Choreographer David Wilson is a genius

Joe

Joannie has a move where she is gliding "the bow" of the imaginary violin across the strings. Very hokey IMO. I like a skater who has some upper body movement that is relevant to the music also (the whole pkge), but I think Miki has way too much going on with her arms the way it is choerographed. I am assuming David Wilson put i there.

kyla2 said:

I think his choreography is very overrated. I saw Micki Ando last night and while Carol Heiss has done wonders for her presentation, I though the choreography was very cliched and mediocre. Alot of the choreography was skating from the waist up, which I hate. The violin move that Joannie does is ridiculous. But her program is o.k. Give me Lori Nichol any day of the week. Some of her programs were truly brilliant. She just needed a skater who could carry them off and at one time that skater was Michelle Kwan. Sandra Bezic was also a better choreographer than David Wilson. Too bad she retired.

Click to expand...

I love a lot of 'the waist up' stuff by Wilson, but hate the air violin move, hope that goes....I also really love Nichol and Bezic...and like the way I love skating, I love the variety these different choreographers offer (meaning, I wouldn't want just Irina's style or just MIchelles, I love both; so too with choreographers). But, perhaps because we are just learning of Wilson (meaning in the last few seasons), I am really 'into' his work.

kyla2 said:

Joannie has a move where she is gliding "the bow" of the imaginary violin across the strings. Very hokey IMO. I like a skater who has some upper body movement that is relevant to the music also (the whole pkge), but I think Miki has way too much going on with her arms the way it is choerographed. I am assuming David Wilson put i there.

Click to expand...

Klya - I'm not crazy about imaginery instruments (flapping arms as if they were wings; stabbing oneself; and playing imaginery violins as Plush does, but then I hate 'cute'. So we agree on this However, Joannie's imitation of a bird in Firebird was quite brilliant. Ordinarily I would have hated that but it worked!

As to upper and lower body movements, I have to stick with the 'whole' body as part of the performance and even the technical. I don't like jumps off kilter in the air or camels without upper body, etc.

Let's check out Miki again. I thought she was adding the nuances to Wilson's choreography. And most of her vast improvements was not in the technical but in the performance and credit for that should go to Carol Heiss. Miki for me until the next time I see her, is up there with Shiz and Sasha in the race for second place if not first. Ando's technical is higher than Shiz and Sasha I believe so a strong performance is absolutely necessary. Wilson, I think, has given her that.

Joe

I'm not sure how I feel about Wilson's choreo. Last year I thought Jeff's LP, Joannie's Firebird and Cynthia's Capriccio Espagnol were all brilliant. Loved them. This year I find myself falling asleep halfway through the program.

I agree with Kyla w/ respect to the cheesy moves, and it's not just Joannie that has them. Jeff's sp is full of them. I'm a huge Jeff fan, but I can't bring myself to watch his short because I cringe every time he stops in the middle of the ice to rest his head on his hands, or "surprise" the judges. The LP feels like it just doesn't go anywhere. There's no real purpose to it, and all I can remember is the ina bauer at the beginning. Joannie's "Like a Prayer" I kind of like but all the "oh, I'm praying" hands is just way to cheesy. D&L's program that everyone is raving about is just to cheesy romantic for my taste. It leaves that overly sugary taste in mouth like S&P's "Love Story." I guess I just don't like "cutesy", therefore I don't like David Wilson's programs.

I will say though that Wilson sets up the programs very nicely in that everything is balanced. There's a nice structure and flow in the basic set up of his programs.

ITA With This...

I do agree that his programs have flow and balance. But I still maintain that he has too many cheesey moves. The Firebird program was not bad but it won't make me forget Lori Nichol or Sandra Bezic. By the way, does anyone know who choreographs S & Z's programs? I think they have been brilliant.

kyla2 said:

I do agree that his programs have flow and balance. But I still maintain that he has too many cheesey moves. The Firebird program was not bad but it won't make me forget Lori Nichol or Sandra Bezic. By the way, does anyone know who choreographs S & Z's programs? I think they have been brilliant.

Click to expand...

Zhulin worked with them last year. I think they have used either Lori Nicol or Sara Karakawa in the past. I am pretty sure that Lori was helping them a lot when they started focusing on the low artistic marks they were critized for. And yeah - to agree with kyla2 - those are the programs I remember.

Yana

STL_Blues_fan said:

Zhulin worked with them last year. I think they have used either Lori Nicol or Sara Karakawa in the past. I am pretty sure that Lori was helping them a lot when they started focusing on the low artistic marks they were critized for. And yeah - to agree with kyla2 - those are the programs I remember.

Yana

Click to expand...

No for the first one: Turandot. It was that other American choreographer. Name escapes me (it's an age thing). I think she did Tara's.

Joe

No for the first one: Turandot. It was that other American choreographer. Name escapes me (it's an age thing). I think she did Tara's.

Click to expand...

Joe,
Sandra Bezic did Tara's Oly winning program. Are you thinking of Leanne Miller when you say, "that other American?" As far as I know, Lori Nichol, Sandra Bezic and Sarah Kawahara are all Canadian.