Takahashi's SP vs. Chan's | Page 9 | Golden Skate

Takahashi's SP vs. Chan's

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Jettasian said:
I personally don't think Abbott himself's that good, all I see is a sad face. If that's artistry, then so be it.

Boeing787 said:
I just reviewed Abbott's and Chan's LP in GPF. Abbott's LP music is not as dramatic as Aranjuez is. The tempo is kinda slow through out the program but he moved rather fast. So sometimes he didn't hit the music. Closing to the end, he was actually a couple of seconds behind the music. On the other hand, Lori designed, and Patrick executed (most of the time) moves and steps to match the dramatic music of Aranjuez and it's the various tempo. Abbott deserverd a lower IN mark than Patrick's.

Spread your wings, guys, There's lots of good skating out there. I wouldn't want you to kill yourselves in despair once Patrick retires.

Hey, Michelle Kwan moved on and I'm still here. ;)
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Jeremy used to look like he was about to cry when he was starting a program. It was his nerves, not artistry. I only recently realized he had never competed internationally as a junior so that probably had a lot to do with his meltdowns at big international events. He actually is a late bloomer. This season he is calm and settled and appropriately relaxed and happy looking for his SP and any sad or serious look in the LP is really artistic interpretation. His new attitude is doing him good. Since he was very involved in the choreography of this season's programs, his ego says he is more artistic while acknowledging Patrick's skating skills. It's natural for a competitive athlete.
 
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Boeing787

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
Spread your wings, guys, There's lots of good skating out there. I wouldn't want you to kill yourselves in despair once Patrick retires.

Hey, Michelle Kwan moved on and I'm still here. ;)

Don't worry, I am not the loyal type. :biggrin:
 

skatinginbc

Medalist
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
OK, my proposal re program selection. Skate brand new SP and LP next season just to prove he can. Comes Olympic season, he can then decide if he will come up with a new masterpiece, or he could pick Aranjuez or next year's program.
Good suggestion. That has been my thinking for many years and yet strangely not many skaters actually did so. Most of them skated to two new programs for the Olympics as if that mattered in scores or reputation.
 
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Boeing787

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
OK, my proposal re program selection. Skate brand new SP and LP next season just to prove he can. Comes Olympic season, he can then decide if he will come up with a new masterpiece, or he could pick Aranjuez or next year's program, whichever is his or fans' favorite.

Dilemma resolved. :)

I don't think it will happen. Next year he will add another quad to his program, it's vey unlikely he will have time to learn two brand new programs and work on a new quad as well.
 

skatinginbc

Medalist
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
Since he (Jeremy) was very involved in the choreography of this season's programs, his ego says he is more artistic
Please cite sources to prove his ego (an exaggerated sense of self-importance or appropriate pride in oneself, www.thefreedictionary.com/ego) as well as the causal effect (His inflated pride in his artistry is caused by his involvement in the choreography). If it is just your speculation based on correlation reasoning (e.g., people with long arms are more likely to have long legs), please use a proper modal verb and/or adverb to indicate a likelihood, rather than state it as a matter of fact. Think about the following statement, which is as logical and thought-provoking as yours: "Since Patrick became the lone member of the 300 club, his ego grows even bigger than ever". Do you like that kind of logic and that propaganda way of speech?

In his interview in the Globe and Mail, Stojko said he was not blown away by Chan's spins. Did he mean he could spin better than Chan does? Obviously not. By saying "I definitely think he (Chan) has things that are lacking", Jeremy does not necessarily mean he is a better skater or performer than Chan, although he might think there might be a hope for him to beat Chan in the future. Do you think any skater who holds such a hope has "ego" problems? If so, then that inflated ego is Chan's or yours, not the majority of elite skaters who are competing.

Jeremy said, "They break out the [program] components into five pieces, but they all kind of judge them without separating them out, so maybe Patrick has a 10 in skating skills and lower in interpretation, but they all stay in the same range." It is a fact that many posters here have criticized in various threads regarding the judges' failure to score each component separately. Do you think all those posters and skaters that have expressed such an opinion have an "ego" issue?
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't think it's about ego. Jeremy was the principal choreographer of his own program. When you have that kind of involvement on the creative side, naturally you form a greater commitment to the artistic aspects of the program.

Jeremy spent countless hours listening to the music and working out in his own mind how each phrase might effectively be interpreted in motion -- while still paying attention to the requirements of the scoring system. Naturally he hopes that the judges will notice.
 

skatinginbc

Medalist
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
I have been watching this sport for a very long time and even was formally educated by the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano as a child well into my late teens.
In my late teens, I was once ridiculed by a competitor in front of a judge for dazzling the judging panel with my quick fingers. Of course, she was seen as a sour loser. I performed Beethoven's Appassionata-3rd movement (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPg3AHT25A, by Rudolf Buchbinder), which keeps a fast speed throughout, very tempestuous and even violent--just the way I like it to hide my relative lack of refinement. She knew my weakness because we came from the same school and practiced daily in the same facility. The judges failed to detect it because I never gave them the chance. I could even fool a professor from the Butler School of Music (University of Texas, Austin) who came to our school concert and saw my performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No.2. He asked me if I would be interested in their music school. I declined. I knew I wasn't good enough.

Example 1: Compare the interpretation of a slow section made by a young prodigy (Hugo Kitano, winner of the International Russian Music Piano Competition)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-thJDlnMyM#t=1m000s) and a seasoned performer (Marc-André Hamelin, 2008 Juno Award winner)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6fErWrQpvI&feature=related#t=8m000s). To me, the prodigy is exposed in terms of relative lack of heartfelt emotions.
Example 2: The pianist (Elisabeth Brauss, winner of the youth division of the 2009 Grotrian Piano Competition) has some precision problems between 3:50 and 3:52 www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5_fWGGVH7I&feature=related#t=3m040s. When the notes are so fast, one can hardly detect the errors.

Though figure skating is a sport and therefore intrinsically different, I still hope that athletes would include "simple" edge-holding moves in their programs to show their diverse skills.
 

Kelly

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 20, 2004
In my late teens, I was once ridiculed by a competitor in front of a judge for dazzling the judging panel with my quick fingers. Of course, she was seen as a sour loser. I performed Beethoven's Appassionata-3rd movement (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPg3AHT25A, by Rudolf Buchbinder), which keeps a fast speed throughout, very tempestuous and even violent--just the way I like it to hide my relative lack of refinement. She knew my weakness because we came from the same school and practiced daily in the same facility. The judges failed to detect it because I never gave them the chance. I could even fool a professor from the Butler School of Music (University of Texas, Austin) who came to our school concert and saw my performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No.2. He asked me if I would be interested in their music school. I declined. I knew I wasn't good enough.........

When you play that fast, you have to be very good enough to hide you errors. There are still crispness, clearness, rhythm, and emotions to differentiate from.
I don't think you fooled that professor at all. He knew your potential.
 

Boeing787

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
Just like riding a bike, it's often harder to ride it slowly than fast. BUT, in most competitions, the winner is the fastest cyclist. The rules simply say so.

You can have 100 reasons disliking his skating, but he is still the current most legitimate winner of figure skating. He wins according to the IJS.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
No wonder his CH marks were lower than Patrick's. He can't beat Lori in this department.

I think the problem with doing your own choreography is this. The artist/performer has all kinds of artistic passion and insight bottled up inside his soul. He thinks he is showing all this to the audience. The audience says, meh. The artist then thinks, "What's wrong with these Philistines? I'm casting pearls before swine."

The artist is usually the worst evaluator of his/her own work.

The professional choreographer, on the other hand -- well, that's his/her profession. Translating all those artsy ideas into something that the public can actually get.

I wish that figure skating competitions came with program notes, so we would know what the performer is trying to accomplish or portray. Like in Patrick's SP he mimes putting his arms around two girls, then getting punched in the face by the boyfriend of one of them. I am very glad that someone in Patrick's camp explained that to the public at some point because without an explanation that little segment is like, "huh?"
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
In my late teens, I was once ridiculed by a competitor in front of a judge for dazzling the judging panel with my quick fingers. Of course, she was seen as a sour loser. I performed Beethoven's Appassionata-3rd movement (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPg3AHT25A, by Rudolf Buchbinder), which keeps a fast speed throughout, very tempestuous and even violent--just the way I like it to hide my relative lack of refinement. She knew my weakness because we came from the same school and practiced daily in the same facility. The judges failed to detect it because I never gave them the chance. I could even fool a professor from the Butler School of Music (University of Texas, Austin) who came to our school concert and saw my performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No.2. He asked me if I would be interested in their music school. I declined. I knew I wasn't good enough.

That's so great that you performed at that level, bc! I'm curious about how tough and detailed Saint-Saens is to perform. Is he as fiendish as, say, Rachmaninoff? I only know his concerti as a listener, and my favorite is the fifth. It's meltingly lovely, all three movements. The opening notes always give me gooseflesh. I'd love to see someone like Asada perform a program to some part of the fifth. My hopes have sprung up again because Caroline Chang's long program was set to Dvorak's cello concerto. So maybe there is a possibility that someone will choreograph a program to a longer symphonic piece.
 

Boeing787

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
The artist is usually the worst evaluator of his/her own work.

so true.

I wish that figure skating competitions came with program notes, so we would know what the performer is trying to accomplish or portray. Like in Patrick's SP he mimes putting his arms around two girls, then getting punched in the face by the boyfriend of one of them. I am very glad that someone in Patrick's camp explained that to the public at some point because without an explanation that little segment is like, "huh?"

Good idea, I didn't get that part until someone told me, and the ending pose when he snapped his fingers meaning he got the girl(s).
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
On a 2nd thought, a skater can be a good choreographer too, Christopher Dean is a good example.

Many artistic skaters become very good choreographers - Lambiel, Buttle, Bourne, Britten, Browning, etc. (I wouldn't call this the Canadian B-list though. :)) Even Nichol. But they didn't do their own competitive numbers, a good idea. Some do their own exhibition numbers including Sandhu, who would do wonderful work just the night before. I think he can be a very good show choreographer. The one and only Gary Beacom, of course, always does his own. I don't know if he does any for anyone else, or if anyone else would or could skate his designs. :laugh:
 

Boeing787

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
Many artistic skaters become very good choreographers - Lambiel, Buttle, Bourne, Britten, Browning, etc. (I wouldn't call this the Canadian B-list though. :)) Even Nichol. But they didn't do their own competitive numbers, a good idea. Some do their own exhibition numbers including Sandhu, who would do wonderful work just the night before. I think he can be a very good show choreographer. The one and only Gary Beacom, of course, always does his own. I don't know if he does any for anyone else, or if anyone else would or could skate his designs. :laugh:

Of course a choreographer has to be a skater first. I was referring to sakters who do their competition numbers.
 
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