- Joined
- Feb 26, 2014
In reply to Alba. I just think Mao's LP in Sochi is the best performance I have ever seen, so powerfully moving and clean, and she ended it with so much triumphant joy that I love to watch it over and over again. but I loved Mao's performance of Bells of Moscow in Vancouver as well. It's just that I saw how sad she was when she missed her triple loop and caught an edge near the end. Most of all, I was upset when she cried in the interview afterwards because her performance had not lived up to her high expectations. However, Mao's performance of Bells at Worlds is my second favorite performance after her Sochi LP. I have written the following post about it. Believe me, I agree that it totally fits her and is such a stunning departure from her image of ethereal innocence:
I love her Swan as well, and I fully agree with you. I think the different perceptions that we have about these two programs are also related to the story/result behind it. In Vancouver she didn't won, and frankly I think it was impossible for her to win, no matter what, after the scores that Yuna Kim got. So it was very emotional but in a negative way if you like.
In Sochi, she came back after a disaster SP. So it was a kind of victory, very emotional but positive.
In this peerless performance, the innocent princess transforms into a dark, nimble angel firing wildly rotating lightning bolts from gyrating limbs during her desperate step sequence. She is bewitchingly beguiling in her cat-like agility, as she springs into the air with a twin attack of triple axels, and an exquisite flurry of rotations that are synonymous with feline finesse. She strikes bizarre behind-the back, peek-a-boo and mask-like poses through a black glove with her arms and hands like figures out of Picasso’s modernist paintings: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Three Women. This leads into her picturesque arabesque and fully-open scissor-like leg extensions in her spiral sequence.
As for spins, she pulls herself into a crouching position, crosses one leg on her knee, fully extends her arms and locks her hands above her head, before rising upright and extending her leg all the way above her head in a rapidly revolving leg extension. Then, she wraps her head and leg sideways around her back, drops into a sit spin with legs parallel to the ice, before fully extending her head and right leg all the way up behind her back in a full-blown Bielmann. During the Bielmann, she does one of the most passionately beautiful poses I have ever seen by pulling her left hand in flush against her chest and fully extending her finger tips, which are cupped with a black glove. The beautiful tension it creates builds all the way till the final gong of the Bell and upright spin at the end. M&M- Magnificent and Mesmerizing!!!!!! Best of all since Mao is my favorite skater, it ended in the 2010 World Championship just like Roch 2 in 2014.
This is poetry.