I think in general, there are more ice dancers capable of balletic movement than singles skaters, male or female. (Not all ice dancers though, and not that balletic movement makes one necessarily a superior skater).
Maybe not a superior skater, but for me personally, those who adhere to those balletic principles that LutzDance aptly described, or even just incorporate certain aspects of it, will almost always look the most aesthetically pleasing to my eyes.
And this is true even when they’re not skating to a ballet music piece or doing ballet inspired choreography. It can be even quite the contrary.
Because ideally it will inform all of their movement no matter the style, serve as a sort of foundation and be apparent in the shapes their body creates and their lines.
Things like a bent skating and/or free leg during footwork or spins, lines broken at the wrist or fingers (think of many of the Russian girls, Jason Brown, Daniel Grassl, Evgeni Semenenko…), for me all of those really ruin the overall look of a skater, even when they’re not aiming to skate in a balletic way specifically.
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