Unsung; Unforgettable

Fantastic figure skating performances often earn their just rewards in the form of a medal, but the paucity of available medals inevitably results in some fine performances left empty-handed.  Unrewarded they may be, but not forgotten--here's a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite relatively obscure(ish) performances that did not result in a medal, except perhaps in my heart:

Pick your poison

With the ubiquity of the recycling logo and the proliferation of recycling bins everywhere, recycling has long been in vogue for many people.....including the denizens that populate the world of figure skating, it appears! Instead of paper and aluminum cans, however, what is often recycled in figure skating are music cuts, program concepts and even choreography in some particularly sad cases.

So what are we to do as bewildered spectators? Vote in frivolous polls to compare the programs, of course!  Today we will focus on the environmentally-friendly works of noted skating choreographer Lori Nichol. Under the cut is a nowhere-near-exhaustive list of programs all choreographed by Ms. Nichol. Please vote and feel free to justify your choices, etc., in the comments. I will also write a follow-up post next week with my opinions of the programs.....

Morozombie Hall of Infamy: Takeshi Honda, circa 2003

Riverdance my ass!

Though Irish stepdancing in the context of skating will understandably not be a perfect facsimile of the original, an excess of crossovers and gliding around does not a Riverdance program make.

Plus, those final straightline steps are just ludicrous.

Look and Leap

When asked about my favorite element to watch in figure skating, my answer is always 'triple axel out of a spread eagle.' No hops, turns or pauses between the spread eagle and the axel, but a triple axel directly out of an outside spread eagle, preferably with the spread eagle held out with good speed, deep edges and for a decent length of time (i.e. more than the 2-millisecond CoP-style MITF we often see prior to a jump) with no unsightly bottoms sticking out for balance. It's a difficult enough entry to sufficiently impress judges and spectators alike, and when done well, there's something ineffably majestic about the power and precision necessary to complete said element. What's not to like?

Aranjuez

Interpretations of music vary widely. Such is especially the case for the more famous compositions: in figure skating's most well-abused music of choice, Bizet's Carmen, we have seen interpretations that run the gamut from childish exuberance (Mirai Nagasu), come-hither sensuality (Katarina Witt) to arrogant preening (Evgeni Plushenko). Given the ad nauseum use of Carmen among figure skating programs in all disciplines, such diversity of interpretation is welcome--it's bad enough that elite choreographers appear to be limited to the same few CDs, Beelzebub knows how anyone could survive if every program came at the music from exactly the same angle.

And so we have the second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, another favorite of choreographers clearly lacking in CDs. Patrick Chan is the latest elite skater to fall victim to such musical recycling, and discussion of the recent debut of his new long program to Aranjuez have inevitably led to comparison of other past programs set to the same music. In the sea of programs set to Aranjuez, Michelle Kwan's Aranjuez arguably stands the tallest in the minds of the figure skating cognoscenti. This is probably in part due to her enduring popularity as a skater, but Ms. Kwan's Aranjuez is a powerful program in its own right.

Ms. Kwan's interpretation of Aranjuez has a distinct flavor not quite matched by most other interpretations of the music. In choreographing this program for Ms. Kwan, Nikolai Morozov eschewed the melancholy original orchestration for Ikuko Kawai's rather more adrenaline-pumping violin remix. Whether this in itself was for better or for worse is a question best left to personal preferences to decide, but it is undeniable that the use of the remix was a well-suited choice for the new, firmly post-Nichol and post-Carroll Michelle Kwan. The 2002-2003 season was, after all, the season in which Ms. Kwan fully debuted her new formula to winning:

1) strip down the choreography
2) skate the most technically-ambitious jump layout that can be done cleanly
3) minimize contact with ice surface apart from skate blades
4) play some powerhouse music
5) sell the program like the rent is due tomorrow

The formula may have been simple, but it worked (well, at least it did under 6.0). The choreography was not as nuanced as it was in the past and the pieces of music used were more pedestrian, but such programs--simple but with everything done in the right place at the right time--showcased Ms. Kwan's power of audience projection magnificently and were brilliantly constructed to do exactly what they were designed to do. In this light, Ikuko Kawai's joyful and exuberant Aranjuez seems tailor-made for Ms. Kwan's triumphant and crowd-rousing spirals and footwork.