I don't even care about the fall in the FD, or even that it was POTO again! What a beautiful Free Dance.
Terrestrial broadcast version of RD with different camera angles
Kana MURAMOTO / DaisukeTAKAHASHI RD All Japan Figure Skating Championships 2022
é¢æ±ãã¼ã«ã«å°ä¸æ³¢æ¾éyoutu.be
Why KanaDai is the "Best Couple in Japan": Kana Muramoto's Talent Receives New Praise
January 6, 2023 06:15
Takata Nakanishi
What are the strengths of "Japan's Best Couple"? -- On January 5, before the figure skating ice show "Ice Explosion" (6-8, KOSE Shin-Yokohama Skate Center, Kanagawa, Japan), Kana Muramoto, 29, and Daisuke Takahashi, 36, aka KanaDai, both from KFSC of Kansai University, showed off their new year's skating at the official practice. Takahashi was the center of attention when the couple first formed, but Muramoto's sense of style is also top-notch. Figure skaters are praising her talent.
In their third season as a couple, "KanaDai" won the All-Japan Championships last December for the first time. For Takahashi, who has won the men's singles title five times before, this was a double crown with ice dance, and a new page in the history of the figure skating world.
Takahashi became the first Japanese male to win a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics during his men's singles career. He also won a gold medal at the World Championships in the same year, leading the Japanese men's figure skating world. Nicknamed "Dai-chan" by his fans, he has continued to receive high praise for his performances even after switching to ice dancing. However, Muramoto's talent is not to be outdone.
A figure skater who knows Muramoto well says, "Muramoto's style has been really good since she was little. Her legs are beautifully straight, and she is as good as Westerners. Her expressive power is outstanding, and she is far from being Japanese. There are few skaters who can keep up with Takahashi, who is also a world champion. He skates well through tight curves, and above all, he is a good skater. Not only are they good skaters as individuals, but they also have great chemistry. The same official said, "Their expressive ability is wonderful, and their beautiful visual balance is also outstanding. They really work well together, and I think their performances are only possible because they are the two of them.
Both "KanaDai," who have outstanding abilities, showed brilliant skating in the official practice session on this day. Although the show was held during the season, Muramoto said, "I get a lot of energy from it, and I learn a lot from it. How can I incorporate the joy of skating I feel at the show into the competition?" She sees it as an opportunity to improve for the World Championships at the Saitama Super Arena in March.
The second World Championships is just over three months away, following the last one where they finished in 16th place. Muramoto is enthusiastic, "I want to have fun with confidence and aim for the top 10, because I was disappointed last year," while Takahashi declares emphatically, "I have many memories of the World Championships in Saitama, so I want to make it a good memory for me." The Japan's number one couple will go head-to-head on the world stage.
This one looks like Dai's "Krone" costume:
スポニチ写真映像部公式インスタグラム on Instagram: "〈アイスエクスプロージョン2023〉高橋大輔(撮影・長久保 豊)"
1,701 likes, 10 comments - sponichitokyophoto on January 5, 2023: "〈アイスエクスプロージョン2023〉高橋大輔(撮影・長久保 豊)".www.instagram.com
"Ice Explosion 2023. Six wonderful ice shows filled with the love of skating of Dai-chan & Kana-chan. It must have been very hard to meticulously create, perform and lead everyone through this ice show while working so hard in competition, but it was great! Thank you!!!"
ETA Belated happy new year to you all, my friends!
Beautifully done!Just wanted to share what Kazuki said about his experience at the Ice Explosion show:
Ice Explosion” was the best show in my life, and I felt that my world as a skater had expanded.
There were a lot of new attempts that overturned the conventional wisdom, such as the transition between performances, and there were many professional skaters, so there was a creative sense to create the stage ourselves.
Rather than being a contestant, I also have a strong sense of being one of the members who appear in this show. It wasn't the joy of appearing as Kazuki Tomono, but the joy of being able to appear as a member of the show.
The sense of accomplishment after finishing the show was more than I could have imagined, because it was a show that everyone worked together to create.
I am honored to be able to enter the world view created by Dai-chan. I want to be able to participate in shows like this again, and I wish I could be in a position to create shows like this in the future.
Q: What about the skaters that used to be single skaters when you and Luca where competing, and now they turned to ice dancing – and I am talking about Daisuke Takahashi here… What about that? It’s a massive change…
Anna: It is, it is!
And it’s not for everybody – ice dancing requires a whole different type of training.
And you need to be ready for that: you don’t have the excitement of jumps anymore, you just have to spend hours and hours and hours working on your stroking position – and just working on being in a couple, and not just minding your own business [smiling].
So it’s not for everybody, but it’s not impossible either, like Daisuke is showing us.
Of course, he was always a skater revered by all of us for his amazing skating skills and masterful interpretations, so he had a great starting point. But it still is a different discipline, so the concentration and the tricky parts, the ones that you are most likely to make a mistake, are completely different in ice dancing. Some steps may not look hard to the single skaters or the fans, but they are in fact, and an ice dancer knows how to pay extra attention on those.
About that, I remember how I used to complain to Ondřej about how hard it was for me to watch him compete, and do all those dangerous pair skating elements, and he once told me something very true: It is much worse to watch YOU compete, because in ice dance you might fall at any moment!
But it’s not impossible to make the switch – like Kana and Daisuke are proving to the world right now, getting greater results every season and, hopefully, setting an example for others to try this path.
I mean, you wouldn’t be able to pick up single skating at 25, at 20 – with ice dancing, you still have the possibility, but you have to be really able to almost completely change your brain for ice dance.
And it’s good to know that if this side of skating is what you like and enjoy, if you enjoy skating skills, if you enjoy dancing, there could be another opportunity for you.
[smiling] And isn’t it just wonderful that we can enjoy watching Daisuke Takahashi skate again?
Isn't the venue at Colorado Springs? A bit worry some stamina-wise, but a very good opportunity for the team to get some productive feedback from int'l judges, thus a desirable tune up heading into the Worlds next month.
Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi: "We just have to do what we have to do" - Kanadai's ambition to compete in the Four Continents Championships for the second year in a row.
Figure Skating Reporting Team
Friday 10 February 2023, 4:40pm
Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2023
The pair of Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi, aka "Kanadai", will compete in the Rhythm Dance on 11 November (Japan time / 10 December local time).
The Muramoto-Takahashi pair arrived in Colorado Springs, USA, at the venue for the event. Last year they won Asia's first silver medal at this event.
Takahashi said: "I don't remember anything about Colorado, which I hadn't been to since 2012, when I competed in the singles event there. I'm just scared of the high altitude. We've been practising hard," he said, to which Muramoto nodded, "We just have to do it.”
Muramoto said, "Our goal is not to finish in the rankings or anything like that, we have really, really practised a lot and I feel really good and fit. We just have to give it our all and beat the altitude." Takahashi laughed and said, "I don't think about the altitude!”
This season, Takahashi decided to continue, "I thought I should do it for another year". They took on a new stage with a renewal of both rhythm dance and free dance.
The two dancers' glamorous Latin-themed Rhythm Dance and Free Dance “Phantom of the Opera", which Takahashi had skated in the past as a single skater. It will be a competition with a programme that holds a special place in their hearts.
This season, Muramoto and Takahashi have been in the second half of the free dance group in both GP events, and their reputation in the world has been growing. They also won their first international competition at the CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge.
At the All-Japan Championships at the end of 2022, they won for the first time at their third attempt. They also won a berth at the Four Continents Championships and the World Championships.
After the All-Japan, the duo, who had set themselves the goal of winning the All-Japan, were pleased with their victory but regretted that they had made some mistakes.
The two were interviewed after the All-Japan.
Muramoto said: “The mocking at the end of the free dance was funny no matter how many times I replayed it. It's a funny story now. I felt 'I'm so happy to have skated with Dai-chan. I'm so grateful that we continued to do it".
Constant growth through 'hard work' and 'strong feelings'.
The Muramoto-Takahashi team, now in their third year of existence, is constantly growing.
Muramoto cites “effort” as the basis of their growth.
Takahashi nodded his head and said, "I think that's all we can do", and added that they also had a "strong feeling".
“Our coaches and staff put in a lot of effort to bring us up, so a lot of things added up. In Japan, Tim (Takeru Komatsubara) and Misato (Komatsubara) were leading us, and we wanted to catch up with them. When we went out into the world, we came here with a strong feeling of 'this is what the world’s wall is like, we want to reach there’."
Takahashi also looks back: "I am 36 years old, but I felt that even at 36 I can still evolve in many ways.
Last year, the duo achieved Asia's first silver medal at this event [4CC].
“Last time there was no international top team. This time it won't be easy to win a medal. We want to finish as high up the rankings as possible."
The two athletes, who won the All-Japan title with a long-cherished dream, will take on the strong North American teams.