Ice Dance & Carmen

[Olympia]

Giselle? That should be interesting. That's straight-up classical ballet. It's not one of my top fave raves: Adam wrote what I think of as generic nineteenth-century European ballet music, as did Ludwig Minkus (La Bayadere and Don Quichotte), with no melodic lavishness. But it's not very heavily used in skating, as I recall (except for YuNa last year), so hats off to them for leaving the tried and true. I love the idea of Meryl as a ballerina. Has she taken ballet training? I know Tessa Virtue has.

[dorispulaski]

Yes, they all have ballet, although Tessa I believe was very serious about ballet, rather than just taking it as part of normal ice dance training. Meryl has always seemed to me to be more interested in the ballroom off ice training...maybe why she won Jeff Buttle's Dance Battle in The Ice show in Japan She had a great dress for it and did the worm & the shimmy, for sure.

I'm presuming the village dance scene is what they are using for the polka, but I hope they are amping up the polka beat for it with a drum machine or something, much as it pains me to say so. Current rules pretty much require a heavy beat to demonstrate that you are holding all those key point steps for the right number of beats.

[Elochka]

K/O Where's your head at Un vrai plagiat, ok, but so well done.

[Tinymavy15]

I personally think Giselle would have been an excellent choice for Tessa and Scott, especially to contrast with the intensity and drama that is sure to be Carmen. I can't see what Marlie can pull out of their bag of tricks that could beat a Voir Carmen, but we'll see.

[dorispulaski]

Well, we still don't know what Meryl & Charlie are doing. And I can't wait to hear.

I feel like Anjelika Krylova already did the definitive version of Carmen, & Natalia Bestemianova did a great one, too, in a different mode. However, Carmen is nice music to listen to, something that some of Tessa & Scott's music choices haven't been for me, so I'm looking forward to their treatment of the program. I'll be able to just sit back & enjoy it rather than gnashing my teeth at being forced to listen to some of my personal hatelist pieces. (Umbrellas, I will wait for you, Funny Face, PF Gig in the Sky)

Navka's, all I can remember is Roman doing some steps in place in his toreador outfit that looked either like the hokey pokey or the Mexican hat dance. OTOH, they got the Olympic gold medal for that piece. Oh well.

[eyria]

Navka's, all I can remember is Roman doing some steps in place in his toreador outfit that looked either like the hokey pokey or the Mexican hat dance. OTOH, they got the Olympic gold medal for that piece. Oh well.

LOL! :-) Roman DID look pretty good in that toreador outfit, though, didn't he?

[dorispulaski]

He did indeed

[plushyfan]

A North American who agrees with you that this Carmen is best! Watching that again I can imagine V&M might actually be able to do something with this music.

I enjoyed K&O but found too often their movements (and they had some great innovative moves) detracted from the passion one would expect in a great Carmen. B&B excelled in that area. I think my favourite program of K&O is their 1999 Modern Africa Drums as I found it highlighted everything that was special about them.

Carmen as seen by N&K and L&T was bland, generic and forgettable.

I think we have a good taste

[Dragonlady]

I'll be able to just sit back & enjoy it rather than gnashing my teeth at being forced to listen to some of my personal hatelist pieces. (Umbrellas, I will wait for you, Funny Face, PF Gig in the Sky)

Ok, I'll give you Umbrelllas, not my favourite either but I love Funny Face and I've gone through nearly a half dozen copies of Dark Side of the Moon in various formats, over the course of my life. But I've grown accustomed to having friends with much different musical tastes. One of my favourite people to go to skating events with is a classical music teacher who pretends that popular music doesn't exist. Very helpful in getting the program music right.

I do love Carmen and I never tire of hearing it - even the March of the Torreadors.

[Tonichelle]

I hate the movie Funny Face, but I enjoyed their program to it.

[Olympia]

I personally can't hate any movie with Fred Astaire. Don't have it in me. There are parts of the movie that wear a bit thin (the whole Empathicalism subplot), but to watch Astaire dance is one of the great joys of the cinema.

I quite like V/M's rendition of the music from Funny Face, but this year my heart went to D/W's Die Fledermaus.

[ImaginaryPogue]

re: Carmen

I prefer K/O to B/B simple due to the former's technical superiority, but B/B certainly had a strong performance. I love the expressiveness of Krylova, the stylized aggression of Ovsiannikov and the highlights of the choreography (that curve llift). You totally imagine her killing him at the end (something that I'd be floored if Tessa was able to convey) and he's not shrinking violet or anything. I do prefer the two FDs that surround this (Masquerade Waltz and African Drums), fwiw.

re: Funny Face

I think it's terrific (the movie). Stanley Donen's use of color alone is astonishing. Don't care for Audrey Hepburn one bit, though.

[dorispulaski]

My dislike of Funny Face dates to when it was new and I hated the songs on the radio , especially S'Wonderful. I hate to hear anyone torturing the English language to make a rhythm or rhyme work out in a song. I usually hit the roof especially at sparadise.
V&M did a great job with it. I just can't stand Fred & Audrey's singing. Fred's dancing now

I own a couple of Dark Side of The Moon-I just never liked the Great Gig in The Sky track. I don't hate it with the ferver with which I dislike S'Wonderful and I Will Wait For You, but I skip past it on the CD.

[golden411]

Pj Kwong ‏@skatingpj

I uploaded a @YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipzpb...ure=youtu.be&a Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir talk Carmen at HPC
5:54 AM - 10 Sep 12

ETA:

The video is only 1:18 in length.
V/M talk about their contemporary/modern version of Carmen, with their story line relying more on body movements than on facial expressions.
The video is fun to watch; Moir shows some of his charmingly goofy side as Virtue attempts to give a straight answer to Kwong's question about what will differentiate "Tessa Virtue's Carmen".

[plushyfan]

Pj Kwong ‏@skatingpj

I uploaded a @YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipzpb...ure=youtu.be&a Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir talk Carmen at HPC
5:54 AM - 10 Sep 12

ETA:

The video is only 1:18 in length.
V/M talk about their contemporary/modern version of Carmen, with their story line relying more on body movements than on facial expressions.
The video is fun to watch; Moir shows some of his charmingly goofy side as Virtue attempts to give a straight answer to Kwong's question about what will differentiate "Tessa Virtue's Carmen".

Sweet! I can't wait for next season!