- Joined
- May 25, 2014
Anothe program in addition to the two I mentioned earlier:
Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier's "Hitchcock" FD https://youtu.be/2HsaPum7TMw
Extraordinary and unconventional programs
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Anothe program in addition to the two I mentioned earlier:
Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier's "Hitchcock" FD https://youtu.be/2HsaPum7TMw
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2014
Sarah Abitbol and Stéphane Bernadis were also an extraordinary pair team. They were so close to make a history of landing successfully throw 3axel in their free skate at Nagano, but the honor was taken by American Inoue and Baldwin 8 years later at Torino. I think Abitbol and Bernadis were underrated, and forgotten over the time, but the French didn't fear for trying something innovative and creative not only in their choice of music and choreography, but also technical elements. They were far from traditional Russian pair teams and also differed from Canadian or American pairs but also had their own color.
Chariots of Fire by Vangelis, 1998 Nagano
Chariots of Fire by Vangelis, 1998 Nagano
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2015
Although the music is a warhorse, Virtue/Moir's Carmen is really unconventional, with all the modern choreography and the difficult lifts. Every time I see their Worlds performance, the program look better, because every time there is a new detail in my eyes. The interpretation, the passion.. everything about that program is just not a "conventional" Carmen.
Savchenko/Szolkowy's Pink Panther :luv17:
Caro's Piano Concerto no.23, while so classic for the music and not so revolutionary for the transitions, is quite a beautiful and unconventional program: the classic music and the modern choreography created a beautiful contrast, and the costume was really lovely!
Aaaand now the jolly: for the great amount of transitions, the unusual choreography and the great energy.. Radionova's Frida!
Savchenko/Szolkowy's Pink Panther :luv17:
Caro's Piano Concerto no.23, while so classic for the music and not so revolutionary for the transitions, is quite a beautiful and unconventional program: the classic music and the modern choreography created a beautiful contrast, and the costume was really lovely!
Aaaand now the jolly: for the great amount of transitions, the unusual choreography and the great energy.. Radionova's Frida!
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2013
Tomas Verner's Dueling Banjos short was brilliant! Here it is at the 2014 Worlds--if you can watch this without smiling, I'm afraid you have a very broken soul 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWAwTsDC_3w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWAwTsDC_3w
How about Angelina Kuchvalska's double warhorse FS set to the music from Romeo/Juliet AND El Tango del Roxanne? I mean...
Mixing those two together seems pretty unconventional but I think Angelina nailed it, especially at Europeans and I ended up loving it there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwHrEh0BKeo (but if I never hear those two pieces in ice skating competition, I won't be sad)
Mixing those two together seems pretty unconventional but I think Angelina nailed it, especially at Europeans and I ended up loving it there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwHrEh0BKeo (but if I never hear those two pieces in ice skating competition, I won't be sad)
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- Joined
- May 4, 2015
Every season I see some very innovative programs, so it’ll make for an extremely long list if I start with the 1980s. So I’ll say something about the programs that surprised me this season (in no particular order).
I thought Hawaek/Baker’s FD to the soundtrack of The Theory of Everything was original. To be sure, the film was very popular, but incorporating the story of a man who starts developing motor problems into a figure skating program, and an ice dancing program in particular, must be challenging, and I think they succeeded very well, both in choreography and in emotional expression.
Cannuscio/McManus’ SD to Prokofiev’s Cinderella stood out for me because they played out the story, as opposed to just dancing to the music, as it’s usually done, especially in a SD.
Shoma Uno’s SP to Legends by Sacred Spirits and Yuzuru Hanyu’s LP to the soundtrack of Onmyoji were unusual in their choice of music and consequently in choreography. I can’t comment on how well they expressed the themes, since I’m not familiar with either source material, but both programs were extremely interesting to watch, and the choreography and the artistic expression seemed to fit the music perfectly. Hanyu’s exhibition program to The Requiem for Heaven and Earth was certainly also very unusual. When I was watching it during the season I didn’t know what it was about, but I found myself so deeply moved by the music and the skating as has seldom happened to me in all the decades of watching figure skating.
Konstantin Menshov’s programs have always been original in their content, and I’m sure I’ll miss him a lot, no matter how many talented skaters are left and will appear, because true individuality is irreplaceable.
Both of Evgenia Medvedeva’s programs this season were original, the SP in its choice of music, the LP in its content, and I was highly impressed by how brilliantly she’s managed to express them.
Yulia Lipnitskaya’s choice of putting together these two of Elvis Presley’s songs was certainly unusual and made for a humorous and delightful program that I was only too happy to see again and again. Her LP set to a piece of music unused in figure skating was hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing to watch.
I’ve seen countless programs to Cirque du Soleil music, but none that sounded like the music to Seguin/Bilodeau’s SP, which they expressed marvelously. It’s truly the first CdeS program I’ve seen that has made me feel the holiday atmosphere of fun and gayety.
Astakhova/Rogonov’s SP to the soundtrack of The Artist was interesting in its content. I think they’ve managed to portray the actors of the silent era and to create the right atmosphere brilliantly. Their LP was not original in content – I well remember Kazakova/Dmitriev’s program to a similar theme – but it was nonetheless interesting and stood out among the other pairs’ programs. It was also very well expressed.
Paul/Islam’s SD to Tales of Beatrix Potter was certainly innovative. They were fifth in SD at Skate Canada where I first saw this program, but it was the most memorable SD there for me (although I enjoyed Weaver/Poje’s, Shibutanis’ and Guignard/Fabbri’s programs as well). TBH, I’m very upset that Virtue/Moir are returning and will likely prevent Paul/Islam from going to Worlds and Olympics. I think that after competing at two Olympics (and medaling at both!) they should have let other athletes have their chance of a lifetime to go to the Olympic Games. But that’s my opinion, of course. I’m sure their fans and the Canadian FS Fed feel differently about this.
I think that Ilinykh/Zhiganshin’s choice of Queen’s music was original for SD and although I love classical waltzes more than any other type of dance, overall their dance proved the most memorable SD of the season for me. I can say the same about Frida. They weren’t the first to skate to it, but they were the ones who created a masterpiece to it on the ice. The music itself wasn’t new, but the program was innovative in many ways.
Anna Pogorilaya’s exhibition program to Schnitke’s tango in a madhouse certainly stood out for its originality.
Thank you very much for posting this! I’d never seen Russo before, and I was astounded by her program. It is indeed one of the most innovating programs I’ve ever seen, and very beautiful too. I planned to watch a number of programs mentioned in this thread, but after watching this one I felt that I didn’t want to see anything else right away.
I thought Hawaek/Baker’s FD to the soundtrack of The Theory of Everything was original. To be sure, the film was very popular, but incorporating the story of a man who starts developing motor problems into a figure skating program, and an ice dancing program in particular, must be challenging, and I think they succeeded very well, both in choreography and in emotional expression.
Cannuscio/McManus’ SD to Prokofiev’s Cinderella stood out for me because they played out the story, as opposed to just dancing to the music, as it’s usually done, especially in a SD.
Shoma Uno’s SP to Legends by Sacred Spirits and Yuzuru Hanyu’s LP to the soundtrack of Onmyoji were unusual in their choice of music and consequently in choreography. I can’t comment on how well they expressed the themes, since I’m not familiar with either source material, but both programs were extremely interesting to watch, and the choreography and the artistic expression seemed to fit the music perfectly. Hanyu’s exhibition program to The Requiem for Heaven and Earth was certainly also very unusual. When I was watching it during the season I didn’t know what it was about, but I found myself so deeply moved by the music and the skating as has seldom happened to me in all the decades of watching figure skating.
Konstantin Menshov’s programs have always been original in their content, and I’m sure I’ll miss him a lot, no matter how many talented skaters are left and will appear, because true individuality is irreplaceable.
Both of Evgenia Medvedeva’s programs this season were original, the SP in its choice of music, the LP in its content, and I was highly impressed by how brilliantly she’s managed to express them.
Yulia Lipnitskaya’s choice of putting together these two of Elvis Presley’s songs was certainly unusual and made for a humorous and delightful program that I was only too happy to see again and again. Her LP set to a piece of music unused in figure skating was hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing to watch.
I’ve seen countless programs to Cirque du Soleil music, but none that sounded like the music to Seguin/Bilodeau’s SP, which they expressed marvelously. It’s truly the first CdeS program I’ve seen that has made me feel the holiday atmosphere of fun and gayety.
Astakhova/Rogonov’s SP to the soundtrack of The Artist was interesting in its content. I think they’ve managed to portray the actors of the silent era and to create the right atmosphere brilliantly. Their LP was not original in content – I well remember Kazakova/Dmitriev’s program to a similar theme – but it was nonetheless interesting and stood out among the other pairs’ programs. It was also very well expressed.
Paul/Islam’s SD to Tales of Beatrix Potter was certainly innovative. They were fifth in SD at Skate Canada where I first saw this program, but it was the most memorable SD there for me (although I enjoyed Weaver/Poje’s, Shibutanis’ and Guignard/Fabbri’s programs as well). TBH, I’m very upset that Virtue/Moir are returning and will likely prevent Paul/Islam from going to Worlds and Olympics. I think that after competing at two Olympics (and medaling at both!) they should have let other athletes have their chance of a lifetime to go to the Olympic Games. But that’s my opinion, of course. I’m sure their fans and the Canadian FS Fed feel differently about this.
I think that Ilinykh/Zhiganshin’s choice of Queen’s music was original for SD and although I love classical waltzes more than any other type of dance, overall their dance proved the most memorable SD of the season for me. I can say the same about Frida. They weren’t the first to skate to it, but they were the ones who created a masterpiece to it on the ice. The music itself wasn’t new, but the program was innovative in many ways.
Anna Pogorilaya’s exhibition program to Schnitke’s tango in a madhouse certainly stood out for its originality.
Ooooh, I'm sure I'll remember lots more later on but, off the top of my head, Giada Russo's phenomenal LP this season that doesn't get nearly enough recognition as it should. From the choice of music to the choreography and execution - everything about this is unique, unexpected, magical, captivating, extraordinary... running out of superlatives here
Please watch if you haven't seen it. Even if you don't particularly like it, I'm sure you'll at least appreciate the creativity.
Thank you very much for posting this! I’d never seen Russo before, and I was astounded by her program. It is indeed one of the most innovating programs I’ve ever seen, and very beautiful too. I planned to watch a number of programs mentioned in this thread, but after watching this one I felt that I didn’t want to see anything else right away.
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You're welcome! I'm just happy more people get to see her :yes: I was mesmerised by her performance at the Europeans but, as she was not a big name and performed quite early on, I knew not enough people would see Russo's program and performance. It's sad that genuine gems like sometimes get swallowed by the drama of the top guns, but it's thanks to threads like this that people (myself included) find great new things.
Ilia Klimkin's LP to Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun immediately jumps to my mind above all other programs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H16GRE52Zvwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H16GRE52Zvw
Not many other skaters could pull off skating to that music. Unique spin positions, back-to-back camels in opposite directions with a 3S exit, choreographic nods to the great Nijinsky, movements matched perfectly with the musical phrasing... A magical, mystical program!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H16GRE52Zvwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H16GRE52Zvw
Not many other skaters could pull off skating to that music. Unique spin positions, back-to-back camels in opposite directions with a 3S exit, choreographic nods to the great Nijinsky, movements matched perfectly with the musical phrasing... A magical, mystical program!
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- Joined
- Oct 31, 2014
Adam Rippon performed to the music during the 2013-14 season. Anyway, Klimkin's version looks pretty amazing. I thought he was a jumping bean to have struggled with his inconsistencies while his star compatriots, Yagudin and Plushenko were active in competition. This program changes my point of view on the Russian skater, so thank you for sharing the video!
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2016
I don't know why but it is unavailable to watch for me. Is there any other link?
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- Joined
- Oct 31, 2014
I think the clip of a Japanese broadcast feed may be blocked to phone users. You can try another clip commented by ESPN on phone, though in a poor video quality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5a8MDtfn8M
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Stephanie Rosenthal's SP and LP from the 2006 US Nationals in terms of music choices and movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMwXYdkSK4g
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2016
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
Also Klimkin's Petrushka LP is another interesting program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoffyrAD3U8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoffyrAD3U8
I remember thinking that Brian Joubert's Matrix program was pretty unconventional when I first saw it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PXy-qmNnic
I was a Klimkin uber
Pity the Russian competition was so strong in his time and that he had injury problems. Actually he is the only figure skater I've ever had decorating my walls 
ETA doing a cantilever of course
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- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
: Me too. Another Klimkin uber.Similar threads
