2013 Worlds Ladies FS | Page 90 | Golden Skate

2013 Worlds Ladies FS

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
Anyway back on topic what do some of you think Kanako has to do in the next year to close the gap further on the top 3. Or will she be struggling to even stay up in the top 5 with the super group of youngsters who placed 6-10 at this years Worlds.

Barring a miracle, Kanako can't close the gap on the top 3 in the next year. She needs to fix her jumps even more than Mao did back in 2010. People keep saying that Mao is getting propped up by the JSF but what good does this propping up do aside from allowing her to beat Kanako and Akiko? All the propping up in the world hasn't stopped her from getting < calls left and right on jumps from Toe to Flip to Axel. What Kanako needs to do after Sochi is take the time to relearn her Flip and Lutz and clean up the Loop. Otherwise Gold, Li, Adelina, and Liza will leave her in the dust if they can keep it together.
 

OS

Sedated by Modonium
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
I actually remembered the essay mainly for its incoherence and poor mechanics, but suit yourself. It wasn't your worst effort though; that would likely be the time you called Franz Liszt a composer who only wrote showoff music, described his Piano Concerto No.1 as being "classical" in style, and said it was very "German" of him (how does one get this many things wrong in such a small space?).

Wow, someone seems bitter. I realise you are trying for an intellectual put down, but you are trying much too hard. I am just another incoherent poster. You are just another incoherent reader. We fit in on figure skating boards just fine, so what’s the problem?! :biggrin: DO NOT however misconstrued what I may or may not have said to attack me so personally. Any problems you have with me, please direct PM.

It took me a while to get what you are on about and when I did… just wow! Are you seriously referring to that late night whinge post I made some 2 years ago, on completely different topic on FSU relating to first impression of Kozuka’s Nausicaa Valley of the wind program?!

I am afraid your selective memories have reached the wrong conclusion. If I recall, only 1 or 2 posters commented then, including someone called M something 88? I remember saying that I don’t think Kozuka's Nacussica's valley of the wind FS program worked. I reacted strongly because it happens to be a sentimental childhood fav piece of music of mine (FYI I am visiting Museum Ghibli in Tokyo in 2 weeks time…Yipee to me!). I’ve said Kozuka doesn't have the right sort of musicality (melodic, emotionally expressive) to bring the music justice but perhaps Hanyu or Dai might do a better job. Given everything transpired since, I certainly think I was correct in my initial impression. I do vaguely recall someone did defend Kozuka saying he has great musicality with an example of his FS Piano Concerto no.1 in support. In which case I agreed that was a great choice for him, given the music construct was designed to showcase the technical virtuosity of the pianist rather than describing any story telling through music expressions. Lizst wrote his Piano when he was just 19. Young, restless, and a yeah a bit of a ‘show off’. My personal experience with 19 years old music prodigies may have influenced my views but from the busy notes, bold original use of chords used as powerful motifs one can almost see the youngman basking in his own brilliance and utter glory as he perform the Piano like some rockstar of his days. This loud and proud virtuosity piece compensate Kozuka quieter nature and complement his impressive technical presentation skills with little room needed to be particularly emotionally descriptive – a weakness of Kozuka’s artistry. I remember teased that Lizst’s Piano No.1 was very German like in approach – methodical, restless vanity basking in its own supremacy (Lizst - after all was the founder of New German school of music, and me being a proud Brit is certainly required to tease everything German due to our own inferiority complex) Where the supremacy of techniques themselves became the main focus rather than the aesthetics or the emotional resonance. It became an exercise of clinical efficiency, control, complexity and technical superiority. The music then overwhelms the audience through demonstration rather than inviting audience’s participation at will. Now feel free to disagree with THAT view, but DO NOT convolute my ‘essay’ 2 years later on topics that has nothing to do another to ...um...bamboozle me?

Where to start? "Only saving grace"? Sure, brush off 1/3 of the entire program as if it doesn't exist and attack the rest as empty if that suits you. Just don't think it'll convince everyone else. And really, Swan Lake same as Liebestraume? It's about as similar as Yu-na's Giselle and her Les Miserables. Speaking of Giselle, I have to say if that wasn't a complete slaughter of what the composer intended, what is? :laugh: Were you saying exactly the same during Giselle? Tarasova's intention during Swan Lake was clear: blatantly frontload the program, then do all the choreography once that's finished. This was true for Ladies in Lavender, and even for all of the programs Tarasova did for Yagudin, who is three times the performer Mao will ever be.

Where to start? Once again you are exaggerating and misconstruing several posts all once. Write multiple paragraphs is wrong, summarise too little is wrong. I do wish you make your mind up so at least you can be 50% less aggravated and I can be 50% happier. Fair? :p Take my “artistically dishonest” criticism of the Swan lake program for example; I am referring specifically to the creative decisions not to make references to black swan or white swans when specific black/white music sections were being performed. It is basic 101. It IS Swan Lake! Black and White swans are integral part of the story. (Imagine skating to Carmen as a catholic school girl. You get me?) It seems obvious. You do white swan, you act like white swan, you skate to black swan you skate like a black swan. What is so hard to understand? To continue to ignore the obvious through lack of care is lazy and ignorant. It is artistic truancy which one simply don’t expect from the world’s bests. Can you honestly be surprised someone will have something negative to say? I don’t know where you come up with all the other stuff from that are completely unrelated to original point that was made. Sounds like you have some unresolved pend up feelings, I suggest you go and watch some more Mary Poppins to calm yourself down and do some singalongs ♫ One spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.. medicine go down- ohhh medicine go down~~

How fascinating. I intensely dislike Liza and consider Adelina far superior. Li Zijun is wonderful, and she's Chinese (a plus for my ethnic pride)! Mao's Bells to me was probably her 2nd or 3rd-best LP, and Liebestraume after Japanese Nationals 2010 was my least favorite (you can talk about Masquerade but at least she had her pristine spirals there).

Well we agree on a few things, disagree on some. Is it really that fascinating? Sounds normal to me. I still don’t know why anyone would ‘intensely dislike’ anyone. I am however definitely pro Liza, pro Julia among the Russians. Pro Mirai, pro Gracie, pro Karen Chen among the US ladies. I really like Zi Jun not because of her nationality or any ethnic pride (although I too share), but because I like the fact she is a lovely breath of fresh air among all the over hyped teenagers, who were being told to skate mature or act mature when they are clearly not. I personally think Julia has been treated most unfairly for being 13 and do what she can do. If she is from the US or Canada, she certainly would have been treated quite differently. I do love the fact Li was consistently under hyped, but actually got the goods and will earn her PCS through hard work and proven results instead of media/federation hype. She has a lot of work to be done still (see the fan thread I made for her), but I do hope she will follow the foot step of the greats including Yuna Kim, to consistently pushing herself no matter what and don’t take things for granted. I look forward to her progress. Hope nobody forces her to mature too quickly and she get to keep some of the unique qualities suited to her age.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Guys, this thread is about the 2013 World Ladies LP. I had to look up to check the thread title. Please be kind to each other, a bit?
 

Mirunna

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Anyway back on topic what do some of you think Kanako has to do in the next year to close the gap further on the top 3. Or will she be struggling to even stay up in the top 5 with the super group of youngsters who placed 6-10 at this years Worlds.

She needs to skate consistent, like she's done the last 3 competitions this season. Her score is getting up, her PCS are improving and she is getting noticed by the judges. Her SP is strong, with the 3T-3T and 3F in the second half. She is most likely done growing and her jumps survived even though her technique is not that strong. She already skates much better than she did last season. If she continues to put on the ice clean skate after clean skate, she'll build some reputation and probably her jumps won't be scrutinized so much as they are today (she is never given the benefit of the doubt. I don't want to start another argue but Caro's 3F-3T looked mighty close on replay, Kanako would have never got away with it).The youngsters who placed 6-10 at this years Worlds may still suffer some body changes in the next couple of years.
 

Li'Kitsu

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Kanako most likely won't close the gap on the top 3 until Sochi. But I think she has really good chances to at least keep up with the next ladies squad. Yes, it would make sense to improve her jumping technique, but I'm not sure she'll get a true Lutz. With the current jugding system, it's not a big deal though, really. End except for Liza, all of the younger girls have one jump giving them trouble.
PCS-wise, Kanako is already very good. Of course she should still work on her SS, but she had really good choreo for the last two seasons (SP + FS!), and she has grown into such an artistic skater. She's musical and performs with a very rare and lively kind of energy. From those 5 younger girls, only Adelina and Kaetlyn should be able to keep up in PCS, the other three for now still need work.

Oh, and Kanako was 5th last year at worlds, this time she was 4th (and at her first worlds she was 8th). So a nice upwards trend there. If Yuna and Carolina don't skate at next years worlds, since it's after the Olympics, winning a medal is definitly not out of reach for Kanako :)
 

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
Ramblings on Liszt's "German-ness"
It's not even that I necessarily disagree with the stuff you say; it's that you get over half your facts wrong that makes me go :rofl:. But I suppose we are getting off topic. Oh well, we will have to continue this lovely chat somewhere else.

Where to start? Once again you are exaggerating and misconstruing several posts all once. Write multiple paragraphs is wrong, summarise too little is wrong. I do wish you make your mind up so at least you can be 50% less aggravated and I can be 50% happier. Fair? :p Take my “artistically dishonest” criticism of the Swan lake program for example; I am referring specifically to the creative decisions not to make references to black swan or white swans when specific black/white music sections were being performed. It is basic 101. It IS Swan Lake! Black and White swans are integral part of the story. (Imagine skating to Carmen as a catholic school girl. You get me?) It seems obvious. You do white swan, you act like white swan, you skate to black swan you skate like a black swan. What is so hard to understand? To continue to ignore the obvious through lack of care is lazy and ignorant. It is artistic truancy which one simply don’t expect from the world’s bests. Can you honestly be surprised someone will have something negative to say? I don’t know where you come up with all the other stuff from that are completely unrelated to original point that was made. Sounds like you have some unresolved pend up feelings, I suggest you go and watch some more Mary Poppins to calm yourself down and do some singalongs ♫ One spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.. medicine go down- ohhh medicine go down~~
I still see nothing wrong with aiming to skate to the music itself instead of trying to reenact each scene of Swan Lake. And unless you can actually say what you would look for when watching a Swan Lake program, there's no point continuing this discussion either. A pity, I was having such fun :).
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
I wonder if Kanako should think long term and work on fixing her jump technique now, even if it means sacrificing her chances for a higher placing in Sochi (where most seem to agree her medal chances are minscule inpite of being 4th at the pre Olympic Worlds). That would give her a bigger head start on having mastered an improved jump technique by the time of the 2015 Worlds. She should make the Japanese Olympic team for sure even if she takes a step back next year.
 

Colanboy

Rinkside
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
I still see nothing wrong with aiming to skate to the music itself instead of trying to reenact each scene of Swan Lake. And unless you can actually say what you would look for when watching a Swan Lake program, there's no point continuing this discussion either. A pity, I was having such fun :).
I agree. If a skater wants to reenact certain parts of the movie, then by all means do so, but I think there's nothing wrong with going for a less literal interpretation of the music.
 

OS

Sedated by Modonium
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
I agree. If a skater wants to reenact certain parts of the movie, then by all means do so, but I think there's nothing wrong with going for a less literal interpretation of the music.

Oh there's nothing wrong with going with less literal interpretation of the music - if the creative decision is to be doing something else instead. However, going for a less literal interpretation and ignore interpreting are quite different things. Then again, judges don't seem to care about things like artistic values beyond the basic. I just expect the world's bests to do a little bit better than that. Potentially the golden trinity of Tchaikovsky, Grand Russian Dame Tat, Mao should able able to produce Russian Ballet skating at its most glorious. Otherwise who else in this day would able to meet this task? I have already praised its step sequence at first impression but would like to do the same to the rest of the the program as well. As much flack as Tat has been getting, her work at her best is still head and shoulder above others even if it is not necessarily the most COP friendly. Theoretically this program should blow out Patrick's Elegie out of water, but it is not even close.

In anycase I don't want to nitpick this any longer because I do like Mao and admire her 8 triples ambition. She had tough 2 years and it is good to see her back on the podium again. Having Yuna and Mao in the competition will be very good for each other and the rest of the field. Just look at the upgraded field this year compare to last 2 once Yuna has returned. All three on the podium are all lovely ladies. I get WAFFY (Warm and Fuzzy Feeling) when I saw them congratulate each other and joking around behind back stage. I am looking forward to see the upgraded version next year! This is getting super exciting!!

Having Akiko messed up badly at this WC is going to boost Kanako's placement in the view of JSF. That and the possibility Mao may or may not retire after Sochi (depends on her result?) I don't expect Kanako will get the Hanyu treatment next year in terms of PCS, but she will certainly be Japan's No.2 lady (unless Miki returns).
 

bump

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 15, 2013
Has anyone else noticed that Mao isn't the best interpreter of her music? She seems to always front-load her long programs with lots of difficult jumping passes (that she rarely skates cleanly) and almost zero choreography and then she sort of skates through the second half on auto-pilot on her way to an impressive footwork sequence. She's obviously a gifted skater, but something about the construction of her programs along with the way she skates them always keeps me at a distance. Anyone else agree?
 

chloepoco

Medalist
Joined
Nov 1, 2009
Has anyone else noticed that Mao isn't the best interpreter of her music? She seems to always front-load her long programs with lots of difficult jumping passes (that she rarely skates cleanly) and almost zero choreography and then she sort of skates through the second half on auto-pilot on her way to an impressive footwork sequence. She's obviously a gifted skater, but something about the construction of her programs along with the way she skates them always keeps me at a distance. Anyone else agree?

Not I. In fact, I think Mao interprets her music beautifully.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Please explain why. Otherwise, you just sound like a Mao fan.

Mao fans are welcome to post on Golden Skate. Yu-na fans, too. ;)

I agree with the first part of your assessment of Mao's long program, but not the second. The the first minute is reserved for a couple of difficult jumping passes (on which she is often not very successful) and not much else.

But after the first minute she starts to turn on the performance/choreography. Far from autopilot, to me the performance grows steadily to a crescendo capped by the rousing footwork sequence.
 
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