2017 CS US International Classic Mens SP

[karne]

Until Hamilton I had no idea I could get so emotional over George Washington but One Last Time gets me every time.

ETA: My fellow Hamilton fans, we are all Jennifer Garner, high on laughing gas and crying about Hamilton. (Google it.)

I made the dreadful error of watching video of the cast performing it in the White House for Obama. I was bawling for half an hour. I think it's Chris Jackson's voice. Especially that note at the end.

The worst is to listen to workshop stuff. Hearing Leslie Odom Jr's voice break and collapse into sobs during the Dear Theodosia Reprise wrecked me for the rest of the day...

 

[NoNameFace]

Finally got Lombardia a bit controlled, now time to write something there

I love seeing Sean being Sean – loud, expressive, attentive and cheeky self. I am glad that there is so much energy and positivity about him, his skating, it really gives a 'kick' to the whole performance. And actually, I do think that there's something special in owning kind of 'tacky' theme/music and making it work for certain skater, happening to be Sean. I very much applaud him for being consistent in his style and this rather vibrant convention of performing. He may not have amazing content, first-class edges, crazy difficulty, but he has huge charisma, personality on ice and committment to sell everything he actually has.

Kazuki is totally a Machida in making – the referencial point is definitely there. Same soft attitude, delicacy in movement and traces of Machida's sublime interpretation skills of classical music. Canot wait to see more of him!

I am a bit mixd about Mura – it's good to see him tackling more modern, 'hip' stuff, but I am not convinced for now, it just felt a bit too forced for me, but we'll see how it will develop. I would rather see him doing maybe something like modern Tango program with some quirk to that song...Still – good to see him poised with attitude while performing.

Liam was a true revelation for me and in opposition to Mura's SP being a bit too forced to be 'hip', Liam made his SP perfectly modern in a very natural way. Love musical choice and an acoustic version of the song being used, i gave for me even more 'authenticity' in reception of the whole performance. And seeing Liam, I totally got Patrick memo: I totally got the reference point in terms of softness in movement, musicality, gracefulness and sublime interpretation/expression. The performance flew by and was sold perfectly, effortlessly. That 4T as opening was a real treat to watch, shame about 3A, but kudos to him for not giving up on performance, he really kept the momentum until the final pose. Liam really made for me something memorable in a very understated, quiet kind of way. I hope that his dazzling smile at the end, the score will give him a deserved confidence boost and he will continue on delivering such great performances.

I was pleasantly surprised by Max's SP as I was sceptical over Les Miserables, it definitely helps that there's a focus on one piece of music and Max for me told a story there in his performance. It was good to see him going for it with full force, 2 quads, focused and determined. With right mileage, this SP could become a signature program for Max, as it seems to work well and match Max's way of skating. I am happy to see Max really pushing for this 'wholesome' of program, balancing ambitious tech side with effort shown on interpretation perspective. Definitely looking forward to see how this SP will develop.

Nathan's SP in all honesty blew me away instantly. Firstly – as a big fan of Clementine's music, the quirk of it – such a pleasure to see a choreography both challenging skater in terms of musicality and showing off skater' personality, attitude at the same time. Big, BIG kudos to Shae-Lynn for not compromising music over skating and vice versa, it looks like a real thing to have modern music with lyrics used in equally modern, creative way as a competitive program, highlighting skater's qualities and style at the same time. For me, Nathan scored a real winner there – it looks like a definition and signature piece for him, a piece that could make him his own point of reference in many areas. As I said – love the fact that there is no compromise, the program is daring equally the skater, the audience with it novelty, intricacy, complexity in terms of musicality of movement, choreographical transitions, showing off Nathan's attitude in all that. Love the flow, fluidity thorough the program, the use of whole body to accentuate rhythmical changes. And the most important valuable thing in my opinion is that this program will be such a great learning curve for Nathan: it has still room for improvement in many areas, choreographical, expression etc. and it will constantly help Nathan to develop his performance abilities, engage him fully in terms of execution and intrpretation. It feels like this bit 'unkept', raw quality and potential of Nathan finally got channelled in right way and love this impression that he's telling a personal story here with no seeking outside reference from anyone.

now off to go to Lombardia Ice Dance threads

 

[OS]

Just want to add my shout out to Nathen's SP. I absolutely loved it, and already watched it half a dozen times already.

So far he is the one who has brought figure skating bang up to date, with an unobvious contemporary choice of music that some how made the sport cool, current and relevant. Love the opening choreography to the beat. He is the future and my fav Men's SP so far, look forward to seeing more from other mens and see if I can change my mind.

Thanks to him, I discovered Benjamin Clementine, such an amazing singer/songwriter. I initially thought oh it sounded like an unknown song by Sting (Similar voice, English accent, and contemp jazz acoustic style), but turns out he is more like the love child of Sting and Nina Simone - which is actually even better and pretty spectacular.

Wonder how this SP came about. Would be interesting to hear the story, who picked it and why? It is a brave bold and unconventional choice during the Olympics season.

Fortune tends to favour the bold... look forward to see how this turn out.