- Joined
- Dec 29, 2013
- Country
-
That Beillmann in practice today looked great!!
"See you in France"
"See you in France"
Polina Edmunds
- Thread starter Sam-Skwantch
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Instrument
As she finished her free skate on the St. Paul ice, Polina Edmunds probably felt so close to what she sought that she could hardly help but have it. Her short program two days before had been superb. Others had faltered, but she had not. The only wonder was that her lead wasn’t even greater. Now she’d skated her much maligned long program with passion and commitment and won the highest score of her career. She was so close, indeed.
Had she but known it, however, the U. S. Ladies Figure Skating Championship had already slipped out of her reach. Gracie Gold would skate last with a marvelous performance many had been waiting for all season. The gold medal would be hers. Days later, Polina would drop out of the Four Continents competition she’d won the year before. The boots she’d been forced to wear at the nationals were worn out and her new boots could not be broken in soon enough. Then she suffered a bone bruise to her right foot. The world championships also fell by the wayside and then every competition after that in turn, as the injury persisted. Even the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships fell away.
It was not as though her life had ended, though. Figure skating had always been a part of it but not life itself. She began college that fall, joined a sorority, participated in charitable events, and choreographed a pageant for her figure skating club. She continued to blossom into her young womanhood, the slender young girl becoming tall and lissome, with a grace as right for a raked stage as the ice.
Even the break from figure skating would only prove to be an interim. In March, she began skating again and will be performing at the Glacier Falls Summer Figure Skating Classic later this month. In November, she will be representing the United States in the ISU Grand Prix Internationaux de France.
Returning to competition after such a layoff will be challenge, especially since she had never been away from the ice so long. Even so, it has been reported that her skating skills returned quickly. An excellent instrument, it seems, needs only to be played to be brought back into tune.
What sort of an instrument has hers become these past years?
What she brings to her skating, of course, is a special talent for the dance. Her beautifully extended lines and fluid port de bras have made her one of the most supple and beautiful skaters of her generation, while her petite allegro has been used to touching effect almost from her first appearances on the ice,.
She does not merely skate to the music but becomes the music. Light as thistledown, nuanced and graceful, there is a lyricism to her skating removed from that of other skaters. Even as light and sound are but variations of each other, so are line and movement the equivalent of the music. One could merely watch her, the sound turned down, and there would still be a kind of music.
There are some great dancers who dance as if they are hardly aware they are dancing—they throw themselves to the winds. In figure skating, one might think of Janet Lynn. There are other great dancers—acute, aware, and even wary—who dance out with a special consciousness. Margot Fonteyn was of the latter category, with Peggy Fleming her counterpart on ice.
Polina is an original who seems to give expression to both aspects. She could be a Fonteyn abandoning herself in a dance which glorifies all that she loves. What is it, then, that this young figure skater loves? From her breakthrough free skate to the music of Grieg, which touched many hearts, to the Palladio and Time to Say Goodbye programs that will finally be performed this season, all of her skating conveys a love for the beautiful and romantic but also something else, just now coming into being.
Isadora Duncan was asked about the qualities she was trying to express through the dance. Did she want the audience to feel a freedom from restraint? Did she want them to sense the forces of nature, to feel the wind or the movement of the sea? She replied,
The wind? I am the wind, the sea and the moon. Tears, pain, love, bird flights? I am all of them. I dance what I am. Sin, prayer, flight, the light that never was on land or sea? I dance what I am.
Perhaps it will be the same for this young figure skater, who is so sensitive to beauty and love and to those other things which are a part of a life which finds its source elsewhere. She will skate what she is and, in this way, reveal an ethereal realm only a deepening heart might understand.
The angels will know the music she plays for their own.
As she finished her free skate on the St. Paul ice, Polina Edmunds probably felt so close to what she sought that she could hardly help but have it. Her short program two days before had been superb. Others had faltered, but she had not. The only wonder was that her lead wasn’t even greater. Now she’d skated her much maligned long program with passion and commitment and won the highest score of her career. She was so close, indeed.
Had she but known it, however, the U. S. Ladies Figure Skating Championship had already slipped out of her reach. Gracie Gold would skate last with a marvelous performance many had been waiting for all season. The gold medal would be hers. Days later, Polina would drop out of the Four Continents competition she’d won the year before. The boots she’d been forced to wear at the nationals were worn out and her new boots could not be broken in soon enough. Then she suffered a bone bruise to her right foot. The world championships also fell by the wayside and then every competition after that in turn, as the injury persisted. Even the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships fell away.
It was not as though her life had ended, though. Figure skating had always been a part of it but not life itself. She began college that fall, joined a sorority, participated in charitable events, and choreographed a pageant for her figure skating club. She continued to blossom into her young womanhood, the slender young girl becoming tall and lissome, with a grace as right for a raked stage as the ice.
Even the break from figure skating would only prove to be an interim. In March, she began skating again and will be performing at the Glacier Falls Summer Figure Skating Classic later this month. In November, she will be representing the United States in the ISU Grand Prix Internationaux de France.
Returning to competition after such a layoff will be challenge, especially since she had never been away from the ice so long. Even so, it has been reported that her skating skills returned quickly. An excellent instrument, it seems, needs only to be played to be brought back into tune.
What sort of an instrument has hers become these past years?
What she brings to her skating, of course, is a special talent for the dance. Her beautifully extended lines and fluid port de bras have made her one of the most supple and beautiful skaters of her generation, while her petite allegro has been used to touching effect almost from her first appearances on the ice,.
She does not merely skate to the music but becomes the music. Light as thistledown, nuanced and graceful, there is a lyricism to her skating removed from that of other skaters. Even as light and sound are but variations of each other, so are line and movement the equivalent of the music. One could merely watch her, the sound turned down, and there would still be a kind of music.
There are some great dancers who dance as if they are hardly aware they are dancing—they throw themselves to the winds. In figure skating, one might think of Janet Lynn. There are other great dancers—acute, aware, and even wary—who dance out with a special consciousness. Margot Fonteyn was of the latter category, with Peggy Fleming her counterpart on ice.
Polina is an original who seems to give expression to both aspects. She could be a Fonteyn abandoning herself in a dance which glorifies all that she loves. What is it, then, that this young figure skater loves? From her breakthrough free skate to the music of Grieg, which touched many hearts, to the Palladio and Time to Say Goodbye programs that will finally be performed this season, all of her skating conveys a love for the beautiful and romantic but also something else, just now coming into being.
Isadora Duncan was asked about the qualities she was trying to express through the dance. Did she want the audience to feel a freedom from restraint? Did she want them to sense the forces of nature, to feel the wind or the movement of the sea? She replied,
The wind? I am the wind, the sea and the moon. Tears, pain, love, bird flights? I am all of them. I dance what I am. Sin, prayer, flight, the light that never was on land or sea? I dance what I am.
Perhaps it will be the same for this young figure skater, who is so sensitive to beauty and love and to those other things which are a part of a life which finds its source elsewhere. She will skate what she is and, in this way, reveal an ethereal realm only a deepening heart might understand.
The angels will know the music she plays for their own.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
First Glimpse
Here is a look at Polina's short program, as presented at the Vaca Valley Figure Skating Club's Red, White, and Blue event on July 9th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn1pt-VRW3c
The music is from “Palladio,” by Karl Jenkins, which will be familiar from its use in commercials for De Beers. Most of the jumps are only indicated, though there is a very smooth double lutz at the end, and the ornamentation is still being worked in, but it is a severely elegant piece with great potential. It will also nicely complement the gentle romanticism of her free skate.
For someone who has been skating for only three months after an interruption for a year and a half in her normal training, Polina is amazingly close to where she wants to be. From a competitive standpoint, of course, she must be able to do the triple jumps. From an aesthetic standpoint, her jumps have always been superb--perpendicular and with magnificent height--and an enhancement of her art.
She is entered in the Glacier Falls competition, which will begin for her on July 28th with the Senior Ladies Short Program. It will be interesting to see whether she does much more than this, given the shortness of time between now and then, and whether she will demonstrate her free skate.
This first glimpse, however, is an intriguing one, and not without its own rewards.
Here is a look at Polina's short program, as presented at the Vaca Valley Figure Skating Club's Red, White, and Blue event on July 9th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn1pt-VRW3c
The music is from “Palladio,” by Karl Jenkins, which will be familiar from its use in commercials for De Beers. Most of the jumps are only indicated, though there is a very smooth double lutz at the end, and the ornamentation is still being worked in, but it is a severely elegant piece with great potential. It will also nicely complement the gentle romanticism of her free skate.
For someone who has been skating for only three months after an interruption for a year and a half in her normal training, Polina is amazingly close to where she wants to be. From a competitive standpoint, of course, she must be able to do the triple jumps. From an aesthetic standpoint, her jumps have always been superb--perpendicular and with magnificent height--and an enhancement of her art.
She is entered in the Glacier Falls competition, which will begin for her on July 28th with the Senior Ladies Short Program. It will be interesting to see whether she does much more than this, given the shortness of time between now and then, and whether she will demonstrate her free skate.
This first glimpse, however, is an intriguing one, and not without its own rewards.
Thank you so much for posting that video!! Polina is my favorite American lady, and I've greatly missed seeing her and have been anxious to know how she is doing and how seriously she intends to come back. This performance is encouraging. It seems like she is still working to attain her former level on jumps (or she's not ready to put them in a performance yet?), but she looks very determined here, and that gives me hope.
So does anyone know if she is going to keep her planned "Time To Say Goodbye" FS from last year, as well? Has she confirmed that?
So does anyone know if she is going to keep her planned "Time To Say Goodbye" FS from last year, as well? Has she confirmed that?
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2015
- Country
-
Great to see Polina again after such a long hiatus .. this looks so promising, she looks confident and sure. Glad she is keeping the short program and possibly the long too - a beautiful song. I do believe she has grown now possibly, 5' 7 or 8" but don't quote me on this!!!
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
So does anyone know if she is going to keep her planned "Time To Say Goodbye" FS from last year, as well? Has she confirmed that?
In a May 11th “Inside Edge” article written for the Icenetwork, Sarah Brannen revealed that Polina will be keeping both the short and long programs prepared for the previous season, since “everyone loved them, but no one saw them.”
Polina’s choreographer, Rudy Galindo, described the short program in another Icenetwork article by Lynn Rutherford last August, when Polina was trying to ease back into training:
"'We wanted something in the modern dance direction, and I think Polina is fierce and really awesome in this,' [he] said. 'I watched a lot of modern ballet for ideas, and we brought in a modern dance teacher to help enhance the arm movements.'"
As for the long program:
"They went in the opposite direction for Edmunds' new free skate, set to Sarah Brightman's renditions of 'Bilitis - Générique' and 'Time to Say Goodbye.' Galindo, Nina [Edmunds] and Polina chose the pieces together, and music engineer Bill Hare edited the selections.
"'It's romantic and gentle; [Brightman's] voice is so beautiful,' Polina said. 'I don't even know how to describe it. I think it's a big step up in maturity for me.'
"'I think I'd use the word 'angelic' -- that's what we're going for,' Galindo said. 'It's a very mature line, designed around all of Polina's dance training: her long arms and legs, her toe point. She's like a ballerina with skates on. Show her one movement, and she does it easily, the first time.'"
Polina’s programs have generally received a good deal of criticism on this site the past three years, usually for being “immature” or “dull.” I’ve always found them to be at least interesting and usually rather more than that. More importantly, however, each has been a valid expression of Polina’s maturing art and aspirations.
As much as any other figure skater, she skates what she is.
In a May 11th “Inside Edge” article written for the Icenetwork, Sarah Brannen revealed that Polina will be keeping both the short and long programs prepared for the previous season, since “everyone loved them, but no one saw them.”
Polina’s choreographer, Rudy Galindo, described the short program in another Icenetwork article by Lynn Rutherford last August, when Polina was trying to ease back into training:
"'We wanted something in the modern dance direction, and I think Polina is fierce and really awesome in this,' [he] said. 'I watched a lot of modern ballet for ideas, and we brought in a modern dance teacher to help enhance the arm movements.'"
As for the long program:
"They went in the opposite direction for Edmunds' new free skate, set to Sarah Brightman's renditions of 'Bilitis - Générique' and 'Time to Say Goodbye.' Galindo, Nina [Edmunds] and Polina chose the pieces together, and music engineer Bill Hare edited the selections.
"'It's romantic and gentle; [Brightman's] voice is so beautiful,' Polina said. 'I don't even know how to describe it. I think it's a big step up in maturity for me.'
"'I think I'd use the word 'angelic' -- that's what we're going for,' Galindo said. 'It's a very mature line, designed around all of Polina's dance training: her long arms and legs, her toe point. She's like a ballerina with skates on. Show her one movement, and she does it easily, the first time.'"
Polina’s programs have generally received a good deal of criticism on this site the past three years, usually for being “immature” or “dull.” I’ve always found them to be at least interesting and usually rather more than that. More importantly, however, each has been a valid expression of Polina’s maturing art and aspirations.
As much as any other figure skater, she skates what she is.
Thanks for compiling all of that info! 
I'm glad we'll get to see her Sarah Brightman program, as well.
I, too, have enjoyed Polina's programs -- some of them quite a lot. Something I really love about her skating is that she always feels and moves with the music. I've never seen her have one of those performances where she's struggling to keep up with the music, as I've seen other skaters do -- rather, she's always inside the music. I think people on this forum don't give her enough credit for that... perhaps she makes it look so easy that they don't notice she's doing it.
I'm glad we'll get to see her Sarah Brightman program, as well.I, too, have enjoyed Polina's programs -- some of them quite a lot. Something I really love about her skating is that she always feels and moves with the music. I've never seen her have one of those performances where she's struggling to keep up with the music, as I've seen other skaters do -- rather, she's always inside the music. I think people on this forum don't give her enough credit for that... perhaps she makes it look so easy that they don't notice she's doing it.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Here are pictures of Polina taken at the Right to Play Summertime Ice Classic in New York City, where she gave an exhibition skate on July 18th:
https://twitter.com/LynnRutherford/status/887441624443301888
https://twitter.com/LynnRutherford/status/887464861021720577/photo/1
As she has become more successful and better known in figure skating, she has become more and more active in lending her name and skills to charitable endeavors. After returning to the ice this year, she has participated in such events as Champions Skating for a Cure and galas for local figure skating clubs, and will be appearing in the “Golden Moment” show held by Kristy Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation in September.
Thus does she love her neighbors as she would herself.
https://twitter.com/LynnRutherford/status/887441624443301888
https://twitter.com/LynnRutherford/status/887464861021720577/photo/1
As she has become more successful and better known in figure skating, she has become more and more active in lending her name and skills to charitable endeavors. After returning to the ice this year, she has participated in such events as Champions Skating for a Cure and galas for local figure skating clubs, and will be appearing in the “Golden Moment” show held by Kristy Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation in September.
Thus does she love her neighbors as she would herself.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Glacier Falls
The Glacier Falls Summer Classic has begun at the Anaheim ICE in Anaheim, California, an arena most will be familiar with only through the delayed broadcasts of the competition carried by the IceNetwork or the videos posted on YouTube by fans of their favorites.
It is a modest facility, but not without its charms. The senior competitions will be held at the NHL rink, with its wooden arches soaring over the ice, the banners of hockey clubs hung along a far wall, and bleachers on one side only. Boxes of supplies are often stacked at one end of the rink, forming a quaint backdrop to the performances.
Over the years, many notable figure skaters have introduced their programs for the coming season at Glacier Falls. This year is no different, with 28 senior ladies having entered the competition, including Vivian Le, Megan Wessenburg, Katerina Kulgeyko, the former U.S. novice medalist now skating for Israel, Mae Berenice Maite from France, the elegant Heidi Munger, and the surprise medalists from the 2017 U.S. nationals, Karen Chen, who won the gold, and the delightful Mariah Bell, who took the bronze.
Polina Edmunds is also entered, more than two years after her last appearance here. Not all skaters present their complete programs, so there may be a question as to how much she’ll want to display, given the long layoff. Even in her last appearance, only the “Moonlight Sonata” short program was fully performed. The presentation of the “Gone With the Wind” long program was limited to the choreography, with the placement of all but one of the jumps and jump combinations merely indicated with single jumps.
There were few opinions offered then concerning the quality of the long program, which was understandable, given its abbreviated nature. Later, when it was fully performed in competition, there was a great deal of comment concerning the choreography, the music cues, Polina’s speed and, not least, her costume and hair style. The video of her performance at the 2016 nationals benefits from repeated viewing, however, for what it reveals of the rich nuances of the choreography and the skill and passion of her skating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RqsAARrbN8
The “Moonlight Sonata” short program was recognized even then as the small masterpiece that it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PwKOHkpAfE
For this coming season, Polina will be performing another short program choreographed by the former national champion, Rudy Galindo, which has been set to Karl Jenkin’s “Palladio.” The glimpse of it afforded by an exhibition earlier this month was intriguing, as it is a propulsive neo-romantic piece that is very different from the dreamy “Moonlight Sonata,” but it promises to be another showcase for her beautiful lines and gift for the dance.
The new long program remains a mystery. It is also choreographed by Galindo and set to arrangements of “Bilitis – Generique” and “Time to Say Goodbye,” as sung by Sarah Brightman, which suggests something gentle and romantic. In an interview last year, when Polina still had hopes of competing that season, she described it in almost those words, saying that it would be a step up in maturity for her. A supposed lack of maturity in her programs has been a criticism often made by some. Perhaps it struck home. To my mind, at least, the romantic has always been a part of her skating and needs no apology, no more than her heart in its innocence requires more in the way of protection.
No doubt she’ll feel excited taking the ice this evening after being away so long, and perhaps there will also be a sense of nostalgia, for beginning again where so many of her programs were first performed. Her touching “Peer Gynt” and “Peter Pan” programs were given their debuts at Glacier Falls and led ultimately to a silver medal at the 2014 nationals, representing the United Sates at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and wining the Four Continents championship in 2015. The “Moonlight Sonata” and “Gone With the Wind” programs, of course, resulted in another silver medal at the 2016 nationals.
There will be something else as well. When Polina competed at the 2012 U.S. Junior Championships, she came in a disappointing sixth. Her short program had been exuberant and clean, but her long program was a disaster, with several falls on jumps. Afterwards, she realized that she hadn’t trained nearly hard enough. The wonder wasn’t that she skated badly in the long program, but why everything had come together in the short. Her mother had guided her to this point, but now she had to decide how much farther she wanted to go and how much more she wanted to give.
She took a few days off, thinking that perhaps she would simply give figure skating up altogether. With each day, though, she found that she missed it more and more. As much as the dance, skating expressed the very essence of her being. She returned to the ice with a renewed purpose. When she entered the 2012 Glacier Falls competition, it was to exhibit the “Two Guitars” and “Romeo and Juliet” programs that would make her the 2013 U.S. juniors champion.
Even as an artist may appreciate the color of a flower only when he sets brush to canvas, so is love in its depth better understood only when it has been lost, or almost so. When she skates upon this ice again, Polina will realize anew how much further in and farther up she wants to go.
The Glacier Falls Summer Classic has begun at the Anaheim ICE in Anaheim, California, an arena most will be familiar with only through the delayed broadcasts of the competition carried by the IceNetwork or the videos posted on YouTube by fans of their favorites.
It is a modest facility, but not without its charms. The senior competitions will be held at the NHL rink, with its wooden arches soaring over the ice, the banners of hockey clubs hung along a far wall, and bleachers on one side only. Boxes of supplies are often stacked at one end of the rink, forming a quaint backdrop to the performances.
Over the years, many notable figure skaters have introduced their programs for the coming season at Glacier Falls. This year is no different, with 28 senior ladies having entered the competition, including Vivian Le, Megan Wessenburg, Katerina Kulgeyko, the former U.S. novice medalist now skating for Israel, Mae Berenice Maite from France, the elegant Heidi Munger, and the surprise medalists from the 2017 U.S. nationals, Karen Chen, who won the gold, and the delightful Mariah Bell, who took the bronze.
Polina Edmunds is also entered, more than two years after her last appearance here. Not all skaters present their complete programs, so there may be a question as to how much she’ll want to display, given the long layoff. Even in her last appearance, only the “Moonlight Sonata” short program was fully performed. The presentation of the “Gone With the Wind” long program was limited to the choreography, with the placement of all but one of the jumps and jump combinations merely indicated with single jumps.
There were few opinions offered then concerning the quality of the long program, which was understandable, given its abbreviated nature. Later, when it was fully performed in competition, there was a great deal of comment concerning the choreography, the music cues, Polina’s speed and, not least, her costume and hair style. The video of her performance at the 2016 nationals benefits from repeated viewing, however, for what it reveals of the rich nuances of the choreography and the skill and passion of her skating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RqsAARrbN8
The “Moonlight Sonata” short program was recognized even then as the small masterpiece that it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PwKOHkpAfE
For this coming season, Polina will be performing another short program choreographed by the former national champion, Rudy Galindo, which has been set to Karl Jenkin’s “Palladio.” The glimpse of it afforded by an exhibition earlier this month was intriguing, as it is a propulsive neo-romantic piece that is very different from the dreamy “Moonlight Sonata,” but it promises to be another showcase for her beautiful lines and gift for the dance.
The new long program remains a mystery. It is also choreographed by Galindo and set to arrangements of “Bilitis – Generique” and “Time to Say Goodbye,” as sung by Sarah Brightman, which suggests something gentle and romantic. In an interview last year, when Polina still had hopes of competing that season, she described it in almost those words, saying that it would be a step up in maturity for her. A supposed lack of maturity in her programs has been a criticism often made by some. Perhaps it struck home. To my mind, at least, the romantic has always been a part of her skating and needs no apology, no more than her heart in its innocence requires more in the way of protection.
No doubt she’ll feel excited taking the ice this evening after being away so long, and perhaps there will also be a sense of nostalgia, for beginning again where so many of her programs were first performed. Her touching “Peer Gynt” and “Peter Pan” programs were given their debuts at Glacier Falls and led ultimately to a silver medal at the 2014 nationals, representing the United Sates at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and wining the Four Continents championship in 2015. The “Moonlight Sonata” and “Gone With the Wind” programs, of course, resulted in another silver medal at the 2016 nationals.
There will be something else as well. When Polina competed at the 2012 U.S. Junior Championships, she came in a disappointing sixth. Her short program had been exuberant and clean, but her long program was a disaster, with several falls on jumps. Afterwards, she realized that she hadn’t trained nearly hard enough. The wonder wasn’t that she skated badly in the long program, but why everything had come together in the short. Her mother had guided her to this point, but now she had to decide how much farther she wanted to go and how much more she wanted to give.
She took a few days off, thinking that perhaps she would simply give figure skating up altogether. With each day, though, she found that she missed it more and more. As much as the dance, skating expressed the very essence of her being. She returned to the ice with a renewed purpose. When she entered the 2012 Glacier Falls competition, it was to exhibit the “Two Guitars” and “Romeo and Juliet” programs that would make her the 2013 U.S. juniors champion.
Even as an artist may appreciate the color of a flower only when he sets brush to canvas, so is love in its depth better understood only when it has been lost, or almost so. When she skates upon this ice again, Polina will realize anew how much further in and farther up she wants to go.
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2015
- Country
-
Aren't single/double jumps more or less the norm at GF? At least that was something I noticed about the GF comp in previous years. My guess is Polina will do very well jump wise as the season progresses. I love love both Polina's SP & FS; the ballet training certainly is evident including beautiful extensions and graceful transitions. Her height now accentuates beauty of movement and her graceful long lines; I hope her signature twizzles will be incorporated somewhere.... Program music is perfect, fresh and innovative and the choreography is lovely.:luv17:
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2013
- Country
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It's go time in Finland!!! :hap85:
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2014
It's go time in Finland!!! :hap85:
Good Luck from your fans in California and around the world. Have a great performance and leave the scores up to the judges. As long as you come off the ice happy, that's all we care about.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
October Prelude
The light of October falls gently golden, as nectar passing through air ever cooler for the brevity of its touch. And yet for Polina, there seemed still to be a summer as she took to the ice, still the high familiar endless summer, even for a glint of bronze in the chill mornings, or the leaves of trees along the woodland paths become maroon and yellow. She was not at some club competition held in a hockey-scarred rink in California, however. She’d been in those places earlier in the year, but those were just the tilling of hardscrabble fields that had been left undisturbed for too long. This was an ISU Challenger Series competition at a facility just outside Helsinki. It was a little late to be making such an appearance and not a moment too soon, with the Trophee de France in November and the U.S. nationals at the end of December. Maybe there would even be the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as well, if this journey she’d begun stretched out to so far a horizon. As with musical performances, the grace found in figure skating is the result of endless repetitions. She hadn’t done enough of that, not just yet. Her appearance in Finland would reveal a more nuanced artistry--the arms supple, the port de bras sublime, the lines exquisite—something continuing to develop as her heart continues to deepen. There were aspects which required more work, more repetitions—the jumps were tantalizingly close but not quite there—but here a new beauty found its first budding, as a prelude for themes that will be given richer expression over time. We may provide time with a name, whether of a month or a day, but it is as it will be. We can only know that, for such a talent as hers given such expression, there will surely be dreams and fruit fallen in the night, perfect in the dew of a morning to come.
The light of October falls gently golden, as nectar passing through air ever cooler for the brevity of its touch. And yet for Polina, there seemed still to be a summer as she took to the ice, still the high familiar endless summer, even for a glint of bronze in the chill mornings, or the leaves of trees along the woodland paths become maroon and yellow. She was not at some club competition held in a hockey-scarred rink in California, however. She’d been in those places earlier in the year, but those were just the tilling of hardscrabble fields that had been left undisturbed for too long. This was an ISU Challenger Series competition at a facility just outside Helsinki. It was a little late to be making such an appearance and not a moment too soon, with the Trophee de France in November and the U.S. nationals at the end of December. Maybe there would even be the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as well, if this journey she’d begun stretched out to so far a horizon. As with musical performances, the grace found in figure skating is the result of endless repetitions. She hadn’t done enough of that, not just yet. Her appearance in Finland would reveal a more nuanced artistry--the arms supple, the port de bras sublime, the lines exquisite—something continuing to develop as her heart continues to deepen. There were aspects which required more work, more repetitions—the jumps were tantalizingly close but not quite there—but here a new beauty found its first budding, as a prelude for themes that will be given richer expression over time. We may provide time with a name, whether of a month or a day, but it is as it will be. We can only know that, for such a talent as hers given such expression, there will surely be dreams and fruit fallen in the night, perfect in the dew of a morning to come.
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