(no subject)
So I went to Novgorod to see figure skating. That's a first - I have never gone travelling especially for this purpose, so I started small, Novgorod is just three hours by train.
The competition there was the Cup of Russia finals - meaning not the Grand Prix Cup of Russia but a series of competitions allowing mid-level skaters to qualify for Nats and otherwise increase their in-country standing. Basically, it's a bit like Russian Nats, only without the top skaters. Which makes it a perfectly pleasant competition: good skaters and no crowds (mind you, last year it was used as additional qualification for Worlds, so all the world and Tracy Wilson came there. I didn't go - I saw the reports).
I went for two days, catching the junior ladies free and both programs for senior men and ladies. Junior ladies are all about twelve, they do triple axels, quads etc. - not all of them, of course, but those who medalled. And yet I liked best the ones that finished last (one of these last, Elizaveta Berestovskaya, did try quads. IMO, she would've better off without them - she was good at presenting her program but then she would do a long, slow quad entry across the whole rink and forget all about the program. And fall).
Senior ladies were all aged about 17, and very pleasant. The eventual winner, Anastasia Gulyakova, has two warhorse programs - Carmen and Swan Lake - but somehow they suit her. Especially Carmen: she looks charming and "with" the music. Anastasia Gubanova and Elizaveta Nugumanova, two skaters that were expected to become great stars when _they_ were twelve, never did become great stars, but Gubanova won silver - and I keep seeing them somehow in parallel, only Nugumanova's programs are "look I'm so pretty" and Gubanova's "look I'm so feminine". With both of them I liked their shorts more than their frees. Nugumanova did Chicago in a little black dress and pearls, and Gubanova... also something jazzy. Her free is nice, but I find the costume very distracting, trying to guess what it is supposed to portray (the music is from the Soviet spy series 17 Moments of Spring).
I was also glad to see Valeria Shulskaya - I found her interesting on the Nats, where she was the only girl not from Moscow or Saint Petersburg (she's from Orenburg) and did not look lost. She's only 15, I think - in some other country she'd be just starting out, with all the potential ahead of her - and probably likes her drama, her short is Game of Thrones and her free is Master and Margarita. The short is better on her, IMO, I did get a sense of fantasy coldness, but she's probably a bit too young for Margarita's drama. Still, I'll keep an eye on her.
The bronze went to Maria Talalaikina, another Saint Petersburg girl (yay, a podium of local skaters! I love living in Saint Petersburg, we get the best local skaters) - I used to ignore her, but she was unexpectedly temperamental in her short (Hip Hip Chin Chin) and kept up in the free.
With men, two out of three medalists were also from Saint Petersburg, but my favorites were not on the podium. I liked Aleksandr Petrov, Mishin's student who never managed to secure serious quads but somehow acquired presentation skills (well, at least in my opinion) - I used to be all "Petrov, so boring" but somehow I started to pay attention and enjoy his skating. I also liked Roman Savosin from Moscow, especially in his free (Chaikovsky) - a very musical skater.
In two days I managed to see all this, to visit the local art museum (compact but decent collection of Russian art) and to look at some old churches - all in all time well spent, I believe. I need to do this kind of thing more often.
This entry was originally posted at https://taelle.dreamwidth.org/78610.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
The competition there was the Cup of Russia finals - meaning not the Grand Prix Cup of Russia but a series of competitions allowing mid-level skaters to qualify for Nats and otherwise increase their in-country standing. Basically, it's a bit like Russian Nats, only without the top skaters. Which makes it a perfectly pleasant competition: good skaters and no crowds (mind you, last year it was used as additional qualification for Worlds, so all the world and Tracy Wilson came there. I didn't go - I saw the reports).
I went for two days, catching the junior ladies free and both programs for senior men and ladies. Junior ladies are all about twelve, they do triple axels, quads etc. - not all of them, of course, but those who medalled. And yet I liked best the ones that finished last (one of these last, Elizaveta Berestovskaya, did try quads. IMO, she would've better off without them - she was good at presenting her program but then she would do a long, slow quad entry across the whole rink and forget all about the program. And fall).
Senior ladies were all aged about 17, and very pleasant. The eventual winner, Anastasia Gulyakova, has two warhorse programs - Carmen and Swan Lake - but somehow they suit her. Especially Carmen: she looks charming and "with" the music. Anastasia Gubanova and Elizaveta Nugumanova, two skaters that were expected to become great stars when _they_ were twelve, never did become great stars, but Gubanova won silver - and I keep seeing them somehow in parallel, only Nugumanova's programs are "look I'm so pretty" and Gubanova's "look I'm so feminine". With both of them I liked their shorts more than their frees. Nugumanova did Chicago in a little black dress and pearls, and Gubanova... also something jazzy. Her free is nice, but I find the costume very distracting, trying to guess what it is supposed to portray (the music is from the Soviet spy series 17 Moments of Spring).
I was also glad to see Valeria Shulskaya - I found her interesting on the Nats, where she was the only girl not from Moscow or Saint Petersburg (she's from Orenburg) and did not look lost. She's only 15, I think - in some other country she'd be just starting out, with all the potential ahead of her - and probably likes her drama, her short is Game of Thrones and her free is Master and Margarita. The short is better on her, IMO, I did get a sense of fantasy coldness, but she's probably a bit too young for Margarita's drama. Still, I'll keep an eye on her.
The bronze went to Maria Talalaikina, another Saint Petersburg girl (yay, a podium of local skaters! I love living in Saint Petersburg, we get the best local skaters) - I used to ignore her, but she was unexpectedly temperamental in her short (Hip Hip Chin Chin) and kept up in the free.
With men, two out of three medalists were also from Saint Petersburg, but my favorites were not on the podium. I liked Aleksandr Petrov, Mishin's student who never managed to secure serious quads but somehow acquired presentation skills (well, at least in my opinion) - I used to be all "Petrov, so boring" but somehow I started to pay attention and enjoy his skating. I also liked Roman Savosin from Moscow, especially in his free (Chaikovsky) - a very musical skater.
In two days I managed to see all this, to visit the local art museum (compact but decent collection of Russian art) and to look at some old churches - all in all time well spent, I believe. I need to do this kind of thing more often.
This entry was originally posted at https://taelle.dreamwidth.org/78610.html. Please comment there using OpenID.