The most over-used music for figure skating programs

redhotcoach said:

Don't forget - especially on the local up to national level --
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Good point. It's not just at the elite levels we get the warhorses--the repetitiveness situation is usually even worse at the local/regional level and particularly with soundtracks from movies-du-jour. I remember one such competition many years ago where I was rink monitor, and I kid you not, there were at least 10 little preliminary-level girls skating to Jurassic Park. Over and over, almost identical music edits. Eeeya! I felt kind of sorry for the judging panel. The next year, they graduated to some other popular movie theme song. However, I guess that's still better than lots of pre's and pre-juvies attempting kinder-Carmens.

If we can only vote for one , it has to be Carmen , of course. But just as it suffers from under expression, it also suffers from over expression - especially in dance. I hope to never see another Carmen snarling through bared teeth.

My favourite male Carmen program was Victor Petrenko's OD. ( I nearly fainted when he unleashed that huge 3A on the toll of the bell )

You could argue that many of the ballets, Swan Lake , Nutcracker ,R&J etc.,are under used..it's just that coaches and skaters keep using the same excerpts over and over when there's 2 hrs or so of music to choose from.

I think the Verboten list could include Carmina Burana, Les Miserables,and maybe Vivaldi's Four Seasons ( though that seems to be falling off in popularity recently) unless of course your name is Stephane..

And does anyone want to bet that 2 yrs from now we'll all be heartily sick of the Avatar score (and possibly blue face paint)..Be afraid..be very afraid...

agree

I don't think any skater can really handle Carmina Burana, unless you have a large Theatre on Ice type group with outstanding skaters.

And for me Otonal belongs to Johnny Weir exclusively!

And please competitors, no Requiem for a Dream again, ever. Do they really want to portray the agony and doomed life of drug use?

Blades of Passion said:

Amelie is always allowed!!!

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Can I add Bjork (any and all Bjork songs, but especially from Homogenic) to the list of "always allowed"? One of my all-time favs is Takahashi's EX to Bachelorette.

And can I please add Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Rodriguez's Concierto de Aranjuez to the VERBOTEN list??? :no:

Kitt said:

And please competitors, no Requiem for a Dream again, ever. Do they really want to portray the agony and doomed life of drug use?

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Sure, Requiem for a Dream is becoming overused. But - I don't think skaters who skate to soundtracks are necessarily limited to following the plot and themes of the movie, nor should they be. With RfoD, it's pretty noticeable that many of those using it are not portraying substance use and addiction - e.g. Tomas Verner, Pechalat/Bourzat. Just like not every skater skating to Amelie (to use another example from this thread) is portraying Amelie, or any other character from that movie.

And I'm pretty sure Todd Eldredge was not meant to be a hobbit when he skated to The Fellowship of the Ring score.

Back to overused pieces, I say outlaw Blues for Klook. It's ugly and boring and should go away. And there have been too many tangos in recent years, often from skaters who don't really understand what a tango is.

Buttercup said:

Back to overused pieces, I say outlaw Blues for Klook. It's ugly and boring and should go away. And there have been too many tangos in recent years, often from skaters who don't really understand what a tango is.

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Blues and tango are not the easiest types of music for skaters to interpret well, especially if they are younger. I started to agree with you Buttercup, then decided to relent as I don't want to totally give up on B for K or tangos.

Let's compromise by saying "No skater under age 21 shall attempt a blues or tango-based program." Maybe even make that age 25. Also same to be prohibited to pairs and dance teams with no chemistry between the partners.

I would bet that if one were to "slice the data" another way, looking specifically at music choices during an Olympic year, the results would be even more heavily weighted towards WAR HORSES. Seems the working logic that few skaters/coaches/federations want to take chances with music and when it comes to broadcasting the sport to broader audiences, familiarity rules. Ironic in that this only makes the perception of over-used music in the sport worse and the concomitant success enjoyed by skaters who have succeeded on the high profile Olympic stage only furthers the "problem" of music overuse.

I agree with Evangeline who included the caveat that certain titles could still be used and not enough effort seems to be made to do non-traditional interpretations. Kind of putting a new spin or twist on familiar themes. I think Rudy Galindo's take on Swan Lake had its appeal (beyond the obvious pure Rudi dynamism) was the fact that he portrayed the Black Swan/Rothbart character. Complete with goatee (spelling?) Go Rudy! Loved that.

Anything by Edvin Marton, Bond or Rachmaninoff... it's getting really old people! I would rather another Carmen, Malaguena or Requiem For A Dream any day...