Michelle Kwan (Threads Merged)

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GSD thread (I've posted additional IG video clip/photo links there today): Michelle Kwan to deliver Spring 2019 Chubb Fellowship Lecture at Yale (April 3)

ETA:

Michelle attended the 30th annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles on March 28 - 2 clips & 1 photo from her IG:
With "birthday queen" Jonathan Van Ness: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvkzDxzl5mW/
Glam: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvms90xleIi/
With Hayley Kiyoko (Sarah Kawahara's daughter) and Van Ness: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnTlfIlgIH/
 
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Michelle Kwan follows @sussexroyal, The Duke & Duchess of Sussex's new recordbreaking Instagram account. :) I guess MK knows that Meghan was a Hillary Clinton supporter! ;)
 
aftershocks said:
I can't locate Witt's reply. What did she say?
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katarinawitt
Verified

My dear Michelle thank you so much for sharing this beautiful episode 😍puts a big smile on my face and goosebumps on my arms 😄You where such a fiery and absolutely gorgeous skating Lady yourself and you have become such a incredible role model to whole new generation 🥇👍🍀😄Sending a big you a big kiss over the ocean from very sunny Berlin 😘😃#womancrushwednesday
 
Starr Andrews will be skating to Richard Strauss' Salome next season. Apparently, Starr is only using the Strauss version. Michelle Kwan used an edit that incorporated Miklos Rozsa's 'Salome Dances' theme from the King of Kings movie, with a selection from the Strauss opera at the end of her program.

Cross-posting some comments from the Programs/Choreographers thread:

VIETgrlTerifa said:
My first reaction was that Starr seemed a bit young for that role, but then I remembered Kwan was 15 when she did it. For some reason either Kwan seemed older than she was (even compared to Tara who was only two years younger) or I'm just getting older and kids just seem so young to me now.
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:giggle: Michelle was coming into her own as an artist in 1996. That was the season she blossomed and seemed unrecognizable. But it was a well-planned strategy to remake Michelle's entire look and to give her more mature music to skate to. The reason for this strategy was because the judges refused to reward Michelle in any capacity in 1995, when she definitely out-skated all of the ladies placed in front of her. After her blazing performance in 1995 with girlish ponytail rocking, Michelle only placed fifth (up three spots from her 8th place 1994 Worlds result).


VIETgrlTerifa said:
... For some reason though even outside the superficial changes the Kwan team did, Kwan just exuded a mature energy at that age with those cosmetic changes. Even Tara made sure to put her hair in a bun and wear dresses that looked ready for competition, but she still seemed more her age while Kwan always seemed older. It must be the skating style and Kwan just having that sort of mature energy. Even now, we see American ladies of all ages having make-up, putting their hair in a bun, making sure they look older, but don't seem to look as "old" or "mature" as Kwan did at 15-17.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be young and to give off a youthful energy (as it worked well on Tara and made her skating seem very natural and almost improvisational), but just observing that Kwan seemed older, so her skating to Salome didn't seem weird to me. Plus, I also watched it many years after she had already done that and I was used to seeing an older Kwan already, so maybe that adds to it. I also think Yuna Kim has a similar quality that Kwan had regarding exuding a more older/mature look while skating than she actually was.
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Your observations are interesting. I don't view this exactly the same, but I get what you're seeing and saying. For me, Kwan did not always look older. She looked like the cute little jumping bean that she was up through the 1994-95 season. Then her team made the decision to enact a conscious 'mature' makeover, because it was seen as necessary at that time when the old-fashioned "wait your turn" judging approach was still in effect. Plus, the additional year (from 1995 to 1996) made the difference in terms of Michelle's emotional and artistic growth as a skater. Something in her just began to click. I think Michelle has always gained great inspiration from her sister Karen too. In many ways, Karen was Michelle's muse. And we know a bit about how lovely and graceful Karen was as a skater.

That said, I do agree with you that Michelle's personality and the way she has always carried herself made her indeed seem wise and mature for her age. But she did not visibly look older until the makeover happened. I think Michelle skating to Salome did not seem unnatural nor a stretch simply because she was emotionally and aesthetically prepared for the challenge. With that program, everything changed. Michelle pushed her career and the entire sport forward. But the lesson is that she was expressing who she was and what the music meant to her. That's the key.
 
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VIETgrlTerifa said:

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Seeing Irina Slutskaya wish Michelle a Happy Birthday made me happier than I expected.
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Irina and Michelle still look the same as when they were 24. AMAZING!!!!

Happy Birthday Kween!!!!!!
 
aftershocks said:
That said, I do agree with you that Michelle's personality and the way she has always carried herself made her indeed seem wise and mature for her age. But she did not visibly look older until the makeover happened. I think Michelle skating to Salome did not seem unnatural nor a stretch simply because she was emotionally and aesthetically prepared for the challenge. With that program, everything changed. Michelle pushed her career and the entire sport forward. But the lesson is that she was expressing who she was and what the music meant to her. That's the key.
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Aww! I am loving all the birthday wishes for Michelle and I remember how gorgeous it was when she was expressing who she was.:cheer2:
 
There are a few Michelle Kwan performances I never got to see, and this is one of them. Her senior debut sp at U.S. Nationals 1993:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2lBPM7cM5Y :encore:

Young Michelle is so endlessly cute. She fairly flew around the rink, exuding loads of talent. Yet she was rather immature and unpolished at this stage, albeit with evidence of some of the qualities that would ultimately make her such a lovely and charismatic skater, floating there under the surface.

This was the season Michelle applied for senior competition without Frank's permission, because she was in a hurry to experience serious competition and push toward making the Olympics, rather than staying in juniors another year. After the performance, Frank and I believe Linda Fratianne's mom accompany MK in the kiss 'n cry.
 
Both Michelle & Brian Boitano shared video clips via their Instagram stories from this event in Boston last night:
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/sports/20191119/column-zdeno-charas-legacy-still-growing
... TD Garden, where Chara will share the stage on Wednesday night with five other legacy honorees in the Sports Museum’s annual Tradition event.
The Museum will also recognize: former Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez; former Celtic and three-time NBA champion Paul Silas; 11-year Patriots offensive lineman Matt Light; five-time World Champion figure skater Michelle Kwan; and 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup captain and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw.
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Copying over from GSD & added a link to her IG post with photo of her car's rear end damage (thankfully she's OK!):

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sk9tingfan said:
Michelle just reported this on her Instagram account! Thank goodness she's OK.

"Totally shook and need to get something off my chest. I’m very upset at the person who was driving at 6 am this morning in the fast lane on Interstate 26 in Columbia, South Carolina, dropped a massive mattress, pulled aside when they realized they caused a collision, and sped away from me. Luckily the driver who hit me was paying attention and slammed on his breaks - he still hit me hard but grateful that it didn’t throw me into oncoming traffic which was going 70 mph. Thank God nobody was hurt - just felt very scared and now angry at the coward that drove away. Sorry but just need to share and also remind folks to secure furniture or hire movers because you can really kill somebody."
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