Nathan Chen | Page 865 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen

I don’t really mind that he’s gets his program late. He learns choreo really fast and judging from the past two seasons, his programs have always looked the best in the first two or so months after he got them choreographed.

Yeah, I know (I am forever mourning Mao's last dancer, which was the most beautiful at USICL and even Japan Open or his GP assignments despite rather messy skates) which is why I was hoping he'd do one of the earlier summer comps instead of a jetlagged and probably technically too ambitious version of his programs at Shanghai Trophy or JO (should he get invited) with little training time because of Yale. This way we would hopefully get a nice and more relaxed, early season performance of both his programs. But given his schedule I don't see how he would fit in such an early challenger event.

ETA: my hope was, that if he gets his programs earlier for once, he might be less prone to dropping choreo, because he's had more time get accustomed to it. But who knows, he may be the kind of person that gets bored quickly and constantly needs new input (he doesn't repeat programs even though it might benefit him, so that might be a clue) so getting his programs too early could be counter-productive.
 
Ditto. What I love about Nathan's performances is that he does everything so naturally that nothing ever appears extravagant or affected. IMHO this is truly a fresh breeze among mens figure skaters :p

Exactly! :luv17:

Now I'm not trying to make excuses for a lack of projection and I don't mean to say that Nathan is always giving us the best possible performance. There's many instances where he does seem preoccupied with the jumps (but every skater has those moments, even the so-called 'artists' out there) and of course there's a lot of room for improvement and refinement.

Nevertheless, I am constantly baffled at the notion that 'more' equals better, which seems very popular in FS. If that were true, we'd be giving out oscars to those actors in telenovelas. :laugh:

I just don't understand why so many people enjoy performances that are pompous and ott dramatic and deem everything less than that insufficient and less worthy.

When I get the sense that a skater is clearly putting on an act and deliberately trying to appear a certain way, giving me poses and gestures that look rehearsed, are overdone and way too transparent in their attempt at evoking specific emotions, it just feels manipulative and quite frankly, I can't help but feel amused by it. I just can't take it seriously and it certainly doesn't grip me on an emotional level.
 
I am constantly baffled at the notion that 'more' equals better, which seems very popular in FS. If that were true, we'd be giving out oscars to those actors in telenovelas. :laugh:

I just don't understand why so many people enjoy performances that are pompous and ott dramatic and deem everything less than that insufficient and less worthy.

When I get the sense that a skater is clearly putting on an act and deliberately trying to appear a certain way, giving me poses and gestures that look rehearsed, are overdone and way too transparent in their attempt at evoking specific emotions, it just feels manipulative and quite frankly, I can't help but feel amused by it. I just can't take it seriously and it certainly doesn't grip me on an emotional level.

Well said! I appreciate showmanship and will not hesitate to give kudos to anyone who owns it, but 1. it's not the only valid form of "artistry" and 2. it's not equivalent to "theatrics" uncalled for by the music and choreography. What strikes me about Nathan's performances and those from skaters that I like, is that there is a true and sincere understanding of the music and its relationship with all the movements, and never a moment of "everybody look I AM PERFORMING!!" kind of flamboyance (if you know you know lol). Not every skater possesses such understanding, and sometimes to cover this they resort to hitting a set of expressions and gestures like plugging numbers into a formula. BTW Projection works the same way for me, in that I believe restrained movements can project as well as more dramatic ones, as long as they pay due respect to their context.

That being said, I also agree Nathan is not always giving me that level of performance, which is understandable given the tech content but also exasperating lol. Don't disappoint me next season Nathan boy :p
 
From his instagram, James-Michael Lavigne strength trains/coaches quite a few ice dancers, including Kait and JLB, Madison and Zach.

Nathan’s bowl of berries looks yummy!
 
I'd love to know what kind of behind the scenes discussions there were to get Nathan and Vincent to both appear. Wonder who goes to Shanghai.


And JLB eating a pork chop with no napkin or plate.

It was easier than you think. They asked Mirai as the "retired" skater to come for team USA, that freed up a men's spot leaving room for both of them.
 
It was easier than you think. They asked Mirai as the "retired" skater to come for team USA, that freed up a men's spot leaving room for both of them.

But they also had to convince Nathan to not accept the Shanghai invitation. I assume that in the end JO came up with the better offer.
 
But they also had to convince Nathan to not accept the Shanghai invitation. I assume that in the end JO came up with the better offer.

Olympic or World champion can claim 10x more appearance fees than any prize money or show money to others.

On another note, if they continue to be about equal in their head-to-head competitions maybe one day someone could organize a match of Nathan and Yuzuru for a million $ like in other individual games and sports.
 
I thought the JO prize money was a set amount?

I had assumed he would attend, if invited.
 
But they also had to convince Nathan to not accept the Shanghai invitation. I assume that in the end JO came up with the better offer.

Nathan is a pragmatist. He was more likely to chose JO because it only had the FS. Less time away from school.
 
Nathan is a pragmatist. He was more likely to chose JO because it only had the FS. Less time away from school.

While that may be true, his agent's job is to negotiate the best deal for him. Which may or may not require a little bit of bluffing.
 
Nathan is a pragmatist. He was more likely to chose JO because it only had the FS. Less time away from school.

If he really cared about less time away from school, he wouldn’t be flying 15+ hrs to Japan from the east coast just to do an FS during school time in the first place .......
 
Oh well ... at least his competitions during second semester will be in his same time zone. If he doesn’t go to 4CC in Korea.
 
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