"Chill Inducing" Performances

[chania36]

G&G, when they did Vocalise, this was a masterpiece. How can it not touch you???

Also, many more from G&G

The first time I saw Sale and Pelletier do Love Story but the top was the LP at the 2002 Olympics - LOVE STORY - Was just crying even before they finished.

Katia and Ilia´s duet "Casi Un Bolero in SOI 1999-2000. That program has touched me right to the heart.

 

[shine]

Toller Cranston's SP to Graduation Ball March in 1975. I never knew that this kind classical skating could have such an impact on me...but it did. The broken leg sit, the Cranston spiral, the majestic arm gestures, the "bent-back" move. And I literally screamed out loud watching the straight line steps. It's just out of this world, and to think that it was ONLY 1975...
Gary Beacom's free program at 1979 Canadians. It was one of the most artisically revolutationary performances I've ever seen that included moves that I don't even know how to describe in words.
Silvio Smalun's LP to Handel, as well as his Exh. to Knocking on Heaven's Door - never before imagined anyone would be able to pull off a real rock piece like this. The straightline steps done to every note of the solo electric guitar is just incredible.
Petrenko '88 SP at Skate Canada - so different from anything he has done.
Yagudin's SP at 2001 Worlds.
Jeannette's LP to Rondo Capriccioso at 2001 Euros, '01 SP and '02 SP.
Sandhu's SP at 2002 SC, Tango SP at 2003 SC, also Purple Rain
Lambiel's 2003 QR at worlds - made me a Lambiel fan for life! And '04 SP at Worlds. Also in retrospect: his '02 SP at Euros (to Gotan Project) - what rhythm!
Savoie's '02 LP at Worlds, and 02 SP to Reveil at Nats. I just lurrrvs Matt's skating.
Jahnke's LP at Nationals and 4CC. I'm a convert.

Baiul's 1993 SP, 1994 SP, and Exh. the The Swan - simply perfection.
Kristina Czako's LP to Adams Family in 1997.
Julia Lautowa's SP to an oldies rock medley at '97 Worlds - I really thought she would be world champion one day. What irony
Lu Chen's 1998 free program to The Butterfly Lovers - I simply love the music and Lulu skated with an elegance and passion that epitomizes what I love about her culture. One of the best LP's of all time.
Kwan's '97 SP to Dream of Desdamona and LP to Ariane at the '98 World Pros.
Cohen's 2000 SP to Baroque selection at Nationals.
Mikkeline Kierkgaard's free program to Rondo Capriccioso at the 2000 Euros - a masterpiece IMO. she's one of the most naturally gifted skaters I've seen, with musicality and lightness to her skating that one has to be born with. How I wish she could have mastered the triple jumps and stayed in the singles
Joannie Rochette's '03 SP to Secret Garden at Canadians. No one does Secret Garden better than Joannie.
Maniachenko's SP at CoR this year.
Ota's '03 LP at Japanese Nationals, SP at '03 Skate Canada, and the Exhibition to a piano waltz. Yukina is magic
Bebe Liang's SP to Bond at '03 Nats and the Carmen SP at CoR this year.
Kostner's SP at Worlds this year.

Klimova & Ponomarenko's FD at '92 Olys.
Rakhamo & Kokko's FD to Valse Triste at 93 Euros, and La Strada FD from '94.
Krylova & Ovsiannikov's '95 Worlds Flamenco FD, '96 Paso Doble OD, '99 OD to La Traviata, as well as the African Drum FD of the same year.
Grishuk & Platov's '97 Tango OD Libertango.
Lobacheva & Averbukh - '02 Flamenco OD at the Olympics. What a blinder!
Silverstein & Pekarek's Great Expectation FD at '99 SA.
L&T's Anytime, Anywhere at Worlds.
D&S's '99 FD to Sarabande at Worlds, '03 OD, and the Handel FD at Skate Canada.
G-Rabinowitz & Mitchell - '03 OD to Graduation Ball March at Nationals
Mikhairova & Sergeev - OD from Jr. Worlds this year. She's amazing!

 

[Oceanguy]

One program that stands out and still gives me chills (among MANY others) is Surya Bonally's (sp?) short program at the 94 Olympics. It was soo exotic and and well executed! Well, another one that comes to mind is Jose Chounard's(sp?) skate to Moon River at Skate Canada about 8 or 9 years ago.........Her sheer joy at the end really sent that last shiver down my spin!
Okay, one last one, Paul Wylies program to Schindler's List was amazing!
Oceanguy,

 

[BronzeisGolden]

Okay...I have two more to add! I ordered some tapes for some competitions and performances I hadn't seen and I found two more:

Tonya Harding, 1991 U.S. Nationals LP - Wow! Everyone (even the commentators) were ready to give this one to Kristi even after she had performed a flawed skate. Then Tonya came along and was magnificent! Her jumps were enormous and perhaps the best I have ever seen. She was ecstatic after nailing her triple axel early in the program and it really helped carry her through...it was a shocking and electrifying performance. I got chills from it. She was so talented and had the potential to be one of the best skaters in decades....I'm just sorry she had to turn to knee-whacking as an alternate hobby/career.

Tanja Szewczenko, 1998 Champion's Series Final LP - I always loved Tanja and was so sad to see her struggle with illness and injury after the 1994 Worlds. I never expected her to come roaring back like she did in this competition...and not only roaring back, but much improved from what she had been previously. Her "Speed" LP was so graceful and her jumps were brilliant...especially that tricky lutz which plagued her for most of her career! I got chills as soon as she hit the 2nd 3lz in combination with a 2t....I knew I had never seen her skate that well before. It was a great moment.

 

[mariana]

Well...
Sale & Pelletier's Love Story Olys Program
Denkova & Staviyski's 99 FD Sarabande, 03 OD Memoirs of a Grand Ball, and 04 FD Handel Worlds.
Anissina & Peizerat's 00 FD Carmina Burana
And, finally, I saw this many years after it was skated for the last time: The Man I Love, by Gordeeva and Grinkov.

 

[starshinexavier]

I'm pretty sure that none of you have seen this but for me, it was Ice Image Senior at Canadian Synchro Nationals in 1999. They skated to The Mask of Zorro, and brought down the house! They were second last to skate, and were absolutely perfect. Their skate was fast, sharp, dynamic, thoughtful, just brilliant. There was not a person sitting after they finished. They had marks ranging from 5.4 to 5.9 for both marks, and yet it wasn't enough. Sadly, they lost out to black ice who had a flawed performance, which caused some controversy. I re-watched that competition today, and even 5 years later, I still get goosebumps!

 

[miffy]

Alexei Yagudin - both his SP and LP at SLC Olympics.

Jeff Buttle - Take Five SP - 4CC 2004 - even though he fell on the quad it was still an amazing performance.

S/Z 2003 Worlds LP - i'm not really a fan of them, i usually prefer T/M and P/T. But this performance was definately chill inducing.

The Kerrs - Matrix FD at Euros. I was so nervous for them i could hardly watch

Anissina & Peizerat - MITIM FD at Worlds 1999.

Lang & Tchernyshev - Anytime Anywhere, US Nats 2000.

 

[icenut84]

Lambiel's 2003 QR at worlds - made me a Lambiel fan for life! And '04 SP at Worlds. Also in retrospect: his '02 SP at Euros (to Gotan Project) - what rhythm!

I can't believe I forgot to mention his LP at 02 Euros That's one of my favourite performances ever! He was amazing! Finished 4th at Europeans in an Olympic year, without a quad or triple axel! That shows how good he was. He was amazing in that performance. And I agree about his sense of rhythm. (IIRC the music is "Cirque de Soleil" - is Gotan Project the same thing?) His footwork, transitions and in-betweens, jumps, choreography, and spins in that performance were incredible.

 

[shine]

Nope. Gotan Project was the SP which I actually said It's the same music D&L used for the first part of their free dance this year. I just got to watch it this spring (much thanks to Soulseek) and was totally blown away. It was actually a little better than Cirque du Solei in terms of effectiveness IMO!

 

[imanta]

G&G Moonlight Sonata at the 94 Olympics
Katia's COAL performance
Katia and Ilia's Casi Un Bolero
Katia's Morning performance
G&G Man I Love, Out of Tears, Vocalise
Sasha Cohen Malaguena at World's 04
Michelle Kwan Fields of Gold after the 98 Olympics
Michelle Kwan Dante's Prayer
Grishuk & Platov's program from the Olympics that was about Sarajevo iirc
A&P had a performance that gave me chills----ugh---can't remember the name of it.
Kurt Browning's Nyah
Alexei Yagudin's Overcome

 

[Fossi]

Sarah's Olympic LP. Amazing technical ability! Such great presentation! Such joy.....and that reaction! What a wonderful moment for Sarah.

Another moment that gave me chills of a different kind is Michelle Kwan's exhibition after SLC Olympics. I was so happy for Sarah, but when I saw this skate I realized how many other skaters dream big and fall short. I felt sorry for Michelle.

I loved Yagudin's Winter. He is just an all around great skater! Gived me chills!

 

[KatyaFan]

katia's skate to mahler at COAL
g and g's crazy for you and vocalise
Her fragile, stella and di bolero program

berezhanya and shikarliduze 's the kid

brasseur and eisler - any prog they put the "chain saw" in

seeing shae-lynn bourne last year in her SOI program without victor.

 

[Muse]

Mishkutienok & Dmitriev's Olympic LPs - both Rachmaninov's piano concierto and Liszt's Liebestraum.

Gordeeva & Grinkov's Vocalise, and Katia's memorial program for Sergei

Klimova & Ponomarenko's 1992 Olympic LP and professional Dracula program

Katarina Witt's 1994 Dedication to Sarajevo LP

Grishuk & Platov's 1994 Olympic Rock N Roll LP

Ilia Kulik's 1998 Revolutions SP, 1997 Worlds Faust SP, 1996 World's Addams' Family SP & Aladdin LP, 1998 Olympic LP, Casi Un Bolero duet with Katia, House Is Not A Home program from Bacharach tribute, and 2003 Ice Wars 2 performances.

Oksana Baiul's 1994 LP performance - West Side Story excerpt, Olympic SP, and 1994 Exhibition Swan program

Lu Chen's 1998 LP and Exhibition program, 1996 Worlds Rachmaninov's Piano Concierto #2 LP

Viktor Petrenko's Bryan Adams' Legends Championship performance

Paul Wylie's 1992 Olympic LP, and Apollo 13 performance for Sergei's Memorial

Kurt Browning's Brickhouse, 1994 Olympic LP, Singing in the Rain program

Bechke & Petrov's SOI Czardas program, 1997 World Pro LP (Streisand & Diamond's You Don't Give Me Flowers Duet), World Pro "Romance" program

Brian Boitano's Skates of Gold Music of the Night program, Seal program at Sergei's Memorial

Michelle Kwan's Olympic Exhibition program to Fields of Gold

Anyway, I think that's all for now. LOL

 

[colesgrands]

Chilling Performances

I still get goose bumps and tears when I watch my tapes of Brian Boitano's long skate at '88 Olympics...this was a man who knew he had just won Olympic Gold. And, then there was Katia...'96 COAL....there are no words, even today!

 

[Mathman]

Welcome to Golden Skate, Colesgrand! I hope you like it here and post often.

Mathman

 

[SkateFan4Life]

1. Paul Wylie, 1992 Olympic LP - This program had so many wonderful moments. He had such carriage, style and grace and you could sense that he was "seizing the moment" and finally letting all of the pressures of past expectations slip away. I am all chills at the end of this program, from the footwork into the 3t on especially.

Amen to that!! I remember when Paul stood at center ice to begin his long program, Scott Hamilton, commentating, said (to paraphrase), "A lot of people thought Paul Wylie should not have been named to the US team. They said, "Paul's already had his chance to skate at the Olympics. Mark Mitchell is the future, and he should have been sent. And now, Paul Wylie has the chance to win an Olympic gold medal." Scott was choked up as he said that last sentence.

Indeed, it was one of those goose-bump inducing moments. Paul seized the moment and skated one of the greatest programs of his career. He received scores that pretty much reflected his quality, although the marks would have been higher, had Paul not buried himself with 10th, 11th, and worse finishes at previous Worlds and Olympics of 1988. He did not have the reputation to receive high marks, and when he finally skated a great program, some of the judges were unwilling to bestow winning marks. Viktor Petrenko, on the other hand, made several major mistakes in his long program, and his marks weren't as high as they normally would have been, but they were higher than Wylies, thanks to his reputation as a two-time World Silver medalist and reigning Olympic bronze medalist.

In any case, it was a great moment in figure skating, and a great moment for Paul Wylie. After so many years of disappointment, he achieved greatness.