Favourite Warhorse Interpretation | Page 6 | Golden Skate

Favourite Warhorse Interpretation

Fresca

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Your quote: He (Yuzuru) has the best swan arms I've seen. Even better than Baiul because she doesn't have the ballet fingers but he does.

you care about ballet fingers.

I do if we are talking about swan arms. It depends which arms. Vaganova arms are the best arms for swans. Balanchine arms are the best arms for hummingbirds.

Anyway, the problem is not if he is relaxed or not, the problem is his position, I don´t know if to say hunchback is too much, but his body (especially upper back and neck) is inclined the 90% of the time. Modern or classic, that is not a correct posture, even for the daily life, let alone dance or figure skating. If you think his posture is good and innovative, you must to think that Rika Hongo and Elena R. are geniuses.

Or perhaps you have not been exposed to different forms of movement like this, this, this, or this. Such bad hunchbacked dancers they all are.

ETA: Even better, I found a contemporary ballet version of The Dying Swan. She's simlarly hunchbacked.
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Sorry but I have to disagree with your choices here.

I thought the OP and thread title implied that each of us is entitled to our own favorites. It didn't occur to me that anyone would argue with my choices, because my choices only reflect my own favorites.

I love Oksana's Black Swan because it does so much to re-create the ballet. But for me, programs to the music of a ballet aren't required to re-create the ballet. To me, it's like adapting a novel to a television series. Each person who re-invents something into a different form creates something from their own brains, bones and blood. They don't have to duplicate it, and in fact can't, because it's a different medium.

I don't think everyone who skates to Firebird, for instance, has to interpret it literally and be the actual bird. It could be something else. For instance, Alaine Chartrand's 2016 FS to Gone With the Wind was brilliant, IMO, because it didn't specifically reference the book or the movie (unlike Polina Edmunds'). Alaine's program was more about suggesting a story off-point or in the skater's imagination, using the drama, melody, and emotion of the music to create something other than plot points in the book/movie.


Swan Lake- THE MOTHERLODE. Galindo, Takahashi, Baiul, Asada, Cohen, Ilinykh/Katsalapov, Wagner's breakout program- who gets the crown? I can't even decide on this one. I like sections of each skater's program but I can't choose THE comprehensive winner.

Can we all just establish though- Black Swan does not count as a warhorse, because it's a film soundtrack that samples Tchaikovsky. No to demented ballerina arms. Only pure Swan Lake programs count, because there was life before Natalie Portman.

Hence, Ashley Wagner's and Volosozhar/Trankov doesn't count. Even more so- nothing balletic with those programs at all, imho.

So, you've decided now that Black Swan from the soundtrack of the movie doesn't count, even though you counted it in the OP. Okay.

It's funny. I recall vividly the reams of scathing criticism that Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea got in this forum for skating their 2016 FS to Music of the Night. People stated they'd never even consider watching the program because their choice of music proved they lacked creativity.

But Tarah and Danny skated to a Barbra Streisand/Michael Crawford duet of Music of the Night. So because it wasn't the sound track of POTO, then I guess all those people making scathing remarks about K/O skating to the worst warhorse of all time should be apologizing now.

Right. I won't hold my breath.
 

Fresca

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
I love Oksana's Black Swan because it does so much to re-create the ballet. But for me, programs to the music of a ballet aren't required to re-create the ballet. To me, it's like adapting a novel to a television series. Each person who re-invents something into a different form creates something from their own brains, bones and blood. They don't have to duplicate it, and in fact can't, because it's a different medium.

I don't think everyone who skates to Firebird, for instance, has to interpret it literally and be the actual bird. It could be something else. For instance, Alaine Chartrand's 2016 FS to Gone With the Wind was brilliant, IMO, because it didn't specifically reference the book or the movie (unlike Polina Edmunds'). Alaine's program was more about suggesting a story off-point or in the skater's imagination, using the drama, melody, and emotion of the music to create something other than plot points in the book/movie.

I agree that programs to the music of a ballet don't need to recreate the ballet. They don't even need to be balletic. I've said above I think Dai's jazz/hip hop version is the next best Odile and Yuzu's contemporary version is the best Odette. Skaters can choose to create their own characters and make their own stories using the music to interpret it in a different way using different movement. However, in this case, Ashley and V/T were dressed literally in black swan costumes so they were obviously referencing the ballet/movie and the Black Swan characters in the mediums. Yet I found in neither program did the skaters move like swans or express the characters.
 

rosacotton

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
What a neat topic!

Ave Maria - Carolina Kostner
Barber of Seville – Javier Fernandez
Bolero – Carolina Kostner
Carmen – Ilinykh/Zhiganshin
Charlie Chaplin – Cappellini/Lanotte
Cinderella (Prokofiev) – Parsons/Parsons
Coppelia – Shibutani/Shibutani
Dance Macabre – Yuna Kim
Daphnis et Chloé – Sarah Hughes
Die Fledermaus - Akiko Suzuki
Firebird - Tatsuki Machida
Giselle – Davis/White
La Boheme – Satoko Miyahara
Les Miserables – Pang/Tong
Liebestraum – Hawayek/Baker
Malaguena – Javier Fernandez
Notre Dame de Paris – Davis/White
Nutcracker – Shen/Zhao
Phantom of the Opera - Akiko Suzuki
Polovtsian Dances – Davis/White
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2 – Mao Asada
Rhapsody in Blue – Gabby Daleman
Samson and Delilah – Davis/White
Scheherazade – Davis/White
Schindler's List – Joshua Farris
Sleeping Beauty – Zijun Li
Swan Lake - Rudy Galindo
Turandot – Shen/Zhao
 

all that

Final Flight
Joined
May 4, 2007
No Carmen has ever come close to Bestemianova/Bukin's 1985 Free Dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iju_RarH3rk

It is the perfect Carmen, and I'm not even a fan of this team as I felt they robbed Klimova/Ponomarenko nearly the entire 1985-1988 Olympic cycle.

As for Ladies singles, Fumie Suguri has my favorite Carmen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX21Vo5LTKE
I liked Katarina Witt's portrayal on her Carmen on Ice special, but not that Olympic program. I actually sort of hate Witt's 1988 Olympic Carmen as a skating program, and I truly disliked her make-up and costume for it as well.

Really need to disagree about B/B's Carmen. Couldn't even get past the first half it was so snooze-worthy. They were skating like a pair team -- through the music, limited interaction and mostly focused on tricks.

Have many skaters used Carmen Suite II. Dance Seems like a fiery SP for someone on their game.

V/M used selections from this suite.
 

irriya

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 31, 2016
If dark eyes can be called warhorse, I will like to say I really like Sasha's and V/M's version.
and for Samson and Delilah, I would like to add Rochette's and Sui/Han's program, both choreography and music cutting
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
What a neat topic!

Cinderella (Prokofiev) – Parsons/Parsons
Daphnis et Chloé – Sarah Hughes
Liebestraum – Hawayek/Baker
Malaguena – Javier Fernandez
Notre Dame de Paris – Davis/White
Rhapsody in Blue – Gabby Daleman
Samson and Delilah – Davis/White
Schindler's List – Joshua Farris
Turandot – Shen/Zhao

I so agree! There are a couple on your list I need to watch or re-watch. Thus tripling the fun.

I'll add to my previous favorites list:

Chock/Bates Les Mis 2014 Nationals
 
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