Skate Detroit, July 21-24

[sk8er1964]

"I was told that the parallel CoP judging panel had the results reversed in both the short and the long: Jordan would have won the short and Ryan would have won the long."

Very interesting!

Mathman

I did not see the short, so can't comment on that, but I can see that in the long. I was actually wondering who would win - because Jordan had the better program traditionally technically (ie less falls), but Ryan's had innovative spins, difficult and unusual jump entires, and flair. So did Rohene's. I do think that Jordan can be a force to be reckoned with - he's talented, but if he's going to skate against the big boys under CoP he's going to need more innovation. I understand that the LP he skated was last years, tho...

[pipsqueak]

To "...dragon" and "...thing called love"---

Hey guys--what about T&M and how they would/would not put the judges to sleep? What do you mean? For instance, no offense to anyone who thinks otherwise, but Scott and Dulebohn put me to sleep. I'd have rather watched others who had more "fire" and "connection" splat all over the place than watch them skate "clean", which they never did anyway. So, compared to them as a benchmark for me, what do you mean that T & M would put me to sleep....or conversely, what did the judges see?

[euterpe]

I can understand why some people think T/M aren't exciting. They are almost entirely devoid of expression when they skate--like androids or robots. Everything they do is technically excellent, but there is something missing, and that is affect. It doesn't seem to matter what the music is.

I never could understand how they could skate to "West Side Story" and look so blank-faced. But they were also blank-faced for "Cotton Club" which was probably the worst program they ever did. They never 'get into' their music but are completely apart from it. They don't 'sell' their program, and that's why Shen/Zhao get much higher Skating Components marks than T/M.

[shine]

I lurrrvs Cotton Club. The choreography is so complex and orginal. Sometimes body language works better than facial pretense

[lulu]

I .

I never could understand how they could skate to "West Side Story" and look so blank-faced. But they were also blank-faced for "Cotton Club" which was probably the worst program they ever did. They never 'get into' their music but are completely apart from it. They don't 'sell' their program, and that's why Shen/Zhao get much higher Skating Components marks than T/M.

I agree that sometimes T&M don't "get into" their music as much as they should. But what does "selling" the program have to do with Skating Components? I thought Skating Components were the in-betweens etc?

[Kateri]

I lurrrvs Cotton Club. The choreography is so complex and orginal. Sometimes body language works better than facial pretense

I think Cotton Club is their best programme; I like it a lot.

It's not cheesy emoting, it's a grown-up, mature, sophisticated programme.
SO there.

k.

[floskate]

Facial pretence

[Linny]

There's a whole range of facial expressions that have nothing to do with cheesy emoting. How about looking, for about 30 seconds, like you enjoy your sport? Even in kiss and cry, when the program is done, the need for concentration is over and the pressure is off, T&M have expressions more like indigestion than anything remotely resembling acknowledgement of the applause.
Linny

[Kateri]

There's a whole range of facial expressions that have nothing to do with cheesy emoting. How about looking, for about 30 seconds, like you enjoy your sport? Even in kiss and cry, when the program is done, the need for concentration is over and the pressure is off, T&M have expressions more like indigestion than anything remotely resembling acknowledgement of the applause.
Linny

Sure, good, natural, appropriate facial expression helps make a programme work.
But I'd rather have no expression at all than bad, fake expression.

And facial expression is just icing on the cake; T&M may not have it, but they do have other skills. I enjoy them for what they do well, and I liked the Cotton Club.
They may not be one of my favourite pairs, but I still like watching them.

k.

[thisthingcalledlove]

To "...dragon" and "...thing called love"---

Hey guys--what about T&M and how they would/would not put the judges to sleep? What do you mean? For instance, no offense to anyone who thinks otherwise, but Scott and Dulebohn put me to sleep. I'd have rather watched others who had more "fire" and "connection" splat all over the place than watch them skate "clean", which they never did anyway. So, compared to them as a benchmark for me, what do you mean that T & M would put me to sleep....or conversely, what did the judges see?

my only memory of her is watching her during the 2001 skate america pairs lp, and how she had NO EMOTION during the lifts, and during the fast part, when people should be getting into it, the audience really didn't because they didn't seem to be into their performance. i guess it's like making love...and having a one night stand...