- Joined
- Apr 9, 2016
To be honest, I don't think I could have stood another "quirky" program from him in the style of his SP from last and 2015-2016 season. Watching it got as hard as skating it for him was in the end. He was sick of that program and sick of that kind of quirkiness at that point. It took an effort of will to squeeze that joy and charm out of himself and act out that character at every competition. Being cute and silly can quickly become a chore especially if you are not exactly in the mood for it. You can hardly blame him for not wanting to go there this season. And it isn't like it showcased all his strengths. If you want him to show beautiful lines and flow you need a program more in vein of the Hallelujah EX.Yes please! What I miss in Mikhail's skating this season is this kind of quirkiness and particularity imprinted i his material, getting out more his personality and being so genuine and plainly likeable as a performer. This season they have groomed him with those programs to appear more like Russian no. 1, having supposedly more 'sophisticated' and streamlined, universally appealing programs, but it all looks kinda artificial for me... He seems to be sometimes chocked up and restrained performance-wise over this status he got and that affects his skating in many areas I feel. I don't expect him to do Baba Yaga type of program in competition, but something more personally-fitted, more related to his aesthetic could be beneficiary than those posh programs that are supposed to do Mikhail favours and 'elevate' him, style him to appear mature and as a real contender. Thing is that as SP can be defended to some extend by his skills, FS is a total misopportunity for me; Mikhail is a skater with ability to elevate and enrich the program, if allowed to, not the other way around in my opinion.
Trying something different like Mozart was an interesting direction. He said he wanted to stretch himself artistically. An I don't think he was unsuccessful in doing it (I am not saying that particular program is the best that he could be given). As for Elvis, the biggest problem is that it needs to be skated in a different mood. Skating to Elvis was Mikhail's idea and he loved that program when he first started skating it, but he was just skating it for the fun of it at that point. The quads and the responsibility and the pressure ended up taking the joy out of it. Maybe he'll manage to rediscover it. But it just shows you that the skaters may not be the best judges of what to skate and it is dangerous to have programs that rely on the skater having fun while skating them.
Also, I think we've had enough programs that require Mikhail to elevate and enrich them, shouldn't he get programs that are at least at his level?