Averbukh: Choreographer

[blue dog]

As mentioned in the dance thread, Ilia Averbukh will be choreographing Zhiganshina/Gaszi's free dance this year. They will be portraying zombies. I was never a fan of Averbukh's work as a competitor, but his work for Makarova last season (the short program) was pretty good. What are your thoughts?

PS- I still think the 9-11 tribute was like watching zombies.

 

[dorispulaski]

PPS I still think it was an invitation to PTSD for too many people, me included.

 

[blue dog]

PPS I still think it was an invitation to PTSD for too many people, me included.

Most definitely. It was too soon.

I didn't. But I was living in NY state, and many of my friends were living in the city on 9/11.

I didn't want to see it danced on ice, the same way many people did not want to see Holocaust on Ice or Hitler on Ice.

PTSD is not a nice thing, and a lot of NY state was suffering from it. None of us wanted to see any reenactment of 9/11 that soon.

Some people were still suffering from it 10 years later.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/n...rder-from-911still-haunts.html?pagewanted=all

I was shocked that they won a silver with that program not just because I thought very little of the dance, but because there were so many teams behind them who were so much better. Also, that dance broke a lot of rules for that time. They had many separations that were longer than ten seconds. Ilia also performed two double Böckls.

Not to mention it was way, way too soon. I remember at the time, people joked that with dance programs being like current events, we might see Enron -themed dances, or other controversial topics of the time (axelannie joked about a program on priests ...not funny).

 

[colleen o'neill]

It was far too much for me , too..and I'm on the other coast, and in Canada. It's for sure everybody on the continent , even if they weren't near NY and knew no-one caught up in the attack, had seen the horror over and over and over on their TVs.

I thought the program was extremely insensitive , tacky, and made me feel a bit sick.I remember howling "Noooooo! You wouldn't !" at my TV when their program was announced.

I'll have to re-watch Makarova's SP , I wasn't paying attention to who did her choreo..I confess I haven't looked much at any clips that have been posted from his shows..because I was never a fan of his competitive programs and thought I remembered hearing that he had some input into them. (?)

The recent news that he's being sought out as a choreographer has given me some trepidation... I don't know what to think...

 

[slipslidin]

Well, I'm afraid I know what to think. Zombies!?....there appears to be a certain lack of thematic taste. Just when the vampire craze seemed to be dying out, we are to be presented with something even bitier. Yuck, hope it's not a trend setter.

 

[Tonichelle]

Well, I'm afraid I know what to think. Zombies!?....there appears to be a certain lack of thematic taste. Just when the vampire craze seemed to be dying out, we are to be presented with something even bitier. Yuck, hope it's not a trend setter.

well it IS socially relevant with the CDC posting a site about zombie preparedness and the recent "zombie like" attacks in FL and Canada.

 

[blue dog]

I have a feeling Thriller by Michael Jackson is part of this program.

 

[slipslidin]

Oh well, then. It's all right! I expect we'll see a pair of Michael Jackson zombies, grabbing their crotches. Move along, nothing tacky here.

 

[mikiandorocks]

Well, I'm very happy to find out that Averbukh will coreograph the FD of the german couple. If it's something out of the box... better. Hopefully it will be very different from most of the FDs we have been watching in the last couple of seasons. I believe ice-dancing needs at least one or two couples that dare to do something modern and different just like in the past we had teams such Rahkamo & Kokko and the Duchesnays.
In what concerns the FD that Lobacheva & Averbukh performed in '02, I love it and I think it was meant to be a genuine tribute. Maybe for the americans it was difficult to deal with such memories so soon and I understand that.

 

[Macassar88]

Most definitely. It was too soon.



I was shocked that they won a silver with that program not just because I thought very little of the dance, but because there were so many teams behind them who were so much better. Also, that dance broke a lot of rules for that time. They had many separations that were longer than ten seconds. Ilia also performed two double Böckls.

Not to mention it was way, way too soon. I remember at the time, people joked that with dance programs being like current events, we might see Enron -themed dances, or other controversial topics of the time (axelannie joked about a program on priests ...not funny).

What are these?

 

[deedee1]

I know Menshov's Free to Kill Bill+Clair de Luna was choreographed by Averbukh this past season. How about this one, anyone knows?

Menshov at Euro 2011, skating to Michael Jackson medley+some lyrical piece in between:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQLUo99H0GE

His Free skate was one of the highlights for me at this particular Euro (along with Sarah Meier's Free skate! ), and is the best performance I have ever seen from Menshov so far; two quads, one 3A and the rest of his jumps crystal clean!

As for Menshov's Free programs both 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, I have no idea why the choreographer tends to put 2-3 completely different pieces of music or what its concepts are. They may not be everyone's cup of tea I guess, but I thought they were very unique and original. I liked them and enjoyed a lot. If the choreographer is Averbukh, I am glad he at least did not pick up any warhorse music skated to death such as Carmen, Tosca, Aranjuez or Scheherazade (it's against my intention to name any names of skaters ), though I have never liked him and Lobacheva as ice dancers when competing back then.

 

[deedee1]

P.S.
Sorry for OT, but I always feel for Russian skaters such as Konstantin Menshov, Sasha Abt and Ilia Klimkin who had to be overshadowed by their countrymen Alexei Yagudin and Evgeni Plushenko who were just dominant during their entire career.

Same goes to Japanese skaters: Takahito Mura, Tatsuki Machida and Daisuke Murakami currently competitng, and Kensuke Nakaniwa who had to go against Takeshi Honda and Daisuke Takahashi, so he never had a chance to go to the worlds unfortunately and retired after 2009-10 season.

 

[Tonichelle]

Maybe it if was evident that they were being overshadowed, but really while Abt and Klimkin had fandoms and were good skaters, they lacked consistency, polish, and that star quality... not to take away from what they accomplished, but I never understood the hype. (That being said I still don't get the Plushy hype, but he is pretty stinkin' consistent.)

 

[dorispulaski]

In what concerns the FD that Lobacheva & Averbukh performed in '02, I love it and I think it was meant to be a genuine tribute. Maybe for the americans it was difficult to deal with such memories so soon and I understand that.

It was particularly tasteless, given that the Olympics was in the US in 2002.

It's not the intent (tribute) but the result (nasty flashbacks) that's the problem.

Their program particularly reminded me of the footage of the large groups of people fleeing from the falling towers. And then of the people who jumped to their deaths from the roof.

 

[russell30]

Averbukh was wonderful with Makarova's SP to Maria and the violin string, wonderful detail and concept, with Makarova portraying an Artist, wonderful footwork speed and presentation to a lovely piece of music.If Ilia keeps up this good work we will be in for some good program's. WE need them, Morozov has gone off the boil, and Lori is becoming too repetitive with over used music for different skaters, Only Wilson is pushing it forward along with kanji and camerlengo, although Tom Dickson and Catrina Lungdren were good this year, Catrina did a wonderful job with V Helgesson Sunset Boulevard this year.

 

[Macassar88]

Averbukh was wonderful with Makarova's SP to Maria and the violin string, wonderful detail and concept, with Makarova portraying an Artist, wonderful footwork speed and presentation to a lovely piece of music.If Ilia keeps up this good work we will be in for some good program's. WE need them, Morozov has gone off the boil, and Lori is becoming too repetitive with over used music for different skaters, Only Wilson is pushing it forward along with kanji and camerlengo, although Tom Dickson and Catrina Lungdren were good this year, Catrina did a wonderful job with V Helgesson Sunset Boulevard this year.

You're forgetting Steur and his amazing S/S programs!

 

[russell30]

Oops yes Ingo is wonderful too he did push the boundaries with Piña great job Ingo

 

[russell30]

Ps I miss Igor Bobrin and Giuseppe Arena!! Not sure if they still choreograph. And Sandra Bezic, she did a wonderful job with LuLu.

Chris Dean and Tarasova should get a mention too!!

 

[blue dog]

What are these?

One-footed axels. Except Ilia's variation combined the Bockl, and the open axel:

http://youtu.be/Xn72XujifZY (he jumps twice, once at 1:40, and another at 1:50)

Also, this may have been announced before, but this is one of Averbukh's latest ventures: http://www.dancechanneltv.com/blog/item/49-the-introduction-where-ballet-meets-figure-skating

 

[DianaSelene]

One-footed axels. Except Ilia's variation combined the Bockl, and the open axel:

http://youtu.be/Xn72XujifZY (he jumps twice, once at 1:40, and another at 1:50)

Also, this may have been announced before, but this is one of Averbukh's latest ventures: http://www.dancechanneltv.com/blog/item/49-the-introduction-where-ballet-meets-figure-skating

I thought the show "Bolero" finished half a year ago.