LADIES Free from TV
- Thread starter Joesitz (RIP)
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
Yes! That is exactly what bugs me about her choreography, but I couldn't figure exactly how to word it. You certainly hit the nail on the head.gezando said:
Kwanford Wife said:
A little of both. Just saying it was refreshing to see
I don't have time now to watch her performance, so I refrain from commenting on the performance itself until I see it.
But "disagreeing with a judging outcome" has been dubbed "wuz-robbing" by internet skating fans. And that's what people are doing here re. Sasha. That's what I meant.
I feel the top four ladies are all great, and in a way they all should be paced first or fourth. Mao has the triple axel, but her long program isn't that exciting as her short.
She looked tired, and skating was a little sloppy. Sasha did much better job than her short. She did not play safe as she did with her short. I guess she fell on her last jump because everything went so well and she was too confident and relaxed about the jump. Arakawa made a lot of improvement since the beginning of the season. She is in the best shape than ever. Joannie has strong performance. Her strong back and arms give her a lot of power and confidence to execute each jump. I feel strong upper body is great for skaters as long as it does not affect the agility.
She looked tired, and skating was a little sloppy. Sasha did much better job than her short. She did not play safe as she did with her short. I guess she fell on her last jump because everything went so well and she was too confident and relaxed about the jump. Arakawa made a lot of improvement since the beginning of the season. She is in the best shape than ever. Joannie has strong performance. Her strong back and arms give her a lot of power and confidence to execute each jump. I feel strong upper body is great for skaters as long as it does not affect the agility.
Joe, thanks for responding. There's nothing like feeling the connection live, or not feeling it, or pretending it's there when it isn't, or blocking it. So given the variety of opinions on this thread in multiple directions, how about we have a general "agree to disagree" among a number of parties on certain subjects just so we can get that out of the way.Joesitz said:
Anyway, I remember very clearly your talking about Sasha's QR and, among many things, expressing the warmth with which she skated it. The reason I remember is that you asked several times before the QR was televised, "Has the QR been televised? What did you all think of the difference between Sasha's QR and her LP? I thought she was much better in the QR," or words to that effect.
So I was thinking, "Joe is anxious for us to see a Cohen performance for what sound like positive reasons? This I gotta see and report back!" As US figure skating TV is want to do, they showed Sasha's LP first (ehh) and her QR a week or 36 later. So when they finally showed Sasha's QR, I thought, "Well I'll be damned. Her QR and LP were very different performances! Too bad she didn't get it the LP, like it would have move her up, lol, but just from the POV of doing an excellent QR and an excellent LP, I think it would have been good for her confidence as well as her ability to know how to 'let go' of a program in order for her right brain kinesthetic feelings to take over rather than overthinking it."
This is JMO because I don't know Cohen, and I hate to try to read what an elite movement performer is "thinking" about while performing, because the first thing one has to learn, from my experience, in order to skate, dance, play music, sing, etc. well, is to not think, at least not via higher brain functions. Anyway, IMO, I think what may give some people, who I don't know either so same story, the idea is that Sasha thinks of Sasha first and music second may be because I get the feeling she tends to be overanalytical and, in an odd way, fearful.
In dance, it's very common to give the crit, "Get out of your head!" Of course you can't, but the purpose is to get away from thinking, "Lift leg, arch back, releve, turn" as if you're reading yourself a set of instructions. It's why the idea of muscle memory is so important. Of course muscles can't remember by themselves; they need the neuromuscular connection to the brain.
Anybody who has ever driven the same route every day for years probably knows the feeling of last remember passing the Dunkin Donuts and not "being awake," no literally, but not being conscious until you're at another landmark you know is some 20 minutes away from the Dunkin Donuts. No sirens, so you rest assured you didn't plow into anything or anyone, but that 20 minutes of Zen driving is a rough analogy to someone who'd mastered muscle memory in performance.
Again, JMO, but I think Sasha has had a problem especially since 2002 of "thinking too much," not about herself per se, unless you count thinking about the choreography and technique "thinking about herself." From experience, it's very scary to "let go of higher brained thinking" while skating. You think you're doing the right thing, concentrating. In fact, concentrating on doing the "right moves or doing the technique right" is a sure path to disaster.
Example, before a performance in NY, the woman, AG, was there who had (a) specialized in performing and teaching the dances of Isadora Duncan and who (b) had set some of Duncan's pieces on our company. The words "deceptively simple" were never so appropriate. In my case, one piece just involved rising to my toes, then scooping down and up across the diagonal. It was to Chopin's "Little Prelude," played quite slowly so you'd have time to do the rising, stretching, scooping down and up while running, then pausing, all with the impetus for the movement coming from the breath. The other dance, also a Chopin Prelude, was entitled "Water Study." I was supposed to be the human emodiment of water. Ta da.
Anyway, I'd been performing these on tour for about six months since AG had set the pieces on us. What a piece of work. When the director told me that the day before our opening night in NY she had arranged for AG to work with me on "Little Prelude" and "Water Study," first I tried the, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" approach because AG changed her mind ever time you did a section or the whole thing about what it should be. Imagine a woman--gorgeous long gray hair and in great shape for 50-something--with a screeching voice and New Yawk accent screaming, "NO NO NO!!!" and then screaming her way through the way you should be doing it--that minute. I must have learned 60 versions of each piece, one piece an hour.
When AG first set it, the screaming, you know, just comes with the territory. Plus without the time constrainst of two hours, AG could afford to occasionally give positive reinforcement, lol. But the point about having what we all knew was NOT the kind of person you let work with you after the piece had been set, for better or worse, in your brain, your muscles, your soul, the day before a performance.
I seriously, and I mean dead seriously, considered not showing up for the rehearsal and lying that my subway was delayed or something--that's how bad I knew this was going to be. And it was. "NO NO NO!!!" for two solid hours. I'd completely lost my connection to my center and felt as if I wasn't even connected to the floor, much less down into it.
Although I tried to get "my" version back as soon as AG left, the damage had been done. All your movement neuronal synapses get screwed up no matter how hard you try to put AG's "NO NO NOs" out of your mind or how hard you say to yourself, "Screw you, AG!" or no matter what I tried, including just doing it over and over until I couldn't think.
The point is, our director and AG had drilled those solos into the higher functions of my brain--precisely where they don't belong. If I'd had a bigger ego or sense of "I'm right, go to he!! Director and AG!" I would have been much better off. With that attitude, I would have gone through the motions of her "rehearsal," nodded my head, etc., but tuned it out for my own good. But Idiot Rgirl thought, "Maybe this is an opportunity to deepen it."
End of story: Anna K-of-D (Joe, you know who) singled me out as dancing those pieces in such a scattered, uncentered way, she could barely stand to watch them. I totally agreed with her. I could barely stand to do them because that's just how the felt.
Relation to Sasha or any skater who looks as if s/he is thinking about "looking good" or "pretty" or just themselves and all eyes in the audience on her, and only relating to the music in the most superficial way and certainly secondarily or tertiarily to "ME...and my medal!": Those things may be what the skater is thinking or they may be the last things the skater is thinking. A skater may be TOO comitted to the choreography and not thinking about him/herself enough. After all, it is only via the person that skating happens. The music is not primary. The skater and the music are co-equals.
Also, it's a dance between the skater's kinesthetic brain, the music, and deeply embedded technique. In order to have a great performance, all three must interact on an equal basis. If the skater thinks about the music first, the power of the individual gets diluted and if something unexpected happens, a rut in the ice, a costume problem, the skater can be so "into" the music/choreography that, in the case of a rut, she can't react in a nanosecond to save herself. In the case of a boob falling out of costume--not that we'd notice on Sasha, lol--the skater literally might not know it. Believe me, I've seen it happen on a skater where you definitely noticed. Provided a whole new rhythm section.
I'm joshing, but it's all true. As I said, who knows what goes through Sasha's or anybody's mind while they're skating their competitive SP or LP. But I've seen some people use such discussions to intimate that Skater A is so egotistical and superficial that no matter what they skate, all they think about is "Me, me, me!" I say, "What an egotistical and superficial thing to say about someone you don't know?"
Seriously, some fans will never like certain skaters and in fact will hate them to such an incredible degree that it's hard to believe the poster is an adult, or especially a skater. Just to be clear, I'm not thinking about anyone on GS. I'm thinking of someone who was banned quite some time ago.Sorry, Joe, I digressed. The main point I wanted to make about your reports from Worlds in '04 and '05 is how being there, watching the practices, and watching all three rounds of competition--I realize, of course, that you were only able to do all this for just one discipline due to time and $$$--enabled you to see different qualities in different skaters depending on how much pressure was on. For example, with Irina's confidence, IIRC, she kind of sailed through the QR, but threw in enough stuff to let everybody know who was in charge on the ice. In the '05 LP, Irina was in the zone before she ever set foot on the ice and that, especially after her post-win interview when she said things like, "I do 3/3 and it feel so good I just do another one before I even know I am doing it" and "I start doing final spin and then I remember I forget to do whole footwork circle. Where my mind is at, I don't know because I am having so much good times."
If Sasha and a lot of other skaters could learn how to skate "Where my mind is at, I don't know because I am having so much good times," I think so many of them would astound not only the audience but themselves. Of course, it's only taken Irina about 10 years of constant performing and competition to learn it--and that's fast!
Last word about Mao: As I said, I think she's great, but she's great the way most child prodigies or actors are. They're still at the level where skating and most activities are mostly play, especially performing. Not that they're goofing off, not at all. It's just that they don't know what's at stake yet, not really. Their parents and coaches can hammer it into their heads how important it is, but their brains are still naturally attuned to make things into play. Hence the beautiful sense of wonder in Asada's performances. If she hits the 3Axel, great. If she doesn't, it's forgotten because, after all, she's still playing!
I had a friend who was a child prodigy at the piano. As an adult, he also had a serious mental illness. No connection between the two as far as any of his doctors said. But because of him and the dance stuff, I knew a lot of people in the symphony. The only reason I bring this up was because the whole situation with child prodigies and how so few of them not only didn't make it as performing musicians, but also how so many of them growing up to have nothing to do with music at all. Those of you in music surely know there are tons of research done on child prodigies in music, but what these people all said was, "It was as if one day I had two nervous systems. A regular everyday one and one that could pick up Franz Liszt by heart in an hour. Then when I started getting further into puberty, I swear, I could feel my musical nervous system gradually (some said suddenly) fade away. After that, I couln't have cared less if I ever touched the piano and to this day (20 years later) it's never come back. Not with trying very hard, not by ignoring it, not even a little. I realized I didn't even like piano music," which I would hear Glenn Gould say later when I saw the film "Thirty-two Short Films on Glenn Gould."
JMO--and a few things I remember as facts.
Rgirl
Rgirl said:
Aw-aw! I just had one too on Thansgiving. Macy's wanted to fill me up with helium, tie me to strings, and put me in the parade after Underdog--naked, natch. I told Macy's if they did that I'd say rude things about Santa Claus a la Nancy Kerrigan.:agree:Doggygirl said:
But seriously, in NY they don't toss shiny fake beads for you. They dump hot coffee on you--or where you're about to sit.
Rgirl
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gold for Sasha
Now our skaters seem to be being punished for not competing in the COP before this season. Why did we keep 6.0 longer than anybody else & a year later than announced? To guarantee MK the record.
I agree with you completely! Of coarse the US thought it was above all that & that the judging problems were only international. Well, they were wrong. The US has really bad & unfair judges just like everybody else. They should have all been thrown out with 6.0.gracefulswan said:
Now our skaters seem to be being punished for not competing in the COP before this season. Why did we keep 6.0 longer than anybody else & a year later than announced? To guarantee MK the record.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Interesting theory. It's Kwan's fault that Cohen didn't win.
Joe
Joe
Joesitz said:
Who said that?It's Kwan's fault for anything
Come on, she wasn't even THERE.Of all the conspiracy theories floating around, I simply cannot buy this one. I'm sure it had more to do with crappy timing on part of the US federation. All I know is that it doesn't do the US skaters any good. No one mentioned to Kwan that she was going to get docked for time violations, even though she did the same thing at Nats. Kwan wasn't able to get any Cop feedback at Nats last year, so when she went to Worlds she was unprepared and seemed rattled by the points. As for Cohen I think she knows the system, but does herself in every time. If she really puts a clean one out there she could be a real contender (of course unless Irina skates clean, too. Then any title is hers automatically).
Rgirl,
Love the cake/jelly donut analogies. Our choir director used a similar one last night - telling the second tenors that they were building a sandwich in that chord and they were the peanut butter and jelly between the two slices of bread. Then he told them to get juicy and delicious! Everyone laughs at these, but when we got back to that section in the run-thru, darned if they didn't sound yummy.
The Zen-like muscle memory of driving and forgetting you are driving is only one aspect of "feeling" the music. I don't know if I can capture it in words, but as a performer you'll know what I mean. You can practice and rehearse and obsess about a piece of music, but "performance" means you let it go like a little bird and watch it fly. There is that element of going with the flow but also a sense of wonderment and an "AHA, that's what this should sound and feel like." I get that feeling almost everytime we perform. I don't mean the whole concert. Just those AHA moments that send a chill up the spine. A very pleasant tingling feeling that comes with a good performance, even if it's a dreadful dirge, done well, it pleases the soul.
Love the cake/jelly donut analogies. Our choir director used a similar one last night - telling the second tenors that they were building a sandwich in that chord and they were the peanut butter and jelly between the two slices of bread. Then he told them to get juicy and delicious! Everyone laughs at these, but when we got back to that section in the run-thru, darned if they didn't sound yummy.
The Zen-like muscle memory of driving and forgetting you are driving is only one aspect of "feeling" the music. I don't know if I can capture it in words, but as a performer you'll know what I mean. You can practice and rehearse and obsess about a piece of music, but "performance" means you let it go like a little bird and watch it fly. There is that element of going with the flow but also a sense of wonderment and an "AHA, that's what this should sound and feel like." I get that feeling almost everytime we perform. I don't mean the whole concert. Just those AHA moments that send a chill up the spine. A very pleasant tingling feeling that comes with a good performance, even if it's a dreadful dirge, done well, it pleases the soul.
dancindiva said:
The approach of performer first and music second has a long tradition, and it works for some audiences and does not work for others. Since some people in this thread, and the TV commentators are saying Sasha WUZ robbed, and Mao was over marked because Mao is just a jumping bean, and Cohen is so mature in her presentation, that got me thinking about Cohen’s and Mao music choices and their overall approach to presentation.
Back to the approach or style of performer first and music second: Violinist Ann Sophie Mutter comes to mind, when I listen to her live or recording, my impression has been ASM uses the music as a vehicle to show off her virtuosic skills, and other music lovers agree with this assessment. I fully understand that an artist should have a certain amount of freedom in their interpretation, but at the end we should be able to hear Bach or Vivaldi too. An example is how Mutter butchered Vivaldi’s 4 seasons, romanticizing the piece with tricks that she does so well, and in the process, the essence of 4 seasons (is a baroque piece of music, not some late 19th century German romanticism piece) is toally lost. This approach has been with us for centuries. Rossini one time had to deal with a diva who added so much ornamentation, and tricks to Una voce poco fa from second act of Barber of Sevillie that he didn’t even recognize the piece, and in good humor he thanked the singer for bringing such a fresh / new piece of music to him. Some audiences love their performers for this approach and others don't. Different strokes for different folks. Audience definitely cannot read the performers’ mind, but by listening / watching the performer’s output, and learning the pieces audiences can tell the performers overall approach. IMO, there is an active process of communication in art appreciation. Mutter’s example is an obvious one, but another more subtle example is e.g. how a violinist like Nathan Milstein approached Bach’s sonata and partita for solo violin, most of my friend's assessment of milstein either the EMI 1950s or the DG in 1970s, they hear Bach, Milstein had so much love and respect for the music that he practiced and refined his craft just to present Bach, OTOH, when most of my friends listen to Heiftez’ version of the sonata and partiata they hear Heiftez. IMO some audience prefer to hear Heiftez, and others prefer to hear Bach through Milsten.
Back to topic on a skater is judged by their ability to interpret the character of the music, or to quote Joesitz “the essence of the music”. Also off topic a bit and a mild dissatisfaction with Lori. I hope next year Lori will choose something that is not as familiar to the public as PIT’s flower waltz. IMO Mao is capable of doing other pieces with more depth. To me, PIT’s music in general, is known for his amazing gift of melody second only to Mozart, plus PIT can do colorful orchestration. To me, there is a superficial pretty quality and not much else to PIT’s music. Nothing wrong with that, audience sucks up pretty melody and tunefulness. Mao skated to flower waltz, and dance of the sugar plum fairy. Since no one can do a 2 hr ballet in 4 mins, it is reasonable to expect Mao to skate to the essence of the music, and what is the essence of flower waltz, it is a waltz, a pretty tuneful piece of music that is danceable. Is flower waltz any different from e.g Kristi’s Blue Danue? Not really, it is a waltz, with a waltz beat, nice tunefulness that is it. PIT’s Flower waltz is not exactly deep complicated stuff like Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. What is the essence of Dance of the sugar plum fairy? It is a piece of sweet, tuneful music with a danceable beat; it is not exactly psychological deep stuff like Verdi’s Otello. Mao’s joy of skating, charisma, and energy is more than enough to handle flower waltz, and dance of the sugar plum fairy. Wylie compared her to a young Kristi, IMO Mao did almost as good a job as Kristi in her oly 92 sp, the Strauss waltz. The only difference is that Kristi’s piece is tuneful, without a baggage, she did not have to compete with the memory of ballerinas dancing to blue danue. Many people grow up attending nutcracker every Christmas, and the image of Kirkland, and Farrell e.g. stay with them, and like Brennan mentioned in her books (and I paraphrase) that is a huge risk because people may judge the skater against these dancers. ) Fortunately the ISU judges at TEB did not do that. They went to judging school, they studied the rules, and marked Mao’s PCS according to the rules.
Cohen’s lp music:
Nino Rota’s sound track to Romeo and Juliet. The particular section of music chosen by Cohen is the orchestration of the ballad “What is a youth”. In the movie, the song was sung as a background for a banquet. It was common practice back in Shakespeare’s time – late 18th century for composers to receive commission to write pieces as background music for special occasions. Telemann got rich by writing hundreds of these so call tafelmusik, table music. Mozart wrote serenades, nocturna, and divertimenti, basically functioned as table music for background . Mozart elevated this genre of background music to some of the highest achievement of Western Art in e.g. Serenade no 10 the gran partite, Haffner serenade (written as background for a wedding) and the posthorn serenade. Rota is no Mozart, so “what is a youth” is just table music, something meant for background, and easy digestion. It suits Cohen well, because IMO music is second to Cohen in her presentation, so it does not matter much if she chooses to be Juliet, or Romeo, or Cleopatra, or queen of Sheba, the music serves as background to her skating. Cohen chose a piece of table music, that is her approach Background music is always second to the primary activity, in the movie “what is a youth” the primary activity is a banquet, and in TEB Cohen. Her fans love it, she received second highest PCS for it, with the flawed jump landings, 2 jumps that were 2 footed and a fall which IMO disrupted the overall presentation of the program. ISU judges do look at how a skater is interpreting the character of the music, so it is implied that the music itself is not secondary to the skater, they are ideally equal partners. Cohen was judged according to rules, no matter how exquisite she came across to her fans. Maybe tafelmusik is a better choice as exhibition music.
Of course whoever cried WUZ robbed is entitled to his/her opinion, they do not have the responsibility of applying the rules like the judges. I wonder if Kimmie delivered the exact program that Mao skated, and received the exact scores, would Wylie cry WUZ robbed?? I speculate the commentators were shocked that a little 15 y/o beat their national medalists, and it took them a little time to accept that. I think Susie said it so well, "good jumps make her immature movement almost forgiveable". LOL, what was Mao's offense, she beat 2 USA national medalists under the COP rules, no offense there, so nothing for Susie to forgive. IMO Susie et al may need to learn to get over it.
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shine said:
Shine, duely noted you are a Yukina fan and I love Yukina too. Mao chose flower waltz, and her job is to interpret a waltz, and she did a fine job at that. Like equestrianguy said all skaters bring their own style to the skating. IMO Mao's presentation approach is not Mao first, music second. BTW, I do not get the impression that Yukina has an approach of Ota first, music second either.
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- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Great post, Gezando. Whether a person agrees or not with your conclusion, you analysis is thought-provoking.gezando said:
All in all, I think I do agree with your assessment of Sasha. And I think her fans might agree, too. There is nothing wrong with being Ann-Sophie Mutter -- her style and sense of the music is not to everyone's taste, that's all.
MM
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MM
if you are a budding ASM fan, good news for you. DG just issued new cds by ASM and Hahn (both DG artists)
In celebration of Wolfganus Theophilus Mozart's 250th Bday in Jan 06, here are the new issues
ASM: Mozart's violin concerto, ASM looks stunning for someone who is older than 40. I have decided to pass the chance of screening/ listening to this one
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx...Violin+Concertos+1-5,+etc+/+Mutter,+et+al.htm
and Hahn & Natalie Zhu: Mozart vioiin sonata
I have a chance to screen/ listen to this one. Overall, I like it, but I am slightly disappointed that for a team of over 10 yrs, Hahn and Zhu at times do not have great rapport in this recording
http://www.towerrecords.com/Classic...7ba3a2cf1d5c8a5&free_text=hahn mozart sonata&
if you are a budding ASM fan, good news for you. DG just issued new cds by ASM and Hahn (both DG artists)
In celebration of Wolfganus Theophilus Mozart's 250th Bday in Jan 06, here are the new issues
ASM: Mozart's violin concerto, ASM looks stunning for someone who is older than 40. I have decided to pass the chance of screening/ listening to this one
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx...Violin+Concertos+1-5,+etc+/+Mutter,+et+al.htm
and Hahn & Natalie Zhu: Mozart vioiin sonata
I have a chance to screen/ listen to this one. Overall, I like it, but I am slightly disappointed that for a team of over 10 yrs, Hahn and Zhu at times do not have great rapport in this recording
http://www.towerrecords.com/Classic...7ba3a2cf1d5c8a5&free_text=hahn mozart sonata&
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- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
More generally, on the whether Sasha wuz-robbed, Sasha did receive the highest PCS in both the short and the long programs. So if you think -- as I do -- that Sasha gave a very lovely performance, the judges agreed.
On the other hand, I don't think that Sasha deserved to be light-years ahead of the competition in PCS. Her many small technical errors -- as pointed out above, she got negative GOEs on five of her seven jumping passes -- really precludes the possibilty of giving her Irina-like numbers in Skating Skills, Transitions, Performance/Execution. And totters, two-foots and falls detract from the choreography and intepretation, too.
Again, I agree with the judges that Sasha gave the best performance, with respect to program components. BUT...
Come on, guys. Sasha gave Mao a head start of 11 points on jump elements, 47.5 to 36.5. I don't care how wonderful you are, you are not going to make up 11 points in the PCS (do the math, LOL).
MM
On the other hand, I don't think that Sasha deserved to be light-years ahead of the competition in PCS. Her many small technical errors -- as pointed out above, she got negative GOEs on five of her seven jumping passes -- really precludes the possibilty of giving her Irina-like numbers in Skating Skills, Transitions, Performance/Execution. And totters, two-foots and falls detract from the choreography and intepretation, too.
Again, I agree with the judges that Sasha gave the best performance, with respect to program components. BUT...
Come on, guys. Sasha gave Mao a head start of 11 points on jump elements, 47.5 to 36.5. I don't care how wonderful you are, you are not going to make up 11 points in the PCS (do the math, LOL).
MM
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- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
I don't know. I find that cutesy presentation really overwhelms whatever the music is playing in the background... She is an amazing skater technically (not just the jumps either) and has great presentation skills, but IMO her programs are just really babyish and the music is relatively easy to skate to and easy to "get", and her whole approach towards skating just doesn't float my boat. But to each his own. That said, I really look forward to seeing her skate to more mature programs as a grown up with more breadth and depth of emotion.gezando said:
On the other hand, I loved Mutter's performance of Beethoven's violin concerto In D..the one which she played along side Karajan.
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Cohen and the Music
I have read different posts on this thread that complain that Sasha is all about Sasha and not the music, as if she is such a self involved person that she could never get the connection of the music to the feeling of the performance and interpretation of the program. I don't think this was ever deliberate on her part. She was too busy getting the technical part down, and unless she was into music to begin with, as an athlete first, she might need some help to make the connection. Michelle had Lori Nichol and Frank help her do that when she was quite young. They worked hard with her on this concept and she "got it" very quickly. I don't think Sasha had that. But clearly she has heard the criticism, and from this performance, she looks like she is "getting it" too. I think she deserves credit for trying to improve in this area.
I have read different posts on this thread that complain that Sasha is all about Sasha and not the music, as if she is such a self involved person that she could never get the connection of the music to the feeling of the performance and interpretation of the program. I don't think this was ever deliberate on her part. She was too busy getting the technical part down, and unless she was into music to begin with, as an athlete first, she might need some help to make the connection. Michelle had Lori Nichol and Frank help her do that when she was quite young. They worked hard with her on this concept and she "got it" very quickly. I don't think Sasha had that. But clearly she has heard the criticism, and from this performance, she looks like she is "getting it" too. I think she deserves credit for trying to improve in this area.
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I think she deserves credit, too, Kyla.
But I don't think people are saying that Sasha is self-centered. I think it is just a different approach to musical interpretation. Like some Italian opera stars of previous centuries used the music to showcase the remarkable virtuosity of their own unique voices. (The composers didn't like it, but hey -- it's the stars that pay the bills, LOL.)
MM
But I don't think people are saying that Sasha is self-centered. I think it is just a different approach to musical interpretation. Like some Italian opera stars of previous centuries used the music to showcase the remarkable virtuosity of their own unique voices. (The composers didn't like it, but hey -- it's the stars that pay the bills, LOL.)
MM
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