Ice Dance & Carmen | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Ice Dance & Carmen

plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
Bestemianova is one of the great acting masters of ice dance. I still get gooseflesh when I remember the Rasputin program they did as pro skaters. He played Rasputin, and she played the young Tsarevitch, Alexei. There was one moment when she looked up at him in fright and tried to smile ingratiatingly...I thought, this lady could teach film stars how to convey realistic emotion.

By and large, I could take B/B's rather avant-garde approach only in small doses, but like Rahkamo/Kokko, they added individuality and innovation to ice dancing (along with purity of technique), and I was very glad they were around. I'm more a romantic (in the sense of the Romantic era of music) by nature, but I also value diversity. I also liked that Natalia wasn't candy-floss pretty--she had such an individual look, glamorous in its own uncompromising way.

I agree with you Olympia, and thank you for your great drafting.
 
Last edited:

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Regarding Virtue/Moir and their Carmen FD, perhaps we will hear more details today (Saturday)??

Pj Kwong ‏@skatingpj
@cleoc12 I haven't seen the program - but when I see them tomorrow for an interview will ask them if its ballet or opera...#cbcskates
6:32 PM - 7 Sep 12​
 

colleen o'neill

Medalist
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
I don't mind B/B's Carmen..it was before they went too extreme with their expression.

When a dancer is on a stage and trying to make their expression reach those seated in the gods, that's one thing..but when most of us see more skating on TV than we do in person , too much expression is not a good thing. The performance can easily turn to parody. I'm afraid "Rasputin", for example,really affected me this way.
With B&B, I always tried to just appreciate what they were doing with their bodies, and let my eyes slide away when the camera would begin to zero in on her face , as it inevitably would.

To me, it's like the difference between acting for stage and film. Film requires a much more subtle technique , or the actor will appear to be badly over-acting.

Too much facial expression ( especially at the end ) took the shine off K/O's Carmen for me too..and it was a terrible let down , because I so loved their skating ( hers, in particular ). I thought then ( as now) that she was exquisitely beautiful, as a woman and a skater , and was for me, perfection for the time. I had been really anticipating her Carmen , and was so sad when I felt they took it over the top.

Navka doesn't make it at all for me..I'd prefer to see K/O or even B/B any day of the week.

So the truth is, I've never seen the Carmen I would like to see. I hope V/M will be it , or come much closer to it.
They have technique, and I'm sure will have difficult choreography , but they have one thing that transcends all other qualities and that is their powerful connection to each other on the ice. They have an emotional oneness that is unmatched..it makes whatever they do real.
 
Last edited:

CAS

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
My favorite, by far. I know in North-America don't like them, but Bestsemionova's passion is unrepeatable.

A North American who agrees with you that this Carmen is best! Watching that again I can imagine V&M might actually be able to do something with this music.

I enjoyed K&O but found too often their movements (and they had some great innovative moves) detracted from the passion one would expect in a great Carmen. B&B excelled in that area. I think my favourite program of K&O is their 1999 Modern Africa Drums as I found it highlighted everything that was special about them.

Carmen as seen by N&K and L&T was bland, generic and forgettable.
 

clairecloutier

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 27, 2003
Carmen as seen by N&K and L&T was bland, generic and forgettable.

B/B's Carmen was before my time, and I don't really remember K/O's either. (I was never a fan of either team.) I did enjoy N/K's Carmen. However, I agree it fell into the "good, but not great" category.

It will be interesting to see what V/M do with the music. Normally I don't like it when skaters choose such overused music; however, V/M are such a strong team, they have the potential to take nearly any music and make it their own. I think this could be an interesting new direction for them, a nice step away from their standard romantic/whimsical programs. Looking forward to it.

So, V/M are doing Carmen and the Shibs are doing Memoirs of a Geisha. What about Meryl & Charlie? Have they announced their long program music yet?
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Giselle? That should be interesting. That's straight-up classical ballet. It's not one of my top fave raves: Adam wrote what I think of as generic nineteenth-century European ballet music, as did Ludwig Minkus (La Bayadere and Don Quichotte), with no melodic lavishness. But it's not very heavily used in skating, as I recall (except for YuNa last year), so hats off to them for leaving the tried and true. I love the idea of Meryl as a ballerina. Has she taken ballet training? I know Tessa Virtue has.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Yes, they all have ballet, although Tessa I believe was very serious about ballet, rather than just taking it as part of normal ice dance training. Meryl has always seemed to me to be more interested in the ballroom off ice training...maybe why she won Jeff Buttle's Dance Battle in The Ice show in Japan :) She had a great dress for it and did the worm & the shimmy, for sure.

I'm presuming the village dance scene is what they are using for the polka, but I hope they are amping up the polka beat for it with a drum machine or something, much as it pains me to say so. Current rules pretty much require a heavy beat to demonstrate that you are holding all those key point steps for the right number of beats.
 
Last edited:

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
I personally think Giselle would have been an excellent choice for Tessa and Scott, especially to contrast with the intensity and drama that is sure to be Carmen. I can't see what Marlie can pull out of their bag of tricks that could beat a Voir Carmen, but we'll see.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Well, we still don't know what Meryl & Charlie are doing. And I can't wait to hear.

I feel like Anjelika Krylova already did the definitive version of Carmen, & Natalia Bestemianova did a great one, too, in a different mode. However, Carmen is nice music to listen to, something that some of Tessa & Scott's music choices haven't been for me, so I'm looking forward to their treatment of the program. I'll be able to just sit back & enjoy it rather than gnashing my teeth at being forced to listen to some of my personal hatelist pieces. (Umbrellas, I will wait for you, Funny Face, PF Gig in the Sky)

Navka's, all I can remember is Roman doing some steps in place in his toreador outfit that looked either like the hokey pokey or the Mexican hat dance. OTOH, they got the Olympic gold medal for that piece. Oh well.
 

clairecloutier

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 27, 2003
Navka's, all I can remember is Roman doing some steps in place in his toreador outfit that looked either like the hokey pokey or the Mexican hat dance. OTOH, they got the Olympic gold medal for that piece. Oh well.

LOL! :) Roman DID look pretty good in that toreador outfit, though, didn't he?
 

plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
A North American who agrees with you that this Carmen is best! Watching that again I can imagine V&M might actually be able to do something with this music.

I enjoyed K&O but found too often their movements (and they had some great innovative moves) detracted from the passion one would expect in a great Carmen. B&B excelled in that area. I think my favourite program of K&O is their 1999 Modern Africa Drums as I found it highlighted everything that was special about them.

Carmen as seen by N&K and L&T was bland, generic and forgettable.

I think we have a good taste :agree: :laugh:
 

Dragonlady

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
I'll be able to just sit back & enjoy it rather than gnashing my teeth at being forced to listen to some of my personal hatelist pieces. (Umbrellas, I will wait for you, Funny Face, PF Gig in the Sky)

Ok, I'll give you Umbrelllas, not my favourite either but I love Funny Face and I've gone through nearly a half dozen copies of Dark Side of the Moon in various formats, over the course of my life. But I've grown accustomed to having friends with much different musical tastes. One of my favourite people to go to skating events with is a classical music teacher who pretends that popular music doesn't exist. Very helpful in getting the program music right.

I do love Carmen and I never tire of hearing it - even the March of the Torreadors.
 
Top