Michelle skating to Bolero - good or bad choice? | Golden Skate

Michelle skating to Bolero - good or bad choice?

T

Taan

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 27, 2003
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@@!@!!!! :eek:
 
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
 
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More on Bolero

"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.
 
Mathman said:
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
Click to expand...

Yikes! I think I'll come back here after Campbells to see what you have to say :)
 
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.
 
Just Do It

Mathman said:
(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
Click to expand...
You, naughty Math, NEVER!! :laugh: :laugh:

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??? :confused:

Dee
 
JonnyCoop said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Tony Wheeler said:
Yikes! I think I'll come back here after Campbells to see what you have to say :)
Click to expand...
Preview of Mathman's commentary: "Kwan's brilliant selection of the Ravel masterpiece swept away the competition at the season-opening skatefest..." ;)
 
Mathman said:
Preview of Mathman's commentary: "Kwan's brilliant selection of the Ravel masterpiece swept away the competition at the season-opening skatefest..." ;)
Click to expand...

"..........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." :p :p :p
 
Piel said:
"..........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 retirement." :p :p :p
Click to expand...


:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I can't wait to see Michelle's interpretation. Before I read Piel's and Mathman's commentary, I thought it was a bad idea! :laugh: :laugh:
 
Bolero has been described here as repetitive by some and by GI as "big". I don't know whether Ravel had Alzheimers or not. Just off the top of my head and I don't own a Grove's music dictionary, I believe Ravel regret composing this piece, late in life, he couldn't stand Bolero, and kind of despised the audience who made it popular. It was meant to be a piece for orchestration exercise. It became popular, hmmm for Dudley Moore and Bo Derrick reasons? Since Ravel was the composer, I trust his own assessment of this piece as just an orchestration exercise, not too much more music worth to it.

That does not mean that amazing skaters can not turn it into a masterpiece. What did the match maker told Mulan about a silk purse? T&D did it. I think among singles skaters currently MK is the one who also has the ability to elevate this piece of music into a masterpiece. Great skaters do not need the most perfect piece of music, just like true beauty does not need make up. So I will have to disagree with some posters view that Bolero is not good for skating period.

I have no idea why GI associated this piece of music with "big". There is nothing grand about the orchestration, it is no Mahler #8, Brian's Gothic symphony, Beethoven's missa solemnis, or Verdi's requiem. It is not grand in terms of all other criteria that we use to measure great masterpieces of music. Dudley Moore, and Bo Derreck made it BIG I guess. BTW, GI from our last discussion on Wagner's music, I remember that you can't even handle Wagner's Siegried Idyll, I perfectly understand why you think Ravel's Bolero is BIG. Maybe you should start with R. Strauss sinfonia domestica first. ;)
 
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There was a rumor some months ago that Chris Dean himself was the one who choreographed Bolero for Kwan.

I really didn't believe it then. Now that her SP and LP choices are basically confirmed by a reliable source, I wonder if Chris Dean really did choreograph it for Kwan.
 
Mathman said:
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.
Click to expand...
There's a post on FSU that says that The Lion King music was tied up in some kind of copyright dispute and that she had to change her music.
 
rtureck said:
Bolero has been described here as repetitive by some and by GI as "big". I don't know whether Ravel had Alzheimers or not. Just off the top of my head and I don't own a Grove's music dictionary, I believe Ravel regret composing this piece, late in life, he couldn't stand Bolero, and kind of despised the audience who made it popular. It was meant to be a piece for orchestration exercise.
Click to expand...
Bolero was a commission from Ida Rubenstein for a ballet. (Here is one of many citations on the Internet: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3335230) She choregraphed a "table dance," just as Bejart later did. The music was meant to be mechanical, grinding, and repetitive, and to be performed slowly throughout.

I have heard before that Ravel hated the piece and was furious that audiences liked Bolero best of all of his music. However, I can't find in this anywhere in Concise Grove. (I checked the online version at andante.com.)

I also read on andante.com that there's a new documentary out called What Made Mozart Tic? that suggests that Mozart may have suffered from Tourette's Syndrome.

http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=24341

This link will be active only for a few weeks. I can't find this on the Birmingham Post (original source) online site. However, I did learn that there's going to be a Bollywood festival in Birmingham...
 
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