IT'S LIKE BALLET ON ICE: EPIC SWAN IS EPIC
OK. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS KIND OF POST IS ALLOWED. IF NOT, DELETE AWAY, MODS
SO THIS IS ABOUT PRINCESS J'S EPIC SWAN PROGRAM. A SRS BSNS INFORMATION POAST.
Click to viewWHAT DOES DICK BUTTON MEAN, HE PLAYS IT LIKE A FEMALE SWAN...BUT ALSO LIKE A MALE SWAN? HUH? IS IT DYING? IS IT NOT DYING? WHAT ARE ALL THESE BALLET REFERENCES?
Like Dick says, "The Dying Swan", Sain Saens (not to be confused with Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky) is a solo ballet program choreographed for Anna Pavlova, i.e. for a single female ballerina. It's about a swan who's dying, at the last moments of its life (struggling with a broken wing and all). I personally don't "feel" Pavlova's performance, but if you're interested, it's here
Now here's HBIC Maya Plisetskaya. Sorry the vid won't embed; but click and skip the intro, start at 0:25. It's black and white and all, but the arms! The expression! PLISETSKAYA!
Here's a more recent version by Lopatkina: not as expressive as Plisetskaya, but her feet!
OKSANA
In the 1994 Olympics Exhibition, Oksana Baiul killed it with a skating version of The Swan. You can see the influence from Plisetskaya (the head movements) and maybe Lopatkina too--down to the headdress . And yup; this is the Olympic Baiul that inspired Princess J to skate.
AND NOW WATCH PRINCESS J AGAIN.
I FIND IT HILARIOUS THAT DICK BUTTON INSISTS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PROGRAM THAT HE'LL BE TAKING ON A "MALE ROLE", ONLY TO SAY AT THE END OF THE SKATE THAT HE TOOK ON A "FEMALE ROLE" AS WELL AS A MALE ROLE...BECAUSE WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
BUT OBVIOUSLY, PRICESS J'S SWAN IS INSPIRED BY ALL OF THE ABOVE BUT ALSO TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THEM ALL. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW HE ROLLS.
1. If you watch Princess J after all the other divas above, you'll see that his "swan" is much more active/alive than all the others. It's not really a dying swan, but a swan that's full of life--strong, playful, etc., just a swan being all "swan-y". You could say it's more "masculine" if you go with stereotypes.
2. Some of this is because this is a competitive short program, he had to put all the required elements. But still, he chose to skate this as a technical short program; so IMHO he chose to take the tradition and completely revamp it. Which is why I love it.
THAT IS ALL. TYFYT.
(AND I REALLY HOPE THE LJ-CUT WORKS, B/C I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIX IT)