Hi, I completed my report about Nagaoka Ice Show. It's too late...and as always it is subjective. If you have any interest..
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Nagaoka Ice show Report
July 11, 2015 on Saturday night
1. SEIMEI
(Jumps)
4S popped into 2S. The moment he landed, he shook his head little and made a face.
4T gorgeous.
3F good. The edge was correctly inside on landing.
4T 2T with tano! great
3A 3T as usual great
(Performance)
First of all, his performance was perfectly wonderful. The audience stood up and applauded with enthusiasm. Nevertheless, yuzu was apparently unsatisfied (since he failed 4S…). He skated off pointing the ice for confirmation more carefully than usual.
There was no denying yuzu was considerably exhausted… But his movement itself was powerful and fast. He floated on the ice with his solid edges.
The remarkable progress I noticed compared with Kanazawa where I’d seen him live two weeks before was that he completely succeeded in creating his “Onmyoji” world, which was something supernatural and divine. He comfortably harmonized with music. I could easily imagine this program would cause a huge enthusiasm at every competition.
One of fascinating elements was hydro. In the hydro, he initially bends down his head little, then lifts it up in front of judge side shifting up his eyesight towards judges to appeal. It was thriving. It’s sure he will kill some judges with his eyes this season! Of course, Ina bauer got the crowd excited and made a climax.
Technics overall were great. Especially the spin combination at the last part was excellent. He is improving technically and antically day by day. I could understand it well.
And just another thing, SEIMEI may need a consistency more than previous programs. I feel it has a delicate or fragile nature. It may partly because the music itself doesn’t have so much impact (Of course, a piece of SEIMEI is strong, but it is not so dramatic as his previous ones). Further, it lacks a clear story. For example, at the middle part of the tune of Japanese flute before 3A3T combination, that mysterious atmosphere was my favorite. But if he failed 3A3T, the program would easily collapse with a sigh. In my view, SEIMEI has a kind of vulnerability.
In that sesne, it was reasonable he decided to do FP not SP although both programs had been completed. It was just crazy layout. He tried to pack 3 quad, 2 combinations with 3A or 4T into no more than 3 minutes or so. But he was persistent and made it. The phenomenal performance at Nagaoka showed his achievement of this summer shows.
That day, he couldn’t do 4lo well, but last he landed 4S.
2. Requiem
Honestly, I didn’t remember his jumps well. He stepped out in one of them, but it had no influence on the performance at all.
If I say my impression in one word, it is “sharp”. I’d never seen such a hard movements of him. I saw “hana-ha-saku” live at NHK cup last year. The theme of Requiem, Disaster, is the same as “hana-ha-saku”, but the performance was totally different. At Requiem, he seemed to explode his dark emotions inside himself. Deep sorrow and anguish were filled.
Nevertheless, his performance was amazingly beautiful. Even now, I can vividly remember it. Every moment was beautiful and every moment was painful.
He was like a boy at the age of 16 or 17 although he should have got matured and manly. He was looking up high over and over again during performance. What was he feeling? His eyes were glittering. I can’t forget those eyes. I didn’t know what a strong power his eyes had. He might have cried inside his heart.
Spins and hydro were more supreme. The choreography suited his sensitive expressions, I suppose.
Finally, his Requiem at that night is one of great works of art in my life. That is certain.
My report ends here.
Thank you for reading.