I've been thinking deeply about the reception of H&L. I myself didn't connect to it for a while. It was a slow burn, but I've come to prefer it to Seimei, which really shocks me given how quick and passionately I fell in love with that program.
We've discussed Yuzu's talk with Brian after SC, and how he proved to be right about adding the quad loop. But I believe Brian was also right that he needed to focus on improving the overall skating. Yuzu wanted to master the jumps first, and then attend to the artistic impression. But, however impossible, he needed to do both. Jump mistakes break the delicate spell of H&L, but the spell cannot be woven only with perfect jumps.
By presenting an incomplete product, he made room for a muted first impression. Of course it's unfair—programs are supposed to evolve over the season, but in this case, because of his unique position, it became ammunition against him that he was "unemotional." It seems like Yuzu did listen to Brian, because for me the first half at NHK (before the combo of doom) started to work. YOLO 4CC, while it had emotions of its own, I don't think they were the ones the music asked for.
I think the design of the piece was maximized for the live experience, but not the tv one. It is at the mercy of the camera operator. Unfortunate camera angles obscure subtle gestural details in the step sequence. At Worlds this was my favorite part of the program, but at home, I sometimes zone out, because it looks like less is happening due to the camera work. Also, as this thread educated me, the pattern across the ice is a significant part of the beauty, and that is only seen in fancams, not traditional broadcasts.
Even live, my experience of the piece was more about atmosphere than emotion. I didn't cry; I felt like I was taken to another place. I was watching him fly, because he was not bound to the ground. The air changed and it was more fresh and clear. Watching was like smelling a temporary bloom of spring flowers, a beauty that is almost pain, because you want it to last forever and it won't. It was an enveloping, inward atmosphere, not one that drives outward, through the tv screen.
I respect him so much for pursuing such a concept. Probably it is an artistic statement too advanced for the sport of figure skating as it currently exists, which relies on short cuts (mime, characters and warhorses). Nor is show skating often as sophisticated as it should be, relying instead on cheap and cheesy extroversion or schmaltzy tearjerkers (especially in North America—Smuckers Stars on Ice *cringe*). But some commentators did understand H&L; the Hungarian and French Worlds commentary shows so. Judges though, usually seem to be far behind not only the avant garde but even the general public in their tastes. So he must pander to them next year.
Yes...thank you for these words.
Beauty on ice, like pain, vanishing...very advanced art. I felt so, too.
And very hard to catch on something like a tv-screen. There is one fancam from high above in the arena, which at least captures some of his movements in space., across the rink.
Anyway, before going to Helsinki, my younger sister suddenly decided to go with me, just for sightseeing, not to go to the Arena. She watched fs in her younger years, just like me, and I remember, when I told her why I would be going to Helsinki, and about seeing THIS skater live, and why it was absolutely important for me to go, she asked: "well, does he get some medals then?"
You know, she grew up on this distinction: skaters who were "artistic", but mostly failed on jumps and did not get gold, and skaters who were boring, athletic, and won. She always loved the "artistic" ones, and was always frustated they were not getting gold.
So I sat her through a session of videos, in chronological order, from Nice onward, and she now recognizes Yuzuru for what he is, and I told her: yes, he is our Olympic champion of 2014 -AND and an artist!!!
About Hope and Legacy, she at once grasped, that his performance not really "clicked" with the music at the beginning of the season. And she understood that everyone one waiting for it to "click".
And then - for me- it clicked and is the most beautiful thing I ever felt and saw, and yes, I think it is avant-garde, art, probably not understood by judges or so...but let them be!
I love it.
(I still have to show my sister the cams and videos of Helsinki, I will be happy on this day to share it
)
..by the way, about Seimei she said: " he projects such power, how does he do it, he is so thin?" She was very smitten - she has a son in Yuzu´s age, and she loved him looking so young in Nice
Reception of Hope and Legacy is for me somehow mesmerizing, I feel drawn in, hypnotized, everytime I watch it. Very unusual..and I keep thinking of water plants moving in the current..
Although at this rate, an apology would be nice (I know, it won't happen).
hwell:
