yelyoh said:
Have you looked at the scores for MK and SC at the last few Nationals? Michelle has won but not by huge scores and didn't Sarah also beat Sasha three years ago at Nats to place second? People are not saying Irina should not be winning they are questioning the margin by which she is winning. Irina is a terrific athlete, huge jumps and fast as hell, but she pumps like crazy and overuses the Beillmann and that should affect some of her PCS scores especially the choreography marks. IMHO. Rgirl you were a dancer. Irina's posture would not go over well in the dance world, would it? Or would it?
IMO, Irina's posture would go over very well in pretty much any style of theatrical dance except flamenco, where you need a strong arch in the spine. True, Irina's legs are not built for a style such as ballet, but that's the way her bones are shaped; there's nothing she can do about it. But someone being bow-legged is not the same as having poor posture.
Irina would make an especially good modern dancer in the Humphrey-Limon technique. That technique emphasizes full range of motion in the upper body using a "fall and recover" method. You move the body as far off center as possible and just before you fall, you recover your center. This approach is the impetus for all movement in Humphrey-Limon choroeography and the many choreographers trained in that technique. You give into gravity and dance "into the floor" in this kind of dance, as opposed to ballet in which everything is antigravity and being light on the floor.
Of course there are many different styles of modern dance, some close to ballet due to the emphasis on line, others as much meditation as dance. Also, over the past 25-30 years, ballet technique has incorporated many principles from various modern techniques and vice versa. Especially in New York, the top dancers, whether ballet or modern, could probably, after a period of adjustment training, perform professionally in either discipline.
Anyway, a lot of people talk about Irina being round-shouldered, which I don't see at all. As I've said before, she doesn't have the naturally arched spine of skaters such as Sasha Cohen or Dorothy Hamill, but Irina is able to move her upper body with more range of motion in more planes of motion than Cohen or Hamill. (Talking about Hamill at her peak.)
Another complaint I read about Irina is that she pumps her back while she back strokes. True, when she was younger, Irina did have a bad pumping habit. My guess, without checking my tapes, is that Irina probably did this from about 1996 until about 2001. But over the last 4-5 years, I've found her stroking to be an excellent example of the Russian style, which tends to be with the body bent farther forward from the hips than US or Canadian skaters. When Irina does pump, it's when she's tired or tight.
Also, there's a biomechanical and kinesiological reason for bending far forward. The farther forward the body bends, the more the gluteal and hamstring muscles are stretched. The more a muscle is stretched, the stronger it can contract from that stretched position. So by using that forward position, the skater gets more power in his/her stroking.
As for flailing arms, from about age 16 to 21, I think Irina tended to overuse her arms in an overly elaborate way. Since then, her choreography has been toned down and usually tones down from the start of the season to the end in terms of extraneous arm movements.
I say Irina is especially expressive with her upper body because she doesn't just keep her spine straight as if held up by a rod or arch it for Beillman's and laybacks. She uses her upper body fully in all directions to express various feelings. She also moves with what dancers call "breath," which just means that the movement looks as if it's breathing rather than just moving through space. The only other lady competing currently who does this as well as Irina that I've seen is Joannie Rochette and man, I love it.
Hope that answers your question, Yelyoh--thanks for asking, BTW.
Now for my
really important question: Does anybody have download links to Irina's SP other than the one Kwanford Wife provided? (Thanks, KW; it's just my stupid computer that won't download that link without error for some reason.) I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Rgirl
Thanks for your kind words and also for the link. Unfortunately, that link took me to "you send it" but for some reason, fortunately, that way at least the file downloaded. Unfortunately, I have an iBook (OS X) and even though I have Microsoft Office 2004, the file wouldn't play as a video. It tried to turn into a spreadsheet. 
