Best use of ballet on ice

[Bluediamonds09]

Ballet plays a huge role in figure skating, as we all know. And many skaters choose ballet music for their programs. From Swan Lake to Don Quixote to Sleeping Beauty.
Then, there are the lesser known ballet pieces that get pushed to the side. I’m sure that among the hundreds of ballet compositions out there, you’ll find music that is perfect for a figure skating routine, and on the plus side, hasn’t been used before!

So, what ballet pieces should a certain skater choose in the future? Who has your favorite program set to a piece of music from a famous ballet? ; or , from a ballet that isn’t used very often in the figure skating world? Who do u think is the most balletic on the ice?

 

[Spirals for Miles]

I would like to see more of Le Corsaire, Pharaoh's Daughter, Grand Pas Classique, Coppelia, La Bayadere, La Esmeralda, Raymonda, Satanella, and Walpurgis Nacht.
My favorite balletic program is Sasha Cohen's Swan Lake as well as her Nutcracker. I also appreciate Alina Zagitova's Don Quixote and Swan Lake and Zijun Li's Coppelia. And it was Rika Hongo? I think? that did Le Corsaire in the 2014-2015 season for her fs. I liked that one too.

 

[Lily flowers]

I don't remember ever seeing someone use The Sleeping Beauty's Rose Adagio. I don't know how much it suits FS, but I think it would be beautiful.

 

[plushyfan]

John Curry Don Quixote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z79TMsYRnEc 1976

another DQ from a very young skater..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRZoZWEzCYQ

more DQs

Sarah Hughes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGTQZ5XX-tM DQ

Slutskaya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2417wSSphGA

Machida https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEEmM_1cVg

 

[Spirals for Miles]

I don't remember ever seeing someone use The Sleeping Beauty's Rose Adagio. I don't know how much it suits FS, but I think it would be beautiful.

Oh my goodness, that would be GORGEOUS!!

 

[Lily flowers]

Oh my goodness, that would be GORGEOUS!!

I think I remember seeing it at some JGP this year, but I don't remember who the skater was and it was only a part of the program.

 

[lappo]

When you think of ballet on ice, then John Curry is the only name that cannot be missed! Sasha Cohen is another one with perfect posture and lines.
Then, if you watch her from her ankles up, she could teach a lot of young skater something about poise and lines (and Paquita is not as used as other ballet pieces): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pz6Zkbkhvs

 

[qwerty]

I don't remember ever seeing someone use The Sleeping Beauty's Rose Adagio. I don't know how much it suits FS, but I think it would be beautiful.

Gracie Gold used an excerpt from that music at the end of her 2014 free skate.

I would love to see more skaters use Prokofiev Cinderella!

 

[jiawen2016]

I don't remember ever seeing someone use The Sleeping Beauty's Rose Adagio. I don't know how much it suits FS, but I think it would be beautiful.

The Russian pair Natalia ZABIIAKO / Alexander ENBERT uses Rose Adagio in their free skate this year. Just saw it in Skate Canada. It's a pretty interesting program.

 

[Mathman]

I think that the advantage to using ballet music is that it was composed deliberately to accompany movement. The drawback is that fans who are knowledgeable about ballet will crucify you -- you call that ballet? -- unless you are John Curry, who trained extensively in ballet and modern dance. (Curry wanted to to become a dancer even as a very young child, but his father thought that dancing was a sissy activity for a boy. So his father put him in the manly sport of figure skating instead.)

 

[cl2]

I would love to see more skaters use Prokofiev Cinderella!

Me!! I'm skating my program to Prokofiev's Cinderella waltz this season!! It's deliciously wild and diabolical (But I'm just an adult skater, so you won't see me on TV )

 

[jiawen2016]

As a balletomane, I would like to see fewer warhorse ballet programs(Swan Lake, DQ, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker,etc), and more original ones such as George Balanchine's Jewel(I think Ruby with music by Stravinsky would be a perfect piece of music for Kaetlyn Osmond) and Seranade for someone like Maria Sotskova. I love theatrical ballet from 20th century such as La Dame aux Camelias with music by Chopin, Onegin by Tchaikovsky, and Manon by Massenet. Skaters do not need to tell the story of those ballet, but their choreographers can definitely find inspirations and set the mood of the programs from the ballet. Whenever I watch Yuzuru’s ballade in G minor No.1 by Chopin, I always recall black pdd from La Dame aux Camelias because the emotions evoked are similar to me. I also like programs with ballet music but not necessarily balletic, such as Yuna Kim’s Giselle, in which she did not wear a ballet costume or tried to be a ballerina, but she indeed conveyed the theme of Giselle about innocent love, betrayal, and regret in her own way.

 

[dorispulaski]

Quite often the best use of ballet music on ice is not particularly stereotypically balletic.

I can't resist a shout out for a guilty pleasure of mine, Davis & White's Giselle Act I polka Short Dance. It fascinates me because it successfully included the required Yankee Polka in a ballet format.
Its first outing at Skate America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibI3DBfopgc
And at Worlds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YbsfoCfUwY
and
Rudy Galindo's inspired portrayal of Baron Rothbart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lH9mg_ZneA

and the wackiest use of ballet, Daisuke Takahashi's Cyber Swan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRkdoLxPdD8

 

[Harriet]

I'd love to see somebody - though I'm not sure who - skate to La Fille Mal Gardee. You could get a nice program out of the pas de ruban, the maypole dance and the storm.

Maybe steer clear of the chicken dance, though...

 

[FSGMT]

Of course John Curry and Sasha Cohen stand out as the best ever, no doubt about it, but among the recent examples I would point out Hongo's Le Corsaire SP from her first Senior season: her posture is maybe not the most refined, but that was really a pleasurable watch (I remember especially her GPF performance)!
Another great one is Nathan Chen's SP from last season, even if I would consider his overall skating, too, as an example of good lines and movements influenced by a ballet training.

 

[plushyfan]

Of course John Curry and Sasha Cohen stand out as the best ever, no doubt about it, but among the recent examples I would point out Hongo's Le Corsaire SP from her first Senior season: her posture is maybe not the most refined, but that was really a pleasurable watch (I remember especially her GPF performance)!
Another great one is Nathan Chen's SP from last season, even if I would consider his overall skating, too, as an example of good lines and movements influenced by a ballet training.

Did you really mention Rika?? She is cute and fan to watch but she has nothing to do with the ballet

 

[gkelly]

I'd love to see somebody - though I'm not sure who - skate to La Fille Mal Gardee.

Here's one

I really do not enjoy the music to Don Quixote; I think it's too obvious in its phrasing. I appreciate John Curry's masterpiece to it despite that drawback, and there have been several other skaters, often inspired by Curry, who have done it justice, but too many others who fall into simple cliche.

good use of skating vocabulary without much imitating ballet

generic version, head to head


Don Q Not a balletic body type, but IMO a better approximation of ballet movement qualities than, say, this Giselle from the same competition.

 

[elbkup]

A very young Polina Edmunds with beautiful balletic program ... does anyone know the music? This was posted in her FF and gave me hope for her future. She subsequently skated to Peer Gynt too; I find her style lyrical, graceful and am still hoping for her future. Reminds me of Carolina..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B5TMpeUYyos

 

[FSGMT]

Did you really mention Rika?? She is cute and fan to watch but she has nothing to do with the ballet

I am not a ballet expert, so I do not claim to be knowledgeable about this, but her program had a nice composure and seemed to fit the musical structure very well to me. At least, she reused some ballet elements in a very creative and fun way

 

[Sherlock Marple]

A very young Polina Edmunds with beautiful balletic program ... does anyone know the music?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B5TMpeUYyos

It's Gramophone Waltz by Eugen Doga.