Michelle Kwan's timeless skates | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Michelle Kwan's timeless skates

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIMASKRm_4&list=PL68176171BC26C5B8&index=118&feature=plpp_video

2008 WORLD PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS LP: Lamento D'Ariane

This was one of her best programs ever. Beautiful sophistication, artistry and technique! A true masterpiece!

agreed, MK when she was trying hard with every move to extend and accentuate. Such a dream skater. You have hit all the favorites of mine. Red Violin was not as special but for her comp. programs at senior level, Lyra was the young MK but skating with freedom, joy, abandon. While Salome was perfect and that ending pose etched in my memory, I think Chen Lu was just as deserving. The level of sophistication Chen Lu skated with as a very womanly woman was hard to forget. Oh, amazing how two ethnic Chinese champions made that 1996 so memorable. I am a huge Chen Lu fan. The difference for me was MK was acting and while they tried to make her grow up fast with makeup, a sultry theme and the outfit, it seemed a little premature. Did MK have a real grasp of the subject, the woman she was interpreting? I wanted Gold for both, much how I felt at SLC pairs event.

I loved her SP, Romanza and her supreme confidence in that piece. I loved the music, the attitude she displayed and the costume. Amazing how MK transformed from a child with incredible solid jumps in 1995 to an exquisite chinese beauty in Romanza. Wasn't fun to watch her go from jumping bean to Lyra to Tosca? I feel her most beautiful, complete program was Song of the Black Swan. Her burgundy practice dress showing her lovely little figure is a favorite. MK sure had the best dresses, and the big budget. I wish I could have seen more of her teenage cute outfits in her COI numbers. Someone around her had exquisite taste. I marvel at how timeless even her costume choices were. Like Princess Di's dresses, there was rarely a miss.

Just a note I think Lamento was 1998, not 2008. Just a typo ( I make many) but someone might be looking for more info. Thanks CS for listing them. I did this in my inspiration thread and my homage to MK after she was nominated to USFS Hall of Fame. I never get tired of her 'hit parade.'
 
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noskates

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
I have always loved Michelle's East of Eden program. This isn't the best uTube version but the only one I could find tonite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcYTdxyoehk&feature=related

The choreography was perfect, Michelle's interpretation of the music was right on, and her falling leaf into the spread eagle was one of the most beautifully timed movements with the music of any program I've ever seen. There is no one like Michelle in figure skating right now. With the point system they race from trick to jump to spin to trick to get as many points in as they can and the lyrical side of skating is lost. Every move she made, hands, arms, legs, and her facial expressions were designed to interpret the music.
 

christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
The closest to MIchelle now in terms of connecting to the music and performing is Akiko Suzuki. She just needs more consistency and perfection :) She is my have now :)
Miki Ando has some MK moments as well.
In some skates of Yu-Na, I see a lot of the MK influence as well.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I often go to "Song of the Black Swan" and "Lyra Angelica" when I need inspiration or sustenance, or just because. But I don't think I can choose a favorite, because I love them all. Thank goodness she stayed around for such a long time, so that she left us an artistic output that shows a complete arc of development from child prodigy to mature artist.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
And she had the good luck, heslth and most importntly, she skated right with the whack era. We got to see her and irina a long time - I wish Tara, Sarah and a few others, Jenny, AP had been as luck or motivated. I wish Yuna was here tohave a MAo Rivalry-anyone think Mao might still be deflated by that loss and not having Yuna on the ice at the big competitions? This was a rivalry that brought out the best, even though it had a bad side for some uber fans from both countries. Yuna admitted it felt good to win over Mao as she was Japanese. I think Mao certainly deserves a body of work thread from her meteoric rise from incredible junior to struggling and beautiful senior.

Currently, I love Carolina and she can be breath taking, but Mao Asada, mistakes or not, 3 axel or not is a heart felt skater, a great compeitor with a bunch of awesome programs. Any Mao fan wishn to start a thread where we pick our very favorite program? I might pick an exhibition piece.

Mao ubers, are you out there? There isn't another CoP lady that deserves it and has been around. Shizuka was 2004 a satr and out by OGM 2006, tho she has some lovely exhib. and show skating, but I don't think it is all there on youtube.

As for men with body of work still skating or retired there is Yagudin, Plushenko. Then Comes Lambiel who skated a lot and has several good to great programs. Also, shorter career but still beautiful skating is Jeff Buttle. Evan has skated a long time as has Johnny Wier.

Mao fans? Start a best of thread. The 'iron butterfly' deserves it. That is a compliment of course!
 
Joined
Mar 11, 2011
TIMELESS, indeed. I really have no words to describe her better than any of you guys already had. She was just so damn gooooooooooooood.
 

noskates

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
I don't see any of Michelle in Miki Ando. Not a fan! Michelle's costumes were classy, her choreography suited her style and she was very competent without looking overly athletic. I think Yu Na Kim has her own style, Mao Asada as well. Both are beautifully classic skaters with grace and confidence. When they do occasionally falter it's always a surprise to me because they are usually so steady.
 

skatesindreams

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIMASKRm_4&list=PL68176171BC26C5B8&index=118&feature=plpp_video

1998 WORLD PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS LP: Lamento D'Ariane

This was one of her best programs ever. Beautiful sophistication, artistry and technique! A true masterpiece!

This has always been my "desert island" program.
After watching - and loving so many of her performances - if I could watch only one program for the rest of my life, it would be "Ariane".
The first program of her "adulthood", IMO; filled with sophistication and passion.

What I would have given to be in Landover!
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
Okay, let's attempt to rank her various competitive Long Programs (use the best performance of each one). Oh boy, here's mine:

01. Lyra Angelica, 1998 Nationals (sometimes you watch and it really does just wash over you with the feeling that this is probably the best performance ever)
02. Aranjeuz, 2003 Worlds (inspires me every time I watch it, such a perfect combination of lyricism and bravado)
03. Ariane, 1999 Nationals (or 1998 World Pros...I know she fell at Nationals but she did her best 3-3 ever there and had slightly better choreography in the very last section of the program at Nationals as compared to the World Pros)
04. Salome, 1996 Worlds (a masterpiece program skated amazingly well, even if there were a couple areas in which she had yet to become completely confident with as a performer)
05. Tosca, 2004 Nationals (that explosive energy!)
06. Song of the Black Swan, 2001 Worlds (lovely, if maybe just a tiny touch too safe)
07. The Miraculous Mandarin, 2001 GPF (I wish we had gotten to see more of this, especially later in her career with the much more aggressive footwork sequences she started doing)
08. The Red Violin, 2000 Worlds (Kwan is never quite as sorrowful or vicious here as the music really calls for...but still great! I love how she seamlessly drops her free leg lower in the spiral sequence, keeps it steady in that position, and then raises it up again)
09. Scheherezade, 2002 Nationals (really a very good program, just not 6.0-worthy as the programs ahead of this one could be at their best)
10. Bolero, 2004 Campbells (this one version of the program was pretty fun)
11. Taj Mahal, 1997 Worlds (Lori Nichol recycling herself and Kwan never skated it with her trademark freedom)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Thanks, Blades. Interesting insights as always. You point out a lot of detail that I hadn't noticed. I would put Lyra at the top of my list as well because, as you say, that performance at Nationals was seemingly channeled straight from heaven (which I think a news source actually remarked at the time). This aspect of it shows up especially well in the version without commentary. I would move Song of the Black Swan higher up, because, well, it's Dvorak. (Plus the Villa-Lobos opening measures.) And it even has a triple-triple!

Beyond that, I can't rank the programs, so I might as well tag along with your order. I will go look at Red Violin to watch her free leg in the spiral sequence. Thanks for pointing it out. I'd add East of Eden to the list, though. There were actually three of them, I think: the original in late 1995 or so (which I remember because I think she first skated it in some televised event about a week or two after Sergei Grinkov died, and it was immensely cathartic), one in 1998 at a pro-am, and one in 2001 as her SP. And, being a soft touch, I'll add Fields of Gold.
 
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evangeline

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Here is one of my favourite Michelle programs, Dream of Desdemona: http://youtu.be/IEklWrSU8VQ

Love the concept (Desdemona from Othello), the creativity of the music cuts (Gliere and Massenet), the intricacy, the way the choreography meshes with the music.....well, basically everything about it.
 

christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
1. Lyra Angelica
2. Song of the Black Swan
3. Concerto de Aranjuez- 2003 Worlds
4. Tosca- US Nationals
5. Salome
6 The Red Violin
7 Scheherazade- US Nationals
8. Lamento d' Ariane- World Pros
9. Taj Mahal- 1997 Worlds LP
10.Bolero US Nationals
 

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
For me - Salome - 1996 Worlds, her 1998 Nationals performances, East of Eden (in that pro/am), exhibition programs - Winter, Pocahontas, Hands, and I loved her Peter Pan program, too!

ETA - Oh, how could I forget "Dante's Prayer?" :eek: Shame on me!
 
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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I love that montage. I've come across it a few times. It's beautifully put together and presented. Along with everything else, it shows that splendid slow-motion shot during the 2003 worlds of her raising her arms as the audience stands en masse.
 
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