After watching Casablanca, Celos, Happy Feet, and Dark Eyes (EX):
Already a distinct improvement over his 2008 performances, imo. There is a real intensity to his skating, especially in Casablanca and Celos. His basic skating also seems better: his crossovers are more powerful, and he seems a lot steadier during one-foot segments. He doesn't emote with his face quite as well as he does today, but he conveys the music with his body movements--most notably with how he thrust out his arms in the Celos step sequences. I guess some people would call him "too dramatic" again
laugh
, but I love it.
It's interesting you see Casablanca as the birth of current-Tatsuki. In my (relatively ignorant) eyes, Celos looks like the start of Diva Machida
It was also my favourite performance of the four. Casablanca, for me, was a program with more old school charm (the long delay until the second 3A, the "slow section").
I didn't know what to expect for Happy Feet music, but I think he captured the right mood. Especially with the straight line step sequence. It's wonderful that he took the opportunity to do steps like that, which couldn't be done in competition with the stifling 2006-2010 rules. I was also impressed by the steps in Dark Eyes--he moves very quickly, considering the content in the steps.
Yes, he's come a long way with his skating - both from a technical and artistic point of view. He's always been a musical skater though, even without the rest of the qualities he has today. His technique wasn't necessarily bad either, his jumps were pretty good when he hit them. About Find Love - he might have been a bit of an Enigma fan since he was also using a song by Enigma for his SP (Push The Limits). But that and his FS The Red Violin were the programs that got him the Junior National title and a participation at the Junior Worlds.
I think his jump technique looked good even in the earliest videos (that triple lutz in Find Love was +3 worthy!) He didn't have a quad yet, true, and he sometimes made silly errors like doubling jumps, but his technique seems like a strong base from which he built his later success. I see improvements mainly in artistry and SS. And, er, camel spin :hopelessness:
I think Tatsuki at that time really thought he could combine studies and skating. And being a student of literature, I am sure he is familiar with this quote from Emerson, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..."
He wouldn't be the first person to take on more projects than he could handle. I'm sure he thought he could make it work at the time. It's a shame things didn't turn out that way... I'm still trying to figure out how a skater like Tatsuki only went to one World Championships (and came within fractions of a point to winning!)
Thanks for keeping us posted on this, ionap.
). As for the lutz, that's probably my favorite jump of his because you see a lot of skaters cheating and taking off from a straight edge to almost inside edge but he always deepens the outside edge when he reaches back for the pick and counterrotates.
