Brand New Ideas for Programs | Golden Skate

Brand New Ideas for Programs

Bluediamonds09

Medalist
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
I guess I’m kinda getting tired of seeing the same programs repeated over and over again. I’m sorry. I love this sport. But I want to see something new! There’s so much music and so many themes that haven’t yet been explored in figure skating. If you’re like me and you watch a lot of competitive dance, you might notice that a lot is being done over THERE and over HERE in figure skating, well, it’s hard to say it’s very innovative and very unique and very interesting.

Themes / Ideas / Programs you would like to see brought from competitive dance to figure skating?

I don’t believe I’m the only one who knows that there’s more out there than Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet.


Let’s get creative!
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
The problem is skaters and coaches want to stick to the same thing. And you have the same old choreographers doing the same things with different skaters and they won't come out of their set ways.

Once the influx of new choreographers gets their way, you will see different. The problem is when a new choreographer or skater brings a fresh idea into skating, then the other choreographers and skaters try to do it too and you get the same programs and music over and over.


It's never ending.
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Country
United-States
We had a fun thread a while back about villains.

No more cartoon villains! They don't count.

I want real villains. Maybe someone skating as Manson. Alex K would be up to the task. He has that wild, right on the edge footwork sequence I love, and that kind of energy would transfer to a program about a homicidal maniac.

I've want someone to skate a program to hippy music. I've long thought Jason Brown should do a short program to California Dreaming by the Mamas and Papas.

How about a classic Motown program? Midnight Train to Georgia or something by Stevie Wonder when he was young.

Something somber, but really somber. Like Gregorian chants, skated in really severe costuming. That would be interesting.

Or boy band music. But real boy bands from back in the day. The Monkees!
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
I've long thought Jason Brown should do a short program to California Dreaming by the Mamas and Papas.

I need this to happen (sends telepathic message to TCC)

---

I have a million songs and/or themes that I want to see in a skating program, but as I'm at work and sneak GS-ing just the ones on the top of my head:

- Rent programs should've been aplenty when the RD requirement was musicals. It wasn't. I demand a Rent program.
- Also on musicals: Little Shop of Horrors. Make cheesy horror musical programs a thing.
- Baroque pieces, e.g. Handel's oratorios, would be great if done right.
- Tim Burton's *animation* films, like The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Ghost Bride. With Burton-esque costumes.
- I would love to see modern traditional East Asian music that does not happen to be the soundtrack of a)Memoirs of a Geisha b)Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or c)Kung Fu Panda used more. Oh, and I would be ever grateful if Japanese and Chinese (and rarely, Korean) cultures were actually differentiated within those programs. Signed, Ichat the East Asian grouch.
- Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan-themed programs. The Legend of the Drunken Master would be awesome.
- I have been yelling at the skating gods to give me a Rehab program for quite some time now. We need more Amy Winehouse in general.
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
If we're bringing up music from the past year, Alexandre Desplat's newly Oscar-nominated score for Little Women should find wide use from choreographers in future seasons.
 

Supernovaimplosion

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
If we're bringing up music from the past year, Alexandre Desplat's newly Oscar-nominated score for Little Women should find wide use from choreographers in future seasons.

So good! I've been listening to it a lot. The score for 1917 is quite good too.
Do you guys like it when a skater portrays a specific character? Because I think the Wonder Woman sound track is good, but you'd really have to BE wonder woman, which might be too much
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
I need this to happen (sends telepathic message to TCC)

---

I have a million songs and/or themes that I want to see in a skating program, but as I'm at work and sneak GS-ing just the ones on the top of my head:

- Rent programs should've been aplenty when the RD requirement was musicals. It wasn't. I demand a Rent program.
- Also on musicals: Little Shop of Horrors. Make cheesy horror musical programs a thing.
- Baroque pieces, e.g. Handel's oratorios, would be great if done right.
- Tim Burton's *animation* films, like The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Ghost Bride. With Burton-esque costumes.
- I would love to see modern traditional East Asian music that does not happen to be the soundtrack of a)Memoirs of a Geisha b)Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or c)Kung Fu Panda used more. Oh, and I would be ever grateful if Japanese and Chinese (and rarely, Korean) cultures were actually differentiated within those programs. Signed, Ichat the East Asian grouch.
- Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan-themed programs. The Legend of the Drunken Master would be awesome.
- I have been yelling at the skating gods to give me a Rehab program for quite some time now. We need more Amy Winehouse in general.

I'm pretty sure Rent and Little Shop of Horrors are being used this year. I just can't remember who right at the moment.

Kolyada has skated to Nightmare Before Christmas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L04nwUprUSk
 

theharleyquinn

Medalist
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
The problem is skaters and coaches want to stick to the same thing. And you have the same old choreographers doing the same things with different skaters and they won't come out of their set ways.

Once the influx of new choreographers gets their way, you will see different. The problem is when a new choreographer or skater brings a fresh idea into skating, then the other choreographers and skaters try to do it too and you get the same programs and music over and over.


It's never ending.

Agree with this but I'd say we also need the next generation of judges both for national and international competitions. Most choreographers are only willing to do so much because they know whose (often traditional) opinion counts most.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
Agree with this but I'd say we also need the next generation of judges both for national and international competitions. Most choreographers are only willing to do so much because they know whose (often traditional) opinion counts most.

And I'll kindly agree to disagree on that because I've seen it in action. It's not the judges.
 

Arbitrary

Medalist
Joined
Sep 5, 2018
Once I watched a promo movie for those wanted to be enlisted to Armored Corps. Something like "The Tanks on march".
I remember the music theme very well and it heard very suitable for Sasha.
 

halulupu

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
I was so bored with the music choices of the Canadian ladies. All the same boring dull pop songs with a women singing. I mean really no innovation at all
 

Alex65

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 11, 2018
Country
Russia
My hopes are that FS will become more and more popular in the world. Then the best skaters and coaching teams will be able to spend more money on creating unique programs and attract truly professional production teams to work on this. Not like now, when popular choreographers make dozens of programs for different athletes per season. Famous theater directors do not put on ten new performances in their theaters. I think the Tutberidze team is on the right track in this. Programs similar to theatrical miniatures made specifically for each artist, taking into account his individual abilities, are a sure way to create true masterpieces. But they also have problems - a lot of students, little time for everyone, a stereotypical approach to choosing music and choreography. I hope that all this will develop further. If you look at the programs 20 years ago, then the progress is obvious. It is possible that after the technical revolution in the FS, a time of artistic breakthrough will come.
 

wombatch

Spectator
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
I've always dreamed of the Shibs doing a medley of only songs that refer to a brother or a sister! They always seem to be at a disadvantage because they can't do the passionate love stories, why not have fun with it?!
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
I've want someone to skate a program to hippy music. I've long thought Jason Brown should do a short program to California Dreaming by the Mamas and Papas.

*squawks and covers ears* nope, that is just one of the many CDs Australian choreographers need to lose. That, and that darned "Alice" from one of the Tim Burton movies.
 

McBibus

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 7, 2019
It's a competition, so you also have to deal with an optimal placements of the most demanding elements.
There is that 10% bonus (makes no sense to me but it's there) so you will always see big scoring combos in the 3rd minute
Other difficult elements will be always put at the start of the program when the skater is most fresh and explosive.
A part of that you will distribute elements to allow the skater to recover while remaining "active"

If the skater can't afford such a program because of injuries or other condition issues you will see a program apparently different, but with even more (unknown to the public) constraint.

It's not easy to create an original choreography for an FS
 

Winnie_20

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2013
Video game music, especially Japanese RPGs. Kevin Reynolds had a few programs, and there have been a few Mario bros.
But there is So so so much more out there.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
My hopes are that FS will become more and more popular in the world. Then the best skaters and coaching teams will be able to spend more money on creating unique programs and attract truly professional production teams to work on this. Not like now, when popular choreographers make dozens of programs for different athletes per season. Famous theater directors do not put on ten new performances in their theaters. I think the Tutberidze team is on the right track in this. Programs similar to theatrical miniatures made specifically for each artist, taking into account his individual abilities, are a sure way to create true masterpieces. But they also have problems - a lot of students, little time for everyone, a stereotypical approach to choosing music and choreography. I hope that all this will develop further. If you look at the programs 20 years ago, then the progress is obvious. It is possible that after the technical revolution in the FS, a time of artistic breakthrough will come.

It's a competition, so you also have to deal with an optimal placements of the most demanding elements.
There is that 10% bonus (makes no sense to me but it's there) so you will always see big scoring combos in the 3rd minute
Other difficult elements will be always put at the start of the program when the skater is most fresh and explosive.
A part of that you will distribute elements to allow the skater to recover while remaining "active"

If the skater can't afford such a program because of injuries or other condition issues you will see a program apparently different, but with even more (unknown to the public) constraint.

It's not easy to create an original choreography for an FS

McBibus you are right on the money!

Alex65--Figure skating was very popular at one time and it still had less choreographers. Skating is not theater and it can never be, it takes someone highly skilled in the sport plus have the background with music and movement in order to construct a program.
 

katymay

Medalist
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Fargo, the TV show, seasons 2 and 3 has some wonderful music. It is on You Tube under 'Fargo Sountrack'. I have NOT found it on itunes. Ksenia S. is using a small section for the middle of her program.
 

McBibus

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 7, 2019
Skating is not theater and it can never be, it takes someone highly skilled in the sport plus have the background with music and movement in order to construct a program.

There is a very informative interview to the dance trainer of the Tubernize skaters, stating you also have to know ejat the single skater can or can't do well if you want a working program and not just a beautiful layout.
I think Orlov posted a transaltion in the russian ladies thread
 
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