Great Villain Programs in Figure Skating | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Great Villain Programs in Figure Skating

Sai Bon

Final Flight
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Dec 28, 2013
Country
New-Zealand
And I'd add Akiko Suzuki's Kill Bill to my list, but haven't really seen the movie so hard for me to tell if the main character qualifies as a villain.

surimi san, you beat me to it! I have seen the film and technically Akiko is portraying the heroine, but she was an assassin after all..
For the anime fans out there, don't you think music from Noir would be amazing for skating? Yuki Kajiura is a wonderful composer of dramatic music! And if you are character-driven, there are three strong women to choose from.
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
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May 19, 2018
surimi san, you beat me to it! I have seen the film and technically Akiko is portraying the heroine, but she was an assassin after all..
For the anime fans out there, don't you think music from Noir would be amazing for skating? Yuki Kajiura is a wonderful composer of dramatic music! And if you are character-driven, there are three strong women to choose from.

I don't know Noir, but I sure know Yuki Kajiura, and I have been dying for someone, anyone, to skate to any of her music! :love:
 

labgoat

I have no words
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How about a young Tracy Wilson & Rob McCall in a sexy, film noir piece from 1984. One of my favorite programs, perhaps inspiration for Gilles Poirier noir piece later...
https://youtu.be/t99j7r-DGp0
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
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United-States
I think the music from that piece is the soundtrack from Johnny Staccato, an old TV series about a jazz pianist who supports his career by moonlighting as a detective? In which case, Tracy should be considered the villain, just as Piper was in the Perry Mason version of last season's FD for Piper and Paul.
 

labgoat

I have no words
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I think the music from that piece is the soundtrack from Johnny Staccato, an old TV series about a jazz pianist who supports his career by moonlighting as a detective? In which case, Tracy should be considered the villain, just as Piper was in the Perry Mason version of last season's FD for Piper and Paul.

Very cool. Thanks for the history and for confirming my suspicion that the programs were connected in some way. What a lovely tribute to Tracy & Rob if they were the inspiration.
 

energywithin22

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
surimi san, you beat me to it! I have seen the film and technically Akiko is portraying the heroine, but she was an assassin after all..
For the anime fans out there, don't you think music from Noir would be amazing for skating? Yuki Kajiura is a wonderful composer of dramatic music! And if you are character-driven, there are three strong women to choose from.

"Canta per me"!! I have goosebumps just imagining someone skating to it
 

Tavi...

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
The only real villain on ice is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybuKQf9p5jg
Mel Brooks makes the point that villainy is not that appropriate on ice.

Ice dance has some programs that aimed at villainy. Here are some I recall:


The Duchesnay's Tango 1988 - He is a very nasty, abusive pimp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMFxoLjFJr0

Delobel & Schoenfelder
2006 Bonnie & Clyde - clearly villains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LToZYvF1jQ

Chock and Bates
2019 Assassin's Tango as an EX at Mentor Torun Cup. They are desperately attracted to each other, but each is also trying to assassinate the other. Are they villains or heroes? They got the villainy out front in the EX Version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faGnTRLVE1E

Is Carmen a villainess if done right? Who better as Carmen as a villainess than Krylova ( with Ovsiannakov)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgXUkYCbAgk

Rahkamo & Kokko
The Apache - she is a prostitute, he is a street thug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRA5O4b06Hk

Carmen isn’t a villain however she’s played. She lives life according to her own standards - “jamais Carmen ne cédera - libre elle est née, et libre elle mourra” - but she’s not evil; she doesn’t try to hurt others.
 

enzet

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
What about operatic villains? There are some good ones out there. And has anyone ever skated to 'Falcon in the Dive' from The Scarlet Pimpernel or 'Stars' from Les Mis?

There have been a few programs to 'This is the Moment' from Jekyll and Hyde (most notably Andrew Dodds this season), but Jekyll isn't a villian at the point where he sings that.

There are way too many to count and they are really, REALLY good ones!
However, I'm not expecting see any of them portrayed on the ice any time soon, as the figure skating choreographers seem to think there are only about 3 operas out there in total and neither of them exceeds 10 min.

Speaking of villains and considering that everyone and their mother skates to Tosca, how about something Scarpia for once, instead of E lucevan le stelle for the zillionth time???

How about all the 3 Méphistophélèses (Gounod's, Berlioz's, Boito's)? So much good music there!

How about Iago, Bluebeard, Amneris, Lady Macbeth, Lindorf-Coppélius-Miracle-Dapertutto, Princess de Bouillon, Don Pizzaro, Agrippina, Don Ruy Gomez de Silva from Ernani...

Not that they would all necessarily make a great program, but there is so much to explore and so many possibilities to bring something new in the opera world alone, not even speaking about music in general.

I would love to see more villain characters on the ice and I've been thinking for a while that Hanyu would do really well with a dark program portraying some evil character!:devil:
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
Scarpia will do very well, especially as I've once seen a Tosca with a rather handsome Scarpia(very distracting in the opera itself though) and of course villains don't have to be bad looking...sorry, off topic.
 

elektra blue

mother of skaters
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scarpia could be very controversial though, he abuses of power and blackmails Tosca to sleep with her, he tries to rape her (and gets his very well deserved Tosca's kiss :dev2: right into his head), now i know everything must be seen in its own context and you can't apply our moral and mentality to other centuries, but not many people do. i can already see the protests, the cries of outrage: skater X cjose to play a sexual abuser!!!
 

enzet

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
scarpia could be very controversial though, he abuses of power and blackmails Tosca to sleep with her, he tries to rape her (and gets his very well deserved Tosca's kiss :dev2: right into his head), now i know everything must be seen in its own context and you can't apply our moral and mentality to other centuries, but not many people do. i can already see the protests, the cries of outrage: skater X cjose to play a sexual abuser!!!

Yeah, I can imagine the outcry as well, but honestly, I don't care (it won't happen anyway, so we don't need to worry about this).
How would portraying Scarpia be any worse than portraying Satan, serial killers or any other villain characters?
Scarpia is a character in a story, obviously a very negative one, but portaying him on the ice shouldn't be any more controversial than portraying him on the stage.
Otherwise, lets just ban all characters with questionable morality altogether, and not just from the ice rinks, but movies, songs, theaters...everywhere.

Ok, if I ever see a 13 year old Scarpia on the junior circuit, I might question the sanity of that skater's team,
but the character itself should not be a taboo in skating.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Mad Hatter isn't a villain in that story. Red Queen is.

Would that qualify Irina Slutskaya's Queen of Hearts? The music is little known Croatian piano music, including a piece called "Wonderland," but I don't know if the music itself really has anything to do with the Alice in Wonderland story.

Here's Irina in one of the greatest ladies' performances of all time, at the 2005 World Championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zek69FhRfBc

Like Alice's Queen of Hearts playing croquet, "Rules? What rules? Want to see a triple loop? Want to see another one? Want to see another one? " :rock:
 

elektra blue

mother of skaters
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Yeah, I can imagine the outcry as well, but honestly, I don't care (it won't happen anyway, so we don't need to worry about this).
How would portraying Scarpia be any worse than portraying Satan, serial killers or any other villain characters?
Scarpia is a character in a story, obviously a very negative one, but portaying him on the ice shouldn't be any more controversial than portraying him on the stage.
Otherwise, lets just ban all characters with questionable morality altogether, and not just from the ice rinks, but movies, songs, theaters...everywhere.

Ok, if I ever see a 13 year old Scarpia on the junior circuit, I might question the sanity of that skater's team,
but the character itself should not be a taboo in skating.

i couldn't care less as well, but i wasn't talking about my reaction :biggrin: it's the topic that is sensitive, trying to corrupt souls is not:laugh:(i mean, on this very forum we were discussing on whether it's approriate or not using as a theme a recent historical tragedy). i hate censorship, i wouldn't ban anything (within reason) and sometimes i think nowadays we overreact to too many things, but i can understand that skaters and teams might want to avoid any unnecessary controversy . besides on stage scarpia is one of the characters in a greater context and is functional to the story
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
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Jan 28, 2013
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United-States
Mad Hatter isn't a villain in that story. Red Queen is.

Agreed, and besides...

I don't count villains that come from children's stories. That seems a bit of a cop-out. I want a truly cold-hearted villain, not a Sesame Street villain.

I want Glenn Close boiling a bunny on ice. If you're going to be a meanie, embrace it full bore.
 

rugbyfan

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Agreed, and besides...

I don't count villains that come from children's stories. That seems a bit of a cop-out. I want a truly cold-hearted villain, not a Sesame Street villain.

I want Glenn Close boiling a bunny on ice. If you're going to be a meanie, embrace it full bore.

Now there I disagree... some of the children's story villains have stuck with me all my life, and I still find truly villainours (if also more comic now than in childhood) Cruella de Ville, Roald Dahl's Witches, the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to name a few - I just haven't seen them on ice.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
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Now there I disagree... some of the children's story villains have stuck with me all my life, and I still find truly villainours (if also more comic now than in childhood) Cruella de Ville, Roald Dahl's Witches, the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to name a few - I just haven't seen them on ice.

I agree, I find many children’s villains to be exceptionally, well, villainous. And remembered through a child’s eyes, scary:shocked:

And although I honor all concepts of villainy, I need to say that I personally would not be interested in a program where that awful scene from Fatal Attraction and the rabbit is enacted. Far too much of an animal lover for that:sad21:
 
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