Fours: Please a Yearly Fours Competition

[TontoK]

Here's something very cool that I think @skylark and @moonvine and @BlissfulSynergy and maybe a few others will LOVE:

It comes from Boston, so I think it's Audrey and Misha and Emily and Spencer... maybe someone can confirm for me. My eyes are old, and it's tough to see.

A "four" doing side-by-side-by-side-by-side 3T. I could just say 3T, but the other way is more fun.

Fours used to be a competitive discipline. There is YouTube video of Tai/Randy and Ken/JoJo doing fours show programs that were highly entertaining. I think the Canadians kept it in their National Championship longer, I've also seen video of that.

Anyway, here's the Boston clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYo7t14vanM/

 

[ladyjane]

Here's something very cool that I think @skylark and @moonvine and @BlissfulSynergy and maybe a few others will LOVE:

It comes from Boston, so I think it's Audrey and Misha and Emily and Spencer... maybe someone can confirm for me. My eyes are old, and it's tough to see.

A "four" doing side-by-side-by-side-by-side 3T. I could just say 3T, but the other way is more fun.

Fours used to be a competitive discipline. There is YouTube video of Tai/Randy and Ken/JoJo doing fours show programs that were highly entertaining. I think the Canadians kept it in their National Championship longer, I've also seen video of that.

Anyway, here's the Boston clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYo7t14vanM/

Wow! What a pity we no longer have fours as a competitive discipline. It really is cool. Have you also got videos of an intertwined death spiral? The only one I ever saw was at the end of the 2002 OG Gala programme with Sele/Pelletier and Berezhnaya/Sikuralidze performing it, but of course that was a special situation.

 

[moonvine]

Here's something very cool that I think @skylark and @moonvine and @BlissfulSynergy and maybe a few others will LOVE:

It comes from Boston, so I think it's Audrey and Misha and Emily and Spencer... maybe someone can confirm for me. My eyes are old, and it's tough to see.

A "four" doing side-by-side-by-side-by-side 3T. I could just say 3T, but the other way is more fun.

Fours used to be a competitive discipline. There is YouTube video of Tai/Randy and Ken/JoJo doing fours show programs that were highly entertaining. I think the Canadians kept it in their National Championship longer, I've also seen video of that.

Anyway, here's the Boston clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYo7t14vanM/

I love it. Though coach seems they might not know fours used to be a thing.

 

[TontoK]

Wow! What a pity we no longer have fours as a competitive discipline. It really is cool. Have you also got videos of an intertwined death spiral? The only one I ever saw was at the end of the 2002 OG Gala programme with Sele/Pelletier and Berezhnaya/Sikuralidze performing it, but of course that was a special situation.

Here's one that I found that includes that death spiral you're talking about. I also has some other neat stuff, like SBS throw 3S, and a camel spin that is pretty well synched up considering it's four people. Also, the coolest lift entry - one guy lifts the lady and tosses her over to the other guy and then lifts his own partner - I really don't know how to describe that, you just have to see it.

1989 Skate Canada Fours competition / Menzies - Wheeler & McNeil - Watson

Cornwall / Canada

www.youtube.com

Edit: And here's Tai and Randy and Jojo and Ken in exhibition. This one is not as clear because it's under spotlight, and it is more two pairs doing the same stuff than an innovate four routiine... but it has a different death spiral variation and a fours spriral that will make you weep with joy. Also an ina bauer that makes you want to strangle the cameraman because it misses showing the line and extension.

Tai Babilonia, JoJo Starbuck, Randy Gardner and Ken Shelley - 1984 Champions On Ice EX

www.youtube.com

 

[skylark]

Here's something very cool that I think @skylark and @moonvine and @BlissfulSynergy and maybe a few others will LOVE:

It comes from Boston, so I think it's Audrey and Misha and Emily and Spencer... maybe someone can confirm for me. My eyes are old, and it's tough to see.

A "four" doing side-by-side-by-side-by-side 3T. I could just say 3T, but the other way is more fun.

Indubitably! Yep, it's Audrey/Misha/Emily/Spencer. I love Audrey's smile (she's wearing a jump suit) when they come out of the jumps!

Fours used to be a competitive discipline. There is YouTube video of Tai/Randy and Ken/JoJo doing fours show programs that were highly entertaining. I think the Canadians kept it in their National Championship longer, I've also seen video of that.

Anyway, here's the Boston clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYo7t14vanM/

 

[skylark]

Also, the coolest lift entry - one guy lifts the lady and tosses her over to the other guy and then lifts his own partner - I really don't know how to describe that, you just have to see it.

That was incredible! I kept rewinding to see again, exactly how they did that. Also, I liked the Starry Circle they made at the end of the slow section of the music. Reminded me of square dancing.

I've watched tapes of Stars on Ice shows where Gordeeva & Grinkov did a bit of this with Bechke & Petrov. And I think they did them in different years with other pairs. Just really fun, and so impressive. I remember the SBS throws and the 4-person death spiral.

Oh, and I really like the 4-person Ina Bauer Tai & Randy did with JoJo and Ken.

I'm traveling for the week-end tomorrow so I have to get some sleep. So I can't look up the SOI show to share a clip; maybe next week. But @TontoK, thank you!!!!! You've put a smile on my face. Sweet dreams to everyone!

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Here's something very cool that I think @skylark and @moonvine and @BlissfulSynergy and maybe a few others will LOVE:

It comes from Boston, so I think it's Audrey and Misha and Emily and Spencer... maybe someone can confirm for me. My eyes are old, and it's tough to see.

A "four" doing side-by-side-by-side-by-side 3T. I could just say 3T, but the other way is more fun.

Fours used to be a competitive discipline. There is YouTube video of Tai/Randy and Ken/JoJo doing fours show programs that were highly entertaining. I think the Canadians kept it in their National Championship longer, I've also seen video of that.

Anyway, here's the Boston clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYo7t14vanM/

Thanks for sharing the Instagram clip @TontoK. That's so cool. I read about Fours in James Hines' Figure Skating: A History. He discusses the Fours discipline being very popular in Canada, and he indicated that competitive events were held in North America for many years. It looks like a lot of fun. I remember seeing videos of Babilonia/Gardner and Starbuck/Shelley performing Fours in exhibition. JoJo and Ken were great friends and mentors to Tai and Randy.

Recently, I've been reading another book by James Hines on the development of figure skating and of pairs skating, Figure Skating in the Formative Years: Singles, Pairs, and the Expanding Role of Women, 2015. It's a slim volume, but chock full of fascinating information. For example, in the early days of the development of figure skating, there was a discipline called Combined Skating, which involved two or more skaters tracing a figure on the ice together. Plus, there were so many different types of figures, shapes and patterns that skaters would trace when the sport was developing recreationally (and eventually competitively). Initially, the focus was on the skate blades and tracings on the ice. In those days, only small hops would occasionally be attempted. Attempts at jumping and revolving in the air and landing on one foot came much later.

Thanks again for sharing the clip!

 

[ladyjane]

Thank you @TontoK ! These clips have brought me much joy, really fascinating to watch.

 

[dorispulaski]

Anyone else for more fours?

Side by side by side by side triple toes were great!

Thank you, @TontoK for reminding us of this fabulous and almost lost discipline.

 

[yume]

This should reborn as a competitive discipline. How spectacular that would be at olympics!

 

[Mathman]

Local clubs with syncro teams also sometimes have a "fours team" -- their four best girls doing syncro-inspired moves. Not a competitive discipline, but it is something that syncro could expand into. I think audiences woul;d like it. "Four skating as One."

 

[dorispulaski]

In fact, it might be one way to shoe horn synchro into the Olympics...

 

[ladyjane]

I am totally in love with this discipline. Such a pity it is no longer one of the competitive ones because it sure is spectacular (intertwined death spirals but also a real '4 death spiral all holding it together), that side by side by side triple toe. Oh my. Why did it go away as a competitive discipline (much as I love and enjoy the exhibitions)? I really would like to know. It's very 'teamy' and athletic', so that can't be it.

 

[el henry]

USFS did an article on Fours about a year ago, and the US-Canada collaboration:

U.S. Championships Throwback: A Look At Fours | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

I was such a big fan of JoJo and Ken, and I remember enjoying those skates (who would't?) with Tai and Randy.

 

[TontoK]

I am totally in love with this discipline. Such a pity it is no longer one of the competitive ones because it sure is spectacular (intertwined death spirals but also a real '4 death spiral all holding it together), that side by side by side triple toe. Oh my. Why did it go away as a competitive discipline (much as I love and enjoy the exhibitions)? I really would like to know. It's very 'teamy' and athletic', so that can't be it.

Such fun. The USFS article @el henry referenced above mentions that two high level teams really need to be in the same rink for it to work. My guess is that Audrey/Misha/Emily/Spencer were just having fun in a practice, or perhaps they are working on a show program. They wouldn't be doing that if they weren't both training in Boston, and it helps that they all have the same technique on the 3T. The only other place I can think with multiple high-level pairs would be with Todd and Jenny.

For me personally, this would be far more fun to watch than synchro, which I haven't particularly enjoyed the few times I've watched.

 

[4everchan]

i remember fours... i thought it was slightly weird but also very exciting back then... the double death spiral at the very end for instance is kinda weird...

this is the event I remember

1989 Skate Canada Fours competition / Landry - Johnson & Hough - Ladret

Cornwall / Canada

www.youtube.com

 

[TontoK]

Here's another fours video. This one is a WC exhibition.

Interesting that this one has two of those pass-over lifts, and unintentionally amazing...

One of the women falls on a throw, the other three skate to the other end of the rink, carrying on the choreography, and she BOOKS it all the way down the ice to make it to the next element SBS death spirals, just in the nick of time.

I think the crowd appreciated that; I know I did.

Bonus: POTO music for the many of you who have missed it.

Landry & Johnston and Hough & Ladret (CAN) - 1990 Worlds, Exhibition Performances

Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA - 1990 World Figure Skating Championships, Exhibition Performances - An exhibition of Fours Skating by Canadian pairs skaters Ci...

www.youtube.com

 

[anonymoose_au]

One of the women falls on a throw, the other three skate to the other end of the rink, carrying on the choreography, and she BOOKS it all the way down the ice to make it to the next element SBS death spirals, just in the nick of time.

I think the crowd appreciated that; I know I did.

That was so cool

And epic save indeed on the SBS death spirals.

I really like the side-by-side-by-side-by side jumps, that must take ages to get right.

 

[skylark]

Here's another fours video. This one is a WC exhibition.

Interesting that this one has two of those pass-over lifts, and unintentionally amazing...

One of the women falls on a throw, the other three skate to the other end of the rink, carrying on the choreography, and she BOOKS it all the way down the ice to make it to the next element SBS death spirals, just in the nick of time.

I think the crowd appreciated that; I know I did.

Bonus: POTO music for the many of you who have missed it.

Landry & Johnston and Hough & Ladret (CAN) - 1990 Worlds, Exhibition Performances

Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA - 1990 World Figure Skating Championships, Exhibition Performances - An exhibition of Fours Skating by Canadian pairs skaters Ci...

www.youtube.com

I love this! It's so great to see the whole program, with emotional build-ups, I mean it's a Real program.

I'm going to be coming back to this thread for a re-watch.

And I don't get tired of the Phantom ... the bit they used is pure beauty and emotion.

 

[TontoK]

YouTube is now throwing me some recommendations.

Here are two old-school Soviet pairs doing a fours routine. Very powerful!

Bonus: Dick Button offers commentary.

1980 Russian Fours: Cherkasova Schachrai Pestova Leonovich

The ancient art of FOURS skating was revived briefly for an exhibition at the 1980 Olympics Finale (It was a National and World event into the 1950's). Here...

www.youtube.com

Edit: I think this might be the same, only from Soviet TV...

but PLOT TWIST a THIRD pair join them for an encore at the end.

Legends of Soviet figure skating: Pershina-Akbarov, Pestova-Leonovich and Cherkasova-Shakhray

www.youtube.com