Changing The Image Of Men's Figure Skating | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Changing The Image Of Men's Figure Skating

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
:eek: Are you advocating the Nude Technical program Joe??? :rofl:

:rofl::rofl: :p

Ant
:rofl:
No, just simple trousers and pullovers for the gentlemen and long sleaved simple one piece dresses for the Ladies.

I disagree with all the posters who claim it enhances the competitiveness. While fans, particularly ladies, enjoy commenting on costumes, no one ever said the costume made him/her lose or gain points. Costumes are not included in CoP.

I do believe that some costumes are a ploy to hide the inadequacies of a skater's technique. The skaters should work on technique and sell the program through skating. A little bit of understanding music would help moreso than the costumes.
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
I disagree with all the posters who claim it enhances the competitiveness. While fans, particularly ladies, enjoy commenting on costumes, no one ever said the costume made him/her lose or gain points. Costumes are not included in CoP.

I'm not sure it enhances competitiveness so much as getting you into the right frame of mind. I think there's a world of difference doing any kind of performance in your practice clothes to in your costume. People rehearsing for a play can be fantastic in all manner of run-throughs but it's not like the full dress rehearsal (or the actual performance). Same with skating - practising your program in your "normal" clothes just isn't the same as practising or doing the real thing in your costume. It's the mental aspect that's enhanced. Similarly at law school, even though it wasn't necessary we all had to wear suits for our assessments for advocay and interviewing. We didn't get any extra marks for our suits :p but the lecturers believed that dressing for the occasion made us step up our game and "get in character".

I do believe that some costumes are a ploy to hide the inadequacies of a skater's technique. The skaters should work on technique and sell the program through skating. A little bit of understanding music would help moreso than the costumes.

I'm not sure how a costume could hide skaters inadequacies unless it was a disney on ice full on animal costume that hid your limbs or could be blamed for poor technique :scratch:

I think an understanding of music is definitely something that would help skaters enormously. As far as I'm aware most skaters' off ice training will involve some form of dance or musical training which would focus on explanations of different musical styles and understanding movements that are appropriate.

Ugh. Do you enjoy pain? :) Just think of the possible crush in the sitsspin. :eek:

:rofl: Speaking from experience (not of nude skating :laugh: but of not wearing appropriate underwear once!) simple back crossovers are not safe without support! Let's leave it at that!

Ant
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I'm not sure it enhances competitiveness so much as getting you into the right frame of mind. I think there's a world of difference doing any kind of performance in your practice clothes to in your costume.
It's the same as putting on a uniform to get one into the spirit of sport. Figure Skating does not need sequines. Specially tailored simple clothes, not practice clothes, will work as getting one into the spirit of FS.
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
It's the same as putting on a uniform to get one into the spirit of sport. Figure Skating does not need sequines. Specially tailored simple clothes, not practice clothes, will work as getting one into the spirit of FS.

But that very much depends on what you mean by the "spirit of FS". I don't really know what direction you prefer in skating Joe, but you've made the same suggestion several times which all boils down to getting rid of the performance aspect of skating. Losing the music and making it like a barrel jumpnig contest with just jumps and spins.

Personally if that happened i'd stop watching (i'm already less enthusiastic about skating every year the season starts wince COP) altogether because it's the blend of sport and performance that I love about skating.

For me the "spirit of FS" is the combination of the physical technical aspect fusing with the performance art aspect of it. It is unique in this regard. That is what i love about it, and that is what , for me, is the spirit of FS. The costumes are part of the performance - a very small part of it, but a part nonetheless.

Ant
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
:rofl: Speaking from experience (not of nude skating :laugh: but of not wearing appropriate underwear once!) simple back crossovers are not safe without support! Let's leave it at that!Ant

sorry if i will cross the line but i need to ask this,:unsure:, are there special underwear for male skaters?
This message will self-destruct in five seconds
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
sorry if i will cross the line but i need to ask this,:unsure:, are there special underwear for male skaters?
This message will self-destruct in five seconds

I think jocks or dance belts are recommended. Tight underwear i think will suffice, but one day (when i was just learning to skate) i stupidly wore fairly loose boxers. I never made that mistake EVER again! :rofl:

Ant
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
It's all about TV ratings now.
"now" ??? It's ALWAYS been about ratings on television. Shows/events that don't get good ratings don't last long.

Figures went the way of the dodo because of ratings... Tonya Harding became as evil as Hitler(somehwat of an exageration, going for media sensationalism) for ratings... ice dance/pairs scandal backfired for the ratings war...

and that's just a few for skating...
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
jocks or dance belts
while speaking about mens costumes...I googled it and came up with this this:unsure: maybe due to safe mode at work..
but thank you anyway, i was many years in the dark :p
 

Medusa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 6, 2007
while speaking about mens costumes...I googled it and came up with this this:unsure: maybe due to safe mode at work..
but thank you anyway, i was many years in the dark :p
I don't think that most of them wear the same dance belts as ballet dancers, because that just looks different (a picture of a dancebelt you can find on every ballet shop website, I doubt that it's not G-rated). Some men do though, think Fadeev (who got points deducted because his jockstrap was visible :biggrin:).
 
Last edited:

ballerynna

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 9, 2008
It's the same as putting on a uniform to get one into the spirit of sport. Figure Skating does not need sequines. Specially tailored simple clothes, not practice clothes, will work as getting one into the spirit of FS.

I disagree, I was required to wear a uniform for ballet (burgundy or black leotard, pink/flesh tights, hair in a Vaganova-style bun) and all I felt was that I was doing barre and centre work even if it was a rehearsal for Nutcracker . To really really get into it, wearing the costume helped.

And wasn't there a time where Alissa Czisny practiced in her costume and she said it helped her?

while speaking about mens costumes...I googled it and came up with this this:unsure: maybe due to safe mode at work..
but thank you anyway, i was many years in the dark :p

I believe there is a picture of Johnny Weir where you can clearly see a dance belt through his costume ;)
 
Last edited:

Winnipeg

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
I disagree, I was required to wear a uniform for ballet (burgundy or black leotard, pink/flesh tights, hair in a Vaganova-style bun) and all I felt was that I was doing barre and centre work even if it was a rehearsal for Nutcracker . To really really get into it, wearing the costume helped.

And wasn't there a time where Alissa Czisny practiced in her costume and she said it helped her?



I believe there is a picture of Johnny Weir where you can clearly see a dance belt through his costume ;)



I heard Phaneuf practiced in her cotume and it helped her................
 

Medusa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 6, 2007
I think the public should be informed and told that not all male skaters are gay.
You mean, like with the Mexicans right now? "Not all Mexicans have swine flu. So if you meet a Mexican, it's possible that he hasn't the swine flu and is not contagious" - "Not all male skaters are gay. So if you meet a male skater, it's possible that he isn't gay and therefore won't spread this condition"
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
I think a lot people who don't know much about figure skating think all male figure skaters are gay. My dad for example watched an interview with Johnny Weir on tv with me and he turned to me and asked if he was gay because he looked like it. Although some male skaters such as Brian Orser, Rohene Ward, Rudy Galindo and all of the men who compete in the Gay Games are gay, people don't realize skaters such as Roman Kostomarov, Scott Hamilton, Evan Lysacek, Alexei Yagudin and Olivier Schoenfelder have girlfriends or wives. I think the public should be informed and told that not all male skaters are gay.

Does it really matter whether people are gay or not? If it does, this isn't the sport for you!
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I disagree, I was required to wear a uniform for ballet (burgundy or black leotard, pink/flesh tights, hair in a Vaganova-style bun) and all I felt was that I was doing barre and centre work even if it was a rehearsal for Nutcracker . To really really get into it, wearing the costume helped.
George Ballanchine brought a fledging ballet company with black leotards and pink tights for the ladies and black tights for the men in many of his young ballets because there was no money. Needless to say, the public went to see them anyway, and the company became the New York City Ballet, and world renowned.

You're probably stuck in the 19th century ballet tradition which was financed by Czars and Kings. Ballanchine thought all that glitter got in the way of pure dance.

I happen to like figure skating without the glitter. Just skating as a Sport. I'm ok with SOA.
 

Tigger

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
That's actually not true. If you read one of the interviews with Lambiel, you can read that he mentioned that he never thought that colourful tight costumes, gold, silver and other shiny stuff are "not masculine", because as a half-Portuguese he has been used to men clothed like that - the Toreros. Is bull-fighting a sport? Well, it could be considered one. Are the men athletic and powerful? Definitely! Is it considered masculine? Heck, yeah!

So that's where Stephane's colouring and looks comes from. I've never been able to figure it out before, but had a feeling he had a Latin heritage somewhere in his background.

That's not the point. The point is that it shouldn't matter if people are gay or straight. And I really wished that some of the skaters who were asked like that Canadian ice-dancer, would have answered: "Of course I was picked on as a child because I am a skater. Just like they picked on the girl with the really bad acne, or on the guy who was like a human calculator or on the girl who used to wear shirts with sheep on them." What's with the whining "I was picked on because people thought I was gay because I am a skater"? Everyone gets picked on as a child / teenager. Why does the sport has to change because the world is so narrow-minded?

Can we at least call it what it is? It is not "being picked on". It is not "being teased." What I went through, what the guys who skate go through and others that are singled out go through is not a rite of passage of childhood that everyone goes through. It is abuse!! Pure and simple and I truly believe that until it gets called what it truly is, we will never see an end to this in our schools/society.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but obviously this subject's a rather sore one w/me thanks to my own experiences.

As for Skate Canada's campaign....Someone needs to sit Michael Slipchuk down and have a very long talk w/him. This is not the direction he/.SC needs to be taking things in w/us now in the Countdown to Vancouver.
 

i love to skate

Medalist
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
As for Skate Canada's campaign....Someone needs to sit Michael Slipchuk down and have a very long talk w/him. This is not the direction he/.SC needs to be taking things in w/us now in the Countdown to Vancouver.

I encourage everyone to go over to FSUniverse and read this topic there. One of the posters emailed Skate Canada and I believe it is Mr. Thompson (the CEO) who responded. He provided very valuable insight and addressed many points - including how much he values the artistic side of the sport. The views that were stated in this ABC report were not stated by Skate Canada and people seem to be jumping to conclusions about what occurred. Now it has morphed into a debate on sexuality and things have been hugely blown out of proportion.
 
Top