there are rumors rampant around the net Michelle is skating to Bolero. I just dont think this is a good choice - this music is so cliche in the skating world. Michelle needs to drop Bolero ASAP and go back to skating to unused, original, and beautiful selections of music@@!@!!!!
Bolero? The legendary "Bolero" T & D once skated to?
She better let it be, one needs a certain extend of "boiling blood" to interprete that music.
Waaaay too big for Kwan, but I'm sure Cohen or Shizuka could do it.
Anke
BAD NEWS!
When are skaters going to realize that Bolero is the music of a chorus number. It is calling out for the entire cast to come back for a finale. T&D got away with it because they were something different in the dance world and it worked for dance. It killed Abt because it prohibits great flow over the ice and that was one of his best features.
I really hope this rumor is wrong and if not, I hope it is only for the SP.
Joe
What I don't understand is how Michelle manages to keep her music selections secret every year. There are thousands of people who are interested in this, and many who would love to be the hero who gets the big scoop for the Internet boards. Fans go to her practices and hang out with people who know her or her coach or choreographers. Still, the only thing we have to comfort ourselves in the off season is one rumor after another.
Michelle herself must be chuckling up her sleeve.
I agree with Joe. This music is waaaay too insipid and vacuous for Michelle.
(If I were in a naughty mood I would also I agree with Anke and say that I hope Michelle's rivals use it. :D )
Mathman
Last edited by Mathman; 09-02-2004 at 07:14 AM.
"A British study, published in today's Psychiatric Bulletin, suggests that Ravel's Bolero, reputed to be the most often played composition in the repertoire, was the work of a pathological mind. Dr Eva Cybulska, the author of the study, claims that the famous melody repeated 18 times without change during the course of the piece demonstrates that the French composer was possibly succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. The Kent-based psychiatrist claims that perseveration, an obsession with repeating words and gestures, is one of the more notable symptoms of this pathology. In other words, the repetitive nature of the score's principal theme is symptomatic of the degenerative condition which began to trouble the French composer in 1927 at the age of 52."
I never mind skaters using "overused" music and although I'm looking forward to see Michelle's interpretation, Bolero is the one piece I know absolutely no one can do better than T/D. Sort of a bad choice, IMO. I liked it a lot more when she used unknown music.
IMO though she can actually make it work. The music has a very particular flow, very repetitive and I think that the quality of Michelle's edges and flow and her usual kind of choreography can make it work. I think Michelle does better with less dramatic music and to me Bolero (for the most part) hasn't much drama going on LOL (did this make sense? LOL)
Yikes, Anke there is no way Sasha or Shizuka could make this work more than Michelle. They are much more powerful skaters and music with more variation suits them better!
I could imagine the music of "Bolero" fitting for a sensitive and really interpretative skater like e.g. Galina Maniachenko and from pro skaters perhaps for Oksana Baiul.
Sorry, cannot imagine Kwan skating to "Bolero", but if she does, I´m curiously looking forward to see her performance.
Marjaana
Cohen 'interpret' Bolero better than Kwan? Think again. Cohen's "Swan Lake" was devoid of interpretation. The music was dramatic, but Sasha was tight, tense and mechanical. Cohen might be able to do Bolero as a SP, but not as a FS.
Always bad to skate to someone else's signature piece, IMO.
Yikes! I think I'll come back here after Campbells to see what you have to sayOriginally Posted by Mathman
I feel that in general if one is going to skate to "Bolero", better to use it as a long program and don't even go there with a short program. The appeal of "Bolero", musically, is that it builds on itself and builds on itself to the climax, and one has a better chance of translating this aspect of the piece in 4 minutes rather than 2 1/2. Every short program I've seen of "Bolero" gives the impression that they started in the middle (which they did) and I don't think it's a good effect overall; it just seems disjointed.
As for Michelle using it -- in part it will depend on who's doing the choreography.
You, naughty Math, NEVER!!
I guess for the life of me I never understand what all the secrecy is about. Will she do the Grand Prix? Will she be at Nationals or Worlds?? Will she get the Gold in Turino? I guess if she wants to use Bolero, I am excited to see her perform it. Oops, I forgot is that a secret???
Dee
Even T&D didn't cut it to 4 minutes - they used a 4:30 edition. Their arranger said he can't compress it down to 4 minutes (even though the speed is increasing during the piece). They got away with it cause they didn't start to skate (!) at 0:00 minutes but instead started with this famous opening without skating.
Preview of Mathman's commentary: "Kwan's brilliant selection of the Ravel masterpiece swept away the competition at the season-opening skatefest..."Yikes! I think I'll come back here after Campbells to see what you have to say
"..........Torville and Dean who were in the first row were heard to say "Why didn't WE think of that interpretation?' Legendary coach Tatiana Tarosova overcome with emotion after seeing Kwan's performance told the media"of course Bolero has been used before in skating competition, but NEVER has it been skated to with such passion or the elements completed with such perfection as La Kwan(trademark Joesitz)". Robin Wagner announced her retirememnt."Preview of Mathman's commentary: "Kwan's brilliant selection of the Ravel masterpiece swept away the competition at the season-opening skatefest..."
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