diver chick said:When I think of all the beautiful music that is at the disposal of these skaters I constantly think why do they have to rehash the same tired old stuff!!
In the movie 'The Cutting Edge' there is a scene where the two are trying to convince each other why their music choice is better and the bit that always sticks in my head is when the guy says something along the lines of Mozart is tired, dozens of skaters are going to be lining up the same boring crap, lets be different, lets kick some ***. Okay I wasn't all that enamoured with the music choice he made but the sentiment is there!! I am tired of people using the same music season after season! Be different, Rachmaninov did not write one symphony, Mozart did not compse one concerto........ Where is the Shostakovic, Berlioz, Grieg, who incidently composed more than just the Peer Gynt suite the list goes on and on!!
skatinglady 2001
I don't know about anyone else, but I think that Sasha Cohen and Oksana Baiul's Swan Lakes are masterpieces
That is rather confusing to me, because I read many Cohen fans including skatepixie were telling us that her program was so good because she was portraying both swans. I have never been too impressed with PIT's ballet music as a concert piece. PIT was excellent at melody, as far as orchestration goes, he was OK. But then SL was a ballet, and it was meant to accompany movements, and a story line. Cohen skated well enough for all her placements last season. The only time I thought judges were a bit generous was in skate Canada, I thought Arakawa's lp deserved to be placed ahead. The rest of the times, I thought her placement was fair. If Cohen was skating to a concert piece, why was the original costume filled with feather and swan tail motif?Joesitz said:Sasha did an excellent job with SL, imo. She did not make like a swan but rather interpreted the music as a concert piece without the ballet story.
. Not bad for a lady skating to SL and not flapping her arms!
wonder if she is the only one who did not flap the arms?
Joe
Joesitz said:Not bad for a lady skating to SL and not flapping her arms!
I wonder if she is the only one who did not flap the arms?
Not sure about Fumie, but Rudi definitely didn't -- he was portraying evil Count Von Rothbart. Though I wonder if he were an eligible now if he would dare attempt interpreting Mathew Bourne's audacious twist on Swan Lake, where the swans are male? http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/swanlake.htmlBravesSkateFan said:I don't belive that either Fumie or Rudi had arm flaps in their version of SL.
Great point.VIETgrlTerifa said:The reason why Swan Lake, Turandot, Carmen, etc. are so overused is because they are soooo easy to skate to. You get to be dramatic, angsty, cliched, etc. with music that's easy on the ears in the background, and the judges will claim that you are a true artist.
Mathman said:Great point, VIETgrlTerifa. There is a reason why the same few peices of music get recycled over and over.
RTureck, that was an interesting and balanced analysis. To me, the point about Sasha doing "both swans" refers mainly to her costume, not so much to her choreography or execution. I thought the black and white outfit was a knockout. But I can't say that she skated half of the program "good" and the other half "evil."
Now that I think of it, it is pretty rare for a program to try to interpret evil. Alexei Urmanov did an appropriately sinister Phantom of the Opera. Elvis Stoiko did a cool Winter Warlock in a special with Dorothy Hamill and Tonya Kwiatkowski a few years ago that stuck in my mind.
I would like to see Chait and Sakhnovsky interpret Dracula, with him as the Count and her as the beautiful innocent victim.
Or maybe someone will do "Wicked on Ice," after the Broadway musical, LOL.
Mathman
I completely disagree. They use them because everybody (including judges and audience) knows them and so they will have a clue of what is attemped to be portrayed. If they are successful in their interpretation, maybe it can be called a masterpiece. But if they're not successful, people are able to tell that very easily as well and will rip them apart because it had nothing to do with the piece. Almost every skater used Carmen in their career. And how many were considered masterpieces or even very good programs?VIETgrlTerifa said:The reason why Swan Lake, Turandot, Carmen, etc. are so overused is because they are soooo easy to skate to. You get to be dramatic, angsty, cliched, etc. with music that's easy on the ears in the background, and the judges will claim that you are a true artist.
Mathman said:I thought the black and white outfit was a knockout.
Now that I think of it, it is pretty rare for a program to try to interpret evil. LOL.
Mathman
chuckm said:One of the things about the "two swan" costume and Sasha's TT Swan Lake that always bothered me was the lack of character interpretation. There was SUCH a wealth of drama there that was never even touched on--the sad white swan, in love with the Prince and yearning to be free of the sorcerer, the evil black swan seductress who foils her escape, the tragic ending. The beaming Sasha as she struck a pose in her spiral didn't seem to belong to any character at all.