I was speaking from an American standpoint but if it offends people I will change it.
Ladies LP
- Thread starter Kimmie Fan
- Start date
I was speaking from an American standpoint but if it offends people I will change it.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
I'm with you on this except the ballet lessons, unless they are just for posture. No more baby bllerinas or pwetty pwincesses! Let's encourage these girls to skate like power houses! Ditch the plinkety plonkety piano music wherever possible! Even though i think the music is a little over-powering for Mao right now I think that program will only get etter with time!
Ant
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. As another poster said, I had just felt that there were a lot of discussions on the US Nationals, the US Worlds team, and the US Olympic team in this thread and I felt a little bit excluded even though I was not offended. But it was not thoughtful or nice of me that I singled out your post. I am sorry about that. Thanks again for your thoughtful response.
Exactly, I just think that her dresses lack the character and something that would be in her style, something very 'her'. I think she needs that, because she is not the type of girl who looks great in everything (I really don't want to ofend her here! Just a 'styling' point of view). Maybe the costume issue is also connected to the music, because, I agree, that there would be better choices of music for her, that would give her programs a bit more character and make it more memorable.
I dont think that there is much fuss about Rachel. Some people like her, some other find her boring. Just that. No one claims that she is the best. There is no raving about her. She is just a nice skater to some people, and the most consistent US skater to most people. I only pointed out the things I like about her, and the potential, that she has (JMO). I did not prize the programs themselves.
You put it so nicely!
I totally agree with you. At first, when I saw her during the warm up, just skating around, I noticed her posture, and I thought 'what a heck, who is she?Is it Rachel Flatt that I was looking forward to see? How can this girl dance on ice?' But then, once she started her program, I had the feeling that the whole posture issue is almost gone. She was just lovely in her movements. Nevertheless, she has a lot of stuff to work on, there is room for much improvement here.
I think that taking ballet lessons can be helpful for many aspect of skating and for the whole diversity of program types/characters. Taking ballet classes does not mean that someone would become pwetty pwincess ballerina, and I certainly think that Rachel does not want to be a ballerina. She already has her own niche, IMO.
Also, I would not want every female skater to skate power-sporty programs. That would be boring as much as every program being ballerina-like. Simply, it does not suit every skater, just like not everyone can be a ballerina on ice.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
Perhaps i overstated the fuss, but i've heard many posters mention Rachel for a number of seasons now and this was my first viewing of a program by her on a real (as opposed to internet) broadcast on a big TV. It seemed to me like many people have praised her musicality which is why i was left scartching my head a little after the SP, but i'll watch the LP with interest and see how the rest of her season goes.
Oh i agree completely. The problem with ladies skating (for me), is that it seems like the default "if in doubt" position is - put the little girl in a nice flowing dress, give her a nice piano piece to skate pretty to and the judges will love it. I think there is nothing worse than having to sit through the same bland type of piano music that most ladies skaters choose.
Skaters like Yoshie Onda being packaged up as "pretty soft" skaters when she was obviously a power house skater. Even Sasha skating to all the pretty princess pieces. I would have liked to have seen her skate one powerful program that really showed off that steely determination that you could see in her eyes sometimes before she took to the ice rather than give the judges what she thought they wanted.
Ant
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Praise to be!! I get so tired of reading about ballet being a cure-all for all skaters. It is not! Only good figure skating practice can make a skater look better. If it involves ballet-like arms, so be it. One can practice those in front of a mirror. If it includes flexibility, Acrobatics will do it. If it includes character dancing, Spanish lessons will do it.
How many people who think ballet lessons will improve a skater's look on the ice? and how many lessons will it take to make this improvement? I really can't believe anyone who thinks a once a week ballet class as the thing for big improvement has ever took a ballet class themselves, and maybe never saw Giselle on the stage.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2008
I completely agree with you, you can practice ballet-like arms in front of a mirror. But it looks ridiculous!!! and I do believe that even someone who has virtually nothing to do with dancing but has watched a ballet performance would be able to tell the difference.
As for flexibility I must say that flexibility training has always been included in my ballet training program and I wonder how one would aspire to ballet dancing without doing that.
Spanish lessons for character??? What?? I have seen Flamenco dancers with no expression...
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
Oh well, if spanish lessons or spanish language knowledge were enough to be expressive, I should be more expressive than any skater out there :chorus:
Rachael bores me primarily because she is slow and seems to often skate to music that I would expect a grandma skate to, not a young person. Yes, it's fine to want to be mature and skate like a senior, but these skaters are still all young people. They don't need to pretend to be elderly out there. lol. Her music selections are just often so soft/dull and don't really build enough to get me excited. I think it's a Zakrajsek thing because Abbott's music puts me to sleep, too.
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- Joined
- Jun 27, 2003
I was impressed by Rachel when she was a novice... now she's just another lady in the mix as a senior... nothing really stands out. She's just blending in with everyone else...
Meissner in the long was like "what the hell... let's get this over with and let's go home to work on more"
Pretty Meissner
so random. - Joined
- Nov 16, 2005
Rachael needs to be totall revamped. She needs new hair, makeup, outfit and she needs to lose the mouth full of trouble.
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Do you mean her braces? Did you know that Rachael is the official pin-up girl for the American Association of Orthodontists?
You, too, can ask your orthodontist for patriotic red, white and blue braces just like Rachael's! :yes:
http://www.braces.org/bandtogether/photo_gallery.htm
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2008
I know
She really do need to have a make over. That's why I always appreciated the elegant of Yuna.
(signed) FierceRachael.
Well, Rachael is most likely not going to the finals.
(unless Mao and Yukari massively bomb NHK)That said, she's a cute kid, and I'm sure that Yu-Na of all people, would understand how hard it is to perform and feel self-assured when you're wearing braces. She smiled a lot more when she got hers off.
I'm the last person to suggest that all skaters be baby ballerinas or pwetty pwincesses!
One of the reasons I really enjoyed Carolina Kostner's skate at this competition was because there was tons of power and maturity in her skate - it was a woman skating, not a little girl. I suggested ballet lessons for Rachael because it would improve her posture and make her skating more aesthetically appealing. After all, all the skaters trained in the Soviet system took ballet and they were hardly baby ballerinas.- Joined
- Mar 13, 2008
As I mentioned in the "ballet" thread, Rachael claims that she does already take ballet. I don't see that it has helped her posture at all, it seems worse now than ever to me, and that is the biggest reason that I cannot get into her skating. She has good technique and a good feeling for the music, but so much is lost due to her poor posture and inability to extend her lines, point her toes, etc.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
I see Rachel as having a not-so-good physique. I think that is what causes some to think there is poor posture. There is no waitline and I think her dressmaker could at least improve on that.
As for Ballet, I just don't see it in Figure Skating. Maybe in the arms, but not much else.
Lori Nichol (Nichol also choreographed Flatt's FS last season). Tom Dickson choreographed Flatt's "It Ain't Necessarily So"/Gershwin SP last season.
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