Favorite programs that "tell a story"

[JoannaLouise]

I'm trying to turn my work friend into a skating fan. She got sucked into watching Yuri on Ice through her kids, who love anime. This weekend she went to the Thank You Canada Tour, and had a blast.

Today she asked me "Do skaters always have a story in mind when they're doing their routines?".

I'd like to send her some videos of programs that have an elaborate or interesting story.

So: What are your favorites? Campy or serious, your choice.

 

[Spun Silver]

I am not sure about elaborate, and certainly not always, but hints of narrative and emotional highlights of stories for sure:

Gilles/Poirier Starry Night
Shibutanis Fix You
Weaver/Poje Je Suis Malade
Kurt Browning, Casablanca
Sale/Pelletier Love Story
Sasha Cohen Romeo and Juliet
Klimova/Ponomarenko Romeo and Juliet
Anissina/Peizerat Romeo and Juliet
(Perhaps the top three contenders in a very crowded field!)
Katarina Witt, Carmen
Samantha Cesario, Carmen
Julia Lipnitskaya, Schindlers List

Etc. etc. etc.

 

[yurokis40]

Weaver and Poje Sos d'un therrien en detresse
Duchesnays Missing

 

[Alilou]

V&M Moulin Rouge!
There's a Muse routine from the Kerrs from a few years back telling the story of siblings helping each other through catastrophic circumstances (Armageddon type thing). I'm pretty sure it was the first Muse program they did. I'll see if I can find it.

Pretty sure this is it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lLdqw_5Jw8

And there's not a story but I do think you should show your friend the Kerrs Scottish dance!

 

[pat c]

Kurt Browning - Casablanca
Savchenko & Szolkowy - Pink Panther
Laurent Tobel - Pink Panther - and didn't he do an ex in a tutu? I forget the music tho
Debbie Thomas - Wanda Beazel ex

 

[Impromptu]

Vanessa Gusmeroli, cat burglar program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy2cfZPa_j8

 

[MsZem]

The Duchesnays' Missing is probably at the top of the list.

- Pechalat/Bourzat's Circus, Chaplin, and The Little Prince.
- Faiella and Scali's Immigrants FD (2010).
- Pretty much every DelSchoes program in existence.
- Hurtado/Diaz's Picasso FD.

- Yagudin could not have made The Man in the Iron Mask more literal if he'd tried. Likewise Joubert's James Bond and The Matrix. And Schultheiss with the 2010 free skate.
- Speaking of James Bond, well, Yuna Kim
- Mao Asada's delightful Mary Poppins exhibition (2013).

 

[Vash01]

Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze - 'City lights' and 'The Kid'

Evgenia Medvedeva - Anna Karenina

Davis & White - Scheherazade

Anissina & Peizerat - Romeo & Juliet (Prokofiev)

Gordeeva & Grinkov - Romeo & Juliet (Tchaikovsky)

Klimova & Ponomarenko - Tchaikovsky (a sick woman who dies and her lover cannot let go of her)- I love this program and the use of a long black scarf to represent the disease that took her life.

 

[mjb52]

I don't think M & D's Liebestraum as explicitly tells a story in the form of narrative as some of the other options here but it definitely feels like it does. I also liked the Usova & Platov (I think?) program to Love Story. Or was that Usova & Zhulin before they broke up? Wow, I am getting old! I honestly can't remember! Anyway... it's a good program, if maybe a teensy bit cheesy. (does anyone else remember this? It had some moment where she picked up some ice and pretended it was a snowball I think?)

Oh and Torvill & Dean's Encounter program.

 

[skatesindreams]

Klimova & Ponomarenko - "Dracula" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YsZ4kUJoso

 

[escaflowne9282]

Vanessa Gusmeroli, cat burglar program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy2cfZPa_j8

This!!!!
I was just about to post this. In an era when everything was so generic ,this was such a standout. A ladies skater doing a program with choreography, plot and a theme was just so unusual for that era.

 

[AxelAnnie]

First question: How familiar are they with classical music? You may want to stay with accessible stories.

Lupnitskaya's Schindler's List....good skate...great elements, familiar story.
Sasha Cohen - Swan Lake (at Marshalls Cup - Uncle Dick commentates) Dark Eyes at the Olympics, and her R&J.

Shoma Uno's current LP - it is brilliant and she can see some great quads.

Javier Fernandez' d Guys and Dolls. Great Quads, Fabulous skating and interpretation.

Ice dance is kind of hard to understand. I think Maddie and Zach's Les Miz If you can find it, is really good, and easy to follow.

Next, I would recommend programs that have a commentator.........it is easier to know what is what.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[skatesindreams]

My favorite version of K and P's "Dracula" is from the 1994 Champions on Ice-Post Olympic Tour.
I can't find a video of it.

 

[screech]

Javier Fernandez' Both Don Quixote and Guys and Dolls. Great Quads.

Yes to Guys and Dolls - rolling the dice and everything!

Kurt Browning's Casablanca

I can't really remember the actual performance, but when I read the title the first thing that came to my mind was the music from Somewhere in Time, picturing Dubreuil/Lauzon.

 

[SmallFairy]

Vanessa Gusmeroli, cat burglar program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy2cfZPa_j8

You beat me to it. I love it to pieces.

Also want to mention
Stanick Jeannette - The little prince, from 2002/2003 season.

Vlascheslav Zagarodniuk - The sourceres apprentice

Schwartz/Müller - violence against woman-program from when they won bronze at worlds 1998
Also their Patch Adams-program

Lots of Addams family-programs tells a story, based on the films. Kristina Czako, Abitbol/Bernadis, Susie/Fedor++

Anissina/Peizerrat - Beethoven's last night FD 2000/2001

I'm sure there's a lot more ice dance programs I've forgotten about

(Dare I say it? Lobacheva/Averbukh's 911...)

 

[Spun Silver]

Mao Asada's Madame Butterfly (both her solo program and the ex version she did with Jeff Buttle)
Kavaguti and Smirnov, Manfred Symphony
Rudy Galindo's Swqn Lake (he plays the evil sorcerer)

 

[AxelAnnie]

I went back and put in links for you.

 

[Spun Silver]

Klimova & Ponomarenko - "Dracula" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YsZ4kUJoso

Perfect Halloween program. Creepy, scary and gorgeous.

 

[bardtoob]

D10 2013 Worlds

 

[peibeck]

Also want to mention
Stanick Jeannette - The little prince, from 2002/2003 season.

I love this program.

I'll toss in Bebe Liang's "Harry Potter" short program as well.

 

[PRlady]

Denkova/Staviski Seven Deadly Sins!
Lobocheva/Averbukh 9/11
Med’s 9/11 program. I don’t care if I’m the only one in the whole world who liked it.
Ditto for Bobrova/Soloviev’s blind-person-FD last year.

I’m not sure if you’d call it storytelling but James/Cipres Sound of Silence was one of the most powerful programs I’ve seen.

 

[Vash01]

Denkova/Staviski Seven Deadly Sins!
Lobocheva/Averbukh 9/11
Med’s 9/11 program. I don’t care if I’m the only one in the whole world who liked it.
Ditto for Bobrova/Soloviev’s blind-person-FD last year.

I’m not sure if you’d call it storytelling but James/Cipres Sound of Silence was one of the most powerful programs I’ve seen.

I liked Med's 9/11 program. It grew on me as the season progressed.

I also liked her W.E. but I don't know if it tells a story. She uses the soundtrack of that movie.

'Tosca' by many skaters- Petrenko (pro), Slutskaya, Yagudin, Kwan. I thought Petrenko's was more true to the Opera. He even got blood on his shirt at the end.

 

[Japanfan]

Denis Ten The Artist Parts 1 & 2.

 

[SmallFairy]

Of course, Phillippe Candeoro - Godfather part I, II, III, IV!

 

[Japanfan]

A ladies skater doing a program with choreography, plot and a theme was just so unusual for that era.

Still unusual today. That's why the program to ACDC last year (____? Toth) was so memorable. Likewise for Leonova's Pirates of the Caribbean SP. Not sure whether there was an actual story, but the program had character in both senses of the world.

Gabbi Daleman baled on an opportunity to tell a story when she skated to Gladiator, IMO. Such a shame, that.

 

[pat c]

Kristina Czako - The Addams Family.

 

[skatesindreams]

This:

John Zimmernan and Stephanie Steigler - "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvp96fqlRTk&t=128s

 

[shine]

Jeremy Abbott - Life is Beautiful
Hawayek & Baker - The Theory of Everything

 

[MichaelK]

Laetitia Hubert's legendary hooker on drugs program including police sirens and seizures fits into this category well.

 

[Limonite]

Mishkutenok & Dmitriev's -"Liebestraum". Artur said he was a poet and she was a pink cloud; his muse, his dream... always chasing her.

Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze - "City Lights". They played Chaplin and the blind flower girl.

Michelle Kwan - "Salome". The biblical temptress who danced the dance of seven veils.