Again going back to Kwan's 2003 LP, look at her "choreography sequence" there - Look at how OPEN the movement is, how fluid it is, how clean the body positions are, the speed across the ice as the steps are happening, the beautiful body alignment and edge control of a spread eagle that is actually held in a full semi-circle curve. The simultaneous nuance and expressiveness of the gesturing she does after the crossover, before going into the split jump - it's like her body has become a violin and she is playing a note with her body, and radiating joy and introspectiveness at the same time. WHERE IS THE CHOREOGRAPHY LIKE THIS ANYMORE? IT COULD STILL BE HAPPENING IN THE CHOREOGRAPHY SEQUENCE, BUT IT NEVER DOES.
Let me watch this program of hers, then I'll give my thoughts. I'll use the current Russian ladies' skating as a benchmark, I watch almost every category.
Before 1st jump - so simple that you tend to see even 7-year-olds doing more complex footwork and interpretation. Mostly two-foot skating, and forward. Literally, LITERALLY nothing advanced done. Perhaps 7-year-old is aiming a bit too high, they actually tend to have difficult steps in their skating. No entry to speak of.
In between first jump and the combo - Skates around the ring and turns a couple of times. I guess 6-year-olds might have similarly empty parts to their programs, but only the weaker ones. The best 6-year-olds actually have far more involved choreography, with more complex turns, changes of speed, and even more involved interpretation. No entry to speak of.
In between the combo and the next jump - Well, we find an Eteri spiral. Such a big issue when Eteri skaters do these 0.5 second spirals, but when Kwan does it must be great interpretation, right? Other than that, skates around with her arms spread, with mild hints of interpretation at some points. Does the simple Flip entry, but at least it has a 3-turn before the jump, I guess. Probably need to downgrade to a slightly below average 6-year-old, I mean none of them can really get away with skating like this.
In between the jump and the next jump - Very short sequence here, the vast majority of which is spent on stalking the Axel. Zero difficult steps.
Then spin - How simple was that spin anyway? That's actually the kind of a spin you don't even find in the 6yo category but in the category below, just above "first steps". For 5-year-olds. But okay, must be some amazing musical interpretation going on with the spin because it's Kwan. Right.
After the spin and before the next jump - Actually interprets the music for a while, but notably can't concentrate on anything else, so isn't doing difficult steps at the same time or anything. After she starts skating again, she stops interpreting. Then skates around a bit, with simple two-foot skating with absolutely nothing advanced going on. Simple, standard entry to Salchow.
Then the spin, it's better than the first one at least. Sit position isn't great, though. But this one I can give to her.
In between the spin and the next jump - Simple skating into the spiral. Now, the spiral was good, and also well timed with the music. But it still is just a spiral, I mean you'd look for more connecting steps or something. It then goes into some more simple skating into an easy entry into the 3T-2T, UR by the way.
In between the combo and the next jump - Simple two-footed skating, and absolutely no entry into the Lutz. Needless to say, this stuff you mostly stop seeing out of the good 7-year-olds, even 6-year-olds.
Then the... That was the choreo sequence? I was looking for some difficult steps or turns but she mostly just hopped around. When she tried to actually do a bracket turn, it looked as if she stumbled. Some choctaw, three-turn... And that's it? Oh dear. So she didn't do much except look clumsy. And this was your example? Alright. Well, afterwards she starts doing empty two-footed skating. Shocker. On, spread eagle? Hmm you're allowed to do a million crossovers during choreo sequence or was that separate? Oh well. That one was alright.
Then some spinning which isn't very complex. The layback's nice if you're into it, but it's true it's not very fast.
So I'd say that this amazing skate by Kwan is on the level of maybe a 6-year-old Russian girl in terms of interpretation, transitions, connecting steps and such. But that just might be generous, since the 6-year-old girls tend to have more complex programs. They tend to actually perform counters, brackets and rockers in between elements.
But well, if this to you is peak performance, then I understand why you aren't very fond of the current skaters. What you want to see is empty two-foot skating with some hand-flailing, from element to element with either stalking entries or simple entries. How unfortunate, but in 6yo category for Russian ladies you can still see skating like that.
