From Russia With Love (No 32): Spring to Summer 2019

[babayaga]

I really hope that Alina focuses more on a pro career now that she's won everything. She looked like she was suffering all season. There was rarely any joy in her face or demeanor. And with 3A turning senior, it's probably best to go out on top. She has nothing more to prove.

I suspect she will look much happier next season If only they give her programs next year where she won't have to struggle through continuous choreography and transitions on every beat of music and give her some breathing room she might look like a whole new skater.

 

[Wyliefan]

But they do that to rack up points, for transitions and so on, so I don't see it changing.

 

[WillyElliot]

I suspect she will look much happier next season If only they give her programs next year where she won't have to struggle through continuous choreography and transitions on every beat of music and give her some breathing room she might look like a whole new skater.

If there were any reason to return, selfishly I would want to see her just skate a beautiful program/s that don't have ten cuts. How could anyone think her programs this year were good? I'd hate to remember her with those abortions of programs.

 

[babayaga]

But they do that to rack up points, for transitions and so on, so I don't see it changing.

Yes, but in the Carmen program she was doing something with her feet and her body every single second. They could cut it in half, and there will still be plenty.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Daniil Gleikhengauz gave an interview last night (during Gala) to one of the Russian TV channels.
He said that the Team and Zagitova already planning SP and FS for next season, discussing concepts and themes. They will start working on it further as soon as they are back at the rink. When asked to share what they might be, Daniil said he is not ready to discuss it, but the FS for sure will be "in character/in concept" which Alina has not yet (in her skating career) ever been familiar with (introduced to before)...

 

[babayaga]

Daniil Gleikhengauz gave an interview last night (during Gala) to one of the Russian TV channels.
He said that the Team and Zagitova already planning SP and FS for next season, discussing concepts and themes. They will start working on it further as soon as they are back at the rink. When asked to share what they might be, Daniil said he is not ready to discuss it, but the FS for sure will be "in character/in concept" which Alina has not yet (in her skating career) has ever been familiar with (introduced to before)...

I am scared already. He is probably full of ideas.

 

[Rina RUS]

There is enough to criticize without making up absurd fictional claims

this.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Z/E... i just have to post this (from the WC dinner)... they look great!

https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagra...n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagram.com

 

[WillyElliot]

Daniil Gleikhengauz gave an interview last night (during Gala) to one of the Russian TV channels.
He said that the Team and Zagitova already planning SP and FS for next season, discussing concepts and themes. They will start working on it further as soon as they are back at the rink. When asked to share what they might be, Daniil said he is not ready to discuss it, but the FS for sure will be "in character/in concept" which Alina has not yet (in her skating career) ever been familiar with (introduced to before)...

How do you interpret that, Tinami? Was not her Black Swan in character/in concept? Her Carmen? I am so happy for Alina's success at Worlds, but her programs were just a hodgepodge of MOVEMENT, a lot of it unnecessary IMO. I rewatched her two programs at Worlds, but just didn't see "the vision". I can't bear to go back yet again to see what I probably will never see in those programs. Frankly, Danill gave Kostornaia the programs of the year. It's a shame he couldn't give the Olympic champion better programs.

 

[zebraswan]

I mean all top russian guys, and they all post, some more, some less, but it is all "pretty pictures" and "what fun time they are having somewhere OTHER than a rink".. That's good... but now how about some results where it counts..

God forbid anyone ever post anything on social media or have a bit of fun, or anything resembling a real life outside of a rink, ever...good grief. It takes almost no time at all to snap a photo and post it. What is it to you? Boikova/Kozlovskii post way more than any of the Russian men, and they post beautiful pics from their travels with long texts, and so what? It doesn't affect their training or performances. Compared to many others (Liza?), most of the Russian men post very infrequently. And I'm pretty sure most coaches ban them from having their cameras during on-ice practice as a rule. So what else should they post, and when, according to you? Victoria Sinitsina and Natalia post endless boring selfies and they just won medals...so?

 

[Spun Silver]

How do you interpret that, Tinami? Was not her Black Swan in character/in concept? Her Carmen? I am so happy for Alina's success at Worlds, but her programs were just a hodgepodge of MOVEMENT, a lot of it unnecessary IMO. I rewatched her two programs at Worlds, but just didn't see "the vision". I can't bear to go back yet again to see what I probably will never see in those programs. Frankly, Danill gave Kostornaia the programs of the year. It's a shame he couldn't give the Olympic champion better programs.

Obviously her programs have portrayed characters, so apparently he means a different character. It seems they have decided Alina's thing is to portray characters the way they decided Med's was to show dramatic emotion with her face and mime. It makes sense. I was just thinking how good Alina is at that. Her Carmen is completely unlike her Don Q. I felt she pulled off a very credible Carmen - she grew up a lot from 15 to 16 to be able to do that.

 

[Tinami Amori]

How do you interpret that, Tinami? Was not her Black Swan in character/in concept? Her Carmen? I am so happy for Alina's success at Worlds, but her programs were just a hodgepodge of MOVEMENT, a lot of it unnecessary IMO. I rewatched her two programs at Worlds, but just didn't see "the vision". I can't bear to go back yet again to see what I probably will never see in those programs. Frankly, Danill gave Kostornaia the programs of the year. It's a shame he couldn't give the Olympic champion better programs.

I see three different subjects in your question.
- not ready to make any serious guesses.. not enough "givens". For the last three years, she had Sam/Del, DQ, Black Swan, POTO, Carmen. I'd sum it up as a "seductress/playful young female" themes, and all are "theatre/stage/film" based.

As an adult, she has not yet skated to pure (non stage/visually associated) classical; modern/contemporary (other than show numbers), folk/ethnic, latin, jazz/swing/40's tunes.. When she was a kid she did well with this jazzy foxtrot...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BFo3zAWgTg
Maybe she'll skate to "Orange Color Sky"...

- I happen to like SP and FS for all 4 Jr. girls' programmes for Trus, Shcher and Kost and Valieva..
Kostornaya's are my least favorite ones, maybe because "she floats too much" and there the is no "ump and bump" in her routines, not enough "power" and "ta-dah" moves for my taste. But they are all good... My favorite programmes are for Trusova, then Shcher, then Kostornaya... Valieva is younger, but her SP is my VERY favorite of all Jr. girls.

For example of ALL exhibitions tonight at the World's Gala, i only liked 1 programme for ladies - Miyahara's .. and! only the 2nd part @ 1:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr13ld2-BpE

- What you want to see is fine to express, i have my prefs too, and talk about them.... But you can not "demand and insist" that a winning training team "does how you wish" and your requests do sound "a bit insistent".. You don't like those programmes, you have an option not to watch... I happen to like Black Swan, DQ, Carmen very much, and am ok with POTO..

So we have different taste, i am quite sure, and am a wrong person commiserate with...

 

[Tinami Amori]

Saw posted other boards that it was because Alina had a mental breakdown. Not dealing with being hunted and not hunter. Pressure get to her. No injuries. She doesn’t handle pressure. This comes from other forums. Not sure if truth. Anyone know if this right?

Ok, last one for tonight... WC are over, and Team ET is not paying me..

It is true that Tutberidze in her interview to Yagudin (starting @ 5:55) said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=363&v=kKbw_oG3G0A
- they are still deciding if they want to participate in Team Trophy event. Exact words "we still have a question mark about our participation".
- she said it had been a difficult process preparing for this event, morally, and happy to make it to the ice.
- the whole team and Zagitova (all jointly) were debating to go or not, up until the previous Saturday. The team decided to go, it was a joint decision.

From what i understood on "inside the rink mothers/skaters" chats/blogs is that Alina had anxiety attacks, and it affected her breathing during practice and routine (something like she would forget to breathe). One person said that "some kind soul" let Alina read an internet discussion where it was said that "they will replace her with Tuktamysheva at the last minute, because the Federation believes Alina is injured and hiding it" and few other "rumors", so Alina freaked out.

So they brought in Masaru, to hang out with her, and she got better. After i saw this short clip, what they said kind of made sense...
https://i3.imageban.ru/out/2019/03/24/97f57443428915243081dbe7f6472db2.gif

 

[lala]

Obviously her programs have portrayed characters, so apparently he means a different character. It seems they have decided Alina's thing is to portray characters the way they decided Med's was to show dramatic emotion with her face and mime. It makes sense. I was just thinking how good Alina is at that. Her Carmen is completely unlike her Don Q. I felt she pulled off a very credible Carmen - she grew up a lot from 15 to 16 to be able to do that.

Her Carmen was much better at Nebelhorn Trophy, and JO, she portrayed Carmen much more than at the WCH. She was incredible nervous( I noticed after her first move) and after we have learned they wanted to WD because of the menthal weakness this is understandable..She concentrated to the jumps, but she didnt point her jumps to the music, her moves were unfinished, etc..I'M sure she will be much better on shows with this program. Can you imagine how big pressure was on a 16 y.o. girl after that mess, attacks, because of the media interest, etc? But she could handle it if that wasn't her best skating. We can criticise Alina but that is better if we rise our hats front of her...

 

[alchemy void]

Danny is cute and has great clothes, but he's a hack of a choreographer. Say what you want about Averbukh, but aside from that pretentious 9/11 program, his programs for Tutberidze skaters were far superior.

 

[SmallFairy]

Danny is cute and has great clothes, but he's a hack of a choreographer. Say what you want about Averbukh, but aside from that pretentious 9/11 program, his programs for Tutberidze skaters were far superior.

You nailed it!

 

[starrynight]

My hope that what comes out of Alina’s win at Worlds is that everyone (including her coaching team) calms the heck down.

A couple of bad competitions aren’t the end of the world. All the tears and stern faces and carrying on just wasn’t necessary and was really counter productive.

I think maybe this has been a very good learning experience for Sambo 70 in terms of carrying a senior skater through a rough patch - which I think this might be the first time they’ve managed to successfully do that. Maybe they will learn now that if they just calmly do the work they can get results.

And for the programs next year... not as many music cuts would be a good thing.

 

[Cherub721]

Danny is cute and has great clothes, but he's a hack of a choreographer. Say what you want about Averbukh, but aside from that pretentious 9/11 program, his programs for Tutberidze skaters were far superior.

I disagree. The only program I ever liked from Evgenia was Anna Karenina. And I do recall most people here (maybe not you) trashing those Averbukh programs and making fun of the miming. Alina's Don Quixote will go down as a very memorable and iconic program.

I do still want Alina to work with someone different next year because I'd like to see her skate in a different style and ease up on the amount of transitions.

 

[Finsta]

Ok, last one for tonight... WC are over, and Team ET is not paying me..

It is true that Tutberidze in her interview to Yagudin (starting @ 5:55) said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=363&v=kKbw_oG3G0A
- they are still deciding if they want to participate in Team Trophy event. Exact words "we still have a question mark about our participation".
- she said it had been a difficult process preparing for this event, morally, and happy to make it to the ice.
- the whole team and Zagitova (all jointly) were debating to go or not, up until the previous Saturday. The team decided to go, it was a joint decision.

From what i understood on "inside the rink mothers/skaters" chats/blogs is that Alina had anxiety attacks, and it affected her breathing during practice and routine (something like she would forget to breathe). One person said that "some kind soul" let Alina read an internet discussion where it was said that "they will replace her with Tuktamysheva at the last minute, because the Federation believes Alina is injured and hiding it" and few other "rumors", so Alina freaked out.

So they brought in Masaru, to hang out with her, and she got better. After i saw this short clip, what they said kind of made sense...
https://i3.imageban.ru/out/2019/03/24/97f57443428915243081dbe7f6472db2.gif

It’s lot of pressure for all the young girls. Sorry she has difficulty. Anxiety is no laughing matter- just look at Gracie Gold. Glad she work through it

 

[Wyliefan]

I'm awfully glad Alina has Masaru. The dog seems to be a lifeline for her. Dogs can be great that way.

 

[Coquelicot14]

I actually love Daniil's choreography. There is never a dull moment nor any long (and boring) telegraphed jumps which take up half the program (and, quiet frankly, take me back to the late 90s).
I do recognize that this is a very hard pace to keep up, but we can see it pays off in the end. I do however agree about having less music cuts.

 

[annie_mg]

I hate Daniil's choreography. Do they really need to pack the programmes so much to get high transitions by the judges? Is the definition of transitions "not really skating to the music but packing as many turns and arm mouvements as possible so that the skater doesn't have a moment to breathe"? Surely they can get away with less and still score high, as someone said. I'm not Zagitova's biggest fan, but I would love to see her do a programme that isn't so packed. She isn't the most musical skater ever, but she isn't even being given the chance to explore her musicality with the programmes she's getting.

Rant over....

 

[wickedwitch]

I think both Kostornaia and Trusova have brilliant SPs this season and Don Quioxte did a perfect job of showcasing Zagitova's strengths while hiding her weaknesses. OTOH, there's Zagitova's POTO program.... So like all choreographers, I'd say some of his programs are good and others are not.

 

[angi]

I hate Daniil's choreography. Do they really need to pack the programmes so much to get high transitions by the judges? Is the definition of transitions "not really skating to the music but packing as many turns and arm mouvements as possible so that the skater doesn't have a moment to breathe"? Surely they can get away with less and still score high, as someone said. I'm not Zagitova's biggest fan, but I would love to see her do a programme that isn't so packed. She isn't the most musical skater ever, but she isn't even being given the chance to explore her musicality with the programmes she's getting.

Rant over....

The only program he did that I actually loved was Kostornaia's SP that had brilliant music and interpretation but even that one was way too packed with turns. But mostly I just want him to stop using warhorses and start being original. To give the Olympic champion POTO and Carmen in one season with uninspired choreography should be unacceptable (and before the messages come - yes I know she was still successful with the programs and that the judges marked them high, it doesn't make them good just like it didn't make T/M Candyman any good).

 

[alice73]

As a 30 plus year fan of figure skating, to want a skater to hold a move/position for longer than a second isn’t a matter of taste or preference. It’s simply what every skater should strive for. It’s one of the qualities of a complete program. This fine quality doesn’t appear to be important in Tutberidze rink, and therefore, most of their programs are forgettable and borderline unwatchable to me. With exception of Alena Kostornaya.

 

[Tesla]

I'm awfully glad Alina has Masaru. The dog seems to be a lifeline for her. Dogs can be great that way.

It sounds like the dog also acts as a emotional support animal. Dogs are wonderful creatures.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Dogs are wonderful creatures.

on behalf of dogs: you're right! https://im0-tub-ru.yandex.net/i?id=f8c288a4da977ab1760500b991d15d1b-l&n=13

 

[Tinami Amori]

(un-official, at present) 2 new transfers to Sambo-70 Rink/ET's younger group.

Saranovsky Family, brother and sister, Sofa (2006) and Nikita (2008)
Sofia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7DfD_AEoA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhUjVHK66tk

Nikita:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tbo6rOeV8s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL1uI-KwxjM

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Dont know where to post this so Ill do it here

Ashley Cain posted KAZ has 3 spots in ladies next year... How? I thouhgt 2 skaters were needed to total 13 to do that?

Refresh my drink someone?

 

[Tinami Amori]

Dont know where to post this so Ill do it here

Ashley Cain posted KAZ has 3 spots in ladies next year... How? I thouhgt 2 skaters were needed to total 13 to do that?

Refresh my drink someone?

Yes, they do, and don't know what to do with them, and there are jokes "bring in 2 russian ladies with "central-asian roots" that can look "Kazakh"...

I think to earn 3 entries for next year's event, if there is 1 skater, he/she needs to place in top 2.

Kazakh sports media is having a blast with Liza's Silver and Quad, calling this event "historic" etc..
https://tengrinews.kz/local_sport/elizabet-tursyinbaeva-zavoevala-istoricheskuyu-medal-365647/
https://rus.azattyq.org/a/kazakhstan-elizabet-tursynbaeva-figure-skater/29837095.html