Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani | Page 73 | Golden Skate

Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani

Barb

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 13, 2009
Maia organized a surprise dinner for Alex´s birthday with their friends in LA :luv17: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTW6Z3_j9DN/?taken-by=alexshibutani. What are they doing in Michigan when obviously all the fun is in LA :confused:....oh yeah, they want to be the best ice dancers!! :yes:

And the extended video of them coaching kids at Korea as part of their sports envoy work https://youtu.be/B-rPQHX7QIE?t=1223

NBC photoshoot http://us-ice-dance.tumblr.com/post/160056226539/bts-nbc-olympic-photoshoot-nbc-olympics-instagram
 
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Celine

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
The Shibs' birthday party crew is quite a collection of creative people. Actors, dancers, musicians Very cool,

It seems like the moment they stepped off the podium in Helsinki they have gone immediately into Olympic season mode. Actually, my impression from Alex's determined face while still ON the podium, was that he had already moved on to preparing for the Olympic season!

Will be exciting to see the results of Maia and Alex's experience at the NBC Olympic media event. On-ice filming will make for cool inclusion of clips during commercials.

Bringing the glory of twizzles to the World!
 
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Anyasnake

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 28, 2016
The Shibs' birthday party crew is quite a collection of creative people. Actors, dancers, musicians Very cool,

It seems like the moment they stepped off the podium in Helsinki they have gone immediately into Olympic season mode. Actually, my impression from Alex's determined face while still ON the podium, was that he had already moved on to preparing for the Olympic season!

Will be exciting to see the results of Maia and Alex's experience at the NBC Olympic media event. On-ice filming will make for cool inclusion of clips during commercials.

Bringing the glory of twizzles to the World!

I'm honestly very impressed by them, because I feel like they are running their team like some sort of start-up/company, and I think that's awesome. They know what they want and they know how to get it, they communicate about it. I hope they get 100/150K+ subs by the Olys. I think they're planning on continuing after 2018 ? Because everything they do here is going to be useful after, for them and the sport. They are running their business and they know how do it !
They already had their FD music/concept when they were at worlds. I think they prefered getting their programs/EX done, or everything that needed to be done quickly right now, so that they could have a break later on and really rest (because they'll need to at some point in the off-season), knowing peacefully that when you come back from vacation, you just have to do the runthroughs. They are very smart (they probably got that from their parents).
 

Tallorder

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2014
I'm honestly very impressed by them, because I feel like they are running their team like some sort of start-up/company, and I think that's awesome. They know what they want and they know how to get it, they communicate about it. I hope they get 100/150K+ subs by the Olys. I think they're planning on continuing after 2018 ? Because everything they do here is going to be useful after, for them and the sport. They are running their business and they know how do it !
They already had their FD music/concept when they were at worlds. I think they prefered getting their programs/EX done, or everything that needed to be done quickly right now, so that they could have a break later on and really rest (because they'll need to at some point in the off-season), knowing peacefully that when you come back from vacation, you just have to do the runthroughs. They are very smart (they probably got that from their parents).

Anyasnake I have the exact same impression. Like a successful start-up, they are amongst the most entrepreneurial of the current generation of skaters. Consistently ahead of the curve in many ways including social media. Like entreprenuerial leaders of a successful growth company Maia and Alex figure out on their own how to integrate multiple inputs from "best of breed" creative advisers that make sense for them from the skating world (like Lambiel, Tchernyshev, Buttle). They also do not hesitate to think outside the box, and work with (Alex Wong, Derek Hough, Qwest Crew. Really, too many dancers, musicians, artists to list.) The evidence can be found just in the past month alone since the World Championships ended.

On exhibitions, I had heard that they actually really planned ahead with the Olympics in mind and got their gala choreography for both last year (Lambiel) and for this upcoming year (Buttle) last summer. I suspect this is true since they blogged about getting a gala program done with Buttle, but I believe it has never been performed. Great companies think short, medium and long term.
 
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Anyasnake

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 28, 2016
Anyasnake I have the exact same impression. Like a successful start-up, they are amongst the most entrepreneurial of the current generation of skaters. Consistently ahead of the curve in many ways including social media. Like entreprenuerial leaders of a successful growth company Maia and Alex figure out on their own how to integrate multiple inputs from "best of breed" creative advisers that make sense for them from the skating world (like Lambiel, Tchernyshev, Buttle). They also do not hesitate to think outside the box, and work with (Alex Wong, Derek Hough, Qwest Crew. Really, too many dancers, musicians, artists to list.) The evidence can be found just in the past month alone since the World Championships ended.

On exhibitions, I had heard that they actually really planned ahead with the Olympics in mind and got their gala choreography for both last year (Lambiel) and for this upcoming year (Buttle) last summer. I suspect this is true since they blogged about getting a gala program done with Buttle, but I believe it has never been performed. Great companies think short, medium and long term.

As an inspiring young woman entrepreneur, I cannot disagree with you, you are absolutely right. I got the feeling that it started in the 2015-2016 season. They were vlogging before, but the season before, I watched their FD and to be honest I didn't really enjoyed it because it didn't feel like them. Sure they were skating really well, but it was a simple waltz for me. When they were juniors, everybody knew them, so it doesn't simply disappear. But after that, I feel like they may have asked Marina for more freedom, creativity, or they just said that they have nothing to lose, or better, everything to win. Some say that Marina didn't really have imagination when it came to siblings teams, of course I don't believe everything that is being said, but having other choreographers, and Marina and her team as technical/skating coaches is a great combo.
You can see all the hardwork, and it payed off and it will pay off again I'm sure. They want that Olympic medal so bad, and they are exploring every possibility so that they can reach their goals.
And they really are well-behaved. When you look at the US Ice Dance team, it doesn't look like there are any tension, or unhealthy rivalry (at least the media isn't about to create some), they all want to skate their best, and that's why the US are one of the top ID country right now.

I remember watching one of their programs this year (or last year I think ?) with Johnny Weir commenting and I got quite angry because he said : "Maia looks better NOW, because BEFORE, it was like she wanted to become Meryl Davis' CLONE, bla bla..." :unsure:
Shibsibs get so much respect from everybody, especially from Meryl and Charlie and being the young leaders that they are should be inspiring to everyone. I remember it really threw me off :noshake:
 

Celine

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
You can see all the hardwork, and it payed off and it will pay off again I'm sure. They want that Olympic medal so bad, and they are exploring every possibility so that they can reach their goals.
And they really are well-behaved. When you look at the US Ice Dance team, it doesn't look like there are any tension, or unhealthy rivalry (at least the media isn't about to create some), they all want to skate their best, and that's why the US are one of the top ID country right now.

Shibsibs get so much respect from everybody, especially from Meryl and Charlie and being the young leaders that they are should be inspiring to everyone.

You can see how deeply committed Maia and Alex are to their responsibility as being amongst the current generation leaders in the US for ice dance and figure skating. The mutual admiration so evident between the Shibs and Meryl and Charlie seems to reflect mutual respect for character leadership.

The best entrepreneurs have a way of catching the eye of the "big boys." Maia and Alex have now joined Michelle Kwan as US State department goodwill sports ambassadors. From their latest instagram posts, it looks like the Los Angeles 2024 Summer Olympic bid organizers have latched on to Maia and Alex, wanting a piece of their goodwill energy to shine for them as well.
 
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demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
@yesway thank you! You take wonderful photos!
 
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beki

Medalist
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
In Alex's Instagram story you can catch a glimpse of the Shibs spending time with senior creative people at TUMI, a luxury luggage and travel brand. I think the Tumi campaign #perfectingthejourney is a tailor-made fit to describe Maia and Alex's journey. Would be cool to see some Shibs inspired travel gear!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSL0lHZAdHr/?taken-by=tumitravel

No kidding! Their luggage game has always been strong.
 

VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
You can see how deeply committed Maia and Alex are to their responsibility as being amongst the current generation leaders in the US for ice dance and figure skating. The mutual admiration so evident between the Shibs and Meryl and Charlie seems to reflect mutual respect for character leadership.

The best entrepreneurs have a way of catching the eye of the "big boys." Maia and Alex have now joined Michelle Kwan as US State department goodwill sports ambassadors. From their latest instagram posts, it looks like the Los Angeles 2024 Summer Olympic bid organizers have latched on to Maia and Alex, wanting a piece of their goodwill energy to shine for them as well.

It looks like we can add the official Pyeongchang 2018 Twitter account among those orgs that have latched on to the Shibs:

https://twitter.com/pyeongchang2018/status/860101706603999232

I really do think the Korean audiences might actually embrace the Shibs. We saw it happening during and after 4CC, and it'd be pretty amazing especially considering they are of Japanese-descent. I know relations can be strained, but it looks like celebs and pop stars seem to transcend that tension for both countries as long as they don't do something that touches upon a sensitive topic. I hope the Shibs get treated as celebs by the audience in Pyeongchang.
 

Celine

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Peter T is back in the house!
Alex's IG story: "He's back" with a shot of Peter staring back at the camera intensely

Last day to vote for Maia and Alex for Team USA Team of the month.
http://awards.teamusa.org/

Regardless of whether you're a Shibs uber or not, Ice dance fans shouldn't get complacent. It's not easy to be relevant when competing with hockey, skiers, etc. Shibs work so hard to try to keep ice dancing visible to a broader audience and really work to rais "eyes" go beyond just singles skaters.
 
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NoNameFace

GS given name - Beatrice
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
as always, I'm late for everything - Happy belated Birthday to Alex!!!:hb:, stay your usual, cool and inspiring self!

regarding all this lately activity, I do think - and I hope many people will realize - that Maia and Alex are a rare example to have distinct, clear idea developed about themselves, how they want to be presented in media, how they want to use that exposure, how they want to make a 'brand' for themselves by being successful athletes. And what's admirable for me is how engaged and fluid this 'being athlete' notion is put into all their media appearances - it's never too 'in your face' for me and always related to their athletic profession, not like 'hey, we're stars and celebrity wannabes requiring attention' kind of approach.

and it's very refreshing, inspiring to see people so selfless like them regarding the desire and passion put into skating they want to bring outside to as many people as possible - their composure, maturity, cool, modern and down to earth approach towards sport, media, promotional stuff, vlogging thing are shining through every time for me and engage others to follow them. It's similar for me to Jason Brown and how natural it all feels, this social media activity, seeing yourself and skating passion in a bigger picture, outside of training, rinks, competitions and rivalry. It's nice to see that kind of approach put out to the public eye when so many people and skaters seems to be focused only on competitive stuff, how many quads you can jump or how heavy politics are in ice dance
 
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