Toller Cranston

[el henry]

Just found on Youtube:
Toller's 1972 Worlds FS, where he first won the free skate portion and received possibly his first (?) 6.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQnf6kOtbFQ

:luv17:

 

[LadyB]

Just found on Youtube:
Toller's 1972 Worlds FS, where he first won the free skate portion and received possibly his first (?) 6.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQnf6kOtbFQ

:luv17:

Thank you sooooooo much!!!!!!:luv17:

 

[el henry]

Today would have been Toller's 73rd birthday

Being honored in choice of programs by Corey Circelli. Corey is a skater who could actually pull this off, I think:

 

[TontoK]

Just found on Youtube:
Toller's 1972 Worlds FS, where he first won the free skate portion and received possibly his first (?) 6.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQnf6kOtbFQ

:luv17:

What a find! Gosh, that really had a lot of beautiful choreographic nuance. Loved the one foot axel into salchow combo.

 

[LadyB]

Just suddenly felt the urge to watch this again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDW0yNQDiY

Hard to express what I feel when I see Toller like that.
I was 12 years old, becoming a wintersports fan (with hockey until today the best sport ever for me), but This makes me so emotional, it reminds me how much I loved and admired Toller.
Without Toller, I would have never be interested in FS = no way I would have come back to it in 2015 = no way I'd ever known Fedor Klimov, who was the reason I joined GS and I went to Moscow for the first time.
In my life, Toller started it all of! Thank you, beautiful Firebird

 

[el henry]

Just suddenly felt the urge to watch this again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDW0yNQDiY

Hard to express what I feel when I see Toller like that.
I was 12 years old, becoming a wintersports fan (with hockey until today the best sport ever for me), but This makes me so emotional, it reminds me how much I loved and admired Toller.
Without Toller, I would have never be interested in FS = no way I would have come back to it in 2015 = no way I'd ever known Fedor Klimov, who was the reason I joined GS and I went to Moscow for the first time.
In my life, Toller started it all of! Thank you, beautiful Firebird

Toller and Graduation Ball

My story is somewhat similar. I was a figure skating fan as a youth, but had never watched the men. One day I did, and Toller was skating. No idea what the program was (probably in 1972), but I was smitten. Thus started my true figure skating fandom. Sitting in front of the television watching Wide World of Sports, hoping for another glimpse. So happy when I did. Eventually expanding to other skaters.

Fell away from figure skating in the late 90s, early 2000s, but then a young man named Jason Brown skated his heart out to Riverdance and I happened to see it on TV. For me, that caused the same frisson as Toller, and it brought me back.

When I joined GS in 2014, Jason was the reason, but my tagline was "Still fangirling for Toller". Until I actually changed my avatar to honor his greatness.

The one and only.

 

[el henry]

I don't remember seeing this before. Ever. (Although I could spend all day on the FLOskate Youtube with Toller skates).

Very Young Toller and Rach 2, exhibition at 71 Worlds:

 

[LadyB]

I don't remember seeing this before. Ever. (Although I could spend all day on the FLOskate Youtube with Toller skates).

Very Young Toller and Rach 2, exhibition at 71 Worlds:

You're a superstar!!!

 

[el henry]

Corey Circelli gave an interview where he talked about his Toller tribute program, which he performed privately for Toller's family:

Corey Circelli

📷 : Skate Canada/Stephan Potopnyk Corey Circelli has competed at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships on numerous occasions as a junior/novice and senior, most recently at this year’s ev…

tresamagazine.com

(h/t to @DizzyFrenchie for the link)

Can you tell us about your Toller Cranston tribute with your free skate and how did you feel performing to Pagliacci for the first time?

This program to me was such an important piece with such deep meaning both personally and athletically. Toller was my inspiration growing up skating at the cricket. One of the first coaches I worked with was his former coach Ellen Burka and she would show me all his old videos and I guess you could say it was love at first sight. Growing up in skating, I was always compared to Toller in our similarities of skating, and training at his former rink felt poetic in many ways. When we decided to do the tribute and choreograph it, we spent weeks studying his videos and trying to incorporate as much as we could. To be completely honest, the original program was so much more nuanced and complex, however, in the current IJS judging system, we had to remove a lot of things deemed invalid or not allowed. The first time I performed the program fully in costume was actually a private showing at the Cricket Club for just Toller’s sister and dear friends. It was a moment I’ll never forget and one I look back on all the time.

 

[el henry]

Toller's sister, Philippa Cranston Baran, has written a book about Toller. Toller Cranston: Ice, Paint, Passion

Evidently she has gathered material from many sources, including lengthy input from skaters, as well as personal memories of Toller

After reading this interview with Philippa, I definitely want to buy the book. It comes out on March 5th:

One quote from the interview:

What judge Dorothy Leamen said to me was eye-opening. She said, and I quote, “I remember a competition at Maple Leaf Gardens, when I had just judged the senior men. After the event, Toller stopped me and started ranting and screaming, 'You don’t understand me! You never give me anything!' At the time, I confess I didn’t like a lot of things he was doing especially with the music. When he was finished, I said, 'Toller! It is your duty to make me understand!'”



Many other great stories in the interview, including that Carlo Fassi tried to poach Toller from Ellen Burka? Well worth a read:

Talking Toller with Phillippa Cranston Baran

Interview with Phillippa Cranston Baran, the author of the new book "Toller Cranston: Ice, Paint, Passion"

www.skateguardblog.com

 

[dorispulaski]

Thank you! I have to look for the book when it comes out