Yes! And the spirals used to highlight something in the music, so that skater and audiences could revel in what the program was about.When I became a figure skating fan back in 2001, I loved the step sequences. To me, it was always the highlight of a program. For the ladies, there was also the spiral sequence. Those were the moments that made me a fan and made me re-watch a program a thousand times. Nowadays the step sequences may be more difficult, but to me it looks like the skaters are just turning and turning endlessly and rarely express the character of the music.
That's it, exactly, in a nutshell ... my disappointment with some of the skating in recent years. Everyone is striving to get the greatest number of points, which ends in everyone doing many of the same elements with as many transitions as possible packed in. My particular pet peeve is pairs lifts, which I love so much when they're done well. But sometimes the changes in lift positions, while racking up the points, don't do much to show the beauty of the lifts and sometimes detract.The choreo sequences are even more disappointing, because the skaters have the freedom to do whatever they want, but it seems like they can't think outside the box anymore. Or they don't want to, because they will get the same points anyway.