Michelle Kwan "Ariane"

[christinaskater]

I finally saw her Word Pros program set to Ariane and it is one of the greatest skates of Michelle!

Hope other people can get the chance to see this video, because it is simply phenomenal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55N9a...p::clap::clap:

[Mathman]

This might be the second best Michelle Kwan performance of all time...the first best being the one she did the next night at the same event (East of Eden.)

[dorispulaski]

Wonderful program

[Joesitz]

Thanks Christina. I've never seen that clip. It was pure figure skating: Speed; Technique; Flow; Musical, all done with feeling. What more could you ask for?

[Kwanford Wife]

Thank you Christina! I forgot just how special this program was... it was such a turning point in her skating - when she left the phenom behind and blossomed into the Kween that she is... Simply breathtaking...

[Tinymavy15]

That was a terrific program. Carmen was pretty great early in the season as well. She watered the later down for Nationals and never quite performed 'Ariane' to its full potential in competition. If she had it would have easily been known as one of her best ever. Funny how diffrent she looked and moved only a few short months after Nagano.

[christinaskater]

This program at the World Pros is definitely up there with her best performances in history!

She won the 1998 World Professional Championships heheheehhe! She was amazing!

[Olympia]

I hadn't seen Ariane for some time either, partly because I don't love the music as avidly as I do the Dvorak Kwan used for the Black Swan program. I viewed it last week and found it thrilling. To my mind, Kwan's best period was that era between 1998 and the time she left Frank Carroll and Lori Nichol. Nichol's inspired, intricate choreography and sophisticated music choices were perfectly suited to Kwan's profound musicality and silken technique. Kwan's later routines seemed somewhat emptier and less surprising by comparison (although still splendid--after all, this was still Michelle!), and few of Nichol's other skaters could offer the interpretive wisdom and the edge of mystery that Kwan brought to the table. Ariane is one of the top landmark skates from this marvelous phase of Kwan's career.

It's funny: for years I had the painful "wuz-robbed" feeling about Michelle's 1998 Olympic performance. No criticism of Tara Lipinski implied, but it really bothered me that her very nice routine could earn a gold medal over Kwan's stirring creativity. But looking back, I realize that Kwan's Olympic silver did her a tremendous favor. Would she have remained in competitive skating if she had won the gold? I suspect not...and we would have missed out on the growth of a mature artist--the routines such as Ariane and Aranjuez and The Black Swan--a decade-long continuity very rare in skating history. The long, leisurely careers of Eastern Bloc skaters before the nineties could have this arc, but American skaters have tended to flower for an Olympic cycle and then move on.