Programs that make curious about the origin

I wanted to make the title like "Programs that make you curious about the original contents", but due to the limited space, there you go!

Recently, I was bewitched by the short program of Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev in the 1987/1988 season. Oleg has been known as a coach, and the most successful students of him are Totmianina/Marinin that I don't like. Anyway...Valova and Vasiliev were a glamorous pair team a long ago which was so fresh to me. The reigning Olympic Champions, Valova and Vasiliev were beaten by Gordeeva and Grinkov at Calgary, but beat the new Olympic Champions at the following Worlds.

The music circles around ear over a week. Their costumes are striking and theatrical. The glittering golden beads!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPeXlNhvdYY 1988 Calgary Olympics, Zobra's Dance from Greek the Zorba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad0TsESWOrg 1988 Worlds

When I first saw the program, I giggled at Dick Button's commentary on the dazzling costumes. The costumes look somewhat avant-guard, and indeed remind of a flashy night club dress. I only heard of the book title, "Greek the Zorba" previously, so googled it and there are film and musical based on the book. I have no idea why the pair team chose the theme, and costume since I haven't had a chance to read the book or watch the film and musical. However, as far as the merry music to which they skated, the original content would be interesting, so I intend to see the film sooner or later before reading the book because that would save my time. In addition, "Barton Fink" is also a bit linked to the book, so the film is also on my list to watch someday.

I also watched a French film "The Artist" some month ago because my favorite skaters performed to its soundtrack.

I think you may have a same experience like this, so please share yours!

very nice thread

i wanted to watch the artist too after one of my faves skating to it but i haven't yet...


when i saw kurt browning do his famous casablanca, i followed up and watched it... but strangely, i forgot all about it except for kurt lol.

this year, it was Lubov and Dylan that inspired me to go further.... I hadn't heard the Rachmaninoff symphony in so long.... that I went back and listened to the whole thing a couple times... their music editor did a great jobs making the cuts.

I am sure a lot of people want to know more about Seimei now.

Crossover said:

I wanted to make the title like "Programs that make you curious about the original contents", but due to the limited space, there you go!

Recently, I was bewitched by the short program of Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev in the 1987/1988 season. Oleg has been known as a coach to me, and the most successful students of him are Totmianina/Marinin that I don't like. Anyway...Valova and Vasiliev were a glamorous pair team a long ago which was so fresh to me. Valova and Vasiliev were beaten by Gordeeva and Grinkov at Calgary, but beat the new Olympic Champions at the following Worlds.

The music circles around ear over a week. Their costumes are striking and theatrical. The glittering golden beads!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPeXlNhvdYY 1988 Calgary Olympics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad0TsESWOrg 1998 Worlds

When I first saw the program, I giggled at Dick Button's commentary on the dazzling costumes. The costumes look somewhat avant-guard, and indeed remind of a flashy night club dress. I only heard of the book title, Greek the Zorba previously, so googled it and there are film and musical based on the book. I have no idea why the pair team chose the theme, and costume since I haven't had a chance to read the book or watch the film and musical. However, as far as the merry music to which they skated, the original content would be interesting, so I intend to see the film sooner or later before reading the book because that would save my time. In addition, "Barton Fink" is also a bit linked to the book, so the film is also on my list to watch someday.

I also watched a French film "The Artist" some month ago because my favorite skaters performed to its soundtrack.

I think you may have a same experience like this, so please share yours!

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Evgenia's free program from this season made me want to watch the film w/e. Such a gorgeous program to gorgeous music, I just had to see where it came from. Sue me, I actually liked the movie! Why is it when people hear that Madonna is attached to a movie they automatically annihilate it??? ...ok, don't answer that question.

One other tidbit about Evgenia's program that I haven't learned yet and I'm hoping someone can enlighten me: what is the story behind the program being linked to communicating with the deaf?

4everchan said:

very nice thread

i wanted to watch the artist too after one of my faves skating to it but i haven't yet...


when i saw kurt browning do his famous casablanca, i followed up and watched it... but strangely, i forgot all about it except for kurt lol.

this year, it was Lubov and Dylan that inspired me to go further.... I hadn't heard the Rachmaninoff symphony in so long.... that I went back and listened to the whole thing a couple times... their music editor did a great jobs making the cuts.

I am sure a lot of people want to know more about Seimei now.

Click to expand...

This quote is from the Animal fun thread written by me after watching "The Artist" in April. I thought main characters would be related to illusionists or showmen, but well the film is about actors during the transient state from silent films to talkies. I enjoyed watching it a lot. You would probably like it too.

Crossover said:

I watched "The Artist", a 2011 film yesterday since its soundtrack has been used a lot by figure skaters for their programs such as Denis Ten, Zijun Li, Valentina Marchei and Kristina Astakhova & Alexei Rogonov. The starring role was played by a French actor and comedian, Jean Dujardin, who is in relationship with my favorite French ice dancer, Nathalie Péchalat. Anyway, the main character's pet dog impresses me because he comforts his master, Valentin when he is down, and saves his life from fire. Dogs are such great companions with intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y8EX4t98-I

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Lubov and Dylan were one of the pairs at Worlds that impressed me a lot. It was one truly touching performance. I also haven't listened to the symphony for a long time, so thanks for sharing your experience.

Oops, I forgot to mention about Kurt's Casablanca! My father loves classical Hollywood films and especially is a big fan of Ingrid Bergman. Aside from her stunning beauty and graceful figure or acting, what I admire about her is she could speak several languages very fluently without a Swedish accent! Anyway, I've watched the film several times since I was a kid. So I knew Kurt's interpretation on the film and music would be remembered by many as one of his masterpieces. :agree:

SarahSynchro said:

Evgenia's free program from this season made me want to watch the film w/e. Such a gorgeous program to gorgeous music, I just had to see where it came from. Sue me, I actually liked the movie! Why is it when people hear that Madonna is attached to a movie they automatically annihilate it??? ...ok, don't answer that question.

One other tidbit about Evgenia's program that I haven't learned yet and I'm hoping someone can enlighten me: what is the story behind the program being linked to communicating with the deaf?

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I’d like to know the answer to that question too!

Personally, I wouldn’t wish to watch anything about Edward VII and his wife, and I’m glad Evgenia’s program is not about them, but I’d like to see Melodies of White Nights. I’ve read the description on the Internet, and it sounds like an interesting and beautiful film.

4everchan said:

I am sure a lot of people want to know more about Seimei now.

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That’s certainly true! I tired to find out what it is about, but got only that Hanyu is portraying a character who is a werefox’s son and a sorcerer, and that, amazingly, this character is based on a real-life person who was a court astrologer. He must have made quite a few lucky guesses, for such a legend to spring up about him after his death. Actually I’d like to see this film too, if I could.

The program whose meaning I never understood is Plushenko’s exhibition in which he changes between a male and a female costume. I’d be grateful, if somebody who knows could explain what it was about.

I was also curious about the music piece “Leningrad” by William Joseph, which Yulia Lipnitskaya used for her LP this season. I wondered which themes connected with Leningrad the composer had in mind when he was creating this music.

The previous season I was so inspired by Ilinykh and Zhiganshin’s Carmen that I actually read this novella (before I had only known the opera and the ballet). It’s interesting that I’ve seen countless programs to Carmen, and it never occurred to me to go to the source, but as I watched Elena and Ruslan’s program and read their interviews, I was curious to know more. Well, I was glad I read it. Merimee had a wonderful writing style in French, somewhat reminiscent of Somerset Maugham’s in English, but Maugham lived so much later. His story is actually quite different from the opera and ballet story, which Ilinykh and Zhiganshin were portraying on the ice, which I found interesting. I was also glad I had been inspired to read it because it had been a long time since I had read anything in French, so it was good to brush up my French, and again, I greatly enjoyed the writing itself.

Belbin and Agosto's Amelie FD convinced me to borrow a copy of the film, even though I hugely dislike having to read English subtitles to understand what's going on. It really added to my enjoyment of the dance to have some understanding of what the movie was about. I am glad I watched it!

I also watched Frida because I was totally not getting all the gushing about Delobel and Schoenfelder's Frida...and ended up fond of neither the movie or the FD.

I love the music of "The Mission," thanks to Matt Savoie & other skaters. As a result, I bought the soundtrack a few years ago. We finally rented the movie a few months ago!

I've bought tons of movie soundtracks thanks to figure skating, even for movies that we have no intention of seeing! Other movies we have rented on the strength of the music.

Spiral said:

I was also curious about the music piece “Leningrad” by William Joseph, which Yulia Lipnitskaya used for her LP this season. I wondered which themes connected with Leningrad the composer had in mind when he was creating this music.

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I was curious about the music too, but haven't found an answer to the question yet. When I first saw the title, it would be a nostalgic music composed possibly by a Russian or a person from the former Soviet Bloc in retrospection of the old St. Petersberg. But the composer is American, so my second guess was that he spent some time in the city while being called Leningrad until 1991. By googling his profile, he doesn't seem to be old enough going travel to the country considering the Cold War era or his parents don't seem to come from the place. So it is a mystery.

dorispulaski said:

Belbin and Agosto's Amelie FD convinced me to borrow a copy of the film, even though I hugely dislike having to read English subtitles to understand what's going on. It really added to my enjoyment of the dance to have some understanding of what the movie was about. I am glad I watched it!

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Hmm. I thought the FD is far from the film's mood while the choreography and costume were beautiful in their own right.

dorispulaski said:

I also watched Frida because I was totally not getting all the gushing about Delobel and Schoenfelder's Frida...and ended up fond of neither the movie or the FD.

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The program got them into winning their first international championship medal at Euros, but I honestly don't like the music. I was rather fascinated by their previous year's FD, Merlin.

Misha's 2014-2015 FP from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg :luv17:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZq1Dc0gFm4

iluvtodd said:

I love the music of "The Mission," thanks to Matt Savoie & other skaters. As a result, I bought the soundtrack a few years ago. We finally rented the movie a few months ago!

I've bought tons of movie soundtracks thanks to figure skating, even for movies that we have no intention of seeing! Other movies we have rented on the strength of the music.

Click to expand...

I love the music and Matt's program. :agree2: I only saw some snippet of the film on TV and Jeremy Irons looked impressive. I got to know a lot of classical pieces from figure skating too.

Jeff Buttle's Naqoyqatsi was intriguing, plus it made me appreciate Phillip Glass more.

Plushenko's Tribute to Nijinsky program:

Part of Plushenko's biography:

"And for this I have to work much and properly. It means to think over every detail in the program.
A new program starts with me and Alexey Nikolaevich studying the subject. It is similar to the work of the director and the actor on a new role.
For example, some years ago we worked on the program “A tribute to Nijinsky” and we started with a visit to the museum. I read Nijinsky’s biography. I was extremely impressed by the fate of this great dancer. The story begins when his mom brought him in a private ballet school, he was taken in and he started to study. That looked like my life and I felt it very close. And then tragic notes appeared, I had to understand and feel them.
There is not even one videotape with Nijinsky today. With Mishin we tried to reconstruct his appearance and plastics from the photographs. We added something from ourselves too.
At this time I already knew the talented Hungarian violin player Edwin Marton and he composed an original melody for this program. I performed it in 2003 at the Grand Prix."

And the program was amazing!!

Nijinsky and Plushy's moves https://www.instagram.com/p/BGOpuBsDROy/?taken-by=tatiana_polunin

SarahSynchro said:

One other tidbit about Evgenia's program that I haven't learned yet and I'm hoping someone can enlighten me: what is the story behind the program being linked to communicating with the deaf?

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From her interview: "I worked on my FS with a hearing-impaired choreographer who arranged the end of my program with sign language. I don't know if hearing-impaired people understand me but it came out very original thanks to choreographers and coaches. What I'm saying (with signs) is: I can't hear you but I've got goosebumps all over my skin from feeling you with my heart. I don't fear you, I open up for you. I haven't heard anyone do anything like that before."

Sorrento said:

From her interview: "I worked on my FS with a hearing-impaired choreographer who arranged the end of my program with sign language. I don't know if hearing-impaired people understand me but it came out very original thanks to choreographers and coaches. What I'm saying (with signs) is: I can't hear you but I've got goosebumps all over my skin from feeling you with my heart. I don't fear you, I open up for you. I haven't heard anyone do anything like that before."

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Aww, that's amazing. Thank you for posting this!

I also heard that Eteri's daughter is deaf, was the program choreographed with her in mind?

SarahSynchro said:

Aww, that's amazing. Thank you for posting this!

I also heard that Eteri's daughter is deaf, was the program choreographed with her in mind?

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I had no idea about it. No, I haven't heard that mentioned in connection to this program. You're welcome!

I think I almost never watch a movie after I saw a program. It's usually vice versa because I love watching movies. Only Yuzuru Hanyu made me curious about Seimei, so I went and watched both films (1&2, obviously). But I can't watch a movie or a musical even for the sake of Yuzu's POTO. Musicals is just not my thing.
Before Yuzu I remember reading the book that inspired Stephane Lambiel when creating his Poeta with Antonio Najarro, that was nice and special.
And other than these I don't remember watching a movie for the sake of beautiful music. Nope. I'm very picky.

I watched both versions of Sabrina after I saw Alissa Czisny's Free Program in 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZurMskwPwE0

By the way, the original version is far superior to the remake. Greg Kinnear was horribly miscast in the remake and is no match for William Holden.

Sorrento said:

From her interview: "I worked on my FS with a hearing-impaired choreographer who arranged the end of my program with sign language. I don't know if hearing-impaired people understand me but it came out very original thanks to choreographers and coaches. What I'm saying (with signs) is: I can't hear you but I've got goosebumps all over my skin from feeling you with my heart. I don't fear you, I open up for you. I haven't heard anyone do anything like that before."

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Delobel and Schoenfelder did sign language in their world championships winning FD to The Piano soundtrack.