Programs with the best Choreography?

[FSGMT]

What makes me think "This is a well-choreographed program!" are the small details, the refinement in creating a character, when you're watching a skater/pair and you feel into another world, when he/she/they is/are able to create something unique and, when I hear that music again, I think "This is the music that that skater skated to!", and these are good example for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOf6-8lT9t0 Kostner 2012 FS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IutFxNBUujU Kostner 2012 SP (both Lori Nichol)
Davis /White Bat, absolutely!
John Curry Don Quijote
Michelle Kwan's Rachmaninoff
Savchenko/Szolkowy's Pink Panther
Katarina Witt Carmen (yes, a lot of posing, but it remains one of my favourite programs ever!)
Yu Na Kim 2010 FS (the perfect example for what I mean with a sophisticated program!)

[Nadia01]

I love almost everything Michelle did, but Salome was the one I still think is incredible.

Love Yuna Kim's Gershwin LP (really sophisticated and sublime), Danse SP and Tango SP

I still love Alexei Yagudin's Winter SP. We'll never see such step again tho.

Hanyu's Romeo & Juliet LP

Almost everything done by Dai, but then he can make the most drab choreography look like the most electrifying thing you've ever seen. (So this is in a way very biased. I really liked his Oly LP)

[gkelly]

The reason why I included the Kerrigan example in my previous post is that I don't think the skater is particularly charismatic or expressive, but she does what the choreography asks her to do, in time with the music, and I feel that the choices of movements in connection with that music do make an emotional statement, especially at the end of the program (the part that would be considered the "choreo sequence" in today's rules). So I feel like Mary Scotvold is the artist in this case.

[jenaj]

I can't find a really good video of this one, but it is a masterpiece:

Michelle Kwan Dream of Desdemona http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NSasshi36I

[Olympia]

The reason why I included the Kerrigan example in my previous post is that I don't think the skater is particularly charismatic or expressive, but she does what the choreography asks her to do, in time with the music, and I feel that the choices of movements in connection with that music do make an emotional statement, especially at the end of the program (the part that would be considered the "choreo sequence" in today's rules). So I feel like Mary Scotvold is the artist in this case.

I always loved the Scotvolds' choreography. They had a very smooth approach, I thought, and the skating style of both Kerrigan and Paul Wylie seemed to have a more meticulous aspect to it, which I assumed was largely due to the Scotvolds. Though Kerrigan isn't known as an especially artistic skater, for example, she has a pantherlike quality that her coaches must have cultivated (though innate talent clearly was a factor). She stood out to me for quite a few years before she made it to the top rank of American skaters because of this smoothness--she never seemed coltish or pretty-princesslike in her skating.

Of the two Scotvold champions, I'd say Wylie was the superior skater, both technically and in terms of how he projected emotion. So should we add his Henry V long program from the Albertville Olympics to our list? Indeed I often go back to it to admire it and be stirred by it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLhA7CVIok

Thanks for the Dream of Desdemona link! Golly, Nichol and Carroll were ambitious with Michelle. And I think she always rose to meet their expectations.

[gkelly]

Of the two Scotvold champions, I'd say Wylie was the superior skater, both technically and in terms of how he projected emotion. So should we add his Henry V long program from the Albertville Olympics to our list? Indeed I often go back to it to admire it and be stirred by it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLhA7CVIok

By all means.

Other early-90s programs by American skaters I find especially coherent:

Kristi Yamaguchi (choreographer Sandra Bezic)

Mark Mitchell

And another Canadian:
Josee Chouinard (Bezic again)

[Cherryy]

I think Hanuy's SP and Mao's FS from this season should also be on the list. They both have a lot of in-betweens, almost no room for bare crossovers. Every detail is carefully planned and both programs go with the music extraordinarily well.

Another choreography and whole performance I truly love is Jeremy Abbott's SP from 2006-7 season - Dead Already from American Beauty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFj1FXhvgj0
Sadly I can't tell you exactly why I think this program is truly exceptional but it really is!

[aftertherain]

To focus on a specific part of the choreography, I always found this part particularly striking and powerful. She's not only using her arms to express the music, but her whole body and her face, and the choreography throughout doesn't only match the music, but also the character she's portraying.

Yes! I think that's the part that always draws me in the most. It's so enchanting.

- Elements that are correctly timed to the music, like a spiral or jump at just the right moment, can work wonders for the choreography.
- Aiming for unique movements that match the music, mood, story/character, etc. as much as possible -- rather than simply extending an arm or leg to a certain note. Using the whole body to express the music, not just stroking around and extending the arms.

This! To use Sasha Cohen's R&J program as an example, her first combination spin is exquisite because each change in position is choreographed so that it corresponds to changes in the music. And there are little choreographic passages-- there's a slow guitar solo at one point and Sasha Cohen conveys this sort of wistful and longing by both expression and soft body movement; it goes with the music well.

[Mathman]

And here are a handful of less iconic ladies' programs that I happened to rewatch recently and was impressed by their construction:

Kadavy 1987

Wonderful. I think it is how she uses the whole ice surface and how she orders her elements in space and time that makes the program so pleasing.

Re-watching these old programs brings to the fore how much skating has changed in the CoP era. This program features a lot of plain stroking, long gliding edges, and unadorned jump entries (flowing exit edges were valued more). The basic skating was interesting -- a lot of little little S-shaped turns, for instance -- and the music had changes of tempo to allow the skater to bring down the intensity while still maintaining continuity.

She took her time to showcase each element -- Ina Bauer, spread eagles, split jumps, for instance. Her footwork sequence was full without being frenetic.

[aftertherain]

And here are a handful of less iconic ladies' programs that I happened to rewatch recently and was impressed by their construction:

Kadavy 1987

Wonderful. I think it is how she uses the whole ice surface and how she orders her elements in space and time that makes the program so pleasing.

Re-watching these old programs brings to the fore how much skating has changed in the CoP era. This program features a lot of plain stroking, long gliding edges, and unadorned jump entries (flowing exit edges were valued more). The basic skating was interesting -- a lot of little little S-shaped turns, for instance -- and the music had changes of tempo to allow the skater to bring down the intensity while still maintaining continuity.

She took her time to showcase each element -- Ina Bauer, spread eagles, split jumps, for instance. Her footwork sequence was full without being frenetic.

I am admittedly a stranger to programs prior to the 1990s, but I found myself agreeing with your last sentence here. A lot of the CoP-era skaters use Ina Bauers and spread eagles as entrances into jumps, just as Kadavy did. However, the difference is that you can tell she was taking her time in highlighting both elements before she jumped; whereas skaters nowadays do the element, but you can see them focused on the following jump throughout it.

[MK's Winter]

I think Michelle's Rachmaninov and Lyra Angelica are beautifully done and timeless. I am also very fond of her 1997 Worlds Exhibition to Tori Amos's Winter,, actually it's my favorite exhibition piece.

Lu Chen's Butterfly Lovers and Spring Breeze

Oksana Biaul's Sadness exhibition ( as performed on Fox on Ice)

[icedinn]

Stolbova and Klimov have always had excellent choreography. Their sp is by far my favorite of this season.

[DianaSelene]

Stolbova and Klimov have always had excellent choreography. Their sp is by far my favorite of this season.

I agree. Every movement goes perfectly with the music.

[Olympia]

I am admittedly a stranger to programs prior to the 1990s, but I found myself agreeing with your last sentence here. A lot of the CoP-era skaters use Ina Bauers and spread eagles as entrances into jumps, just as Kadavy did. However, the difference is that you can tell she was taking her time in highlighting both elements before she jumped; whereas skaters nowadays do the element, but you can see them focused on the following jump throughout it.

As I read this comment, I think of the beautiful Ina Bauer Paul Wylie does in his Olympic long program. It is not a bridge to anything else; it is an end in itself.

[Melon]

Although it's exhibition, Yuna's olympic Gala is definitely my favorite!

Except for the poped 3Lz, I think this EX is very sophisticated and choreographed well.

My male's favorite has to be Hanyu's SP Parisian Walkways and his LP Romeo and Juliet