Aaron striving to become more balletic on the ice

Fantastic article on IceNetwork by Sarah Brannen about Max's new programs and the creative process. I thought it deserved its own thread out here instead of just being buried in his Fan Fest thread.

For me, this article showcases basically everything I admire about Max.

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2015/04/27/120841160

Some choice selections:

"Not making either the world or Four Continents team was really disappointing for me," he said. "I want to get back to enjoying the process of competing. I've been in a tough position for the last few years where, every time I get on the ice, I just can't find myself. A lot of people lost their trust in me, and I feel like they were getting as frustrated as I was. I thought, 'I've got to do something.'"

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"Phillip Mills was in the ballet for years and years," Aaron said. "I knew he would be able to help me [after] seeing the transformation he did for Machida. I heard about his background and said, 'That's the guy I want.' It will force me to work on my ballet."

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Mills said. "I am so impressed thus far how receptive Max has been to working the way I feel he should, to develop his purity of line, sense of musicality and character development in these two new roles. Max is one of our country's treasures in that he can compete with the top Japanese and Russian skaters in his jumping ability."

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"I said I was going to change last year, and there was a little progress but not as much as I hoped," he said. "I told [my coach, Tom Zakrajsek] (his coach), 'We need to put the emphasis on the components. I can't just do the jumps. Let me learn how to perform. Let me learn how to do transitions -- how to have extension.'"

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Aaron is very sensitive to the kind of criticism he reads on social media. He says he's taking on a ballet piece to force himself to become an artist.

"People don't know I'm an artist on the inside. Maybe I'm afraid, because of all the talk. I had my eyes on Black Swan for a long time. It's going to force me to be a ballerina on the ice," he said with a laugh. "This was what I wanted to do. I took a leap of faith and I'm bringing it all in."

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It must be said, even at WTT, there were definitely a noticeable change. More of the same Max and you will get there!!!

karne said:

Fantastic article on IceNetwork by Sarah Brannen about Max's new programs and the creative process. I thought it deserved its own thread out here instead of just being buried in his Fan Fest thread.

For me, this article showcases basically everything I admire about Max. ...

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Thx for the thread, karne .

One more quote from Sarah Brannen's article:

Over the last couple of weeks, we had talked in the Max fan thread about the Phillip Mills essay (cited also by SB) and photos re Max. This thread is a good opportunity to bring the links from there over here to The Edge:

Who is Philip Mills? A ballet dancer?

I applaud Max for actually assessing his strengths and weaknesses, setting a goal, deciding on and devising a change, making a commitment and taking action. He exhibits winning qualities that will take him far.

And his extensions look good in those pictures.

plushyfan said:

Who is Philip Mills? A ballet dancer?

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Phillip Mills is a long time skating choreographer. He has worked with many famous skaters and is also known for choreographing intricate group numbers for shows. His most recent client was Tatsuki Machida.

Yes, he was once a ballet dancer with the American Ballet Theater.

http://www.phillipmillschoreographer.com/#!phillip-mills/c21jb

He should take dance classes with his little sister :yes:. She too is short with a compact, muscular build like Max yet her extension and posture are among the best in the pairs field. Artistry sometimes takes awhile to cultivate, for example, I never found Jeremy Abbott or Josh Farris to be particularly artistic when they were starting out, the potential was always there, but it took a few years to become really evident. I think Max has it in him to become more of an artist on the ice. It will be exciting to watch. I like his new FS a lot.

Philip Mills choreographed Ashley's Samson & Delilah, did he not? (That's my favourite Ashley program.)

Anyway, I liked these programs for Max - and I believe they have good potential to grow, as he gets more familiar with them.

I'm so happy he is going in this direction! Tbh I've never been a fan but perhaps that will change now...

Count me as in the camp as someone who felt they saw real improvement at WTT. I'm looking forward to seeing what their hard work throughout this year will bear.

I can really see him stepping into the role of ballet dancer in a similar mold as someone like Ivan Vasiliev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O_zHJqqo9s

It's really telling that he received a personal best FS PC score for a program that he had only trained for a few weeks! He is going in the right direction, and fast. Go Max! :yay:

I really like Max's short program. There are some nice choreographic moments in there like the pause on the first "vincero" that Max executes well. I have mixed feelings about his freeskate however. I feel as though Philip Mills is DEFINITELY the best choreography for him at this point because there were some nice (maybe a little general-but a step in the right direction) arm and choreographic movements in his black swan lp. Now, this may be biased as I HATE the movie Black Swan, as a ballet dancer I am against ballet music for skating (the exeption being Sasha Cohen of course), but I am not a fan of the specific pieces of the ballet that Max uses. I am OK with the first and last pieces, but the middle piece with that awful, overused cringe worthy theme (starting around 2:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ea90L91eZk HAS TO GO!!! I feel like the Spanish dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVajr_7jjCw or at least Prince Siegfried's variation from the pas de deux https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhIR0FQQlR0 would be better for a skating program. I feel as thought the step sequence and the choreographic sequence have to be re-worked to fit the music better (as I am sure they will seeing as how early it is in the season) and the ending position HAS to be changed. It was so cliché and wasn't performed well...I'm going to get eaten alive for saying that... AND PLEASE, no swan arms position (at 5:08 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TurEUUXcZbA )...just no...If he's portraying the prince (which I am assuming he is) than no, but just no in general to the swan arm position. There I got everything out! Hopefully I am not eaten alive :hopelessness: I do feel that this is a move in the right direction and that Max is putting in a valient effort to try to make his programs more balanced component wise. I don't feel that he will ever be "balletic" but I do feel that he will be able to commit to a program and skate it well with decent artistry (much more artistic potential than the russian men). I am not a fan of Black Swan personally, but I feel that this lp could help Max get out of his shell and I do not find the program bad at all (except for the horrid ending positions...) and I am sure I will grow to like it more as the season progresses and Max continues to work with Philip, on refining his lp.

samm22 said:

I don't feel that he will ever be "balletic" but I do feel that he will be able to commit to a program and skate it well with decent artistry (much more artistic potential than the russian men).

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Really? More than any Russian man (there are several different ones...emphasis on different)? You base this on what exactly?

gallavich said:

Really? More than any Russian man (there are several different ones...emphasis on different)? You base this on what exactly?

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I mainly meant Kovton, as he seems to be Russian number 1. Adian looks cold on the ice... Voronov's different style is cool, but I wouldn't call it "artistic" like I feel Max's skating could be...but I probably should have said most Russian men, not all Russian men, as that would have been more clear...sorry about that. There are definitely up and coming more artistic skaters in Russia, so what I shouldn't have phrased that that way

samm22 said:

I feel as thought the step sequence and the choreographic sequence have to be re-worked to fit the music better (as I am sure they will seeing as how early it is in the season) and the ending position HAS to be changed. It was so cliché and wasn't performed well...I'm going to get eaten alive for saying that...

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Step sequence, yes, but the ChSq?!??!?! Really?!?!?! You'd change it?! But it's magic! It's wonderful! I can already see it, in my mind's eye, the crowd roaring and cheering in pure delight - and then as he comes out of the final spin, they begin to stand...

As to the end position - it only seemed weak here because he struggled to hit it properly, but with the exhaustion and the newness of the program I'm giving him a pass on that. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I believe in him! Go Max!

To my surprise, I really liked the program. It had many interesting choreographic moments. Sure there are times when he looks awkward, but it's a great start. I don't know much about ballet so I wasn't bothered by the cuts or using music from ballerina dances.

Well done Max.

karne said:

Step sequence, yes, but the ChSq?!??!?! Really?!?!?! You'd change it?! But it's magic! It's wonderful! I can already see it, in my mind's eye, the crowd roaring and cheering in pure delight - and then as he comes out of the final spin, they begin to stand...

As to the end position - it only seemed weak here because he struggled to hit it properly, but with the exhaustion and the newness of the program I'm giving him a pass on that. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

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I don't know...the choreographic sequence I find cliché, but that's just coming from a ballet dancer, as I find the imitation fouettés bothersome and odd, as men don't normally do fouettés in ballet. I do feel as though the chsq could go with the music better...I am neutral about his program at the moment, but the cliché ballet movements and the overused theme music in the middle bother me...I am sure as a former ballet dancer, mr mills is working hard with max on creating a more musical chsq and stsq as well as improving that awful ending position that max had trouble doing at wtt. As the season progresses, I expect to like his program more than I already do, as he hasn't been working on it for very long at all. I appreciate his efforts to keep trying to become more artistic! Mr mills was the right decision.

Thanks for the link to the article, karne. :yay:

As I've already said elsewhere, I think Phillip Mills did a great job on both programs (but especially the free skate). Hopefully Max will be able to put his improved line, extension, ect. together with his technical content intact.

I know some people said Max should've stuck to "being himself" or whatever... but imo, doesn't seem like "jumping athletic hockey player" is Max (not all of Max, anyway). He looks genuinely happy to be skating his new programs--more happy than he looked on Footloose or Gladiator.

samm22 said:

I don't know...the choreographic sequence I find cliché, but that's just coming from a ballet dancer, as I find the imitation fouettés bothersome and odd, as men don't normally do fouettés in ballet. I do feel as though the chsq could go with the music better...I am neutral about his program at the moment, but the cliché ballet movements and the overused theme music in the middle bother me...I am sure as a former ballet dancer, mr mills is working hard with max on creating a more musical chsq and stsq as well as improving that awful ending position that max had trouble doing at wtt. As the season progresses, I expect to like his program more than I already do, as he hasn't been working on it for very long at all. I appreciate his efforts to keep trying to become more artistic! Mr mills was the right decision.

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I'm with Karne here. I love that choreo sq so much already that I've watched that part alone multiple times. Like ten times for each viewing of the entire FS

I'm not a ballet dancer and I'm a very infrequent ballet watcher, but since I was a kid, Swan Lake has been my favourite. Partly I'm sure thanks to that insanely long series of fouettes by Odile at one point. So when Max started doing them, my eyes just popped and I thought along the lines of...Wut? But he's a guy! Guys don't do that! But it looks amazing!!! It's something so different! And look how it goes woth the music almost perfectly! Now let's pause and watch that again...

I think to me it was enough to like that they went outside the box and tried something different. That it looked really cool just made me fall in love.

This forum is so fun also because it really teaches us (or ought to) that what one thinks beautiful and exciting, another will think ugly and boring - like when you listed things that you didn't enjoy, thatcould have been my list of things I really loved