Lesser known performances of well known skaters

[Vash01]

Another fluff- off season thread, for what it's worth.

The other day I was watching B&S's Umbrellas of Cherbourg performance from the 2000 GPF. I think it was the only time they performed it, and their lack of familiarity with this music showed. With more practice it could have been a pretty good program but for some reason they never skated it again. That made me think of other skaters that had a few performances that were skated just once or twice, or were simply not well known.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq-D1w7GcIQ


Michelle Kwan's Miraculous Mandarin, though a good program, was not used much after the GPF performance (2001). Not sure why. I believe she had one SP choreo'ed by Chris Dean that was abandoned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWarys9kuzM

Yagudin skated to music from Broken Arrow all season, but replaced it with Lawrence of Arabia at worlds, so the BA program sort of went into oblivion because LOA won him another world championship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6_4j1dsa_k

G&G's Scheherzadeh was not a well known (pro) program at all, I have it on a tape, but it was not easy to find it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cttmf6lDIk

[falling_dance]

Carolina Kostner's Swan Lake LP had a couple of outings in the fall of 2008 before being replaced by the Dumky Trio program for the remainder of the season.

[Kasey]

Yagudin skated to music from Broken Arrow all season, but replaced it with Lawrence of Arabia at worlds, so the BA program sort of went into oblivion because LOA won him another world championship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6_4j1dsa_k

Nope. Yagudin had skated to Broken Arrow all season, and replaced it with Tosca at Worlds, winning his third World championship with it. LoA was his first world title, and he'd used that program all season.

[Zemgirl]

Nope. Yagudin had skated to Broken Arrow all season, and replaced it with Tosca at Worlds, winning his third World championship with it. LoA was his first world title, and he'd used that program all season.

LoA was when he won his second world title - this was the first.

Stephane Lambiel sometimes dumped programs in mid-season or after very few events, leaving behind some interesting, if not fully developed, programs.

[shine]

Nope. Yagudin had skated to Broken Arrow all season, and replaced it with Tosca at Worlds, winning his third World championship with it. LoA was his first world title, and he'd used that program all season.

LoA should be his 2nd world title in 1999. His 1998 win was his first, with Mishin-esque choreography

[Lizziebeth]

LoA should be his 2nd world title in 1999. His 1998 win was his first, with Mishin-esque choreography

I was at 1998 world's and I totally did not "get" Yagudin at that event So glad he moved on from Mishin.

[l'etoile]

Yuna Kim's Miss Saigon from from Cup of Russia 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=009PmBVxZDI

It was a record-setting performance (133.70 points) with perfect array of five triple jumps by Yuna which is rare because yuna hasn't had triple loop jump in years since 2008. Technically just picture perfect, and this is when her interpretation and story-telling skills have tremendously improved.

I prefer her Worlds performance though she was injured. There was a quite ethereal, innocent character and skater on the ice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUpJ7g98eTM Peggy Fleming and Dick Button just go crazy with her jumps and spins in this commentary and also with his good'ol "Turn your foot out here, my dear" comment

[skatesindreams]

I believe she had one SP choreo'ed by Chris Dean that was abandoned.

Michelle had two "contemporary" programs that were not appreciated by the TPTB:

Michelle Kwan 2000 Masters SP "Rush"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xZ9T7WSQuk

2000 Japan Open SP "A Day In The Life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb3_W4BMfqI

I liked both of these; but, the International judges seemed lukewarm.

[Frau Muller]

For the 91/92 Olympic season, Finland's Rahkamo/Kokko had prepared a Polka OD that was "too hot" for judges, since it was about a Sailor & a Prostitute. A clip is seen here, at around the 1:55 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEbgbwhoO0Y

They had to change it to a more family-friendly "Lapland Polka" for the Olympics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ebPwftemw

[Frau Muller]

Here's another, from the same era. The Duchesnays performed their first 1991 FD, "Reflections," only once competitively, at 91 Euros:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qaqag3LTHM&feature=fvsr

It was deemed not too audience friendly (artsy-wierd), so...

...then switched to a rehash (same theme/costumes, different music) of their successful 1990 LP, "Missing," at 91 Worlds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkei...eature=related

[briancoogaert]

Michelle had two "contemporary" programs that were not appreciated by the TPTB:

Michelle Kwan 2000 Masters SP "Rush"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xZ9T7WSQuk

2000 Japan Open SP "A Day In The Life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb3_W4BMfqI

I liked both of these; but, the International judges seemed lukewarm.

Yes, but A day in the life is not a lesser known program, since she used it all season long, even at US Nats and Worlds.
I was not fond of this program too. I thought it was the music, but Jeremy Abbott did something good with it. So, I don't know why I don't love it as much as I love her other programs. (and I loved Rush.)

[judgejudy27]

Michelle had two "contemporary" programs that were not appreciated by the TPTB:

Michelle Kwan 2000 Masters SP "Rush"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xZ9T7WSQuk

2000 Japan Open SP "A Day In The Life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb3_W4BMfqI

I liked both of these; but, the International judges seemed lukewarm.

I am not sure I get you here. Michelle won every short program she was in with "Day in The Life" even with doing the triple toe most of the season, except for the 2000 Nationals where she fell on the triple toe (and was still placed over a clean Nikidinov), and at the 2000 Worlds where she was beaten by Maria's best ever short program performance and lost 2nd to Slutksaya because of one very shaky landing.

As for Rush she didnt skate it long enough to tell. She lost the short program to Slutskaya at Skate Canada but a clean Irina pretty much always won any short program in the 00-01 and 01-02 seasons, usually very easily.

[barbk]

Loved "Day in the Life" and "Miraculous Mandarin," but I still don't find "Rush" compelling. Maybe it is because the music doesn't seem to have highs and lows? I haven't watched it again in years, but when I did just now I found it left me just as cold as before. Even the crowd didn't seem to get into the footwork sequence, which was usually something Kwan was good at evoking a reaction on.

[judgejudy27]

I actually liked Rush, but I am surprised by some of Dean's work. Kwan's Bolero which was created by the performer of the historic Bolero, somehow ended up being her worst program ever by far.

[scootie12]

I actually liked Rush, but I am surprised by some of Dean's work. Kwan's Bolero which was created by the performer of the historic Bolero, somehow ended up being her worst program ever by far.

I think Dean's original choreography is in this program:
http://youtu.be/JdM6yxjYli0

I really enjoyed the look of the program when it was first seen at Campbell's.

I think because of IJS/CoP, the program morphed into the version it became, and by the time it reached Worlds, it fell flat a bit. I think a lot of it had to do with all of the counting on the spins, spirals, etc. The Worlds performance certainly felt like Michelle was trying to comply with the IJS standards, and trying to hit the levels needed to remain competitive at that event. She just didn't appear fully comfortable within the confines of the new system. However, with that said, it was very impressive that in her first IJS event (being Worlds too), she just missed 3rd place.

After Worlds, when she competed at the Marshalls event, I really liked the program again (when it had the WC choreography). I think she finally felt comfortable with it, and she skated it so well at the end of the season. I wish that performance was on youtube, but I haven't seen it on there in ages.

However, my favorite version was the original one seen at Campbell's 2004.

[dramagrrl]

There are some programs that never saw the light of competition that I wish I had been able to see:

Bourne & Kraatz had a FD choreographed by Marina Zueva to the music of "Samson and Delilah" (same/very similar cuts to the ones used by Davis & White with great success in 2009 - the few people I know who did get to see B&K's program in training say that there was quite a lot of choreographic similarity between the two programs as well) in the summer of 2000, but ended up dumping it for "March With Me" () when they decided to be coached and choreographed by Tarasova full-time for the 2000-2001 season. I think S&D would've suited them much better (and Zueva's choreo would've definitely suited them better than Taraosova's, IMO), so I would've loved to see this.

David Wilson choreographed a freeskate to the soundtrack of Ever After (a beautiful soundtrack that I had been hoping to see someone worthy use) for Kimmie Meissner in the summer of 2007, but she ended up going back to Lori Nichol and dumping Wilson's program for Nichol's "Nessun Dorma" at the last minute. I believe some of the music cuts and choreo of the Ever After program lived again when Wilson used it for Canadian skater Rylie McCulloch-Casarsa in 2009-10.

And perhaps the program I would've most loved to see - Christopher Dean choreographed a FD set to selections from Cirque du Soleil soundtracks for Jamie Silverstein & Justin Pekarek in the summer of 2000, but the partnership dissolved shortly afterwards, and so the program never got to see the light of day.

[sk8boy]

I remember seeing clips of Tanja Szewczenko's programs post 1998 worlds... her German Nationals programs to "Dragon" and a jazzy SP... wish those were still around in their entirety.

Also Lu Chen's La Mer from 1997 Worlds qualifying... it's like the Holy Grail of skating... no one can find it.

As for Kwan's jazzy SP's... Day in the Life was great and well received. The beginning of "Rush" was HER. the fast part... not so much... the music seemed elevatory. she should have kept the beginning theme throughout... would have been really special.

[Lainerb]

Also Lu Chen's La Mer from 1997 Worlds qualifying... it's like the Holy Grail of skating... no one can find it.
.

I hear that. The most anything has been seen on it was during an interview clip during the 1996-1997 season and there was about 5-10 sec clip of Lulu attempting a split-3toe and falling on it. I presume that was from her long program that season. Rumor has it her qualifying program was shown on Swiss TV.

[paskatefan]

Shen & Zhao's "Mt. Olympus" from 1998. This is the first program of theirs that I saw, and was so impressed from that point on.

[Cherub721]

Evgeny Plushenko 2001-2002 GPF LP - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWAget5XJDc The music was Eclipse/Tango de Roxanne/Opus, but IIRC he gave it some pretentious name like "Portrait of an Artist." This was to be his Olympic program, but he ended up skipping Euros and coming up with "Carmen" for SLC, which turned out to be one of my favorite programs of his, so that was a good change.

Surya Bonaly 1997 GP series LP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlZBQx3lO9U Samson & Delilah. This is from Skate Canada. This is a really bad performance where she's coming off her Achilles tendon injury, but I love this music for her. She dropped this program for the Four Seasons at the Olympics.

Alexei Yagudin 2002 Skate America SP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q70BbgHUIQ The music was from Safri Duo and the theme was a Formula 1 racer. This was a clever program. He's in amazing shape considering the hip injury and it being early in the season, but I would've loved to have seen this one develop over the season. He won this SP but ended up withdrawing and never competed again in eligible competition.