Evgenia Medvedeva
- Thread starter Totentanz
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2018
On the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
- Joined
- May 29, 2018
That’s such a sweet reactionOn the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
This is one of my favorite programs since the story is so beautiful.Thank you for sharing this with us !
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2018
On the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
This is so adorable and it is touching the effect that Zhenya can have through her programs even on people who aren't figure skating fans. I do find it so funny with Zhenya because I played both this song on the piano and her chopin nocturne from this year before I discovered her so now I'm trying to deduce from the other pieces that I play which is she most likely to choose/skate to this year.
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2012
Some people are painfully stupid and full of hate. It's a sad fact of life.
On the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
Oh my gosh, I'm going to cry the next time I watch that program. I can relate to your mom so much because I have a little daughter that will be Evgenia's age in 15 years and I already get teary/smiley just looking at her infant photos. Thanks for sharing this, so touching. Evgenia is a very genuine storyteller.
(I also feel kinda old lady talking about this.
)
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2018
- Joined
- May 29, 2018
Yes ! In France it is known as « jouer à la marelle », I used to play it a lot when I was younger !
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2013
On the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
One of my favorite snowboarders made this post a while back and it’s always kind of stuck with me....I just wish they would have filmed her longer
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYp8J2tFUb_/
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
Fluture, that was a beautiful story! River flows in you SP is my favourite of Zhenya's short programs. She always looked so happy while skating, it was never forced.
Satoko is at TCC :3
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkv4__zh2KS
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkv4__zh2KS
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2018
This will probably be a long post, and I'm really sorry for that, but there were a lot of pages with a lot of great, thought-provoking comments that needed a response, so it's either write an essay or double or triple post, and I'd rather trip on the podium after a clean skate than cheat to get there.
That was one of the best parts of that interview. That injury, while possibly costing her a gold medal, did something surprisingly good for her in helping her reorder her life. We see one facet of the self-reflection that the injury brought on in her interview with Yagudin right after the Olympics when she said that she realized in that moment, watching the other girls compete on TV, that she would rather die than miss the Olympics and would have skated on that foot no matter what condition it was in, and if it was fully broken, then the world would just see how well or how poorly her best effort looks on a complete break, but she was NOT going to miss those games. Finishing short of the gold medal is helping to drive her now, and I think she recommitted herself to that goal while sitting on the couch with a broken foot. This move to Canada was probably set in motion before the Olympics when she came face-to-face with the deep, gnawing hunger inside her to compete and to win and spent some quality alone time with it, just her and the hunger, but at the same time, the very fact that all she had while injured was that void that was created by being forced out of competition caused an epiphany that she wants her life to be more than sport, because this will end someday, either soon or late, and when it does, she does not want to be faced with a great yawning chasm of emptiness inside of her, so like you said, she has reordered her life to give relationships a greater priority. After all, when she's on her deathbed, she will not say, "Bring me my medals; I want to see them again," she will say, "Where is my cousin Karina? I want to tell her I love her."
I like the music to the program. Like others have mentioned, Averbukh chooses some really interesting and contemporary music for a lot of his programs. I think it is the least-attractive dress she has worn in any of her senior programs. I hate the color combination, and I don't care much for the cut. As for the program itself, I don't really like chaotic step sequences. I don't like it in 9/11, and I don't like it in Anna Karenina. It feels like abstract painting or experimental music to me, where it is completely subjective, and that feels like you're trying to hide something. It feels like cheating to me, like saying, "I'm not certain that I can design a step sequence that fits a coherent melody, so I will throw some random moves out there with a frantic soundscape and call it art, so that the viewer will be hesitant to criticize it lest they be seen as a knuckle-dragging, lowbrow, mouth-breather who lacks the necessary refinement to appreciate a work of art that requires a bit of intellectual suppleness in order to be grasped." Her Olympic performance of AK was stunning, and I have watched it a hundred times now. I love it, but I don't like the step sequence.
This is an important point. The program is controversial, and if the performer is not sold on it, they should not be performing it. I guess between my take on the step sequence and the point you make here about "satisfying the musings" of others, is that the entire program stinks of arrogance, and that's what I don't like about it. It dares you to criticize it so that it can call you a reactionary, and a national tragedy is a poor choice for such a provocative statement. All that being said, I don't really find the program offensive, partly because even though it is obviously meant to be thought and emotion provoking with the inherent risk of causing offense, I do not think it was intended to be offensive, and partly because I know it has its roots in Eteri's experience in the Oklahoma City bombing, so it isn't tacky art for controversy's sake, and finally, because Zhenya sells it at the end with that phone call.
I am going to be the lone poster here who loves the briefcase and phone call miming in the program. In fact, without her expression on the phone call, I do not think the program works at all. For me, she saves it from being tacky and offensive and shifts it to the realm of emotional reflection.
I am also probably alone in not being bothered by the voice overs.
This is my favorite program! I was so moved after seeing Nocturne in her team SP, that I ran to YouTube to see more of her, and that was the first thing I watched. I had never seen anyone hop on the ice before, and I was amazed by it (I didn't know about toe picks, so I thought she was some kind of wizard), and when it was over, I watched it again. The second time, I saw the motion of tossing the stone, and I realized that she wasn't skipping or hopping but rather, she was playing hopscotch. Then I noticed the jump rope motions with her hands and understood that she was portraying a little girl, and when the music changed and she lost interest in childish things like hopscotch, I saw that she was growing up and that was the first time I had understood a figure skating narrative all by myself, just from watching the program, although I knew that Nocturne was about dying even if I missed the finer points of it. I mean, that was hard to miss, what with the final heartbeat and last breath and all.
The little Yiruma melody was also so delightful that it prompted me to learn the piano again. I played as a child, but I quit when I was 13 and haven't played in four decades, but I bought a Yamaha keyboard and bought a piano course on Udemy and have been plodding along a little bit at it. I should probably just pay for regular lessons, as I am finding that I lack the discipline to follow along properly with the self-teaching course, but nevertheless, I am plinking away at it and taking pleasure from it even though I forgot how to read music and am struggling to make my fingers do what they should.
On a somewhat related note, watching her glide through Nocturne, particularly that incredible stop and change of direction when the voice beckons her to "Come back," has really made me want to learn to skate, so I looked into lessons only to find that ice time in my city is not that abundant, especially since I work nights. I complained about this to an online friend who suggested I try rollerblading instead, but I replied that you can't make the same graceful moves on rollerblades that Zhenya makes on skates, and she sent me a video of a little girl named Sofia Bogdanova (whose choreographer is Averbukh, oddly enough) doing all these amazing tricks on rollerblades. I was so naive! So...I bought some rollerblades and signed up for lessons, but I am too fat to get up off the floor on them by myself, so I started exercising and eating better. I lost a pant size in a month and can almost get up by myself on them now, and I can roll and turn on them and sort of stop, although I can't quite skate yet, but I WILL!
I am taking the opposite journey as the little girl in River Flows in You. Instead of maturing, I am rediscovering the child inside of me, the one who wants to play the piano and rollerskate, and this wouldn't have happened if Zhenya's portrayal of a soul leaving the body at the moment of clinical death had not moved my own soul inside of me. My spirit understood that program immediately even though my brain did not, and in some small but significant ways, it changed my life. THANK YOU, ZHENYA!
That was one of the best parts of that interview. That injury, while possibly costing her a gold medal, did something surprisingly good for her in helping her reorder her life. We see one facet of the self-reflection that the injury brought on in her interview with Yagudin right after the Olympics when she said that she realized in that moment, watching the other girls compete on TV, that she would rather die than miss the Olympics and would have skated on that foot no matter what condition it was in, and if it was fully broken, then the world would just see how well or how poorly her best effort looks on a complete break, but she was NOT going to miss those games. Finishing short of the gold medal is helping to drive her now, and I think she recommitted herself to that goal while sitting on the couch with a broken foot. This move to Canada was probably set in motion before the Olympics when she came face-to-face with the deep, gnawing hunger inside her to compete and to win and spent some quality alone time with it, just her and the hunger, but at the same time, the very fact that all she had while injured was that void that was created by being forced out of competition caused an epiphany that she wants her life to be more than sport, because this will end someday, either soon or late, and when it does, she does not want to be faced with a great yawning chasm of emptiness inside of her, so like you said, she has reordered her life to give relationships a greater priority. After all, when she's on her deathbed, she will not say, "Bring me my medals; I want to see them again," she will say, "Where is my cousin Karina? I want to tell her I love her."
I like the music to the program. Like others have mentioned, Averbukh chooses some really interesting and contemporary music for a lot of his programs. I think it is the least-attractive dress she has worn in any of her senior programs. I hate the color combination, and I don't care much for the cut. As for the program itself, I don't really like chaotic step sequences. I don't like it in 9/11, and I don't like it in Anna Karenina. It feels like abstract painting or experimental music to me, where it is completely subjective, and that feels like you're trying to hide something. It feels like cheating to me, like saying, "I'm not certain that I can design a step sequence that fits a coherent melody, so I will throw some random moves out there with a frantic soundscape and call it art, so that the viewer will be hesitant to criticize it lest they be seen as a knuckle-dragging, lowbrow, mouth-breather who lacks the necessary refinement to appreciate a work of art that requires a bit of intellectual suppleness in order to be grasped." Her Olympic performance of AK was stunning, and I have watched it a hundred times now. I love it, but I don't like the step sequence.
This is an important point. The program is controversial, and if the performer is not sold on it, they should not be performing it. I guess between my take on the step sequence and the point you make here about "satisfying the musings" of others, is that the entire program stinks of arrogance, and that's what I don't like about it. It dares you to criticize it so that it can call you a reactionary, and a national tragedy is a poor choice for such a provocative statement. All that being said, I don't really find the program offensive, partly because even though it is obviously meant to be thought and emotion provoking with the inherent risk of causing offense, I do not think it was intended to be offensive, and partly because I know it has its roots in Eteri's experience in the Oklahoma City bombing, so it isn't tacky art for controversy's sake, and finally, because Zhenya sells it at the end with that phone call.
I am going to be the lone poster here who loves the briefcase and phone call miming in the program. In fact, without her expression on the phone call, I do not think the program works at all. For me, she saves it from being tacky and offensive and shifts it to the realm of emotional reflection.
I am also probably alone in not being bothered by the voice overs.
This is huge. It adds to the sense of arrogance that I get from watching the program. While I think it is okay to create this program, I also think it would have been better to have not done it. Just because something is a viable choice does not mean it is a good choice.
On the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
This is my favorite program! I was so moved after seeing Nocturne in her team SP, that I ran to YouTube to see more of her, and that was the first thing I watched. I had never seen anyone hop on the ice before, and I was amazed by it (I didn't know about toe picks, so I thought she was some kind of wizard), and when it was over, I watched it again. The second time, I saw the motion of tossing the stone, and I realized that she wasn't skipping or hopping but rather, she was playing hopscotch. Then I noticed the jump rope motions with her hands and understood that she was portraying a little girl, and when the music changed and she lost interest in childish things like hopscotch, I saw that she was growing up and that was the first time I had understood a figure skating narrative all by myself, just from watching the program, although I knew that Nocturne was about dying even if I missed the finer points of it. I mean, that was hard to miss, what with the final heartbeat and last breath and all.
The little Yiruma melody was also so delightful that it prompted me to learn the piano again. I played as a child, but I quit when I was 13 and haven't played in four decades, but I bought a Yamaha keyboard and bought a piano course on Udemy and have been plodding along a little bit at it. I should probably just pay for regular lessons, as I am finding that I lack the discipline to follow along properly with the self-teaching course, but nevertheless, I am plinking away at it and taking pleasure from it even though I forgot how to read music and am struggling to make my fingers do what they should.
On a somewhat related note, watching her glide through Nocturne, particularly that incredible stop and change of direction when the voice beckons her to "Come back," has really made me want to learn to skate, so I looked into lessons only to find that ice time in my city is not that abundant, especially since I work nights. I complained about this to an online friend who suggested I try rollerblading instead, but I replied that you can't make the same graceful moves on rollerblades that Zhenya makes on skates, and she sent me a video of a little girl named Sofia Bogdanova (whose choreographer is Averbukh, oddly enough) doing all these amazing tricks on rollerblades. I was so naive! So...I bought some rollerblades and signed up for lessons, but I am too fat to get up off the floor on them by myself, so I started exercising and eating better. I lost a pant size in a month and can almost get up by myself on them now, and I can roll and turn on them and sort of stop, although I can't quite skate yet, but I WILL!
I am taking the opposite journey as the little girl in River Flows in You. Instead of maturing, I am rediscovering the child inside of me, the one who wants to play the piano and rollerskate, and this wouldn't have happened if Zhenya's portrayal of a soul leaving the body at the moment of clinical death had not moved my own soul inside of me. My spirit understood that program immediately even though my brain did not, and in some small but significant ways, it changed my life. THANK YOU, ZHENYA!
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2018
Yes! We have kind of a similar game in Austria. I don‘t know if the rules are all the same but it is called „Himmel und Hölle“ (so, Heaven and Hell. We have a paper variant, too but I don‘t know how that relates to this game) and I played it a lot when I was younger. Even though my friends and I never played games the way they should be played, we always made rules up for the sake of... I don’t know.
But in principle, it‘s the same game, I believe. That’s so cool, I never realised she was doing that. I always thought she was skipping rope. To the other ones: Thank you everybody for all the nice reactions to my post!
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2018
One of my favorite snowboarders made this post a while back and it’s always kind of stuck with me....I just wish they would have filmed her longer
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYp8J2tFUb_/
You can't top cultural Police of the Czech Republic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9fHqTOYpm4
- Joined
- May 5, 2018
On the topic of Zhenya‘s programs something‘s just happened and I wanted to share it.
I‘m currently playing River flows in you on the piano and it‘s one of my mum‘s favourite songs so I showed her Zhenya‘s SP from 2017. When she first saw her miming a little child, she frowned, looked at me and said: „What is she doing? I‘ve never seen anything like that in skating...“ I told her to just look. „It‘s a story.“ Then I went to get something from upstairs and when I returned I saw that she had started the program over and was crying and smiling at the same time. I was like „Uhm, mom??“ She looked at me an said: „She‘s growing up... She‘s a little girl and then she‘s growing up... Just like you.“ And I just found it very surprising how the program and Zhenya had managed to move her.
Normally I don‘t share things about my family on the internet but you don‘t know me and it‘s just for the message anyway. And yeah, I know, this story is kinda kitschy but well, I just loved to see how Zhenya manages to move people with her skating even though at first, it seems unusual.
These two posts to me are the perfect illustration of why Zhenya is so special. Thank you for sharing, Fluture and 50 Words! :luv17:
- Joined
- May 6, 2018
Yes! We have kind of a similar game in Austria. I don‘t know if the rules are all the same but it is called „Himmel und Hölle“ (so, Heaven and Hell. We have a paper variant, too but I don‘t know how that relates to this game) and I played it a lot when I was younger. Even though my friends and I never played games the way they should be played, we always made rules up for the sake of... I don’t know.
To the other ones: Thank you everybody for all the nice reactions to my post!
She does it too, but later in the program
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2018
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