Non Traditional Music In High Level Skating

[riley876]

Just been catching up on the Sochi bits I missed.   Lots of good stuff it seems.   I must say I loved the choice of "The Addams Family" by Stolbova/Klimov.

Also, very cool to see Yuzuru Hanyu do Parisienne Walkways.   Not often you get to hear electric guitar music in skating!

Much older, Grishuk/Platov's 1998 Jailhouse Rock is one of my all time favourite programmes.

You certainly hear lots of ballet music (Scheherazade, Romeo & Juliet etc), which is all good, the typical flowiness/floatiness suits what comes naturally on ice skates,  but to be honest it all gets a bit the same after a while.   

I'm wondering more about the use of pop music in skating.  Whilst it's generally a fixed tempo, the chorus/verse structure would allow for change of style/rhythm,  plus crescendos into choruses would make a great time for jumps,  so I think artistically it could work with the right music.  (Thinking something along the lines of Elton John's Rocket Man, which has wonderful minor verses and major choruses, for a brilliant mood change)   Pop uses a lot of repetition, i.e. big repeated motifs, that you hardly ever see in the actual skating (but I personally would LOVE to see).  Was wondering if this has been done at any high level (that I can find on Youtube).

Any other radically unusual music choices you love (or would love to do yourself?)

[Bill_S]

Jeremy Abbott's short program at the US Nationals in 2014 was to a jazz number called "Lilies of the Valley" by Jun Miyake. It as performed flawlessly at Nationals, and gave me shivers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gIyKRz2JPc

I agree with your premise and I think skating would benefit from more creative music selections. I'm tired of so many Carmens, Swan Lakes, Firebirds, and other overused selections.

A few years back when Dick Button was announcing Nationals for TV, there was a young woman who skated to contemporary electronic music. She fashioned her moves to fit the music, but was judged poorly. I suspect it was resistance on the part of the judges to accept something so radically different. I can't recall her name, but Dick Button wrote about her performance in his book "Push Dick's Button".

[Query]

If I had invested a lot of money and most of my life into creating a few minutes of figure skating for judges, I might be afraid to risk it all on something unproven.

But I love dance music with a strong rhythm to it. Maybe that's why I often like ice show routines better than competition routines.

I liked Jason Brown's Riverdance music a lot, partly because I loved Riverdance. Of course it takes a high degree of musicality to carry off anything with such a strong rhythm, because anyone can tell if your rhythm is off.

I loved the "Riverdance on Ice" show - though of course the emphasis was on entertainment, not on moves that would garner points in skating competitions. I particularly loved the Flamenco routine.

A few people have carried off Bollywood routines that worked very well.

I assume most judges reward an obvious sync between music and skating. I wonder if music like that "Lilies of the Valley" loses points, because there is no way to tell whether the skater is following a clear plan. Were I a judge, they would.

But that's just me. I'm neither a high level skater nor a judge.

[riley876]

Wow, love Lillies Of Valley!   Really nice tension.  But it's certainly a subtle version of it.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je0lFe0MHjU  <- this one has a more solid rhythm.  And is DEFINITELY danceable.  (I know because I just did!).  Though being highly syncopated it suits swing dancing footwork well (and-1 and-2 and-3 and-4 etc, think bouncing into the ground on 1,2,3,4 and rise-ups/jumps/steps happen on the ANDs between the beats, rather than the usual jumps/steps on the beats).  Which unless the judges/onlookers are familiar with the look/style they might judge on being off the beat.

Footage on TV is always a bit dicey for judging footwork sync anyway.  Having worked in TV, I can say that audio/video sync is always a problem, and has to be resynced manually due to digital video being buffered all over the place.  How well this is done depends on how much the techs care.   Which usually isn't a lot.   Though ice dancing at the olympics probably gets sufficient attention.   Combined with speed of sound vs speed of light issues along a rink,  all bets are off really,  unless you're there in person.

Stumbled over this one.   Certainly made me smile:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1v_uDUf9to

Very much a pure "lets dance!" kind of routine.  No story or emotional depth to speak of, but it sure looks like fun.  (Would LOVE to get my skating to a level where I could dance on ice with someone like that,  but entirely improvised/led/followed).   

I still think *everyone* is missing a trick by not having big obvious recognisable repeated motifs, matched to (or complementing) the big obvious recognisable repeated motifs in the music.

Been thinking about Yello (remember them?).   (Electro)pop sensibilities, epic production, lots of latin rhythms, and almost operatic at times.  Not a huge amount of actually danceable stuff,  but occasionally e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ98F1dwvZY  I think I could have A LOT of fun skating to this. or with a very similar rhythm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14cH1o9K4ho

[karne]

Jeremy's Lillies of the Valley was fab when he was on.

I'm also a big fan of Max Aaron's "Tron: Legacy" SP from 2012-2013. I remember the British Eurosport commentators at Worlds fretting over how the judges might not go for the music.

[skategeek]

I'm also a big fan of Max Aaron's "Tron: Legacy" SP from 2012-2013. I remember the British Eurosport commentators at Worlds fretting over how the judges might not go for the music.

I liked that one too.  I'd love to see more variety.

[riley876]

Wikipedia states Rohene Ward's 2000/01 SP was "Istanbul (Not Constantinopal)":  (i.e. this song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQrKZcYtqg or possibly the Four Lads version).   Anyone got video of that?