- Joined
- May 15, 2009
I have no idea if Shizuka is musical or not - she just always skates to the same type of music, it always looks great because she is so elegant, has such great flexibility and extension and fantastic skating skills.
Same goes for Miss Zhang, they don't skate to the music - they just try to match the music, which works well if you have those incredible highlights as their spiral sequences and the Ina Bauer and the spins.
I wouldn't put Cohen into the same category, she skated to upbeat music and did it very well in my opinion.
Good points. It makes me wonder about another term - "expressive"
Johnny may be considered more expressive than Jeremy - but I still see Jeremy as having a more musical flow than Johnny. Perhaps it is just a stylistic difference?
Does a skater need to be so dramatic to be considered musical? Sasha is certainly more dramatic than Caroline. I think earlier you mentioned "shyness" as a factor in the abilty for skaters to express themselves and I think that must be true. We do see many of the younger skaters being able to perform the various elements but sometimes find them lacking in expression.
Getting back to playing music - it is definitely true that "expression" is what separates a good musician from a pedestrian one.
I remember growing up and having to learn "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano.
After I learned to play the notes and use the pedals my teacher was still very unsatisfied with the way I played this dramatic piece.
I remember finaly telling him, "I hate this piece, can't we learn a new piece already?
Today I love "Moonlight Sonata" but when I was a young boy the expression this piece requires was simply missing from me. Just playing the right notes was not enough. Maybe we get this feeling at times when watching a skater doing one of their programs. They may be keeping up with the music but maybe they are not really expressing it as much as we would like. Some of this is so subjective as I find myself sometimes feeling the opposite way. That certain skaters are too dramatic - sometimes to the point of substituting drama for the actual rhythmic motion ot the music.