LADIES Long Program

[seniorita]

I m just catching up before going to men, havent seen the programs but I m thrilled, the little czarina won!

[burntBREAD]

Boy, Mirai sounds like someone in dire need of an injection of confidence in the new Ice Network article. "I have to wish for a miracle to happen and pull it out." Sheesh.

[Layfan]

Mirai's program is trash (even worse than last year's) and, sorry to say, she doesn't seem to be living a healthy enough lifestyle. She needs a new program with a different choreographer, a different coach, and someone outside of the rink to closely manage what she eats.

Somehow that team seemed to work out great for Mirai in 2010, although I always wished she would get a different choreographer. Even in 2010 her programs were on the generic side although her own exuberance made them work at nationals and the Olympics. This year and last I don't know what is going on. Maybe the relationship with Frank has deteriorated but he seems to be a good coach and probably the problem lies more with Mirai herself. The spin issue for instance. Maybe it's nerves, I don't know...

[ranjake]

I just watched Mirai's LP (thanks to whoever provided it!). I was scared to watch- but in lots of ways it wasn't as bad as I expected- but it was....rushed? and where's her spark? There were lots of things I liked about it, but....just, something's missing. Yes- that 'backwards split jump' can be very cool when she gets her 'Mirai' back.

[Spun Silver]

She seems to suffer from a terrible perfectionism. Maybe she got too overwrought about the little errors to focus on the moment.

[christinaskater]

I hope Akiko's LP would be uploaded soon, I want to see a full copy since I missed half of it.

[christinaskater]

Mirai needs a sports psychologist.

[os168]

I don't think Mirai necessarily deserved such low PCS as she received tonight. Sure, she didn't skate with a lot of energy but neither did Phaneuf nor Lacoste and they got much higher PCS. (Also, her SS is WAY better than Leonova's)

I posted this on another board, but I thought her movements were out of sync with the music, i mean Lori can be a bit iffy but surely she's not that bad!! So I decide to compare her performance side by side with her Nebelhorn performance to see if I am right about rushing a bar of music. I think Mirai was rightfully slammed for her PCS mark.

She rushed many elements at the GP performance. Being too nervous or intense, she neglected listening to the music which threw many of her elements out of whack, surely that would affect muscle memory which would explain what we saw as she is trying to retune herself.

Play both clips at 36 seconds mark and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52mq1HV1L_4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSAMlDUTipg

[burntBREAD]

I posted this on another board, but I thought her movements were out of sync with the music, i mean Lori can be a bit iffy but surely she's not that bad!! So I decide to compare her performance side by side with her Nebelhorn performance to see if I am right about rushing a bar of music. I think Mirai was rightfully slammed for her PCS mark.

She rushed many elements at the GP performance. Being too nervous or intense, she neglected listing listen to the music which threw her elements out of whack, surely that would affect muscle memory which would explain what we saw.

Play both clips at 36 seconds mark and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52mq1HV1L_4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSAMlDUTipg

I agree. For some reason (I watched the streaming practices) Mirai was completely off the music there as well, doing the raising the arm part off in the same way she did it today. She was incredibly tight overall, and it showed.

However, the thing is, there is no PCS mark for being on time with the music. There's at least SS and TR which have nothing whatsoever to do with music and Mirai shouldn't be lower than Leonova in those areas. CH shouldn't have been good anyways because the placement of the elements are weird (that climax of the music is just asking for a spiral, note that Mirai got miniscule GOE today on her spiral, she DEFINITELY would have gotten at least +1 across the board if she did the spiral on that climax).

[os168]

I agree. For some reason (I watched the streaming practices) Mirai was completely off the music there as well, doing the raising the arm part off in the same way she did it today. She was incredibly tight overall, and it showed.

However, the thing is, there is no PCS mark for being on time with the music. There's at least SS and TR which have nothing whatsoever to do with music and Mirai shouldn't be lower than Leonova in those areas. CH shouldn't have been good anyways because the placement of the elements are weird (that climax of the music is just asking for a spiral, note that Mirai got miniscule GOE today on her spiral, she DEFINITELY would have gotten at least +1 across the board if she did the spiral on that climax).

Well how else is she suppose to interpret the work if it is not relate to the music? Music is the spine that hold everything together between the performer, the required elements, the choreography. I think the missing beat for majority of the first half and second half is huge for a sport like figure skating where choreography and required elements must be timed with resting periods in between for impact and effect. She did manage to reclaim some of her key elements during the climax section (though I'd argue she's still behind by half a beat).

I think my gripe about rushing the music by a bar is how it would affect the rest of her performances particularly regarding to muscle memory which would explain for weird mistakes like her spins etc. If she spend half of the time confused about what she is doing, and spend most of her performance trying to catch up and retune to the music, it would obviously have a rippling effect affect the rest of her performances like transitions, interpretation, choreography etc.

[burntBREAD]

Well how else is she suppose to interpret the work if it is not relate to the music? Music is the spine that hold everything together between the performer, the required elements, the choreography. I think the missing beat for majority of the first half and second half is huge for a sport like figure skating where choreography and required elements must be timed with resting periods in between for impact and effect. She did manage to reclaim some of her key elements during the climax section (though I'd argue she's still behind by half a beat).

I think my gripe about rushing the music by a bar is how it would affect the rest of her performances particularly regarding to muscle memory which would explain for weird mistakes like her spins etc. If she spend half of the time confused about what she is doing, and spend most of her performance trying to catch up and retune to the music, it would obviously have a rippling effect affect the rest of her performances like transitions, interpretation, choreography etc.

She kind of caught up after the spiral (the music change definitely -- well hopefully -- cued her in as to where she should be in the choreo, but the thing is -- since she was practicing this program in the exact same way that she produced, did she purposely change? Interpretation is also a part of the PCS, but it is directly correlated to CH and PE. I'd still say that SS and TR are pretty separate but PCS tends to be the same, i.e. we see people with great interpretation still get lowballed on that aspect because the rest of the PCS is lower.

I'm completely agreeing with you that the performance was not good because of how off she was from the music - that probably contributed to how cold and sullen the performance seemed to be...not very Mirai at all. A lot of people are saying this isn't a good vehicle for her, but I think it sort of resembles her LPs.. Coppelia, Caprice Fantastique, and Memoirs all had slow sections, grandiose sections, and playful sections, just like this LP. She just needs to inject her personality into it.

[os168]

She kind of caught up after the spiral (the music change definitely -- well hopefully -- cued her in as to where she should be in the choreo, but the thing is -- since she was practicing this program in the exact same way that she produced, did she purposely change? Interpretation is also a part of the PCS, but it is directly correlated to CH and PE. I'd still say that SS and TR are pretty separate but PCS tends to be the same, i.e. we see people with great interpretation still get lowballed on that aspect because the rest of the PCS is lower.

I'm completely agreeing with you that the performance was not good because of how off she was from the music - that probably contributed to how cold and sullen the performance seemed to be...not very Mirai at all. A lot of people are saying this isn't a good vehicle for her, but I think it sort of resembles her LPs.. Coppelia, Caprice Fantastique, and Memoirs all had slow sections, grandiose sections, and playful sections, just like this LP. She just needs to inject her personality into it.

If she is performing with the mistakes during practice, the Frank should be blamed for not noticing earlier! Shocking neglect! :P

Yeah I agree about interject with her own personality. For any piece of work to be delivered successfully in terms of artistic credibility, the artist need to interject with their own essences of originality or authenticity. Mirai didn't do either, she didn't add anything beyond what is on paper and failed to make the basic connection.

May be they want her to be a roman queen, but she just want to be pirate so she sulked through out! Frank badgering on about 'go out there like the best skater in the world' makes her sheltered her real self and put out a pretense on something she's not (kween/Lysacek intensity). All business and no play is clearly not the Mirai performance that had all the sparkles in the past!

[Mao88]

Akiko Suzuki's free skate:-

Akiko Suzuki - Free Skate - Skate Canada 2011

Alena Leonova's free skate:-

Alena Leonova - Free Skate - Skate Canada 2011

[christinaskater]

Another 7 triple masterpiece of a program for Akiko Suzuki! Beautiful!

[genki]

Akiko's program is so beautiful. I sometimes call her female version of Dai. Good for her. I was not happy last year, because I felt that Akiko was put down unreasonably.
But it is a good start this year. Go Akiko.