Where do you draw the line in figure skating between what is a competitive program and what is an exhibition?At NHK Trophy I was somewhat critical of Florent's free skate...pointing out that at many points in the program he gets so caught up in the showman aspect of the performance that he forgets to skate.
A reader e-mailed me today, having watched his performance on television this weekend and wondered what in the world I thought was wrong with the program. Scott wrote: "That program was amazing. I saw on Twitter you didn't like it. I though he should have won the competition. What in the world did you find bad about that program?"
First I must say I love Florent to pieces and I think what he does on the ice is amazing. He's a gifted dancer. But I also have to call a spade a spade. And while he is a gifted dancer...the sport is figure skating. Take a look at the video below:
While his program is great and he hit the jumps, you really shouldn't be burning 40 seconds standing and doing Black Eyed Peas or Michael Jackson choreography. It's entertaining, it's fun, the crowd ate it up, but I think it sets the bar too low for a competitive program.
That's why I was critical of Florent at NHK Trophy.
6 comments:
Aaron,
I agree with you.
I agree and I have to wonder at a choreographer and a coach would would cede that much time to what Florent did in a year when it's clear that multiple quads and jump combinations are making every single point more important than ever.
Florent may just dance his way out of contention.
I enjoyed the program but I don't think it's fair that people get to stop that many times in their free skate.
The commentators were acting like it was so amazing that he wasn't tired at the end. Of course he wouldn't be tired since he stopped so many times.
I feel bad for Yuzuru. He was so tired at the end of his free skate but that was because he kept going and going without stopping. I feel like this was completely unfair to him.
If Florent had done a free skate without all those stops, I don't think he would have done as well.
I really enjoyed the program, and definetly thought it was a competitive program, not an exhibition, but I hope the judges take into account all the times he stops to dance are essentially rest breaks.
(Lots of skaters do that though, just not to this extent. They pause right before their footwork to do some little choreography move that serves no purpose but to help them catch their breathe -and draw the audience in-)
But that's not forbidden, is it?) He didn't sit or lie on ice, he danced.
Stopping and dancing aren't forbidden, but the time taken off from 'actual skating' SHOULD be taken into consideration when judging the PCS. At the least, it should affect TR for lack of transition variety, difficulty and intricacy, and CH for lack of pattern, ice coverage and proportion.
It's a GREAT show piece, I agree, but as competition material, I'm puzzled as to why Morozov thought this was even acceptable, though he seemed to love it as much as Florent it.
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