CateMonster

Does anyone like figure skating here? Either watching or doing?

I can't really skate myself, But I love to watch it! There's been quite the tunover recently, so I don't have many current favourites. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are awesome, though.

djchameleon

I only like to watch in hope that there is a fall during the routine

__________________

Fame, fortune, power, titties. People say these are the most crucial things in life, but you can have a pocket full o' gold and it doesn't mean sh*t if you don't have someone to share that gold with. Seems simple. Yet it's an important lesson to learn. Even lone wolves run in packs sometimes.

VEGANGELICA

I like figure skating, CateMonster, both watching and doing...although the high point of my ice skating career was doing waltz jumps when I was 10 and I never really progressed beyond that.

I still like going ice skating, though, and in fact went just last weekend. I love the chill in the air and the sound of the ice under skate. I'm old enough now that fear of falling and breaking every bone in my body keeps me from trying any leaps...but the urge is there.

I enjoy the combination of artistry, athleticism, and music in ice skating, which is my favorite sport in the Winter Olympics. I haven't watched much skating in a while, so I had to look up Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir to find out that they are a handsome and graceful Canadian ice dancing couple who won the 2010 Olympics.

I usually prefer pairs skating and individual competition to ice dancing because the former allow leaps and throws, but Tessa and Moir's 2010 Olympics ice dancing performance (below) was so compelling and exquisite, just like the announcer said, that it may turn me into a greater fan of ice dancing.

Their choreography worked very well with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5, which is much more memorable to me now that I have heard it paired with their skating. In case you want to talk about the music used in ice skating, I made a super-popular thread just for this topic! http://www.musicbanter.com/classical...ml#post1043237. Feel free to go wild there and post all your favorite ice skating performances that bring music to life.

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir FD 2010 Vancouver Olympics (Symphony No.5 by Gustav Mahler)



One of my other favorite ice skating performances is this one:

North Korea's Iron Lotus (Scene from "Blades of Glory")



(That makes me laugh hysterically every time I watch it!)

I put that in there for dj, who likes to watch ice skating disasters.

__________________

djchameleon

Lol thanks Erica. I remember that scene and loved that movie!

__________________

Fame, fortune, power, titties. People say these are the most crucial things in life, but you can have a pocket full o' gold and it doesn't mean sh*t if you don't have someone to share that gold with. Seems simple. Yet it's an important lesson to learn. Even lone wolves run in packs sometimes.

VEGANGELICA

The North Korean "Iron Lotus" is so awful, it's funny...especially since in "Blades of Glory" the move is linked with the militaristic North Korean regime, thereby criticizing the regime by implying it would sacrifice people to glorify the nation.

But seriously, ice skating does have some bad *real* accidents that can be quite serious, especially with the lifts. I know of a woman whose father didn't want her to play hockey when she was a girl (he considered it a "boys' sport"), and so she ended up figure skating. She said it was one of the worst sports in terms of pain that she has ever done since the falls hurt so much and you fall again and again and again in practice.

Here are two example falls, real ones, that don't look good or funny at all.
The skaters could have been killed:

__________________

djchameleon

Wow those are some scary falls.

There is something bittersweet about seeing the falls knowing that all those hours if practice went into the routine and so much pressure is on the couple to be perfect so they can get a high score from judges but life is not perfect and no matter how much you practice accidents still occur.

It's a great analogy for life no matter how hard you work at it there are bound to be failures. Life is about how you pick yourself up from the failures not the failures themselves

__________________

Fame, fortune, power, titties. People say these are the most crucial things in life, but you can have a pocket full o' gold and it doesn't mean sh*t if you don't have someone to share that gold with. Seems simple. Yet it's an important lesson to learn. Even lone wolves run in packs sometimes.

CateMonster

Ahahha I love the Iron lotus. Makes me laugh every time. Blade of Glory is just awesome in general. "That dove was in his suit the whole time!"


Jeffrey Buttle is one of my favourite skaters of all time. Everything he does is wonderful. I was so sad when he retired. He's still doing shows, which is good. I can't post links right now, apparently but youtube him!!!!

VEGANGELICA

Very true, dj...assuming one survives the failures!

Your comment about picking oneself up after a fall reminds me of a movie I liked as a child, "Ice Castles" (1978), about a skater who struggles to pursue her skating dream even after she becomes nearly blind.

I should watch "Ice Castles" again because I'm sure I'd gain more from it now. For example, this preview below shows the great impact that those around us can have on our self-confidence, and I don't remember thinking about that issue when I watched the movie...although I do remember the basic love story!



"That dove was in his suit the whole time!" Ha ha! I remember that now.

I youtubed Jeffrey Buttle and decided to post the following video of him because he is skating to Prelude in C Sharp Minor by Rachmaninoff, which I was curious to hear (with a bonus of Japanese ? commentary). He's a very lithe, precise young man, which makes his skating look effortless and elegant:

Jeffrey Buttle, age 22 - skating to Prelude in C Sharp Minor by Rachmaninoff

__________________

skaltezon

.
1300

I was into skating years ago when I lived near a rink. Later I followed women's figure skating
competitions on television. Sasha Cohen was my all-time favorite for sheer grace and athleticism.

CateMonster

I loved Sasha Cohen's Dark Eyes short program. And I always thought that during an exhibition, she and my other favourite skater Shawn Sawyer, should do side by side spirals. Shawn can do a spiral just like the one Sasha's doing in the picture above.