Well-Balanced Choreography | Golden Skate

Well-Balanced Choreography

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skatinginbc

Medalist
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
A well-balanced program is often defined with required elements (e.g., the numbers of jumps, spins, and steps). We can also argue that a front-loaded or back-loaded program is not balanced, nor is a program with all tricks but nothing in between. But what are the features of a program with a perfect balance between techniques and artistry? I personally think the following programs are well-balanced:
1. Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze's Lady Caliph (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enegcJGB4NY).
2. Michelle kwan's East of Eden (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTO6104VEqc).
3. Jeffrey Buttle's Rachmaninov's Prelude in C Sharp Minor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSbTaxPgexA).
4. Alexei Yagudin’s Winter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEfR4dQ8wAw).
5. Sasha Cohen’s Sentimental Walts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1gJ5H3ubfA)
All of them have either pose-holding glides (e.g., spirals) to showcase the beautiful lines or simple acts/moves to create a mood. By simple, I mean “easy to the eye”—simple but profound. It is the well-balanced mixture of simplicity and complexity that gives rise to a sense of great artistry. That is my personal taste. What is yours?
 
O

Olympia

Joined
Aug 16, 2009
BC, I'm glad you included Sasha's Sentimental Waltz on your list. That's one of my favorite programs of hers, and at the Olympics she skated it masterfully. It's splendid and unusual music (which to me adds a lot to the appreciation of the choreography).

One of my favorite programs of all time (keeping in mind that I'm biased toward Michelle) is Kwan's Lyra Angelica. I don't know how it would translate to CoP--I'm sure it would need adaptation, but the way it used the music was gorgeous.

Can we count ice dance? If so, Davis/White's Die Fledermaus goes on the list. What a treasure that program is.
 
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ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
COP programs that comes to mind

Jeremy Abbott: "A Day in the Life"
Jeffrey Buttle: "Naqoyqaatsi"
Patrick Chan: "Tango dos Exilados" and "Aranjuez"
Crone/Poirier: "Eleanor Rigby"
Delobel/Schoenfelder: "The Piano"
Domnina/Shabilan: Tango OD
Dube/Davison: "The Blower's Daughter"
Faiella/Scali: "The Emmigrants" and "Moonlight Sonata"
Kavaguti/Smirnov: "Claire de Lune"
Yu Na Kim, "The Lark Ascending"
Takahiko Kozuka: "Jimi Hendrix"
Stephane Lambiel: "Poeta"
Murhktova/Trankov: "Appassionata"
Joannie Rochette: "Aranjuez"
Savchenko/Szolkowy: "The Mission" (and virtually every long program they've done)
Matt Savoie: "The Mission"
Akiko Suzuki: "West Side Story"
Shen/Zhao: "Who Wants to Live Forever"
Daisuke Takahashi: "In the Garden of Souls" (and his Tango)
Takahashi/Tran: "Feelin' Good"
Virtue/Moir: Every program they've done, but especially "Mahler"
 
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krenseby

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
3T3T said:
My favourite programme from Maria Butyrskaya, her short from Worlds 2000 in Nice. She really should have got 6's for the second mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVt3I4IL18s
Click to expand...

That program seems to demonstrate two of her strengths: great/edging stroking and use of body/posture to interpret music. I wonder whether folks watching the 2000 Worlds live appreciated the tremendous talent she showed in the SP. I watch this performance with so much pleasure; it has stood the test of time. It is still great skating today. And yet I have a feeling that despite all this, Maria is largely a forgotten skater even within the confines of Russia. She doesn't appear on the various professional shows in Russia nor do we ever see her skating in exhibition in the US. Seems like her World title hasn't helped her establish a name for herself. Oh well, I am sure there are still a few like me that haven't forgotten her.
 
Last edited:
seniorita

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
^ I m not sure but either she writes on a blog or she writes in a column cause I ve read parts of articles with her talking about fs frequently, I dont know but I read her comments often, maybe she is coaching?
 
S

skatinginbc

Medalist
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
krenseby said:
two of her strengths: great/edging stroking and use of body/posture to interpret music.
Click to expand...
There was one strength of Maria Butyrskaya that I hardly could detect from TV until I actually watched her skate live: She had a great command of the ice.
 
L

LeReveur

On the Ice
Joined
May 1, 2010
Don't think you're alone in appreciating Butyrskaya. I don't know if there's any ladies' skater I enjoy watching more than her. I was fed lots of garbage by American commentators, but I never once let them skew (as they often did) the reality of what Maria accomplished on the ice.
 
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Sara D

Spectator
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
I agree to all of the above examples of combining the technical with the beauty of the sport. Since I am very interested in choreography, I really believe that this is important for our sport - but new ISU rules such as making the spiral sequence not a compulsory element have made programs so technical - where the step sequences are just so jam-packed with so many turns in every direction, it sort of loses the meaning behind the program - is it to gain points or telling a story... any thoughts?
 
Buttercup

Buttercup

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Sara D said:
I agree to all of the above examples of combining the technical with the beauty of the sport. Since I am very interested in choreography, I really believe that this is important for our sport - but new ISU rules such as making the spiral sequence not a compulsory element have made programs so technical - where the step sequences are just so jam-packed with so many turns in every direction, it sort of loses the meaning behind the program - is it to gain points or telling a story... any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Hi, Sara! :)

Well, everything has to be done to gain points. The question is whether gaining points necessarily has to be done at the expense of artistic expression. And the answer to that, IMO, is absolutely not.

I have expressed my dislike for CoP step sequences more than once (I call it the Zamboni step sequence due to the excessive ice coverage). But I think it is still possible to use the steps to tell a story, or at least to express the music. For instance: Javier Fernandez disguising the upper body movement needed for level 3/4 with drunken pirate choreo (not v. sophisticated, but effective). I think Dai has been able to use step sequences to express the concept, work with the music, and pack in the content in several of his programs, with La Strada being a good example (I just rewatched it the other day and it's fab). In dance, there are definitely teams who manage to combine the difficulty needed to get good levels with storytelling/successful musical interpretation. IP mentioned F/S's programs, and I agree that The Immigrants is awesome and that they are a good example of using the elements in the service of the story. Pairs footwork, at least to me, doesn't look as busy as singles footwork, but OTOH, I can't think of any particularly memorable step sequence.

To answer your question - I think it goes back to what skating should be at its best: a combination of both athleticism and artistry. But it's not easy to get the balance right and to do both well.
 
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Sara D

Spectator
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Ah thank so much for your interpretation, I have been reading your and everyone else's postings for two years and now I decided to join the discussions at last. Being a figure skater for 12 years now - this sport really is such an amazing sport. Furthermore, to be able to combine athleticism and artistry into one program should be given more recognition. As a dancer also, I really am always in awe when the choreography and the skaters use of the choreography just can never be duplicated by any other skater and as a spectator brings you on the edge of your seat. As a Skate Canada Level 1 coach and currently in my last year in Kinesiology at McGill University - I hope that this sport does get further recognition and continue to grow in all levels. I am glad that I joined this forum and hope to have many pleasant discussions!

I was wondering if there was a detailed overview of the new scoring system in this forum, I have done research in the past but they didn't help very much..

Thanks again!
 
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ivy

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
I find the ISU website a little overwhelming, but I am not the intended user. I googled something like "value of spins in figure skating" a while ago and stumbled across a site called something like 'Go Figure Skating'. They had values for all the elements in a way that I found easy to follow and understand. It is not, however, up to date. For instance, they list men as able to do 2 leveled step sequences, but then can only do one leveled and one 'choreo' step sequence.
 
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