Toller Cranston, Graduation Ball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDW0yNQDiY
I will seize any excuse to post this program. And watch it again.
Look out Adam Rippon..
Speaking of Adam Rippon, was his 4Lz in his worlds FP this year downgraded or just under rotated? Because that was a pretty great performance, but it wouldn't count for this thread if the 4Lz was ratified. I tried and failed to find the judge's scores, so I give up.
Toller Cranston, Graduation Ball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDW0yNQDiY
I will seize any excuse to post this program. And watch it again.
I can't think of a better skater to start this thread with.
I had to weigh in on this thread to say some stuff about Boitano. Skylark, I agree with you completely that this routine is one of the most satisfying men's programs of all time, professional or amateur. Boitano, like literally no one who has skated to this music since (Takahashi and Meryl/Charlie came the closest) actually capture what was so breathtaking about that soundtrack in the first place. I was an 80's brat and adored Lloyd Weber, but even I groan when people skate to it now. Not only is it overdone but it's just not good music for the COP. Boitano embodied this music in a way that would be almost impossible now. The poetry of his jumps, without the pressure off having to rattle quite so many off, the purity of his lines, the breathtaking moments he creates with the death drop and the spread eagle--he really was the greatest at this type of skating, and it's something I dearly miss. I don't think there is a way to skate to POTO under the current scoring system in a way that captures what was brilliant about that music. Also, there's something about Boitano's skating (which might also be true of Browning's but no one else I can really think of) that has this universally accessible, gentlemanly sexiness. He combines grace and masculinity in such a unique way. My nerdy girlfriends and gay friends equally loved him back in the 80's/90's and so did my former football-player dad who got into skating because of me and ended up totally fan-boying Boitano. On the one hand I love skaters who have a really specific appeal, and put their own, unique mark on the sport. But Boitano, for me at least, was sui generis in his easy display of absurd atheleticism, combined with effortless passion and drama that kind of spoke to everyone who watched it. People should have stopped skating to POTO after him. Even after all these years of POTO overkill, I can watch this performance and be moved to tears like I'm a 90's high school kid all over again.
patrick has a wonderful poto quadless too
However his characterization of the program seems to me more Raoul than the Phantom. Anyway, I love watching various interpretations on one music although overusing of any music in one season gets people weary of it.
lol... and too many potos over the year...especially 2015... sigh... but yeah... i watched all his quadless programs when this thread came up and what a different skater he was back then... incredibly different...
Yes, he did and Patrick's bladework was so amazing as usual and I like a kicking moment in the middle of the program.
Speaking of Adam Rippon, was his 4Lz in his worlds FP this year downgraded or just under rotated? Because that was a pretty great performance, but it wouldn't count for this thread if the 4Lz was ratified. I tried and failed to find the judge's scores, so I give up.
Speaking of Adam Rippon, was his 4Lz in his worlds FP this year downgraded or just under rotated? Because that was a pretty great performance, but it wouldn't count for this thread if the 4Lz was ratified. I tried and failed to find the judge's scores, so I give up.
I had to weigh in on this thread to say some stuff about Boitano. Skylark, I agree with you completely that this routine is one of the most satisfying men's programs of all time, professional or amateur. Boitano, like literally no one who has skated to this music since (Takahashi and Meryl/Charlie came the closest) actually capture what was so breathtaking about that soundtrack in the first place. I was an 80's brat and adored Lloyd Weber, but even I groan when people skate to it now. Not only is it overdone but it's just not good music for the COP. Boitano embodied this music in a way that would be almost impossible now. The poetry of his jumps, without the pressure off having to rattle quite so many off, the purity of his lines, the breathtaking moments he creates with the death drop and the spread eagle--he really was the greatest at this type of skating, and it's something I dearly miss. I don't think there is a way to skate to POTO under the current scoring system in a way that captures what was brilliant about that music. Also, there's something about Boitano's skating (which might also be true of Browning's but no one else I can really think of) that has this universally accessible, gentlemanly sexiness. He combines grace and masculinity in such a unique way. My nerdy girlfriends and gay friends equally loved him back in the 80's/90's and so did my former football-player dad who got into skating because of me and ended up totally fan-boying Boitano. On the one hand I love skaters who have a really specific appeal, and put their own, unique mark on the sport. But Boitano, for me at least, was sui generis in his easy display of absurd atheleticism, combined with effortless passion and drama that kind of spoke to everyone who watched it. People should have stopped skating to POTO after him. Even after all these years of POTO overkill, I can watch this performance and be moved to tears like I'm a 90's high school kid all over again.
You know, I love your entire post, you expressed your views with such poetry and elegance.:luv17: But I'll start with what I disagree with. FS world would be the poorer without Meryl & Charlie's POTO and Daisuke's. It was POTO that made me uber M/C and got me interested in the dance discipline. 
Once I saw Peter Carruthers interview Jason after that program because he got a standing ovation for it, his first year at Sr. nat'ls I think, and he came 9th. So unusual, and a preview of great things to come, from Jason.
And if someone refused to watch their Nationals performance of it, they won't understand how this piece created a leap in their connection to the music and the audiences this year. But it's very cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63wVLFfPmvM
I'm a pianist and focused on classical in high school. I wonder if I don't mind programs to overused music because as a musician I played/practiced the same pieces endlessly. Would other musicians chime in on this? For me, it's also about how the skaters interpret the music with powerful emotion, so that's going to be completely different with every program. I even enjoy how skaters vary their expression from performance to performance. Well, that's something musicians have in common with skaters. Tarah also talked about how you need to pick a piece of music that means something personally in order to repeat it all year the way they do.
), and have never tired of these wonderful pieces.
