The greatest pair skating performances

[Buttercup]

One of my favorite choreographers for pairs for years—now decades—has been Moskvina. Dmitriev and his two partners, and then Elena and Anton, demonstrate her wonderful mix of beauty and absolutely terrifying lifts.

Moskvina can be wonderful, for sure! In the cases you mentioned, she also had wonderful skaters to carry out her vision. One of my issues with K/S is that they aren't as good as past Moskvina teams (a high standard, for sure), so the programs don't always work as well.

I rewatched the Cily Light 2001. program.
A great wowww.
Maybe the best ever program?
Much better than their program in 2002.
Why I couldn't remember such a glorious program...???

Probably not the best ever. But a really great program; they deserved better from the judges for it. I think Elena and Anton are now so associated with the SLC controversy that people often forget what they did outside that competition (or even outside of the LP!).

That's because City Lights was strangely unappreciated by the judges, who often ranked Sale/Pelletier higher than Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze even when Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze skated more cleanly the season they used City Lights as their main LP (case in point: 2001 Worlds).

According to Tamara Moskvina, she was told that the judges thought that City Lights was "too theatrical" and was more fit for an exhibition program. Which is ridiculous--I thought City Lights did a rather good job in balancing creativity/entertainment with the technical requirements of a competitive pairs program.

Elena is quote in The Second Mark as saying something along the lines of, the judges want to be fed 'love carrots' (in reference to the Meditation program, IIRC), they don't appreciate something interesting like Chaplin, they want lyrical programs and don't want skaters to take risks*. It's pretty clear that B/S were not very fond of Meditation and would much rather have skated City Lights.

* I tend to agree; the default mode in pairs, is definitely more romantic/lyrical than anything else. So again, good for Savchenko/Szolkowy and Steuer for not going with the flow.

 

[Tonichelle]

Speaking of choreographers, Lee Ann Miller was Shen and Zhao's choreographer for many years, including their famous Turandot program. She doesn't get as much credit as she should for the tremendous work she did in shaping their skating (and that of other Chinese pairs) including improving their line, posture, timing, expression and flow. They underwent a metamorphosis during the two years they competed that program. She transformed them from technical wizards into a complete pair. Also, her previous iconic program to a different cut of the same music for Meno and Sand is worthy of notice.

Renee Roca, too, did a lot of choreography for the Chinese pairs, IIRC.


It's interesting that the judges had such a hard time with both S/P and B/S. They wanted S/P to stay theatrical, but wanted B/S to have that classic Russian look. When they strayed from what the judges wanted they got nailed. It's why S/P dropped the Orchid program and went back to Love Story for the Olympics, and why we got Meditation instead of something like City Lights from B/S.

I am more of a theatrical fan when it comes to Pairs (I like Love Story, T&I and City Lights), but can appreciate the different styles. I just am a North American viewer and so I think we tend to follow the "love story" more...

 

[Olympia]

Speaking of choreographers, Lee Ann Miller was Shen and Zhao's choreographer for many years, including their famous Turandot program. She doesn't get as much credit as she should for the tremendous work she did in shaping their skating (and that of other Chinese pairs) including improving their line, posture, timing, expression and flow. They underwent a metamorphosis during the two years they competed that program. She transformed them from technical wizards into a complete pair. Also, her previous iconic program to a different cut of the same music for Meno and Sand is worthy of notice.

Ooh, yes! Shame on me for leaving Lea Ann off the list, because the role she played in Shen/Zhao's transformation was totally awesome. Also, of course, Lori Nichol, who choreographed Sale/Pelletier's Love Story but also Shen/Zhao's long program for the 2010 Olympics.

 

[KKonas]

Mishkutienok and Dmitriev at the 1994 Olympics.. wuzrobbed for gold!

Absolutely agree with this statement. I was there in Lillehammer and was shocked that G&G won. To me Dmitriev was by far the better artiste and M&D had the better skate, technically and artistically. I also thought the 2003 Worlds performance of Shen & Zhao was great because of her almost heroic effort. To me, M&D were the greatest pair team. Dmitriev, IMO was the best athlete, so strong, so passionate. He really understood the music. He was notorious for not liking to practice and liking vodka a little too much, but he could be amazing on the ice. I will always be his fan.

 

[skatinginbc]

After watching the links provided, here is my two cents from a layman's perspective. I don't know how to skate, so please correct me if I am wrong.
1. Compared with G/G and B/S, Shen and Zhao are weaker in both basic single skating skills and pair skating skills (not including the tricks). G/G flow effortlessly as one across the rink with great speed, while S/Z work through the ice as two individuals albeit in unison. The lack of togetherness is evidenced by their distance to each other. S/Z sometimes skate more than hand reach apart from each other while doing simple cross-over across the ice. This becomes worse when they are performing jumps or side-by-side spins.
2. Compared with S/Z and B/S, G/G had the worst programs--boring, for lack of a better word. They could still do the same program if one switches the music from Moonlight Sonata to any Chopin's.
3. Overall, B/S is the best, in my opinion, in terms of the most balanced team. They are very good in every element or skill, second best, though not the best, yet without weakness. They could jump, throw, spin, and most importantly, skate. And they have beautiful, interesting programs all the time.

I agree that Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze's Lady Caliph SP is the best SP ever. And the second prize goes to-----Pang and Tong's whatever program they performed in the last world championship where they won the short but screwed up in the long.

 

[Olympia]

Interesting points, BC. I love your observations about S/Z versus G/G and will check that out.

Something you said reminds me of what Moskvina said after G/G won the gold and M/D the silver in 1994: some people prefer lyrics and some prefer physics. I thought that beautifully embodied the programs those two pairs skated at that competition. (Note: I think G/G were lyrical in other programs, especially in their pro career.) For their return to eligible skating, G/G chose a classical, restrained piece of music. They skated with precision and technical purity, plus the lightness and speed for which they were justifiably famous. Natalya and Artur were impassioned, intense, flowing, Romantic in the nineteenth-century sense. I've never been able to make up my mind who was "better" that night.

One detail that one commentator pointed out: when Artur and Natalya executed a throw jump, Artur stopped dead on the ice to lift and throw his partner. When Sergei and Katia did a throw, Sergei just kept moving. Really, their command of gravity itself was uncanny, despite Sergei's two small errors on the jump landings. This was one of those competitions where I would have been happy with either pair winning. Fortunately, both pairs have won golds in their career, so no one missed out—least of all the enraptured audience.

 

[jcoates]

After watching the links provided, here is my two cents from a layman's perspective. I don't know how to skate, so please correct me if I am wrong.
1. Compared with G/G and B/S, Shen and Zhao are weaker in both basic single skating skills and pair skating skills (not including the tricks). G/G flow effortlessly as one across the rink with great speed, while S/Z work through the ice as two individuals albeit in unison. The lack of togetherness is evidenced by their distance to each other. S/Z sometimes skate more than hand reach apart from each other while doing simple cross-over across the ice. This becomes worse when they are performing jumps or side-by-side spins.
2. Compared with S/Z and B/S, G/G had the worst programs--boring, for lack of a better word. They could still do the same program if one switches the music from Moonlight Sonata to any Chopin's.
3. Overall, B/S is the best, in my opinion, in terms of the most balanced team. They are very good in every element or skill, second best, though not the best, yet without weakness. They could jump, throw, spin, and most importantly, skate. And they have beautiful, interesting programs all the time.

I agree that Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze's Lady Caliph SP is the best SP ever. And the second prize goes to-----Pang and Tong's whatever program they performed in the last world championship where they won the short but screwed up in the long.

Interesting observations...some I agree with, some not so much.

1. I agree that from the perspective of pure basic skating skills, G&G are superior to S&Z. B&S, S&P, S&S also had better basic than the Chinese. But if skating were just about strong basics then there's no way that Nancy would have lost or Oksana or Michelle to Tara etc. Skating is also about creating a mood, generating excitement and building a total package in the moment and Shen and Zhao were better at creating and seizing moments than any pair I've ever seen.

2. I would not mistake G&G's simplicity of choreography as being worse that another team. G&G were initially a purely technical and athletic team. Their technique was so brilliant and refined however, that they were able to transcend into a fantastic artistic pair. Of course their eventual marriage helped greatly in that regard. To my eye and those of many others, their clean and simple lines evoke a sense of purity and allow the viewer to fully appreciate what they were doing. Nothing was hidden behind choreographic flourishes because it didn't have to be. Their skating was strong enough to speak for itself 100 percent of the time. I find that refreshing in this current environment of contortionists and flailing arms.

3. I agree the B&S were a very balanced team, especially early in their career when there was a more even split between their technique and artistry. I found some of their later work to be a bit overdone at times. I felt they did not always need the extra touches in their programs. They were good enough without them.

Also in reviewing all of these wonderful clips of different teams, I think we should remember that we are looking at pairs teams over a fifty year long span. It's important to account for changes and improvements in basic technique and training regimes, varying contextual standards (choreography, height differences between partners, music trends and even fashion standards). In that regard at least, I view greatness not merely from the perspective of athletic difficulty or current aesthetic standards, but in terms of what that performance did to impact the sport. Also, remember that it's rare that athletic and artistic advances happen at the same time in skating. In pairs skating over the last 50 years, the trends in the sport have been set by the dominant team or country. In the 60's the Protopopovs pushed pairs toward improved artistry sometimes at the expense of difficulty. In the 70's the trend completely reversed and Rodnina and partners pushed pairs toward raw speed and increased lifting and jumping difficulty but also toward superb sharpness and unison. The Germans, some of the lesser Soviet teams and a few Americans introduced high risk throws to pairs at the same time, but they did not become a true standard until the early 80s. Technique for those elements took longer to refine as they were initially merely assisted jumps with the lady doing more of the work and the man amplifying it. Once that new technical base was set, artistry reemerged and went in a new direction by the mid to late 80's. Since then there's been a more frequent back and forth between the two. I think Shen and Zhao and Savchenko and Szolkowy both fall naturally into the athletic school of pairs skating and have influenced the sport in general toward more athleticism in the last two cycles. They are of course strong artistically, but their greatest strength is their athleticism.

I also think that this and other threads have had a tendency to significantly favor the most recent performance of skaters as being the greatest of all time. Whether that's because they are freshest in the memory bank or because the posters never saw older programs or because of a bias toward current standards, I worry that some of the great treasures of the past are being lost to history. One example of this is the programs of Rodnina and Zaitsev. They never did throws, but were virtually unbeatable. So to the contemporary eye, their programs can appear to be unbalanced. However, at the time, pairs and singles skating were much freer and there was no mandate for certain elements to be done in the free skate. Some teams did no throws, some did only one and some did as many as three. Still it's important to remember that during their time, true pairs skating elements were viewed as lifts, death spirals, pair spins and singles skills done in unison. Release moves like throws were seen more as pure show skating tricks by many purists that covered up for a lack of true pair skating skill. I can remember hearing comments from early 80's programs where former champions like Debbi Wilkes and Otto Jelinek expressed some reservation about such moves being overused and favored alongside traditional pairs moves. The same reaction occurred with more difficult singles jumps being done and of course with the one and half teams that came along. Still the trend was clear that athleticism was on the move (sometimes at the expense of artistry) in the effort to push the sport forward. So to allow for increased athleticism but in a balanced context, the ISU came up with it's well-balanced program concept with mandated minimums and maximums of elements. That is where our current paradigm of a good pairs program comes from. (2 throws, 1-2 twists, 2-3 lifts, 1-2 death spirals, 2 solo jumping passes, etc.) Still if you look at Rodnina and what she did, the sharpness and attack with which she skated, you can see where later teams, including G&G gained some of their inspiration and hopefully appreciate the inherent beauty of her efforts. Sadly though, I think that the current trend toward romantic artistry in pairs allow for less of an appreciation of the athletic and dynamic programs of Rodnina and other late 70's and early 80's teams like Underhill and Martini (as pure a pair team as one will ever see), the Carruthers, and Valova and Vasisliev. Speed and risk were all chiefly apparent in their programs particularly compared to today's pairs. All of their programs have a certain pizazz that most of today's pairs sorely lack in an effort to uniformly reenact a Romeo and Juliet vibe with every program.

 

[pangtongfan]

Shen & Zhou are overrated. They are the greatest Chinese pair ever, but that is it. They in no way deserve to be compared with Gordeeva & Grinkov, Miskuteniok & Dmitriev, Irina Rodnina, the Protoppopovs, or even Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze. They are not at that level. They were never really a dominant pair, their World titles and Olympic title were in 2002, 2003, 2007, and 2010 while their Grand Prix final titles were in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010. So except for 07 and 2010 when everyone was retired and they refreshed themselves with long breaks, did they win virtually everything in a season. They couldnt win anything (other than the 2 GP finals) until Sale & Pelletier and Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze had retired, and even then had trouble beating Totmianina & Marinin until they also retired. Even Savchenko & Szolkowy they never faced at their best, they were still up and coming in 2007, and 2010 was an awful season for them.

As for quality of skating they come nowhere near the pairs I mentioned in unision, line, basic skating strength, throw technique, lift technique, jump consistency, death spirals, spins, too many things to even list them all.

 

[christinaskater]

Natalia Mishkutenok-Artur Dmitriev- I love them as well!

 

[christinaskater]

Interesting observations...some I agree with, some not so much.

1. I agree that from the perspective of pure basic skating skills, G&G are superior to S&Z. B&S, S&P, S&S also had better basic than the Chinese. But if skating were just about strong basics then there's no way that Nancy would have lost or Oksana or Michelle to Tara etc. Skating is also about creating a mood, generating excitement and building a total package in the moment and Shen and Zhao were better at creating and seizing moments than any pair I've ever seen.

2. I would not mistake G&G's simplicity of choreography as being worse that another team. G&G were initially a purely technical and athletic team. Their technique was so brilliant and refined however, that they were able to transcend into a fantastic artistic pair. Of course their eventual marriage helped greatly in that regard. To my eye and those of many others, their clean and simple lines evoke a sense of purity and allow the viewer to fully appreciate what they were doing. Nothing was hidden behind choreographic flourishes because it didn't have to be. Their skating was strong enough to speak for itself 100 percent of the time. I find that refreshing in this current environment of contortionists and flailing arms.

3. I agree the B&S were a very balanced team, especially early in their career when there was a more even split between their technique and artistry. I found some of their later work to be a bit overdone at times. I felt they did not always need the extra touches in their programs. They were good enough without them.

Also in reviewing all of these wonderful clips of different teams, I think we should remember that we are looking at pairs teams over a fifty year long span. It's important to account for changes and improvements in basic technique and training regimes, varying contextual standards (choreography, height differences between partners, music trends and even fashion standards). In that regard at least, I view greatness not merely from the perspective of athletic difficulty or current aesthetic standards, but in terms of what that performance did to impact the sport. Also, remember that it's rare that athletic and artistic advances happen at the same time in skating. In pairs skating over the last 50 years, the trends in the sport have been set by the dominant team or country. In the 60's the Protopopovs pushed pairs toward improved artistry sometimes at the expense of difficulty. In the 70's the trend completely reversed and Rodnina and partners pushed pairs toward raw speed and increased lifting and jumping difficulty but also toward superb sharpness and unison. The Germans, some of the lesser Soviet teams and a few Americans introduced high risk throws to pairs at the same time, but they did not become a true standard until the early 80s. Technique for those elements took longer to refine as they were initially merely assisted jumps with the lady doing more of the work and the man amplifying it. Once that new technical base was set, artistry reemerged and went in a new direction by the mid to late 80's. Since then there's been a more frequent back and forth between the two. I think Shen and Zhao and Savchenko and Szolkowy both fall naturally into the athletic school of pairs skating and have influenced the sport in general toward more athleticism in the last two cycles. They are of course strong artistically, but their greatest strength is their athleticism.

I also think that this and other threads have had a tendency to significantly favor the most recent performance of skaters as being the greatest of all time. Whether that's because they are freshest in the memory bank or because the posters never saw older programs or because of a bias toward current standards, I worry that some of the great treasures of the past are being lost to history. One example of this is the programs of Rodnina and Zaitsev. They never did throws, but were virtually unbeatable. So to the contemporary eye, their programs can appear to be unbalanced. However, at the time, pairs and singles skating were much freer and there was no mandate for certain elements to be done in the free skate. Some teams did no throws, some did only one and some did as many as three. Still it's important to remember that during their time, true pairs skating elements were viewed as lifts, death spirals, pair spins and singles skills done in unison. Release moves like throws were seen more as pure show skating tricks by many purists that covered up for a lack of true pair skating skill. I can remember hearing comments from early 80's programs where former champions like Debbi Wilkes and Otto Jelinek expressed some reservation about such moves being overused and favored alongside traditional pairs moves. The same reaction occurred with more difficult singles jumps being done and of course with the one and half teams that came along. Still the trend was clear that athleticism was on the move (sometimes at the expense of artistry) in the effort to push the sport forward. So to allow for increased athleticism but in a balanced context, the ISU came up with it's well-balanced program concept with mandated minimums and maximums of elements. That is where our current paradigm of a good pairs program comes from. (2 throws, 1-2 twists, 2-3 lifts, 1-2 death spirals, 2 solo jumping passes, etc.) Still if you look at Rodnina and what she did, the sharpness and attack with which she skated, you can see where later teams, including G&G gained some of their inspiration and hopefully appreciate the inherent beauty of her efforts. Sadly though, I think that the current trend toward romantic artistry in pairs allow for less of an appreciation of the athletic and dynamic programs of Rodnina and other late 70's and early 80's teams like Underhill and Martini (as pure a pair team as one will ever see), the Carruthers, and Valova and Vasisliev. Speed and risk were all chiefly apparent in their programs particularly compared to today's pairs. All of theiir programs have a certain pizazz that most of today's pairs sorely lack in an effort to uniformly reenact a Romeo and Juliet vibe with every program.

Thank you for your viewpoint. It is truly important to respect and appreciate figure skating through the years and what was required during that period. I agree that it is much easier to put here the newer skaters because we compare them on the standards currently required in the sport.

I would like to tell you that I do appreciate those phenomenal skates of the legendary pair teams in the past and they really were exquisite in every sense of the word. I guess these performances are deemed to be timeless for what they have done to the sport of figure skating.

I also appreciate Rodnina, G&G, M&D, K&D and even B&S who really pushed the artistry of the sport.

 

[skatinginbc]

I would not mistake G&G's simplicity of choreography as being worse that another team. Their skating was strong enough to speak for itself 100 percent of the time.

Indeed their skating was so strong and pure that they didn't even need the music. It's like the best raw jade in the world, beautiful to look at without the need for any artificial enhancement. But I would rather take B/S, a high-quality jade stone carved into an ingenious design in harmony with its natural grains. To me, G/G were nothing but the best raw jade, while B/S were a piece of art that evoked meanings and emotions. S/Z, in comparison, were a piece of lesser quality jade carved into the most awe-inspiring shape. Well, if I am allowed to put a price tag on them, I will say B/S worth more than the other two pairs. It is just my personal taste.

 

[Olympia]

Entire post

Thanks so much for this perceptive and detailed historical analysis of skating. I go back to Rodnina and Zaitsev but was really clueless about what I was watching at the time. Your breakdown of the moves of each era is such a help to me. (By the way, when Rodnina had a sixtieth birthday celebration on Russian TV not long ago, she skated a few measures of music with several more recent male skaters and looked pretty darn good! It's on YouTube.) It's fitting to remember that many couples from years ago left us breathless as we watched them, and for good reason.

I agree with you that there are marvelous skaters who are flashier than G & G, but that Katia and Sergei were able to achieve a clarity and lightness that no one else equaled. So I have to put them among the top skaters ever, joined there with two or three other pairs mentioned here.

 

[christinaskater]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5YwnDdnnCw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niiLSEhPR74

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao were amazing during the 2007 worlds! They are the greatest Chinese pairs ever and rightfully due, they are one of the greatest teams ever!

Surely G&G, D&M, Irina Rodnina and the Protopopovs were all amazing and they are the main competitors for the singular greatest team ever but Xue Shen and Honbo Zhao rightfully deserve to be placed among the greats of the sport.

3 World titles, Olympic Champion and 3x Olympic medalist!

Mind you during the 2006 Olympics, Hongbo just came from a career threatening injury, but had that not occurred and he was healthy, then they would have won the title back then!

 

[Tonichelle]

Whole post

 

[prettykeys]

This is one of their more underrated performances, but it is my favourite:

http://youtu.be/Ug1xqk5nUSw

That is just wonderful. I hadn't seen that before.

jcoates, your perspective is extremely helpful for newbies like me. For instance, Gordeeva/Grinkov were before my time so I couldn't list my favourite of their performances or form a kind of attachment that skating fans often do. I can certainly tell, in my amateur way, that their technical mastery was one of the best by their "silky" execution and they are also perhaps the most beautiful pair I have seen. Their 1988 Olympics LP is absolutely enjoyable.

However, for similar nebulous impressions as skatinginbc, Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze are my favourite pair; for their high technical prowess, as well as programs that I enjoyed more. I am probably also sentimentally attached to them due to their background story (Elena's accident, and how gentle/protective Anton seemed to her) and for the fact that they were on the scene when I was watching figure skating. Shen/Zhao are a close second for the incredible emotional impact they could make on top of their still-formidable--if somewhat rougher--skills.

I can't get interested in Pairs today, I don't know what it is.

 

[doubleflutz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy6Bp3NB-js

I've always loved the Protopopovs! (This is 1968 LP from Worlds) Their extended spiral, just gorgeous and amazing.

Goodness me, those edges! Just the ones going into and coming out of that little spiral-like move at the start where she's leaning back and he's supporting her, so deep and unbelievably smooth! I'm drooling.

I'm curious, though. On the video it says "1st after compulsories"; did pairs back then have to compete figures, or was it more like dance compulsories with a pattern, or something like a forerunner to the short program? If they did have to compete figures, how did it work, did they both skate the same figure side-by-side, or do mirrors of each other, or what? I always thought pairs were lucky because they didn't have to do figures or compulsories!

 

[jcoates]

Back in those days it was common commentators to refer to figures and short programs collectively as compulsories because the moves performed in them were all required. The audience was far less educated than now and it made sense not to waste time on distinguishing them. Pairs actually was the first discipline to use a short program (that's what being referred to in the video) starting in 1964. It was initially 6 moves (IIRC) and laid the foundation for the SP being added to singles in 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_program_(figure_skating)

 

[christinaskater]

This is one of their more underrated performances, but it is my favourite:

http://youtu.be/Ug1xqk5nUSw

12 perfect sixes! One of the greatest ever!

 

[jcoates]

Another entry. Long forgotten in the annals of skating history and almost totally overshadowed by the legendary status of the Protopopovs are the West German pair, Marika Kilius and Hans Jurgen Baumler. They are 2-time Olympic silver medalists, six time European champs and 4 time world medalists (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) although she won a world silver and bronze, three Euro bronzes and an Olympic 4th place with a previous partner. People forget that the Protopopovs' 1964 in was actually something of an upset. The Germans were far more decorated by that point. Younger than their Soviet rivals, but having achieved earlier success, this pair was in many ways just as artistic, innovative and captivating as their competitors. They were also both gorgeous. They turned pro after their post-Olympic victory at the World Championships in 1964 and skated in Holiday on Ice for some time. In fact, the signing of their show contract prior to the Olympics caused the IOC to revoke their medal and upgrade the bronze medalists (Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell of Canada) to silver status. The decision was eventually reversed later, but the medals were redistributed.

Looking at their programs, you can see how they pushed and influenced each other to be better. One of these clips even shows shot by shot comparisons of their performing similar or identical moves. They are almost indistinguishable. It's a shame this teams has not gotten more attention.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=62434 (they are in the 2nd part of the clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvm1u6OvXYI (1964 Worlds; Kilius Baumler win)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dIEse98dMs&feature=related (1960 Olympics Practice)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcfmKIjEDl0 (a show routine)

 

[Olympia]

What fun to discover a new pair! Thanks once more, jcoates. I know of the Protopopovs because of their later pro work, at Landover and the Jimmy Fund exhibitions at Harvard, but I had no idea of this pair.