Young Katherine and young Sasha were so much look alike...both of them spent a lot of time on ballet and streching...I remember the Katherine book showed that she took lessons from some famous ballet teachers, such as David Howard, and she was even in a professional ballet performance...I think I have watched her skating performance on ice on TV once, her spiral is even more stunning...but Sasha is the one who will be competing at Olympics and could get the gold...
Healy does not have poor jump technique. I just downloaded a bunch of vids of her and her jump technique (albeit doubles) is stunning. She precisely goes into each jump and her flowout on her landings is amazing. Even her air position is perfect.Originally Posted by dr.frog
Sasha can hit similar positions to Katherine, but what separates Katherine from Sasha is her precision and body position in all of her elements. Everything that Katherine does on the ice is measured and perfect from her crossovers, spins , spirals and jumps. Sasha is much more "athletic" with less thought to the detail and positioning on the basic elements such as the crossovers and more focus on the jumps and spins (the more athletic maneuvers). Quite frankly, Sasha isn't even in Katherine Healey's league (and I love Sasha's skating). When I watch Katherine skate, I feel that there is a theme or thought that prevails thoughout her skating in terms of its focus on lines and edges and body positions (much like Toller Cranston and Gary Beacom) which is applied to every element which is lacking in many skaters' skating (not just picking on Sasha). Katherine is very much John Curry's protege.
I do appreciate that a skater of Katherine's caliber has received exposure despite her lack of titles. I would rather watch her than a lot of Olympic medalists.
I read the Young Figure Skater book first and watched Katherine's professional performance after. I feel I like young Katherine better. The only skating performace of her I watched seemed showing too much ballet influence. It was just a complete ballet on ice. I think Kathrine is a ballet dancer rather than a figure skater.
Healy is a lovely, lovely skater, but she does have a wrapped leg on her jumps. It's the only line break she has, but I find it a bit jarring, nonetheless.
Here is Katherine looking Sasha-esque
http://members.aol.com/loisy/cousins/nut89.htm
Here she is in Six Weeks
http://www.dreamstarlets.com/lobby/m...weeks0002.html
Yes, the leg wrap was what I was referring to with her bad jump technique. Besides lacking the tight rotation, she also only had mediocre height and spring on her jumps. I don't think she ever got beyond a double flip, much less any triples.
The only comparison I would be willing to make between KH and Sasha is that Sasha is often referred to as a "Ballerina on Ice" while KH is literally a Ballerina on ice. My impression is that KH exhibited imense talent for either at an early age, but by age 12 focused on ballet. (hence her "going pro" at age 12 and never competing on ice at a Sr. level, and going on to become a Prima Ballerina in Europe)
In one of the later videos shared at the link I referenced, she was interviewed by Roz after 7 year hiatis from figure skating. She put her skates back on, and simply worked up to a lovely exhibition, which under the circumstances I find mighty amazing. So yes, no tripples. And critique of jump technique compared to other similarly aged skaters (in their own time) who do this full time? sure.
But what an amazing talent for a less-than-part-time-skater post age 12. Given those circumstances, I am far less interested in her jump-ability than her awesome musicality combined with tremendous line and form. (and yeah, ITA that it's got to be a lot easier to achieve all that without tripples!!) But still...
DG
Since when was a leg wrap bad technique? Midori Ito had a leg wrap and had the best jump technique in the world (esp in her consistency in landing the triple axel in competition).
As for the height on the jumps, Katherine isn't a figure skater but a ballet dancer who figure skates. Jumps aren't her emphasis.
Um, since always? Ito was an amazing jumper, but she did not have perfect technique. (If you want an example of perfect jump technique, look no further than my avatar to the left.)
Someone asked how old Healy is. I believe she's in her mid-30's, but she looks much, much younger in person (she probably gets carded all the time). And she is as lovely off the ice as she is on - intelligent, dynamic, and feisty, with an excellent sense of humor.
I think you're confusing her with Cathy Foulkes, who like Katherine Healy was also a ballet dancer and a member of John Curry's troupe.
As BittyBug pointed out Foulkes did dance with the Boston Ballet. Healy danced with Vienna State Opera Ballet, English National Ballet, and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
Healy did skate with Curry, and it is possible that the low height of her jumps was influenced by Curry and the choreography she did with his company. He did many more low doubles and singles in his programs after he retired from eligible competition, and this was deliberate.
My first skating teacher had danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo way back in the 1930s. Once in junior high, when I was taking lessons with him, we saw a Ballet Russe film at school and there was his name in the credits.
He learned to skate later. Never taught figures, though.
About Healy, my impression is that she probably wouldn't have been a top-top athlete if she had stuck to competitive skating, so it's just as well she went into ballet, but she did seem to have precise technique in general.
If she had stuck with skating, she would have been attempting double lutzes and axels at least and probably trying to learn triples, might have succeeded, might not. I seem to remember reading somewhere, probably a rink report from a fan, that she was working on triple sals about 10 years ago when she came back to skating as an adult pro, but I don't know if she ever got it.
For artistic skating shows on theatre-sized ice surfaces, there's really not much room for anyone to set up triples (occasionally a skater might manage a triple toe or triple sal, without as much speed as they'd have in an arena context), so that kind of athleticism is irrelevant to what makes a good skater for that context. Different abilities shine in different formats.
Thanks BittyBug. I did confuse them. I did see Healy skate on TV's new year's eve in vienna.
I've never noticed the leg wrap. I'll look for it next time I see NYIT.
Curry was trying to make figure skating into the form of dance presentations on a proscenium stage. Not easy. I think we are all confusing triple jumps as an absolute necessity for any form of figure skating moreso than the beauty of figure skating to the music. But true, Healy was not the biggest jumper nor did she do more than doubles (a la ballet). Watch those doubles if you get a chance. They are perfect with grace personified, and just so musical.
Mathman - I dig the photos of the split jumps. The larger middle one is the classic split (same as if you did a split on the floor), the other one is a Russian split with feet thrust out in front of the skater. In ballet, the former is called a grand tour jete the latter is used in folk character dancing.
And the Charlotte Spiral, Healy was not the first to do a 180 degree. That belongs to Belita and I doubt anyone knows who she was.
Joe
Here is her web site
it used to be where you can go see pict of her and read her bio, i don't know what has happened to it
http://www.figure-skating.com/Skaters/Healy/
So...I've been having internet problems lately, but was finally able to download one of Healy's programs...the 81' Nutcracker, and OMG that was probably one of the most beautiful skates I've ever ever EVER seen. My jaw dropped. It was soooo seemless, so flowing...and those spread eagles, I almost cried. anyway, thanks for the link to these vids...hopefully I'll be able to watch more!
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