Skaters with great basics plus musicality

[slicekw]

I was watching my Instagram feed and saw this clip of Michele Kwan stroking and thought how relaxing it was watching her express the music's feeling. I'd like to see this thread be a place to post links to similar (hopefully longer) videos or just share memories of similar evocative skating. I'm curious if solo ice dance might be the sub-sport that I need to start watching.

 

[Vash01]

Great thread but it should be in the Trashcan IMO. . In GSD I see news, published articles, interviews, etc.

 

[Sylvia]

Well, you could say the same of the Oksana Baiul thread ... an Admin. will move if/when they see fit (eta: thanks, Admin.).

@slicekw, lots of recent IG videos are posted in Michelle's fan thread.

Yebin Mok "Soliloquy": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJMnYOxbbfg
Music by Tim Dolensky
Choreographed by Mauro Bruni
from the MK Young Artists' Showcase Season 5 (2015)

 

[eurodance2001]

I would mention the obvious one here: Janet Lynn. Whenever I'm feeling down and out, I'll go to You Tube and watch her 1971 and 1973 Worlds LP or 1973 Nationals. Her comeback performances of the early 1980's are gems in their own right.. Simply ethereal; makes me forget whatever I was down and out about every time..

 

[briancoogaert]

Yuka Sato has amazing basic and a good musicality !

 

[Vash01]

Well, you could say the same of the Oksana Baiul thread ... an Admin. will move if/when they see fit (eta: thanks, Admin.).

@slicekw, lots of recent IG videos are posted in Michelle's fan thread.

Yebin Mok "Soliloquy": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJMnYOxbbfg
Music by Tim Dolensky
Choreographed by Mauro Bruni
from the MK Young Artists' Showcase Season 5 (2015)

The Oksana thread strarted with a Twitter thread. We started discussing her performances after that. So it seems ok for GSD. Leave it to the admin to decide.

 

[Vash01]

Berezhnaya Sikharulidze had great basic skating skills and they were very lyrical skaters. I am away from the computer, so I cant post videos right now.

 

[gk_891]

Torvill & Dean

 

[Spun Silver]

The exquisite Mao.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SmaOk-Skl5Y&feature=youtu.be

 

[mjb52]

Didn't Robin Cousins do a pro routine to a Frost poem - something about a pond perhaps?

Oh, here it is (not Frost though), in this link: http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-frozen-pond-magic-of-skating-outside.html - some of the other stuff looks good too

 

[briancoogaert]

Didn't Robin Cousins do a pro routine to a Frost poem - something about a pond perhaps?

Oh, here it is (not Frost though), in this link: http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-frozen-pond-magic-of-skating-outside.html - some of the other stuff looks good too

Oh yes !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfzfqDVya_A

 

[VGThuy]

I was watching my Instagram feed and saw this clip of Michele Kwan stroking and thought how relaxing it was watching her express the music's feeling. I'd like to see this thread be a place to post links to similar (hopefully longer) videos or just share memories of similar evocative skating. I'm curious if solo ice dance might be the sub-sport that I need to start watching.

I think that simple video of Kwan stroking and doing turns so easily and casually in rental skates with good posture with her hands in her coat pockets looking so relaxed and yet beyond as she matches the rhythm of the music captures the very essence of why people fell in love with her skating.

 

[skategal]

Kurt Browning

 

[LilJen]

Jeff Buttle, Jeremy Abbot. Both fantastically musical and awesome basics. Jason Brown, too!

 

[kwanatic]

Michelle is the first that comes to mind of course as well as Mao.

Michelle's exhibitions were stunning, especially Dante's Prayer, Winter, Fields of Gold and East of Eden. Mao had stunning exhibitions as well with Ballade, Jupiter and Bach Suite. These programs put their gorgeous skating skills on display as well as their elegance, posture, grace and very special ability to express music. I miss both of them!

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

welllllll.....(lol)

Obviously I need to throw in The Queen - Angela Nikodinov.

GREAT technique (as Dick always mentioned when it came to all her jumps and spins) and musical like no one else then (except for that other Kween).

Good steps, good speed (more than Kwan, Hughes, Kirk and Cohen), good flow in and out of jumps, good edges.

SO musical they referred to her movement as "liquid gold."

She could interpret "Giselle," "Just for You," and "No One Gives Up On Love" so well. Props also to "Afternoon Of A Faun" and "The Sleeping Beauty."

Man, I love her.

 

[Vash01]

Yukina Ota - since we are only talking about basic skating and musicality (not jumps or medals).

 

[ldec]

Yukina Ota - since we are only talking about basic skating and musicality (not jumps or medals).

I was going to go for Yukina as well. She has the ability to draw you in just with the sheer fluidity and beauty of her skating.

ETA: Some videos of Yukina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--yd3Zmgips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUy6MZEMLmA&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obx64fnc0H4&t=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYwyHf7uE5k&t
Bonus: an article I wrote about her career

If we go further back in time there were also Janet Lynn, John Curry, Toller Cranston, Robin Cousins and multiple others.

I think from more recent skaters Carolina Kostner also fits the description pretty well.

 

[Spun Silver]

Jeremy, yes!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZHbADOamI3s

Daisuke
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAaXdKEArQ&feature=youtu.be

Machida
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S1AGU202VYk

 

[supersloane]

throwing in Ilia Kulik here. He and Tarasova were an insane pair when it came to music selection and choreography. He had a grace that was just breathtaking that seemed so effortless with his musicality. The fast/slow/fast/slow/FAST cadence of his programs were intense and yet... worked because he seemed to understand the music and his body better than so many of his contemporaries.

 

[puglover]

I would also say Kurt Browning. He can and has done so many styles - not too many can do Les Miserable and have you close to tears and then play a clown and have you laughing. Humour is hard and maybe not seen as musical. Also, Emmanuel Sandu was a very artistic skater.

 

[CoolGuy]

When I think "Great Basics + Musicality," the two skaters that instantly pop to mind are Michelle Kwan (already mentioned) and Paul Wylie:
- Schindler's List
- JFK
- The Untouchables
- Carmina Burana
- Apollo 13

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Now that I think about it... what about Nicole Bobek..

Saw was wayyyy musical.....

How do you think her basics were? Pretty good????

 

[gkelly]

Her stroking looked pretty smooth and powerful to me on the occasions when I saw her compete live.

 

[Bonjour Sherry]

Patrick Chan has gorgeous skating skills but IMO he isn't as outstanding in musicality.

 

[Frau Muller]

One per discipline:

Scott Hamilton
Janet Lynn
Gordeeva/Grinkov
Torvill/Dean

 

[Vash01]

I was going to go for Yukina as well. She has the ability to draw you in just with the sheer fluidity and beauty of her skating.

ETA: Some videos of Yukina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--yd3Zmgips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUy6MZEMLmA&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obx64fnc0H4&t=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYwyHf7uE5k&t
Bonus: an article I wrote about her career

If we go further back in time there were also Janet Lynn, John Curry, Toller Cranston, Robin Cousins and multiple others.

I think from more recent skaters Carolina Kostner also fits the description pretty well.

Carolina has great skating skills and she is artistic. I just never thought of her as having great musicality.

 

[cocotaffy]

Guillaume Cizeron comes immediately to mind here is a little interesting snippet of him rehearsing on its own back at the beginning of their senior debut in 2013. But I just love watching P/C practice videos in general because they have an amazing ability to go from simple side by side stroking to being deep immersed in their choreography.
Also Torvill/Dean and Stephane Lambiel.
ETA: I love watching practice videos, you really get a sense of a skater's ability to dance and interpretation when they can't hide behind a costume and make-up but are in regular even ugly looking tracksuit.

 

[Ananas Astra]

Mikhail Kolyada

 

[annie_mg]

Out of the current skaters, Satoko Miyahara's musicality stands out. Not sure the basics are that outstanding. But her musicality makes up for it IMO.

I mean just look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbuczp0-sw8

She must be every choreographer's dream skater!Notice how she always places her head with intention, even during her footwork sequence. Most skaters have some awkward moments while they try to get their levels, going up and down right and left and changing edges. She doesn't have a single awkward moment, ever. And she doesn't miss a single music highlight or note.

OK I'll stop.