2018 Olympic Season: Pairs Figure Skating | Page 16 | Golden Skate

2018 Olympic Season: Pairs Figure Skating

rollerblade

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
So I finally watched T/M's freeskate from the Europeans with a more objective mindset, and I kinda get it now. This team needed a faster pace music, especially in the Free Skate, as they often come across as anemic. They found something that set them apart from the final flight, something not lyrical or ballad or classical warhorse.

The lyrics never bothered me, Candyman is only for 50% of the skate anyway. The songs, on their own, aren't bad either (except for 'Nasty Naughty Boy')... But the music cuts are awful, it felt like an extended Short Dance music with required theme, rhythm and tempo. However, unlike with Dance... the details was lost because there aren't as many 'break's in between elements for the choreographic moves to come through. Or they simply needed a better choreographer - someone who could blend and weave details with lifts, jumps, throws. (ie: Sui/Han's Spanish Romance SP).

Is this FS style supposed to be Swing & Jive? On the quickest segment of their music, they had to do 2 rotational lifts, a throw, and pairs combo spin. Bad placements of elements on the wrong part of music, bad music cuts - I blame the choreographer for this. And they seemed so slow too. Maybe they are tired, they looked to be out of gas toward the end. Even the pointy-pose ending was lethargic!

I like this pair, I like their Rach SP and I even like the yellow+black polka dot costumes. But if majority of the program is void of any Swing or Jive flair, why bother with this music? Do another vague program like Rach. Something like Kazakova/Dimitriev's 1998 FS. Not a warhorse, not a soft lyrical music, no character portrayal, no defined theme - interpret it however you want. There's even a part where audience could clap to! Skate clean to -that- with their current technical content, and nobody* would object their podium placement.
 
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