Ice Dance
AN: Wow, thank you all for your wonderful support. I didn't really expect to have so many readers. It made me really happy that my readers were learning a lot about figure skating and enjoying it. I've decided to include a little list below for those who might want to take a look at some good figure skating and some of the top contenders and my personal favourites at the Vancouver Olympics. Just type the entire term on youtube and you should be able to get a good video.
Some possible Olympic medalists in 2010:
Ladies:
Mao Asada 2009 World Team Trophy SP
Yuna Kim 2009 Worlds SP
Miki Ando 2009 Worlds SP
Akiko Suzuki 2009 Grand Prix Final LP
Men:
Daisuke Takahashi 2009 Grand Prix Final SP
Patrick Chan 2009 4CC SP
Nobunari Oda 2009 TEB LP
Johnny Weir 2009 Grand Prix Final SP
Pairs:
Savchenko and Szolkowy 2009 Skate Canada LP
Shen Xue and Hongbo Zhao 2009 Skate America SP
Murkatova and Trankov 2009 TEB SP
Ice Dance:
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir 2009 Skate Canada FD (I LOVE this team. They are absolute magic!)
Meryl Davis and Charlie White 2009 Cup of Russia OD
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder 2008 Worlds FD (This team has been off the ice for a bit, hence why this video is from 2008.)
Tanith Belbin and Bejamin Agosto 2009 Skate America FD (I don't really like this team but my friend seems to think highly of this program.)
Some personal favourites from years past:
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir 2008 Worlds FD (The one program that got me interested in figure skating after a long hiatus.)
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir 2007 Worlds OD
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir 2007 Worlds FD
Meryl Davis and Charlie White 2009 4CC FD
Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski 2008 Worlds FD
Mao Asada 2006 Skate America SP (She skates to Nocturne, the song Hanabi and Hinata skated to last chapter.)
Midori Ito 1990 Worlds LP (Nobody jumps like Midori Ito. Greatest female jumper of all time. I love watching her at age 11. She was one of the few girls that did triple jumps at that age.)
Sasha Cohen 2004 Worlds SP (Favourite ladies routine of all time.)
Michelle Kwan Salome
Yuna Kim 2007 Worlds SP
Daisuke Takahashi 2008 4CC SP
Shen Xue and Hongbo Zhao 2003 Worlds LP (Only figure skating routine to have made me bawl my eyes out.)
Evgeni Plushenko 2001 Worlds EX (Most hysterical and best skating exhibition EVER.)
Samuel Contesti 2009 Worlds LP
Enjoy!
Tsunade could hear the emotional crescendos of "Nessun Dorma" (1) coming from a practice rink. Someone was skating to the music of Puccini's Turandot again. The music was overused in figure skating (2) but no one could express its beauty better than Asuma and Kurenai. Their Turnadot free dance (3) was one of the best dances she choreographed. Their passion and skill brought the audience to their feet before their music ended. It was perhaps the best season of her life.
The year Asuma died, Tsunade wondered selfishly if she would ever see such a magical pair ever again. Of course, somewhere along the way, a new brilliant figure skater would break out into the top ranks and dazzle the world, but it wouldn't matter to her if they weren't her skaters. Tsunade coached and choreographed all her teams, and to her, she put her soul into their routines.
Tsunade walked into practice rink 1 on a Monday afternoon. The rink was silent save for the sound of skate blades across the ice. Naruto and Hinata were skating the tango with the most divine concentration. It was then that Tsunade knew that she wanted to see this team succeed and grow.
"Hanabi, watch your edge on the flip, you're flutzing." (4)
Hanabi often wondered what it would be like if her father wasn't her coach. Sure he was an Olympic medalist and all that, but it just seemed weird after a hard and miserable day of practice, you had to go home and still deal with your coach. Sometimes, it just felt unhealthy to have someone control your athletic, family and social life. School seemed to be Hanabi's only haven away from skating.
Then again, it wasn't as if Hanabi hated to skate. There was no euphoria similar to that of taking off into a jump and landing it with perfect grace. Hanabi felt powerful and somewhat special seeing that she could do something that ordinary people couldn't. That was why she loved skating to upbeat and powerful music, so she could play characters with strong personalities.
"Softer, Hanabi, you're not skating to punk rock, you're skating to Nocturne!"
Softer pieces of music were hard to skate to. Hanabi couldn't express their grace as well as her sister could. She really didn't know why her father chose this delicate little piano piece for her to skate to.
"Hiashi, you know I don't skate well to these pretty little piano pieces!"
Hanabi rarely called Hiashi, "father" or "daddy" during their practices. It just didn't feel right.
"All skaters should be versatile and be able to express a lot of things. You can't just skate to Carmen all the time!"
"You won a world title with Carmen."
"A lot of people have won tons of things by skating to Carmen, but frankly, it's getting old. In fact, any old Joe or Jane with an ounce of figure skating experience can skate to Carmen. All you have to do is wave your arms a bit, look sexy or angsty and you've got a program to Carmen. I mean, not being able to skate to Carmen is like not being able to recognize your own national flag. (5) I love Bizet and his opera, but you know Hanabi, you're better than a dime for dozen skater so start skating like one!"
"What's that?" asked Hinata. Naruto and her had just finished skating their tango and decided to take a break. She noticed that Tsunade was there and decided to see what her new coach was doing. Tsunade had some darts and what looked like a map of the world with Russia cut out of it.
"The theme for this year's original dance is folk dance," started Tsunade. One of you will toss a dart onto the map and you'll do a folk dance of the country your dart lands on."
"Why is Russia cut out?"
"Because Russian folk dances and kalinkas are way overdone. And I'm sick of doing the choreography for them." (6)
"Can I throw the dart?" asked Naruto eagerly.
"Shouldn't you let the lady choose?" countered their coach.
"I don't mind if you choose, Naruto."
"You're lucky that your partner's so nice."
Tsunade set up their "darts" game and Naruto promptly threw a dart.
"Hey! Wait until I'm completely out of the way before you throw that, punk!" Tsunade smacked him lightly on the head. Hinata giggled. Everything was so much less formal with Tsunade as their coach.
"Let's see what you've got here, Naruto… Ireland? Ok, immediate disqualification, I refuse to choreograph a Riverdance monstrosity. (7) Hinata, you try throwing a dart."
Hinata's first dart landed in the Pacific Ocean, while her second landed on…
"Spain?" Tsunade pondered for a moment. "Not bad, a flamenco isn't too unusual and I've done one before… You want to stand out but doing something crazy as your debut might not be a great idea. It's always good to show that you can do all the classic stuff before you go crazy and artsy."
This was an exciting prospect to Hinata, she had never skated to flamenco music before.
"Ok, we've got two months to get everything together so you can compete in the regional competition. I'll arrange for a training regime for you both so you guys have to work hard on the ice and also in the gym."
"We can do it!" said Hinata cheerily.
"Don't let your partner down, Naruto."
"Hey, that was an unfair accusation!"
"Why did Sakura leave you then?" asked Tsunade slyly.
"Because she had a crush on Sasuke!" yelled Naruto.
"I see, you weren't man enough for her," his coach teased.
"HEY!"
"Good, Hanabi. That was much better. Take a break and we'll work on your long program." (8)
It had been a long day for Hanabi. Her sister's new interest in ice dance made her father more focused on Hanabi's training. Sometimes she wondered if Hiashi had already completely given up on her sister's career as a single skater.
"Hey Hana, how are you feeling?" Hinata had just entered her practice rink.
"Tired." She hugged her sister tightly.
"Is there anything I could do to help?"
"No." Hanabi buried her face into her sister's shoulder. Sometimes, when she did this, she thought she could recall a few memories of her mother when she was still alive.
"Hanabi, start your warm-up for your long program," stated her father. Hinata went up to the stands to watch.
"Hey, Hinata!" It was Naruto. "Thought I'd hang out with you for a bit."
"Hana is skating her long program." They watched Hanabi in silence.
"Hey, midget's pretty good!"
"Don't call her midget."
Naruto laid his head on Hinata's shoulder. A short while later, Hinata lay her head on his. They hadn't known each other for too long but they knew that they felt safe with each other.
"So, how's my daughter doing so far?" asked Hiashi in the coaches' lounge.
"Wonderful, she's really bringing a lot of enthusiasm and motivation to the partnership," replied Tsunade. She had witnessed the cute little tableau between the two on her way to the washroom that afternoon.
"That's good."
"You know, you're a little hard on your younger daughter."
"We have very different coaching styles, Tsunade."
"Yes, I seem to recall that my good friend Jiraiya was just as hard on a set of twins once, although I must say you're a bit more Spartan than he is…"
"I thank you for your concern, but I know that Hanabi can handle the pressure."
"I don't doubt it, but remember that she's still only 7. She can go on skating, but if she doesn't like it, one of these days she's going to wonder where all of her childhood went."
Hiashi could feel a bitter taste at the back of his throat. He knew that sentiment all too well.
When Hanabi was cooling down, she saw her sister and Naruto in the stands, their heads on top of one another. She finished her cool down routine as fast as she could and went up to the stands right after she unlaced her skates.
"Hey blondie, get yourself off my sister!"
"I don't have to unless Hinata doesn't want me to lean on her!"
"Well, she doesn't so get off!"
"How do you know she doesn't, midget?"
"Both of you just stop. You should know better than to quarrel like this. Anyways, father's probably waiting for us by the exit. We'll see you tomorrow, Naruto!" The two girls got up to get their stuff from the change room and leave. As they left, Hanabi turned around and stuck her tongue out at Naruto. The blond boy did the same.
This was the beginning of a new rivalry.
1) Some of you might know this song as the one Paul Potts sang for Britain's Got Talent.
2) Other overused songs or music: music from the Phantom of the Opera, Carmen, Swan Lake, Bolero, Malaguena, Tosca, Scheherazade, Romeo and Juliet, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Rachmaninoff's piano concerto II, Dark Eyes, Firebird and I'm sure the list can go on.
3) There are 3 portions to an ice dance competition: the compulsory dance, the original dance and the free dance.
The compulsory dance or CD is a dance with standardized steps, so all skaters have to skate the same dance around the ice. The International Skating Union (ISU) has a list of all the dances along with their choreography. In each season, the ISU chooses two compulsory dances for all competitions sanctioned by the ISU. This year, they were the tango romantica and the golden waltz. The compulsory dance is useful for judges to compare the skating skills of each team since all skaters have to do the same thing. The CD is worth 10 percent of the final score.
The original dance or OD is the second portion of the ice dance competition. The ISU sets a theme and a rhythm for the music for each year. This year's theme is folk dance. The original dance is worth 40 percent of the final score.
The free dance or FD is the final portion of the competition. In the free dance, dancers can basically do whatever they want as long as they fulfill the program requirements (ie, required number of lifts, step sequences etc;) It's often the best part of the competition with the most creative routines. The FD is worth 50 percent of the final mark.
4) There are two edges in figure skating: the inside and outside edge. Now, put your feet together and imagine that they form 3 lines. One line corresponds to the line that forms when your two feet are touching. If you skate blade leans towards that "inside" part of the foot when skating, you're skating on the inside edge. If your skate with the blade leaning out the other way, you're skating on the outside edge.
Every jump is specific due to its takeoff direction, position and edge. A flutz is a common mistake among skaters. The flip jump is a jump that takes off on the back inside edge; however some figure skaters take off on the outside edge. It seems like a minor mistake, but it's considered bad technique and so skaters get penalized for it. It should also be noted that judges and technical experts have only started penalizing skaters on things like wrong edges and other mistakes like under-rotation of a jump just recently. If you watch programs before 2006, you might see a lot of skaters on the wrong edge or under-rotation without being penalized. The other day I watched my childhood hero Michelle Kwan skate a program in which she did a triple jump with a rotation almost done entirely on the ice. It made me really sad. What's worse is that the commentators praised it.
5) Pairs team Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison failed at skating to Carmen last year. It was really sad. Not in the tragic way, but in the, "You know you fail when…" way.
6) This is true by the way. Although part of the reason is because there are a lot of Russian skaters, coaches and choreographers in the sport.
7) Canadian ice dancers Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz did a Riverdance FD in 1998/1999. It was a very… unfortunate routine and um… not everyone's cup of tea. Also, I have nothing against Canadian figure skaters, I don't tend to judge figure skaters by nationality. (By the way, my favourite skaters are Canadian, I just don't like the Riverdance routine and I find Dube/Davison mentioned in note 5 very boring.) If I like your skating, I could seriously care less about where you're from. It's just that whenever I talk to some figure skating fans who aren't too deeply interested, they tend to know the skaters by nationality.
8) Unlike ice dancers, pairs and single skaters do 2 routines: the short program and the long program. They differ by their length of time and required elements.
