- Joined
- Nov 3, 2006
( sigh) I vowed I wouldn't get shunted into yet another discussion about Paul and whichever partner... when I'd love to talk about some of the others , sometime..yet, here I am...
In my humble , but carefully considered opinion , Paul is very talented , and a very good skater..I just balk at your inclusion of the word partner , Dragonlady.. because to me , a partner is more than someone who can stay in time with his counterpart, can match leg lines , can lift her..and so forth. Of course that's all part of being an excellent partner , but for me there has to be a real connection between the two ( no, I don't mean romance , necessarily ) . His attention should be centred on her and vice versa , expression should seem to come from the inside out , not the outside in , and it's more than what you're doing with your face . I need to feel their movement , individually and together , stems from some common impetus , and in all skaters, always, I like to see some fluidity in the way they use their bodies. I feel these are areas where Paul still has room for a lot of improvement , whoever he's partnered with.
I did see the beginnings of an attempt to address these issues last year , but it was still very " outside in ".. with a heavy focus on facial experession.. IMO. While I found them entertaining ( their FD , at least ), the choroegraphy was obviously designed to obscure these shortcomings, so it was difficult to judge what the couple's true prospects are.
This can change , and I'm waiting to see what this year will bring from them.
There are many fine young male ice dancers right now in the world , many of which do not have a problem in the areas I mention. Though maybe not all of them have Paul's technical skill , there must be a fair number in the same ballpark. Champions or would-be champions , I'm sure they all hate to lose.
I find it hard to get too excited over Paul's status as a former Champion , since it came in the absence of V/M , and was extremely narrowly awarded over W/P who continued on to a higher placement at worlds. Oh ,it is a fact. It's in the record books.. but it's not an achievement to be trumpeted in the same way as some Championships won under other circumstances might be ... and he now has a different partner.
I've had so many interruptions while trying to type this , I hope it bears some relation to the current discussion....and I've lost track of the other topics I was going to go on to...( typical of my life )
In my humble , but carefully considered opinion , Paul is very talented , and a very good skater..I just balk at your inclusion of the word partner , Dragonlady.. because to me , a partner is more than someone who can stay in time with his counterpart, can match leg lines , can lift her..and so forth. Of course that's all part of being an excellent partner , but for me there has to be a real connection between the two ( no, I don't mean romance , necessarily ) . His attention should be centred on her and vice versa , expression should seem to come from the inside out , not the outside in , and it's more than what you're doing with your face . I need to feel their movement , individually and together , stems from some common impetus , and in all skaters, always, I like to see some fluidity in the way they use their bodies. I feel these are areas where Paul still has room for a lot of improvement , whoever he's partnered with.
I did see the beginnings of an attempt to address these issues last year , but it was still very " outside in ".. with a heavy focus on facial experession.. IMO. While I found them entertaining ( their FD , at least ), the choroegraphy was obviously designed to obscure these shortcomings, so it was difficult to judge what the couple's true prospects are.
This can change , and I'm waiting to see what this year will bring from them.
There are many fine young male ice dancers right now in the world , many of which do not have a problem in the areas I mention. Though maybe not all of them have Paul's technical skill , there must be a fair number in the same ballpark. Champions or would-be champions , I'm sure they all hate to lose.
I find it hard to get too excited over Paul's status as a former Champion , since it came in the absence of V/M , and was extremely narrowly awarded over W/P who continued on to a higher placement at worlds. Oh ,it is a fact. It's in the record books.. but it's not an achievement to be trumpeted in the same way as some Championships won under other circumstances might be ... and he now has a different partner.
I've had so many interruptions while trying to type this , I hope it bears some relation to the current discussion....and I've lost track of the other topics I was going to go on to...( typical of my life )