I was just rewatching Philippe Candeloro's great Olympic programmes in 1994 and 1998, and realised this man is a born story teller. Never mind that his jumps aren't always perfect (I bet there would be negative GOEs in the current system) but he sucks you in with his story telling. Whether it's the Godfather experiencing an emotional moment or a superb sword fight as one of the musketiers, you're always mesmerised. Is it the musicality, is it the expression, or the perfect choreography? I don't know, just that I'm seeing the film of the Godfather (one of them) before my eyes, and actually seeing the musketeer duelling instead of a step sequence. That's a real gift for a skater to have. Many try to do it, but most who do end up being bad copies.
I was wondering...I know of course ice dancers are pretty good at story telling too, especially if it's a love story, but what single and pair skaters can manage this? Make you totally forget about jumps and other technical things (although they're present of course) but still manage to hypnotise you because of the story telling? I remember Alexei Yagudin doing it in both his SP and LP at the 2002 Olympics (yeah, would have loved to have seen a sword fight on the ice between Alexei and Philippe with their totally different fighting (skating) styles) while Kevin Amoz (another French guy) also manages to pull you in.
Elvis Stojko could do it too (but not always). I remember his Columbus skate in 1995. Superb story telling. You could easily visualise this European investigator suddenly finding out there were already people present. a combination of film music and a skater being expressive. Or Rudy Galindo (1996) at his Nationals pulling you through Swan Lake.
This is not about good skating as such, but about the story telling. So, have you ever wanted to kill Scarpia yourself because Tosca (the skater) was abused, wished to stop José killing Carmen, wished to comfort poor Lucia before she got herself a knife and stabbed the one person who actually was innocent of any wrong doing, wanted to shrink before the might of Darth Vader in a Star Wars piece? I'm terribly interested, and also would like to get to know new stories, Of course, Ice dancers are worth mentioning too, just no love stories please. That's too easy when it's not a brother/sister dance team!
I was wondering...I know of course ice dancers are pretty good at story telling too, especially if it's a love story, but what single and pair skaters can manage this? Make you totally forget about jumps and other technical things (although they're present of course) but still manage to hypnotise you because of the story telling? I remember Alexei Yagudin doing it in both his SP and LP at the 2002 Olympics (yeah, would have loved to have seen a sword fight on the ice between Alexei and Philippe with their totally different fighting (skating) styles) while Kevin Amoz (another French guy) also manages to pull you in.
Elvis Stojko could do it too (but not always). I remember his Columbus skate in 1995. Superb story telling. You could easily visualise this European investigator suddenly finding out there were already people present. a combination of film music and a skater being expressive. Or Rudy Galindo (1996) at his Nationals pulling you through Swan Lake.
This is not about good skating as such, but about the story telling. So, have you ever wanted to kill Scarpia yourself because Tosca (the skater) was abused, wished to stop José killing Carmen, wished to comfort poor Lucia before she got herself a knife and stabbed the one person who actually was innocent of any wrong doing, wanted to shrink before the might of Darth Vader in a Star Wars piece? I'm terribly interested, and also would like to get to know new stories, Of course, Ice dancers are worth mentioning too, just no love stories please. That's too easy when it's not a brother/sister dance team!