Lesser known performances of well known skaters

[Vash01]

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.

His first world title was in 1998, skating to Carmen.

However, you are right about replacing Broken Arrow with Tosca (3rd title)

[briancoogaert]

His first world title was in 1998, skating to Carmen.

However, you are right about replacing Broken Arrow with Tosca (3rd title)

He skated to Troika in 1998.
Carmen was in 1997 for his first World Medal bronze)

[paskatefan]

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.

I didn't realize this was a competitive program for Alexei, but it was very enjoyable to watch him skate to it in SOI.

[Skate Talker]

Not memorable enough of a performance for me to bother hunting it down now, but in 1995/96 season Elvis Stojko had a program to The Last of the Mohicans that he dropped by nationals because he said he couldn't get enough energy from a program about such a depressing theme and it was affecting his performance. I believe on of the times he performed it was at the 1995 NHK.

[Cherub721]

Elvis Stojko had a program to The Last of the Mohicans that he dropped by nationals because he said he couldn't get enough energy from a program about such a depressing theme and it was affecting his performance.

Interesting; who ever thought Stojko was so sensitive? That's kinda nice to read, actually.

[Skate Talker]

Actually, on FSVids I posted a link to an interview with Elvis from the 1996 Canadian Championships and labelled it "Elvis is not The Last Mohican (Sensitive guy that he is, Elvis explains why he dropped his new Free program)" You read my mind

[Diyoris]

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.

Didn't they reused this program once on the GP circuit in the early 2000's?

[kathy sullivan]

With all the excitment about the programs and costumes, and all the chaos around the injuries, going on with Michelle around 2006 Nationals and Olympics, I don't think I'll ever recover from not seeing her planned programs. I know we saw an abbreviated peek at her SP at the cheesfest but I still yearn to know what she had planned for the real thing, and nothing of the LP ever emerged. I mean she actually showed up at the Olympics - she had to have two programs and two costumes ready to go. I thought sure by now somehow we would have seen practice vids or geez at least pics of her costumes - but alas I guess we never will.

[TwizzlerS]

Another set of "lost" programs are the ones that Lang and Tchernyshev were going to use circa 2004 (the year they decided to come back but withdrew at US Nationals after the CD). I don't think I ever heard what these programs were.

[Marco]

Kwan's Olympic programs for 2006 and 2010. Her 2006 and 2010 short programs were skated exactly once and her infamous 2006 Bells program choreographed by TAT was never publicly skated.

One performance I wish I could see on youtube again is Meissner's Japan Open version of Turandout in 2008. She had struggled with jumps all season and finally skated a strong performance at the end of the season there and showing what a effective program it could be.

[Cherub721]

Kwan's Olympic programs for 2006 and 2010. Her 2006 and 2010 short programs were skated exactly once and her infamous 2006 Bells program choreographed by TAT was never publicly skated.

[falling_dance]

I think Marco is referring to her Carmina Burana program from Kim Yu-Na's show in 2009.

[Marco]

I think Marco is referring to her Carmina Burana program from Kim Yu-Na's show in 2009.

Thanks. That was to be her Olympic short program if she was to come back. I don't think she ever got an Olympic free choreographed for 2010 (or at least she never said she did).

Not having seen her Bells was upsetting but if her version was anything like Asada's, I think I might just be relieved never having seen it.

[falling_dance]

Not having seen her Bells was upsetting but if her version was anything like Asada's, I think I might just be relieved never having seen it.

The world wuzrobbed of Kwan's defiant self-slapping.

I enjoyed Hell's Bells.

[casken]

The other day I was watching B&S's Umbrellas of Cherbourg performance from the 2000 GPF.

Was that the same year as Abitbol and Bernadis' "Mermaid" program that was the exact same program as there other LP except he had a giant anchor on his chest representing the fact that he was playing a sailor?

Lobacheva and Averbuch had a FD to "Allegria" in the 2000 season that they only performed once at Skate America. It was probably the most difficult, or at least one of the most difficult, FDs under 6.0 that I have seen. It had almost constant crisis-crossing and intertwining dance holds with lifts coming out of nowhere with almost no preparation. It was waaaaay too difficult for them and the dance was a total mess and was never skated again after that. They switched to "Release" for the GPF and Euros, and then for some reason brought back "Jesus Christ Superstar" for worlds even though "Diablo" would have been a far better choice to resurrect.

Speaking of overly difficult, there was the Latin OD that Christopher Dean did for A&P in 2000 that I believe never made it out of the grand prix. They might have skated a significantly altered version at Euros, but I'm not sure.

I believe Kazakova and Dmitriev had a sp to "La Coocha Racha" that they performed only once and was so bad that even Moskvina made a joke about it in an interview years later. I've never seen it, unfortunately.

One of my favorite lesser know programs was Delobel and Schoenfelder's inventive "Songs of the Victorious City" FD which I believe they only performed twice before going back to "Vivre pour le meilleur" for the 2002 Olympics. They went back becuase they felt "Vivre" was more "Olympic" in feeling, which I agree with, I just wish they went back to the "Victorious City" FD in 2003 rather than the lovely but somewhat generic "Mythodea" FD.

I would also include all of Krisztina Czako's programs after 1997. All lost gems.

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)

Not surprising since there's a lot of similarity between the choreography of all of Zueva's dance programs.

[Cherub721]

Thanks. That was to be her Olympic short program if she was to come back. I don't think she ever got an Olympic free choreographed for 2010 (or at least she never said she did).

Am I missing something? I had no idea Kwan ever had plans to come back for 2010. I know she always gave the "I'm not retired and I would love to return" media sound byte, but I had no idea she actually considered it to the point of having a short program in her back pocket.

[Vash01]

He skated to Troika in 1998.
Carmen was in 1997 for his first World Medal bronze)

You are right. I remember his skate to Sviridov's music; I got confused between the years.

[misskarne]

Apparently Plushenko has a lost "Nutcracker" SP floating around somewhere. It was actually supposed to be his 2006 Olympic SP, and they had the program choreographed, and then he happened to catch a bit of Edvin Marton's arrangement of "Tosca" and decided he was going that way instead.

A shame, I think "Nutcracker" would have been an interesting program for him.

[Vash01]

Apparently Plushenko has a lost "Nutcracker" SP floating around somewhere. It was actually supposed to be his 2006 Olympic SP, and they had the program choreographed, and then he happened to catch a bit of Edvin Marton's arrangement of "Tosca" and decided he was going that way instead.

A shame, I think "Nutcracker" would have been an interesting program for him.

During the 2006 season I had heard that he was going to skate his SP to 'Once upon a time in Mexico' (I am not sure of the title), but it never appeared. I don't know if it ever existed, but may be someone knows.

[AznSkateFan]

Didn't they reused this program once on the GP circuit in the early 2000's?

It was their second? Free Skate at the 2001 GPF.