My favorite performances / programs in Skate Canada & Cup of China’ 2012

Tatsuki Machida

Congratulations on winning a gold medal in Cup of China !
I was glad to hear he won it because we both thought he is a wonderful skater and was very impressed with his performances since Skate America.

I thought Daisuke would take it for Cup of China, but also possibly Machida could have won as well. Because Daisuke and many other skaters quads are still not consistent, no one is ( was ) consistent like Plushenko, so anything can happen.

Joubert might be the only other skater who had consistent quad. ( Not sure for this season ) But overall he was not consistent as well with other elements.

I’m sorry to hear Joubert had illness so had to withdraw from the competition. Hope he will get quick recovery.

Machida’s Short Program may be my another top favorite program so far. It ‘s really Lambiel program to me. Very unique and creative.

We both love it !

Seems like it was really hard to create these choreography with this music, they said they almost gave up , but I’m glad they made it.

Machida’s cutting the air type of sharp movements are really good and exciting to watch. Great balance of movements. And his expression !

For jumps, I love his triple axel. It’s awesome !

Tatsuki Machida’s SP

I also love his Firebird program, but his SP wins in my mind because of uniqueness.

Florent Amodio

My other interest for performance / program this season so far, is Florent Amodio’s Long program.

I love this kind of choreography, very imaginative and his pantomime was great. Very detailed and it reminds me of Sandnu’s pantomime movements a little bit.

Sensitive movements are required to do great pantomime using the whole body to express. Even Lambiel’s pantomime was not so detailed like Sandhu and Weir. It may be coming from personalities .

Only the parts of Florent’s first spin’s arms looked stiff , and also when he was turning, one arm up movements also needs more softness.

It looked really stiff. But I really loved all the other part of his performance. Until last season, his programs looked often empty choreography and just crossing the rink and doing elements to elements.

But this program looks story telling program. I love it.

Daisuke Takahashi

I like his Short program.

He is a very good dancer who has his original style. I like his SP more than Long program for this year.

Skaters like him who have art skill are always great to see even though I feel he could have show much more of his wonderful talent if the program had more uniqueness.

For ladies,

I like Mao Asada’s Swan Lake performance. Her movements are excellent, really beautiful to watch. She has her original style as well.

Only thing missing may be more emotion and expression. In her programs, I loved her Chopin’s Nocturne in 2006 - 07 a lot, and also her Rachmaninof long program she did in Vancouver Olympics. It was not popular program but I loved it.

For Skate Canada, none of the programs made me watch over and over but I really think Elene Dedevanishvili and Ksenia Makarova are artistic beautiful skaters who care for sensitivities.

I think their programs need more impact.

I like Elene Dedevanishvili’s Long program’s step sequence parts though.

For fun programs,

Kanako Murakami and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva’s performances were something fun to watch.

Kanako looked really energetic in that tango performance. She needs more good yin-yang balance of movements , maybe too much yang energy.

It’s tango so it’s good to show passion but there needs a balance.

Elizaveta was chasing the music in some parts, which was actually something hilarious to watch. She was trying to do the choreography which was planned with the music.

Some of her movements and expression were overly showing, which didn’t look natural. But somehow we felt it looked lovely to see. Because at least she was trying to be with the music.

After seeing this, it’s clear to see that doing choreography, and at the same time feeling with music are not easy to do.

We watched Akiko Suzuki’s long program. My husband is still not crazy for her movements, but I like her performance for this season.

I thought compared with her performances when I first time saw around 2008 or 2009, now her movements got balanced and her sensitivity improved.

Her movements are still not so detailed which we love, and in some places she doesn’t have beauty of movements we would love to see, but her energy is always great.

She is a very nice person, and I wish her all the best.

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