Rika wrote:I know Plushenko's fans and I don't want to fight with anyone (I admire Plushenko and imo he was the best ever...), but I can't keep silence, then his short program.
I'm asking at myself if his coreographer is sleeping or what else...
Plushenko's short program seems an exibition and not a good exibition: what does he do in his coreography? Imo the coreography doesn't exist and he do his typical movements (kisses and other stuff) for the audience.
So... I can understand a program like this when he skates in exibition, but who declares (like me) Patrick Chan's lack in the coreography, is now disappointed by Plushenko's short program: a big skater like Plushenko can does more, more better than kisses and winks. Suppose a person who doesn't know Plushenko (because he isn't intressed in figure skating), can he/she to cheer, to scream and to excited for Evgeny? No. This is the answer.
And I'm writting all this because some ages ago, Plushenko was able to fascinate all the world (who doesn't know what figure skate is too!) not only his fans, and this was his biggest magic...
but I can't see it anymore. I can't belive it's so hard to find a good coreography for Plushenko: he can does all, really all... so, why only kisses and winks? What is his corepgrapher doing? He is afraid to say to Plushenko: "Do this and this and not this?"
Ok, Plushenko can be the best, but the scores speak clear: at the Worlds it will be head-to-head with Chan, why does he present a coreography lower like this?
What's the problem? Plushenko belives the fans don't cheer and excite if he doesn't send kisses?
For me, it's the opposite.
Anyway, maybe Plushenko want to thank his fans for their support... so, he needs only to skate and to show this in his eyes, nothing else to be unforgettable.
With the blown kisses in this particular performance of the SP, I still feel it is more a matter of performance than choreography. From the video of the practice before the competition, there was in fact an ending pose that I thought was both beautiful and very fitting; I hope we will see it the next time. With the blown kiss before the step sequence, I am not certain what is meant to be there; even if it were actually an empty spot, from what we've heard Plushy say, I am certain they will find something that works there. (However, I must say I don't know anything about "winks", given that none of the videos I've seen so far had any close-ups while the SP was going on.)
With the matter of "Plushenko was able to fascinate all the world and not just his fans" in the past, to me this statement seems to imply that the only people moved by him now are his fans. Please forgive me for this, but it seems to me a rather big thing to claim to speak not only for one's self, but for the rest of "the world". And I have seen plenty of evidence that this statment--in and of itself--is not true. With his programs from the 09/10 season, Aranjuez and Tango Amore, which many figure skating experts are very fond of criticizing (sometimes bashing), I have known many new fans who came to Plushenko because of them, because they,who didn't know much about him before, were moved and fell in love with those programs. (And maybe a slightly sideways comment: I am not certain that how much "choreography" there is has all that much to do anymore with what is or isn't able to move viewers, especially "non-experts", in today's figure skating.)
And with the matter of the choreographer being "asleep", I must respectfully disagree. The more I watch this program, the more I am convinced this is a well-considered and artistically ambitious program, into which a lot of thought has already been put. (True, I am a fan and maybe I am imagining things that aren't necessarily intended or even really there, but in the end, we are all subjective.) There are still various details that can be improved or filled in, but the overall structure and theme are sound, asymmetrical but not unbalanced, which I myself find rather remarkable. I admit that very likely all of this is completely meaningless in figure skating nowadays, but personally, I admire Plushy and his team for what I have already seen of the attempt. It may not fit in with the (in my opinion increasingly narrow) ideas of what is "good" in skating that the ISU and the experts are promoting, but I am a firm believer that in art, there are no absolute good or bad elements, only what is fitting and what is not. Of course, figure skating is not only art; there are of course lots of constraints on competition programs. But I think as long as figure skating still makes a pretense of having some aspect of art to it, this is something that will have to be taken into account, at least a little.
And something else, for which I'll apologize in advance. This is actually just something more general, which I happen to want to get off my chest recently; I certain don't mean it as a particular criticism against you or your post. But I have seen quite a few people have said "Plushy deserves to skate better programs" or "why can't he skate better programs", and I am sure they mean only well by it, but to be quite honest, I'm afraid statement like this still come across to me as a little patronizing. I believe that only Evgeni Plushenko himself, along with his team that is so close to him, gets to decide what he should or needs or deserves to skate. And from what I've seen, I am convinced that he--and his team--have never, ever decided such things stupidly or thoughtlessly, nor have any of them ever been "afraid" of saying what is needed to him, even when his programs do not conform to what is COP-friendly, and even when they do not move or touch you personally. For this particular short program, from what Plushy has said during the past year, I think they had other ideas and options, possibly even other already-choreographed programs. He chose this one. If one does not agree with his artistic choices, then in my opinion one might as well say it as such, and yes, go ahead and place the blame squarely on his shoulders (of course with the knowledge that one is only speaking for one's personal self). That amount of respect I think he does deserve (again, just my own personal opinion).