- Joined
- Jun 27, 2003
Thanks for the guidelines, Doris. The link is below. I'll summarize some of the points, because this information is really fascinating. It comes from a site called Ballettalk, and unlike Emily Frankel (see that thread in GS), who praises Mao's dancerly qualities but clearly doesn't understand the demands of skating, the posters on this thread are very well informed about skating--far better than I am, certainly!
They discuss the fact that in Curry's ice troupe, a lot of the moves are done very slowly, at school-figure speed, requiring rigorous edge control and (quoting here) "mastery on both feet, both edges of each blade, and both directions, as well as the ability to maintain flow off of single pushes."
Think about one big characteristic of skating: people jump and clockwise, or they jump and spin counterclockwise. Curry wanted his skaters to be more like dancers--able to move in both directions, at the same speed. So the moves were choreographed to execute at the speed of the weaker side.
You see this goal even in Curry's amateur skating. He doesn't jump to both sides, but he does pretty strong spins in both directions. Check the long program from the 1976 Olympics to see what I mean. The last skater I remember doing that in competition is Michelle, in 1998. (Another reason she's now and forever The Kween to me!)
The forum continues with a comparison of Curry with Robin Cousins, another wonderful artistic skater but less dance-based (and, I think, not as strong in school figures as Curry). Here's the link. Doris, please feel free to correct anything I've done wrong in this post.
http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/lofiversion/index.php/t30189.html
your post is fine, Olympia thanks for sharing!