But Eteri has been very open about the fact that she just doesn‘t get why someone should be allowed to branch out and try different styles or different choreographers just because they want to/have won medals. Her team and her do the choreography for the skaters, they might listen to wishes sometimes but they will always decide whether it really fits them in the end.
As a native russian speaker, I understood that message differently. It's not that she is opposed to her skaters expressing their opinion and participating in makings of the program. What she meant by that, is that sometimes, after obtaining some titles, some skaters can become cocky and demand some special treatment, and she disagrees with that.
As for Elizabet's comments, in her interview she says that skaters in her group are more than encouraged to participate in creation of their programs. She also said, that Eteri is brutally honest about everything, and she always speaks her mind about all details in the program, even down to make up. Albeit, doesn't mean skaters aren't allowed to do their own thing, they just trust their coach and her opinion.
I mean, Zhenya does have her distinct style - and that‘s using music that allows her to portray a character and tell a story. I don‘t see why she should be obliged to change that. Every skater sort of has their unique style.
Leaving Eteri doesn't mean she had to leave Ilia too. I don't think she wants to abandon all Russian ties to her skating. Maybe she realized that, all new is sometimes not all better. She and Ilia have made some great programs together and with the competition being very tough this season, why not go back to something that is tried and trusted. I still think this Muse music is different for her compared to Tosca and Nocturne. Brian said, he made some mistakes in his strategy with Zhenya, changing too much...at least he realizes that.
I think majority of comments were that it's not Evgenia's style, but Eteri style, since a lot of Eteri skaters tend to use those expressive face expressions (what people like to call "miming") and overthetop movements like Evgenia banging the imaginary wall in one of the EX and Alina's breaking glass thing in POTO.
With Averbukh's choreo, a lot were criticizing his "pointless" movements, like "running" in the beginning of Yulia's Shindler program and Evgenia's 9/11 program.
And major point was that with this coaching change we will see more of a subtle and mature skating, something probably more muted/sophisticated and less "in your face", that a lot of people found distasteful and liked to criticize. I found a lot of them saying
"oh there's so much natural performer talent, it's just they make the skater express his talent, because of bad programs and choreography"
And I think similar sentiments were said about Zhenya's programs. That she has a lot of artistic potential, but is given those "hot mess" Aver's choreos.
So I just pointed out, that "changes" that were hyped up by many, including her new coaching team, seemed not to be happening in the end, if she goes back to her old style of programs.
I don't think she had to "leave" Averbukh at all, it's not about her choice, it's probably about fans hyping it up and making it look like with the coaching change a lot of new packaging will come, when now it looks like "old packaging" is coming back and we're not going to see any changes possibly.
I would say, it's not a "one step at a time", more like a step back in my opinion.
She could've gone to Shaelynn or Buttle (or maybe ever Richaud lol), she would've gotten something different to both Wilson and Averbukh, would've been honestly a lot more beneficial to her development.
and will we see the 3A's in the FS this season?
would be interesting to see
