time, and I didn't like the music at all, but the choreography, again, I thought was wonderful.

I loved Jill's "These Boots are Made for Walking," too. Again, just a great piece of choreography, I thought. And I think he did one with Kurt Browning, too ("Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," maybe? I can't remember which one for sure.) I do remember that all three of these folks said the programs were very hard to do and I don't think any of them performed them a bunch of times.
 

tdnuva

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
mememe said:
And I think he did one with Kurt Browning, too ("Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," maybe? I can't remember which one for sure.) I do remember that all three of these folks said the programs were very hard to do and I don't think any of them performed them a bunch of times.
The one which was just a Kurt solo was "Ain't no sunshine". And it was performed during a whole CSOI tour. Wonderful work imho.

There are many more programs for pro skaters, mostly for the tours they did and SOI. But only very few amateuer single skaters (see above) asked T&D or Dean alone to choreograph.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Dean has also choreographed programs for some junior dancers in Colorado. I know he did an OD for one team in 1998-99, and several ODs for Trina Pratt and Todd Gilles, the current US junior champions (for 2005-06 he did their free dance instead).
 

mememe

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
tdnuva said:
The one which was just a Kurt solo was "Ain't no sunshine". And it was performed during a whole CSOI tour. Wonderful work imho.

There are many more programs for pro skaters, mostly for the tours they did and SOI. But only very few amateuer single skaters (see above) asked T&D or Dean alone to choreograph.

Thanks -- I knew it had "Sun" in there somewhere. And yes, it was performed in the CSOI tour, but like Brian B.'s "Our Hero" in the Winter COI tour, that just wasn't very long compared to a regular COI or SOI tour. And I think I only saw it ("Ain't No Sunshine) once, because it wasn't televised much (if any) or done much in the U.S.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Was The Triplets of Belleville Kristi's Tango number? I thought that Dean choreographed that one.
 

ladybug

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I know Dean has choreographed some beautilful programs for pros and I love the Kulik "Baseball Cap" but Kulik never won anything with that program.

He may choreograph difficult programs but how COP friendly are they. I believe that may be why she changed Bolero so many times before and during Worlds.

He is the best at SOI but I am not so sure about eligibles. His foot work is difficult but how about the spins etc.

Michelle made a good choice, now lets hope she won't change anything. :clap:

Ladybug
 
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Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
ladybug said:
I know Dean has choreographed some beautilful programs for pros and I love the Kulik "Baseball Cap" but Kulik never won anything with that program.

He may choreograph difficult programs but how COP friendly are they. I believe that may be why she changed Bolero so many times before and during Worlds.

He is the best at SOI but I am not so sure about eligibles. His foot work is difficult but how about the spins etc.

Michelle made a good choice, now lets hope she won't change anything. :clap:

Ladybug

I loved Kulik's Baseball Cap program, unfortunately Kulik never quite mastered it. I think the Baseball cap kept getting away on him. Anyway the choreography is brilliant.
 

tdnuva

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
ladybug said:
He may choreograph difficult programs but how COP friendly are they. I believe that may be why she changed Bolero so many times before and during Worlds.

He is the best at SOI but I am not so sure about eligibles. His foot work is difficult but how about the spins etc.
Kwan fans might not like to hear my answer - so if you are thinking she only does good and everyone else is at fault, stop reading here.

My opinion on choreographing. For amateurs. It's not a thing done alone by the choreographer in an ivory tower. Of course s/he has to stay in touch with coach and skater to know what the skills are, which jumps are possible, how far into the program (depending on the stamina of the skater), which spins and so on. So, the basic element setup is surely not only done by the choreographer.

Where the choreographer CAN play a big role are the MITF, the transitions and everything that is judged in the categories choreography and interpretation. And I think there is not much dispute that Dean's choreos excel in this department.

The only mention I found of Kwan about Dean's choreo in Bolero (besides the basic info he did it) was just after one of the cheesefests when she fell in the step sequence. She said the steps were too hard.

So I think it's just her abilities and skills. If overall or just last season is not my job to decide. But at least last season it was too much for her to execute decent jumps, decent spins and then having to bother with steps in between. So she obviously threw out everything that "distracts" her. Which left us spectators with an empty program. And I crinch everytime I read this (end product) would be a Dean program.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
Ladskater said:
I loved Kulik's Baseball Cap program, unfortunately Kulik never quite mastered it. I think the Baseball cap kept getting away on him. Anyway the choreography is brilliant.

I believe that although Ilia did not succeed in World Pro with that programme, he though mastered it on SOI 1999-2000 tour (I saw it live twice). I really love that programme!!! The only "negative" thing was that it turned out introverted, was not connected with the audience. If Dean and Ilia would have used a different approach here and there, it would have turned out a huge masterpiece, in my opinion.
 

Doggygirl

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Thanks for all the responses...

Guess I'll have to dig around for some of Dean's pro programs!

Thanks..

DG
 

mzheng

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
Well, if you want to see Dean's original choreography of Bolero for Kwan, then winter Marshall's version was what you looking for....there are a lot things/difficulties were added in compare to the Campbells....The Campbells was the watered down version with a lot of her own inputs, that's why she felt so comfortable with....and they(MK and RA) just changed footwork a few days before Campbell to make it more difficult under CoP.
 
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RIskatingfan

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
mzheng said:
Well, if you want to see Dean's original choreography of Bolero for Kwan, then winter Marshall's version was what you looking for....
AFAIK, that's just speculation from fans. Although the program changed several times during the season, I think the only name pointed as choreographer was Christopher Dean. Now if all versions were variations created by him or if there was an original version that was changed by Kwan's camp (and we don't know what the original version is), it's all speculation.
 

brad640

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
ElFuego said:
I think he also did one (if not both) of Jeremy Abbott's programs this year.
Dean did Abbott's SP to I'm A-Doun by Vanessa Mae. Damon Allen did his LP.
 

mzheng

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
RIskatingfan said:
AFAIK, that's just speculation from fans. Although the program changed several times during the season, I think the only name pointed as choreographer was Christopher Dean. Now if all versions were variations created by him or if there was an original version that was changed by Kwan's camp (and we don't know what the original version is), it's all speculation.

Yeah, it was also my 'speculation' (or rather I heard the 'rumor') that Dean had called Raphael (after he watched Campbell televised on TV) that it was very important that Michelle skated to the original version he had choreographed.
 
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