With the senior level, and especially with the boys, those first three elements are quad, quad, triple axel, or quad, quad, quad. How do you get them to do a quad and think about the music, the emotion, anything? Other than landing that f***ing quad? What people need to understand is that we are living in a generation where skaters are pushing themselves to the edge of what is humanly possible. And I don’t say that lightly. Shoma, Yuzuru, Nathan are doing multiple quads in a performance: two, three, four, five — and it is like running a four-minute mile, or thirty meters in less than whatever the record time is — over, and over, and over again. All this within the context of something that is supposed to be meaningful, and beautiful, and intricate, and nuanced. That is our mission as choreographers: to create the illusion of artistry when they are basically trying to defy physics, defy human limitation.
It was not like that back when John Curry won Olympics with the triple salchow, triple toe and triple loop. He could afford to be beautiful. I am sure he could have done all these triples in practice. Petra Burka, my ex-coach, was credited as the first woman to execute a perfect triple salchow in competition. She is in the history books. In competition, she often did not even do it. She did it once, but she did not do it at the Olympics and I do not think she did it when she won Worlds in 1965. She was a very high jumper, she had springs in her legs, she was stronger than all other girls. And you know what she told me? She told me she did all her triples in practice! Even triple lutz — in the 1960s! But at the time skating was in a different place. It was not all about the jumps, so they were not pushing themselves to the edge. Now the challenge is creating something where we have the satisfaction that the music is being expressed, and those elements are being executed, where there is this union.
When you are talking about a vocal piece, the demands increase. When you have words being sung, sentences being delivered, and you have a story literally being told, the choreographic requirements become even more crucial. It is not just the highs and lows of the notes, and a dynamic moment followed by a soft moment — it is also words, meanings, thoughts, images, pictures. They are not left up to the imagination — they are words, we know what they are saying! So, whenever I use a vocal piece for a competitive program, I need an instrumental intro. We will do a little bit of choreography at the beginning, then go, skate, quad! A little simple transition on the music — not too physically taxing — go, boom, quad! Same thing again: a simple transition — not too physically taxing, but kind of musical — and go, boom, quad (or a triple axel)! And then I can have the vocal come in, because I will have at least 10 seconds where we can do something that addresses the words.
skating-to-music.blog
(He also apparently expressed surprise that orchestras were willing to play it - he would probably be astonished that it is skated to)
I remember a couple seasons ago seeing many complaints that a team wasn’t wearing blue to skate to Rhapsody in Blue… and then complaints that it was apparently the “wrong” shade of blue. All this to say, many skating fans are very literal-minded and have certain ideas about how they prefer their warhorses… maybe another reason for skaters to consider trying something fresh? (Or just a reminder that you can’t please everyone)
