Great Villain Programs in Figure Skating | Golden Skate

Great Villain Programs in Figure Skating

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
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Who are your favorite villains in Figure Skating?

No, not for real :laugh: But what programs, where the skater actually portrayed a villainous character, were tops for you? Two stand out for me

Rudy Galindo as Baron Rothbart in Swan Lake

Donovan Carrillo gets his gangster on in Capone

Two points for me:

1. The skater actually has to be portraying a bad guy, not just skating to "bad guy" music. To completely make up an example, skating to "Jack the Ripper" doesn't count; skating *as* "Jack the Ripper" does.

2. Bad guys can be happy:biggrin: In fact, for me, channelling a sensitive or fun villain is far more interesting than moping around the ice with murderous intent. But maybe you feel differently? Do you have a program that shows that?

The conversation in the 2019-20 programs thread I thought deserved its own thread, so if any of you posted there, please share here.:agree:
 
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surimi

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1. The skater actually has to be portraying a bad guy, not just skating to "bad guy" music. To completely make up an example, skating to "Jack the Ripper" doesn't count; skating *as* "Jack the Ripper" does.

Does Patrick's 'Mack the Knife' qualify for you in this respect? Just curious :]

I'll post a more thorough answer (translates into: something at least distantly resembling a list) when I've had a good night's sleep. Oh, all the Black Swans out there :) Right now I can only think of Yamamoto's Jekyll and Hyde... naturally, me being a superfan. But nothing even remotely fun/happy there for sure.
 

elektra blue

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bychenko's dracula, maybe he wasn't in his best shape for most of the season, but i apreciated the effort. i wish more ladies would try to be a villain, not just the black swan (who is not an actual villain btw) but, i don't know, Carabosse (speaking of ballet) or also a Disney villain like Ursula (Poor unfortunate souls would be a great peace to skate on) or Maleficent (if i'm not mistaken we had a few Maleficents in juniors this season)
 

el henry

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Does Patrick's 'Mack the Knife' qualify for you in this respect? Just curious :]

I'll post a more thorough answer (translates into: something at least distantly resembling a list) when I've had a good night's sleep. Oh, all the Black Swans out there :) Right now I can only think of Yamamoto's Jekyll and Hyde... naturally, me being a superfan. But nothing even remotely fun/happy there for sure.

"Mack the Knife" is a hard one :think:

The tune has become disassociated from its origins, and it's hard to tell if Patrick thought he was actually portraying Mack the Knife. But really, who else could it be?

So I don't know :confused:
 

Clairecz

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Such a great thread! Javi skated to Satan takes a holiday (without lyrics,it's here). But I think it doesn't count precisely because it was only bad guy music. But then there's Touch of Evil which was in my opinion much more dramatic and the atmosphere was villian-like and mysterious (I've never even heard about the film but then /if the reviews are to be trusted/ I learned that Mike Varrgas is actually the good guy ;)...)
 

LutzDance

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Jason Brown did “The Room Where It Happens” from Hamilton last year, in which I assumed he portrayed Aaron Burr, the (complicated) villain from the musical. And the choreography is as great as it can get [emoji41]

https://youtu.be/kt4YE_1lXVo
 

icetug

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On a side note (but apropos :)): today I was listening to the "Dune" OST (1984, by David Lynch) and my attention caught... Baron Harkonnen motive. Great piece of music, however I don't think anybody could portrey Baron Harkonnen on ice :laugh: The same with Lord Vader, unfortunately...

Dracula (Electra Blue already mentioned Bychenko's FP) is only one of vampires that have nice music in the background, take Volturi from "Twilight" for example (but Alena is going to be Bella instead...). Joker (or Partyman) from "Batman" (unforgettable OST by Prince), Kylo Ren from "Star Wars", Khan from "Star Treck", Moriarty (or Irene Adler, or Eurus) from "Sherlock" BBC, Lady Macbeth, Heatcliff from "Wuthering Heights", Cardinal Richelieu from the "Musketeers", the Master from "Doctor Who", Sheriff of Nottingham from "Robin Hood", Jack Randall from "Outlander" (OK, that would be too much :laugh:) - there are so many juicy villains associated with beautiful music ready to be used in figure skating ;).
 

kiara_bleu

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Yuna Kim's "Danse Macabre"...David Wilson once explained in an interview that he told Yuna that from the beginning pose and movement she should think of a gargoyle on top of those old churches coming to life. She then looks at each person below (or the audience around her) and basically wanting to have power over all of them.
 

Harriet

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What about operatic villains? There are some good ones out there. And has anyone ever skated to 'Falcon in the Dive' from The Scarlet Pimpernel or 'Stars' from Les Mis?

There have been a few programs to 'This is the Moment' from Jekyll and Hyde (most notably Andrew Dodds this season), but Jekyll isn't a villian at the point where he sings that.
 

rain

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Not sure it counts, but Gilles/Poirier's brilliant Hitchcock FD had some distinctly villainous overtones.
 

TallyT

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But then there's Touch of Evil which was in my opinion much more dramatic and the atmosphere was villian-like and mysterious (I've never even heard about the film but then /if the reviews are to be trusted/ I learned that Mike Varrgas is actually the good guy ;)...)

Though I did love the CBC commentary in 2017 for this happily pointing out that Javi doesn't have a evil bone in his body :biggrin: On the other hand he did look absolutely gorgeous in that costume....

And I'm not sure if zombies count as evil? If so, putting a hand up for my beloved Nelli Zhiganshina & Alexander Gazsi - Two from the Grave.
 

TontoK

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Boo! Hiss! to the concept of cheerful villains.

I want somebody to portray Charles Manson or Brutus' stabbing Julius Caesar or something similarly sinister.

The program concepts are getting boring. Where's the imagination? The daring? Time to shake things up!
 

Harriet

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Boo! Hiss! to the concept of cheerful villains.

What about gleeful villains who rejoice in their villainy, though? Fagin's 'Pick a Pocket or Two', Ursula's 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' as someone mentioned above, the Thenadiers in 'Master of the House'? Any of the Shakespearean opera villains? I dare you, somebody, skate Iago! Revel in chaos and destruction!

I forgot before, but probably the most common villain/antiheroine skate of all out there is Chicago - 'Cell Block Tango', 'Roxy', etc. We could do with a change.
 

TontoK

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What about gleeful villains who rejoice in their villainy, though?... I dare you, somebody, skate Iago! Revel in chaos and destruction!

... We could do with a change.

Yes to every bit of this!
 

TallyT

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Boo! Hiss! to the concept of cheerful villains.

I want somebody to portray Charles Manson or Brutus' stabbing Julius Caesar or something similarly sinister.

The program concepts are getting boring. Where's the imagination? The daring? Time to shake things up!

Let's have one of the Japanese girls doing the little girl from Ringu........
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
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Hahaha, what a bloodthirsty crowd:laugh:

I actually find murderous and glum to be a little boring, probably because I find it so easy to be glum myself. Finding the humanity and humor in a villain would be difficult for me, so that difficulty is what I project on others, and what I'm impressed by;)

But so many good examples so far, we have had quite the reign of villains:dev3: (and so many I had forgotten, of course Dracula and Roxie and all the other good selections....)
 
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