- Joined
- Jan 23, 2009
Stop not liking what I like!
Stop not liking what I like!
You may not have explicitly stated that Blades of Passion was wrong and that you are right, but generally when you call a person who has a different opinion disparaging names (e.g. "attention beggar"), it's obvious that you think that other person is wrong and that you are right.
Um, no. The subject in question here are ladies competitive figure skating short programs, so my statement about how jump layout is integral to choreography and thus storytelling is meant to apply to ladies competitive figure skating short programs, where jumping passes are absolutely mandatory. Jumping passes may be but one component out of many in a short program, but given the time devoted to their set-up and their overall importance in a short program, where and when you insert a jump in a short program has significant effects on the choreography and overall arc of a short program.
When did I ever say that Yu-Na's Giselle was only crossovers-jump-crossovers-jump-crossovers?
a skater is not doing much storytelling if the first minute of a program is simply crossovers-jump-crossovers-jump-crossovers.
... is Roxanne. Followed by Danse Macabre. Both well-performed technically and artistically. I don't think the others (Fledermaus, Bond, Giselle) are worthy of consideration in the All-Time Great SP category. All are COP programs, but something is lacking in either choreography or execution or both, and even though World medal worthy, they certainly aren't sticking around in my memory banks. Yuna is very very good, but not everything that comes off her skates rates a Brilliant.
So, to sum it up, jump layout MATTERS in choreography and the overall composition of the program.
Um, except Tango de Roxanne, right? That is a YuNa SP, yes?If you compare Yuna's short programs, they all have the same structure. Triple-triple, solo triple, (spiral sequence), spin, footwork, axel, end with a spin, either a biellmann or an I spin.
Say what you want about Giselle, which I personally don't care for, but you are so wrong about Homage and to compare the two programs whilst describing it as "bland and overly concentrated" makes me wonder if you even watched Homage. It is YuNa's second-best LP after Lark Ascending and had the potential to be her best had it been done clean on account of the passion I saw at Torino; what was unfortunate was it being half-baked. And still it was one of the better LPs done by a lady for the season.What makes Giselle and Homage particularly disappointing and bland is that general feeling you take away from the program is "must do elements correctly, concentrate, concentrate!" Besides the forced choreographed movements of ballet releves and clutching her uterus, there was no effort put into presentation or telling a story or whatever. And before anyone says its the CoP's fault, this wasn't a problem in Yuna's previous programs. It's no Lark Ascending, or even Roxanne.
This is basically what my response was going to be.
Every movement a skater makes on the ice is part of the choreography/interpretation. Jumps are often supposed to be the exclamation point to great skating. Instead, these days, jumps are more of a "okay I have to get this out of the way" kind of thing...often preceded and/or followed by completely unnecessary movements that don't really do much for the choreography/interpretation, but give you CoP points because they are a Transition and judges don't understand that a program can have strong Transitions and still have crappy Choreography and Interpretation.
Look at how many skaters do all 3 jumping passes in the Short Program back-to-back-to-back these days. It's entirely ridiculous. I also can't recall hardly any Short Programs in recent years where the first 2 elements of the program weren't the 2 hardest jumping passes. The only variety we see is that a skater sometimes puts their easiest jump a little later in the program. Whoopee.
What os168, Olympia and I said of kim's Giselle having a storyline and that being rare in today's short programs, we meant that the program doesn't stop at just simple caricaturing of a character but it seems to have an actual plot line with the four steps in composition like a mini theater play. So your example of Alena's portraying of "a sexy swashbuckling pirate" in her new program is completely off the topic. Go back and read our posts if you will.
Speaking of Alena's new SP, although her performance isn't that impressive, her character building in this program seem to be far better than her previous attempts in last two years' short programs. They are all front-loaded, and that carries on even when this performance is compared to her unfortunate 2009 Chicago long program in which jump layouts were dispersed and she had more time to play with her character. The difference in storytelling quality between her SP this year and these previous programs has nothing to do with the jump layouts. What matters is her confidence, refinement of the choreography and her presentation.
There are the concepts of "balanced program" and "storytelling" and the two are not the same. I don't disagree that a program with spread-out jumping passages seems to be more balanced. But jumps are jumps, and by themselves they do not "tell" any story, and no matter how spread out the jumps are in a program they will take up the same amount of time in terms of set up, exit, etc as in front-loaded programs. Front-loaded or not, choreography, music arrangement and skater's ability to convey it are mainly what determines the quality of character development and storytelling in a program.
The context of the discussion in the previous posts was the storytelling aspect of Kim's Giselle program and this was what you said.
I got the hunch that you would bring up one of Kwan's programs as your favorite.
ita.i would like to add my vote for yuna's dance macabre for being one of the best short programs ever. It might not be choreographically perfect but to me it doesn't matter. I am not an expert and from the point of view of a casual fan this program was magical from the first to the last second.