I don't see how this has anything to do with Michelle Kwan using or not Bolero LOL I highly doubt that skaters would change their musical choices because of other skaters. That would be an awful lot of work considering how many skaters there are LOL And if they did care about it we sure wouldn't hear so many overused music every year LOLOriginally Posted by floskate
Exactly; it doesn't mean anything at all. After all AP and SC had the same long last year. I'm almost sure it was changed for different reasons.
I didn't mean to imply that Amber changed hers just because of Kwan. Excuse my wording there. However, that decision is free to be speculated upon. But she was listed to skate to Bolero and now as evidenced at Golden West or wherever it was, she's doing Polovitsian dances. Those are facts. And this thread is about whether Kwan should use Bolero or not and whether or not this rumour is even true, so the fact that Amber has changed from Bolero to something else is relevant to the topic at hand IMO!
actually, it might not even be the bolero orchestration we're used to...there's a new album: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...sical&n=507846
and it is bolero...done in jazz, ballroom...piano solo...
Personally I think 'Bolero' should be retired as a music choice for skaters out of respect for T&D, kind of like in other sports they retire the guy's jersey and number after he is no longer playing. I don't think anyone could ever skate it better than they did, their program was one of the skating masterpieces of all time. But since Michelle has already apparently decided to use this, I can't wait to see what she is going to do with this beautiful piece of music!
But skaters do this all the time, we just don't know because we don't follow their training. Many times they work on a program and they ditch it before they even debut it. Other times they even train two different LPs. There is a number of reasons why this sort of situation happens but surely it doesn't have much to do with what other skaters do.
Besides, about Amber Corwin, I don't know where the information she was doing Bolero came from, but it could also have been un unsubstantiated rumour.
I didn't think anyone could skate to Turandot better than S/Z in 2003 and just the following year Shizuka Arakawa blew me away with her LP. This reasoning doesn't make much sense. Fabulous skaters arrive all the time and their interpretation can vary and create another masterpiece to an overused piece of music.
Besides, people, put yourselves on the shoes of the skaters. Who are we to stop them from using music they enjoy? I adore Swan Lake. I've watched the ballet over and over and I listen to the CD all the time. It's a classic and like all classics, it's timeless. If I was a skater and I wanted to use this music because I love it, even if I couldn't interpret it like Oksana Baiul, to say I would be disappointed because some authority decided they didn't want more Swan Lakes would be an understatement. It would be MY program and MY interpretation and too bad if fans wanted to hear something different. I think we fans are sometimes a little selfish. We need to think a little about the skaters and why they do the choices they do, instead of whining all the time about what we don't like and demand measures from the authoriries to satisfy us. First the skaters, then us. That's why the ISU is there (or should be).
Asking to remove music from skating is the same as asking ballet companies to stop performing Swan Lake or The Nutcracker because it's "overused". It would be the same as asking a pianist never to play Chopin ever again because it's "overused".
I agree RI. Much depends on the interpreter of a War Horse.
However, after seeing at least 75 Swan Lakes live, and from different ballet companies and with the different nationalities dancing the swan queen, it becomes boring. One or two do stand out but this is not a ballet forum. It saw Nutcracker twice. It's for little girls. Over and out. The skating one was horrendous.
The War Horses in figure skating are without a doubt, Swan Lake, with imitation 19 centrury ballet moves; Carmen, with eyelashes batting away. Un bel di with a mock stabbing, and so on and so on. All of which is totally out of context.
Yes, I am jaded. Been there saw that.
I'd like to see a War Horse without reference to the stories. I think Sasha Cohen did a step in that direction with her SL, and it got me interested. I'm not at all sure what Irina was doing in Tosca, and I give MK some credit for not playing that role when someone like me has seen 20 different Toscas, including Callas.
The above is just me. I don't speak for the young ones who have yet to go to a ballet or opera.
Joe
I totally disagree with this. Why should a piece of music be 'retired' just because someone had a great skate to it? Does that mean Don Q. should not have been skated to after John Curry's 1976 performance, or nobody should ever skate to Moonlight Sonata because G&G skated great to it? Music is just music and anyone should be allowed to interpret it in his/her own way. Some people may have difficulty accepting someone else skate to their faves' music but that is their problem. Music is forever and it should never be retired, no matter how well anyone skates to it.
I so agree with your post Vash01! Aint' it tha truth!!!
Personally, an even stronger memory for me that T/D's magnificent performance to Bolero is Bo Derek's performance to it in "10"
Telling someone that they can no longer skate to a piece of music is, to me, the equivalent of telling a dancer that she can no longer dance Odette/Odile because Margot Fonteyn already did the best performance, or that the Bolshoi can't do a new production of Swan Lake because the Kirov/Maryinski already did the only version. (And before anyone says, "yes, but Swan Lake is standard choreography and skating choreography is different for each program," while the scenario is more or less the same for each production of Swan Lake, very little of the original choreography exists today, even in productions by the Maryinski, Petipa/Ivanov's Company. Actually, when the Maryinski was the Kirov, political pressure made them change the ending to a "happy ending," ironic because the original ballet was produced in the Victorian era, noted for grafting "happy" endings on Shakespeare and other classics.) Or that no one can cover a Bob Dylan or Carole King song, or sing Tosca after Maria Callas, which, in my opinion, is a frightening thought.
I groan when I hear that people are using certain classic pieces of music because either I don't like them (Don Q, Scheherazade, Giselle), or I don't think they're the most suitable for skating (Bolero.) (I will force myself to choke down the score of Don Q this October because it's what the Bolshoi is bringing to Seattle, blech, but that's an exception.) But I don't care how many people try Swan Lake. So the programs are bland, or the skaters are completely out of character. So what? Chances are, there's some small piece that's unique and lovely, just as when a young dancer performs the role for the first time or a dancer is cast against type. Otherwise, it's just a chance to post, "I knew it wouldn't work"
Last edited by hockeyfan228; 09-14-2004 at 02:39 PM.
As I recall it, "Bolero" builds not just with volume, but with a driving rhythmic beat. The music starts out light and sinous with just the hint of percussion, then the music gets gradually wilder and the beat more and more insistent. In the movie "10","Bolero" was used as the aural equivalent of sex.
The underlying beat is provided by the snare drum, which gets louder as the piece goes on. Which of course could be an aural equivalent of sex
Hockeyfan - Don Q in Seattle by the Bolshoi? Brace yourself, it will be a super bravura performance. Actually, I've never seen the Bolshoi do it but I have seen two Kirov's as well as too many ABTs. It's great fun and has the best of Petipa's bravura type of choreography, and together with Ludwig Minkus' tacky music,it works perfectly. I luv it.
I agree with you on bad ballet music, but all the music, imo, which is written for ballet are forced compositiions and given Petipa's power at the time, the composers did what he said. At least Tschaikowsky's works all had some musical brilliance in them.
Cheers for John Curry for changing the face of choreography in figure skating with Don Q, and T&D for startling the skate dance world with Bolero.
As for others taking their turn at these pieces, I say why not? I'm open to see if someone can do another original interpretation. But in these cases, it is not easy for me to like them when compared with the so-called definitive versions.
(By the way, I have never, ever liked Carmen on skates and very little in opera.)
Joe
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks