Canadian Musical Choices and Russian Program Debuts

Interviews at Skate Canada’s High Performance Camp reveal some more musical choices, but more clips of skating programs are coming out of Russia.

With the clips of programs that were originally coming out of Skate Canada’s High Performance Camp pulled, it seems we must satisfy ourselves with interview videos. Well, those, and fan videos of skaters playing silly games during the Breaking the Ice fan meet and greet that Thursday. Some of the skaters did reveal their music choices for the first time during these interviews, though.

But if you wanted to actually see new programs, you had to look for clips of Russians. Quite a few of them debuted their programs this week in various shows, including a couple of top names.

Predictable Music Choices from Canada

We may not have gotten a clip of it, but eventually Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Pojé revealed their free dance music: Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. This is, quite frankly, dismaying. It’s an overused piece of music in skating, for one thing. Also, too similar to what they’ve been doing the past two seasons. If it was their new coach who chose it, one has to ask how much thought he put into it. A longtime accusation against Morozov is that he puts together cookie cutter programs. The creativity of their programs has been one of Weaver & Pojé’s strong points. It would be tragic if they end up even worse off than they’ve been.

Gabrielle Daleman, the top ranked Canadian lady at Worlds this year, discussed her music choices to the media in her interview video:

She, too, is sticking to what she’s done. She describes both of these programs as “fun.” Fun worked for her very well last year. Ideally it shouldn’t be what she does all of the time, but she can definitely spend another season doing it while she continues her way up the ladder.

Literally sticking to what he’s done is Kevin Reynolds, the other Canadian man on the 2014 Olympic team. After missing most of the 2015 season due to injury, his return last year was less successful than he would’ve liked. He only came in third at Canadian Nationals, and failed to make Worlds. He discusses his approach to the season and his musical approach to it as well:

His keeping his free because he wants a chance to skate it better is hardly unheard of under those circumstances. Fans will often even be glad if they wanted to see a particular program skated well. Nor is he the first skater to choose his music with the audience of Worlds in mind. Still, it’s a daring thing to do when he’s far from certain of making the team. At least modern Finnish folk music suits his style anyway.

Russian program debuts this weekend

While their younger countrymen tear up the Junior Grand Prix circuit, the older Russian skaters, too, are getting in front of audiences. The highest profile ones to do so were the ice dance champions Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev and 2014 Olympic team event star Julia Lipnitskaya. Both Bobrova & Soloviev and Lipnitskaya are currently trying to recover from setbacks. Bobrova was among those Russians caught with meldonium in her system last March, which took her and Soloviev out of Worlds. She was later reinstated after it was determined the tests didn’t necessarily mean she had taken the drug after the ban had gone into effect. She and Soloviev showed their short dance at the Moscow Open Championship on Friday:

The Christina Aguilera part of this program works very well. Bobrova & Soloviev have no problem with the sexual charge, or the drama. Then comes the switch to “Sing Sing Sing,” and this does not work as well. A musical change should not be this jarring, and these two don’t sell that one properly. The change in styles in the short dance is always a potentially awkward point, but an elite team really should manage it better than this.

More from Culturess

If they don’t change the costumes before the season starts, Bobrova won’t be the first Russian lady to compete in a man’s shirt. We’ve seen that costume choice in a couple of show programs, too. She will, however, be the first to skate in one translucent, or slightly open. It may be a little overly sexy for a competitive program. Although at least it complies with the ISU regulation requiring at least 50% of a lady’s upper body be covered. If they don’t mind the covering being translucent.

Julia Lipitnitskaya tried to have a comeback season last year, after she crashed and burned in 2015. She didn’t quite manage it, and with more and more young Russian women coming up, it’s only going to get harder. She skated her short program in a show today. The French music is much like the kind of music she’s used in the past:

She’s certainly more mature than she used to be in how she uses it, but that makes sense. She is no longer the little girl we saw in Sochi. Thankfully expressing herself when older is not an issue she seems to be tripping over. Good thing, too. She’s got enough of a struggle ahead of her as it is.

Next: 20 Times Beyoncé Helped You Get Through a Breakup

The time for such summer program debuts is now almost at an end. Next week the Challenger Series even starts with the Lombardia Trophy. Although a few American skaters are also debuting their programs this weekend at the Golden West Club competition in California, which is currently ongoing.

Home/Sports