2016-2017 Programs by Discipline | Page 23 | Golden Skate

2016-2017 Programs by Discipline

Kaitlyn Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker on their official site:
We are extremely excited to announce that for our Short Dance this season we will be skating to a blues and hip-hop style mash-up of “Feeling Good” by Michael Buble and “How I Feel” by Flo Rida.

Why Feeling Good? Why? :gaah:
 
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I was really hoping Kaitlin and Jean-Luc would choose swing. I want to feel good (:biggrin:) about this choice but I don't know if I'm there yet.

Well, as much as I like Bohemian Rhpsody, I'm really not looking forward to this. If not for the fact that the lyrics are slightly problematic for a performance by a pair... It is after all a first person male perspective and the only female character is "mama"...

Why does their interpretation have to be that literal? I hear what you're saying about other weird programs, but Bohemian Rhapsody isn't the most straightforward or literal anyway.
 
Why does their interpretation have to be that literal? I hear what you're saying about other weird programs, but Bohemian Rhapsody isn't the most straightforward or literal anyway.

Because it's the content of the song, it's what it's really about. If the words and the content of the programme clash in a bad way, it just makes the interpretation seems always off and weird (at least to me). Bohemian Rhapsody as a lyric is perhaps not so easy to understand, but my grievance there was the point of view - it's pretty explicitly about a guy, maybe with his mother (mama could maybe also be a girlfriend, but somehow this does not feel a plausible interpretation), the lyric is all in first person expect the choir section (which is also explicitly about a guy). Where does the woman fit in? Will she be the mother? Still can't really see what they will be able to do it with without the routine ending up feeling a bit funny.

There are plenty of song lyrics that are less explicit or which leave the door open to lots of different kinds of interpretations. Last year Javier Fernández did Black Betty which is a traditional song which often means that nobody really knows what it's all about (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Betty). They only used the second verse and the chorus (leaving out the potentially awkward first verse where Betty has a child ;) and, voila, it was about a woman... And this year the Luck be a Lady routine where the movement and interpretation worked with the music and lyric just perfectly. Plus it fitted together with the first 1,5 minutes with the horse racing references. Maybe not really Guys and Dolls, but gambling, one of the main themes of the musical.

Ashley Wagner's quite wonderful Moulin Rouge FS used very very cleverly bits of songs to create a story line and an emotional arc that she could interpret even more powerfully than if it had been just instrumental music. They referenced maybe the movie plot, but IMHO it worked also independently because the lyrics were used so well.

Shibutanis' Fix You was another good use of a pop song although the discourse between the lyric and the routine was not very explicit. The same maybe with some of the other FD routines which features lyrics. To Build a Home actually has a sad ending, but they left it out using only the first verse and chorus.

What I'm trying to say is that if both the music and the words inform the movement, the effect of the routine is greater and the viewer can also get a whole lot more out of it...

E
 
What I'm trying to say is that if both the music and the words inform the movement, the effect of the routine is greater and the viewer can also get a whole lot more out of it...

In essence, I agree. Though I was actually thinking in my car ride home about how many traditional romantic "love" songs are actually inspired by other forms of love. (I Will Always Love You being the first that springs to mind). Often when I watch a movie about a songwriter, I learn that a song came from a completely different place of inspiration than I had always interpreted. So while I agree that there can be a different level of truth within a song if the artists pay attention & interpret the lyrics, there can also be a different level of truth by interpreting a song as it reflects meaning for the performer. The most meaningful performance I ever saw of My Heart Will Go On from Titanic was sung by a pair of 12-year-old students, dedicating it to a fellow classmate who had died that year in a tragic accident. There was not a dry eye in the house. The song had never meant nearly as much to me before that performance, and I will never hear it again without hearing the significance those children put into their performance.
 
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In essence, I agree. Though I was actually thinking in my car ride home about how many traditional romantic "love" songs are actually inspired by other forms of love. (I Will Always Love You being the first that springs to mind). Often when I watch a movie about a songwriter, I learn that a song came from a completely different place of inspiration than I had always interpreted. So while I agree that there can be a different level of truth within a song if the artists pay attention & interpret the lyrics, there can also be a different level of truth by interpreting a song as it reflects meaning for the performer. The most meaningful performance I ever saw of My Heart Will Go On from Titanic was sung by a pair of 12-year-old students, dedicating it to a fellow classmate who had died that year in a tragic accident. There was not a dry eye in the house. The song had never meant nearly as much to me before that performance, and I will never hear it again without hearing the significance those children put into their performance.

What I forgot to put into the previous post was that a lot of lyrics will allow for very different kinds of interpretations, some even very surprising ones! And using bits and pieces of the lyrics knowingly and intelligently will allow even more scope for different interpretations. Your examples are very good in this respect - I had no idea that I Will Always Love You was about originally!

Kate Bush has this song This Woman's Work (Victoria Helgesson used it for SP in 2014-5) which could be about having a child, death of a spouse or maybe even something else. It was written and first used in a move She's Having a Baby, where it is about a dangerous moment during the pregnancy, but the video made for it by KB was about a death of a wife. It has also been used (with a clever cut) among other things in a choreo dealing with breast cancer. The lyric is kind of from a man's point of view, but allows also very different kinds of interpretations.

But what I would like to see is that if lyrics are kept as part of the music, it would be good that they would work with the choreo and not contradict it or just be completely ignored... The connecetion does not have to be explicit, it does not have to be underlined, but some kind of association would be very good. If the association is surprising and gives the viewer food for thought and new emotions, it becomes even better :)

E
 
Some program updates from Australia

Andrew DODDS
SP: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
LP: Warsaw Concerto
(both programs same as last year)

Jordan DODDS
SP: The Feeling Begins (same as last year)
LP: Io Ci Saro by Bocelli (this is new)

Mark WEBSTER
SP: The Nokia Theme
LP: Macklemore's Thrift Shop (Instrumental)
 
Some program updates from Australia

Andrew DODDS
SP: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
LP: Warsaw Concerto
(both programs same as last year)

Jordan DODDS
SP: The Feeling Begins (same as last year)
LP: Io Ci Saro by Bocelli (this is new)

Mark WEBSTER
SP: The Nokia Theme
LP: Macklemore's Thrift Shop (Instrumental)

I wonder if his costume will perhaps be inspired by "your granddad's clothes." After all, he would look incredible :cool:
 
So, someone's skating to a phone commercial? :scratch:

There was some discussion couple seasons ago whether you can use sounds that are trademarked. Nokia tune is "sound trademark" in some countries, and trademarks are forbidden to use in costumes, so is sound trademarks also forbidden to use as program music?
 
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Are there any videos? I'd love to see it!

Alas, there are not! I am hoping he gets to a Senior B that has a livestream just so you can all see it.

I wonder if his costume will perhaps be inspired by "your granddad's clothes." After all, he would look incredible :cool:

Actually - black pants, a dark blue shirt, and a black waistcoat with dark blue accents and sparkle patterns (once again, our Senior Men remain impeccably dressed). Which only made it ten times more awesome when the music came on.

So, someone's skating to a phone commercial? :scratch:

It's not the actual phone commercial - it's a little hard to describe, but there were techno bits and voiceover bits and of course the ringtone.

Do we know which version? The Vitamin String Quartet version would be a delight!

I am not sure - it took me a bit to recognise/think of what song it was from. Fortunately I had young'uns sitting near me that started singing along. :laugh:
 
Alas, there are not! I am hoping he gets to a Senior B that has a livestream just so you can all see it.



Actually - black pants, a dark blue shirt, and a black waistcoat with dark blue accents and sparkle patterns (once again, our Senior Men remain impeccably dressed). Which only made it ten times more awesome when the music came on.



It's not the actual phone commercial - it's a little hard to describe, but there were techno bits and voiceover bits and of course the ringtone.



I am not sure - it took me a bit to recognise/think of what song it was from. Fortunately I had young'uns sitting near me that started singing along. :laugh:

I was jokingly referring to the song lyrics. I doubt a literal granddad's clothes-inspired costume would actually look all that incredible :laugh2:
 
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