- Joined
- Aug 10, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IMwD1TDoUI
I was not much interested in Pairs until I watched the whole competition at Euros. It was amazing, and I was really, really impressed by M/T's Long Program. I've never seen such a gorgeous acting performance on ice. As we all know, it is based upon "The Lady and the Hooligan" by Shostakovich, a ballet which was first staged in 1961. The music (very russian, if you know what I mean) has a lot of changes of rythm and it's really amusing. Maria and Maxim were actually two actors, because they expressed theatrically every detail and aspect of their characters. Maxim interpreted a big and rude boy who falls in love with his teacher. As we could expect from a "hooligan", it's not like a platonic love, in fact he chases her trying to, well, you know, touch her bottom. But we can see he's not just a rough guy: he has a delicate feeling in his soul. So he becomes - and that's sweet - clumsy for love. Really funny yet moving to watch. Maria is the Lady, the teacher, and she looks rigid and aristocratic and she drives him away. Appareantly. She actually wants to attract him. She is also fickle: look at what she does at 4:08 in the video. Ah ah, wonderful! They're so connected to the music.
The routine doesn't show it, but the end of the story is very sad. He is stabbed by a school-mate (an other hooligan, perhaps jealous?) and before dying, he wants a kiss from her.
That's theater on ice!
I was not much interested in Pairs until I watched the whole competition at Euros. It was amazing, and I was really, really impressed by M/T's Long Program. I've never seen such a gorgeous acting performance on ice. As we all know, it is based upon "The Lady and the Hooligan" by Shostakovich, a ballet which was first staged in 1961. The music (very russian, if you know what I mean) has a lot of changes of rythm and it's really amusing. Maria and Maxim were actually two actors, because they expressed theatrically every detail and aspect of their characters. Maxim interpreted a big and rude boy who falls in love with his teacher. As we could expect from a "hooligan", it's not like a platonic love, in fact he chases her trying to, well, you know, touch her bottom. But we can see he's not just a rough guy: he has a delicate feeling in his soul. So he becomes - and that's sweet - clumsy for love. Really funny yet moving to watch. Maria is the Lady, the teacher, and she looks rigid and aristocratic and she drives him away. Appareantly. She actually wants to attract him. She is also fickle: look at what she does at 4:08 in the video. Ah ah, wonderful! They're so connected to the music.
The routine doesn't show it, but the end of the story is very sad. He is stabbed by a school-mate (an other hooligan, perhaps jealous?) and before dying, he wants a kiss from her.
That's theater on ice!