- Joined
- Jan 11, 2014
Hypothetically,
Skater A strokes on the beat throuought the program, times the jumps and big movements with musical accents or highlights, skates exactly on the beat throughout step sequences, with some surprising highlights reflecting details of the music, times arm movements and changes of foot or position in spins with the musical phrasing, etc, but shows hardly any facial expression and uses limited upper body movement.
Skater B is very emotionally expressive to the overall feel and mood of the music, uses the face and whole body to engage with the audience, but doesn't phrase or time the movement directly to the music at all, often starting an element in the middle of a musical phrase or vice versa, etc.
Who is more musical?
To me, both parts are necessary, but in my opinion, what Skater A does is more learnable by Skater B but not vice versa. Hitting every note, which is what Skater A does, is more related to 'choreography', and is what I feel is the thing that doesn't change between performances, while what skater B does is more intangible and emotional, which is the thing that changes between performances. In general, I think it is easier to learn to 'hear the music' and know what musical notes and phrasing to look out for (the process of becoming more refined) than it is to learn how to really 'feel the music'. So, to me, Skater B has greater potential to be more musical than Skater A.
For example, I'm not an expert in this, but I came across this masterclass video by Maxim Vengerov a while ago and the difference between this and this is very stark to me.