Henni147

Very big Yes to many things in this post. Regarding the composition of Rondo, Saint Saens' original piece is characterized by two essential aspects: 1. a change in time from 2/4 (Introduction) to 6/8 (Rondo Capriccioso) 2. a change in key from A minor to A major in the final coda Shinya's special arrangement, however, remains in A minor until the end. The coda in A major is skipped entirely and replaced by an original composition from Shinya in A minor. It's a kind of reprise of the main theme that starts in the middle of the step sequence. Yuzu and Shae hinted in their interviews that the reason for this change was the story that Yuzu wanted to express with this program. It should capture the struggles and uncertainties during his quest for the 4A. While the 50:50 division of the program (Introduction part and Rondo part) nicely showed his gradual move from a state of melancholy and reminiscence to determination and strength, this final "light-up" or moment of glory hadn't come, so the change to A major didn't fit his situation at that time. Another interesting aspect is: The rather smooth timbre and continuous sound of the violin would have fit the slow pacing and melancholic atmosphere of the introduction part better. However, the quick, accentuated and voluminous sound of the piano was the perfect choice to express the passion and determination in the Rondo part. This is the main reason why I personally prefer the piano to the violin for this piece overall, and I'm very happy that Yuzu decided to go with the piano here as well. Regarding music interpretation, I distinguish between the following key aspects: 1. Capture of the musical lead theme(s) in the composition regarding: 1.1 Shape, size, and symmetry of the skating pattern(s) 1.2 Selection, design, placement, and alignment of movements 1.3 Distribution and symmetry of elements 1.4 Structure of the composition in accordance with the musical phrasing 2. Technical translation of the music to movement: 2.1 Each music note initiates one movement 2.2 The duration of the movement matches the length of the note 2.3 The skating speed varies with the music tempo 2.4 The stroking power/intensity varies with the sound volume 2.5 The vertical body movement follows the change in pitch 3. Narration: 3.1 Capture of key motifs and atmosphere in your (facial) expression and body language 3.2 Selection of fitting movement(s)/dance style(s) in accordance with the musical theme(s) 3.3 Translation of the story/lyrics with clear and logical gestures 3.4 Creation of a fitting "world" or setting around you (incl. costume design, lighting, props, and decoration) In skating discussions, these three aspects are often mixed together and understood as "music interpretation", but I think, it's important to distinguish between them because they require different skills: 1. cognitive 2. sensory 3. motoric/cognitive. I became a fan of Yuzu because I haven't seen any other skater who is so elaborate in all aspects listed above. There are skaters with great carriage and strong body language, but poor compositions. Skaters with great feeling for timing and rhythm, but little to no understanding of the piece. Or skaters with good choreos that cannot be realized because of their limited skating skills. With Yuzu, everything comes together: he understands the piece and arranges it in a smart way, he develops clever and logical compositions, he has excellent sense for timing, tempo, volume, pitch (even timbre and fluctuations), and he knows how to tell his story in an authentic way with logical body language and a fitting setting that people remember. And of course, he has the skating, jumping, and spinning skills to realize what he wants to show.

Yes, exactly this. I see, we are on the same page My guess is that he may shift from his personal career and life story to a more global POV and also tackle more complex topics with time. But that's just one of many possibilities he has. Regarding the 10 minute versions, I was thinking about options that Sombreuil has mentioned here as well: Live shows are just one of many things that Yuzu can do as a pro skater. He can also use his own YT channel or a professional studio-like setting to record a skating performance. I am sure, there are people who would be very happy to collaborate with him for a project like that. Filming your skating professionally and distribute it via streaming or DVD/Blu-ray would have the big advantage that you can take breaks and place the focus on perfecting the quality, including ideal filming angles, zoom, lighting, setting, and the skating itself, too. The approach would be different than in a live event. But let's wait and see what he has in mind. I am sure that it will be great

I have been thinking about this question as well. Personally, I still hope that one day we get to see the full 10 minute versions of Ballade and Rondo. Yuzu and Jeff managed to figure out the ideal music cuts of 2:50 for the short program that captured the main structure and motifs of the orginal pieces. However, the narrow competition rules limited them in multiple aspects: Yuzu now has the freedom as a pro skater to fully focus on the choreography and optimize it based the original music. He is no longer limited by any competition rules that force him to make compromises. For me, Ballade and Rondo are not just world-class short programs. They have the potential to become the pinnacle of performing arts in the 21st century - the ultimate bridge between past and present - classic and modern era. That's how monumental they are. The other thing that comes to my mind is: In GIFT, we could see a first glimpse of Yuzu's visions. While he was retelling the story of his life thus far, he also entered a new world: the philosophy of art, culture, and life. I can imagine that, in his future shows, he may dive deeper into various philosophical questions and build his programs around those questions. These are some possible topics that we may get to see in the future: - Persona (already approached in GIFT) - Ego and Id - Metamorphosis - Human and Nature (an extension of Hope & Legacy and Ten to Chi to) - The Language of Skate Yuzu is that type of performing artist who always has a central lead theme in mind that induces all of his other decisions: the story, the music selection, the choreography, the setting, the costume style. This is not only very mature but it also helps the audience to understand his programs and thought process better. I am pretty sure that he will stick to that strategy in the future, too.

Thank you very much 🌸 Yes, it was important to me that the skating and blendings match the music. Yuzu places lots of emphasis on this aspect himself, both in his choreos and also the YouTube edits. And he chooses his music with so much thought and care. I felt that the best tribute to him is to select a meaningful piece and match it as good as possible with the visual, too.

Yes, I root for him, too, that his wish may come true one day Happy news from me: Some of you might remember that my old computer broke, and with it, my good old video editor was gone, too. On Wednesday, I finally received a new editor!! I couldn't resist to try it out right away and fulfill a vision that I had in mind for quite some time now. Back in 2018, I had created this video about Yuzu's signature moves to the music piece "Meaning of Life" by Brunuhville. At that time, it was my plan to continue the series to another piece from this composer, called "Timeless". I felt that it's the perfect theme to describe Yuzu's skating: it's timeless. It never gets old and no matter how many years have passed, Yuzu always manages to preserve the soul of his programs while taking a new, fresh approach to them at the same time. However, with my limited technical possibilities, I thought it would be a waste of potential to tackle the project back then. So I decided to wait until I would have the proper equipment. Now the time has finally come, and GIFT was the perfect occasion to realize my visions from five years ago. In fact, the show has surpassed my wildest dreams. It was so rich of amazing skating, innovative ideas, and mesmerizing sceneries, it couldn't have been any better. I just couldn't not capture my favorite moments in a special montage. Funny note: the music cut happened to be a tribute to Yuzu: it's 1:11 long I was hesitating a bit with uploading at first because I don't want to get flagged, but some fellow fanyus encouraged me to share my work, which is indeed a matter of the heart to me, so I decided to put it up here for a limited time. I hope that you like it Yuzuru Hanyu Series II: Timeless (GIFT Rewind)

The key to evolving is to have visions and a strong will to grow. I am very happy that Yuzu is the type of person who always sees room for improvement and is willing to invest a lot to achieve that. With that mindset and attitude he will come very far. This was true for his competitive career, and I'm sure, he will experience great development as a professional, too. Now that I have watched GIFT multiple times, I noticed that he realized many of our suggestions from the #Challenge4Yuzu initiative. He performed an extended arabesque spiral, a Biellmann spin, he skated a new program to Joe Hisaishi's music, and he even realized the idea of "cinematic figure skating" with the big screen and projection mapping. The background design for POTO was almost the same as the picture that I had selected for my post back then - with the noble ballroom and the big chandelier. I was over the moon to see that idea realized Footnote: I wish that he finds a good balance between his workload and time for recovery, physically and mentally, too. What he has accomplished the last months is superhuman. Preparing GIFT alone must have been a mammoth task, and then he still took the time to prepare and skate a 6-minute long program with five quads, two step sequences and a hydroblading that goes against the laws of physics.

I still try to comprehend these numbers.

My brain feels like wobbly pudding right now. Will probably take some days (or weeks) to process everything. But the fact that he used the latest version of the lead text with "ice show producer" for GIFT feels very reassuring that we are on the right track.

Apparently, yes. I still can't believe it

If you mean the shake-to-tap upgrade. Yes. Also love how Yuzu went all out like: THIS IS A ROCK CONCERT SO LET'S DROP ALL THREE SPINS FOR 45 SECONS MORE WILDING

Okay, now that I've recovered from the first shockwaves, I'd like to gracefully freak out for a second: YES YUZU LISTENED TO ME AND SKATED LMEY IN THE SUPERIOR, ONE-AND-ONLY WHITE STORM TROOPER-GOLDEN RIBBON-80s POP ROCK FUSION TOP You don't understand how much I freaking LOVE this costume.

Yuzu has bigger lungs than a blue whale. This was truly the show of a titan.

Globe Coding stream is back already. That was fast

I still try to process the first half. Phoenix, waterwaves, fog and wind, Ballade ... and absolute chaos. My mom is taking a shower rn

Thank you SO much for your help

Quick question to fellow fanyus (especially from Germany): Apparently, my credit card on KKTIX is not accepted and my bank cannot make adjustments in time until GIFT. If someone could help out with the payment, I would be super grateful. I will transfer the ticket price to you directly (with extra 10% gratuity for your efforts).

Want to share this lovely development here too: Ean was so overwhelmed by the nice responses yesterday that he opened a twitter account (@eank_weiler). He is following all of Yuzu's official accounts now Also, I stumbled across this 4K walk video through Tokyo Dome City, recorded 5 days ago. It almost feels like being there in person and perfect to get in the right mood for GIFT: The fact that there is a whole amusement park right next to the Tokyo Dome, with a ferris wheel, rollercoaster, and ship swing is so funny. I mean, imagine that GIFT is just happening and you experience a rollercoaster ride indoor and outdoor

It seems that we have another young talent who is a big Yuzu fanboy: 15-year-old Ean Weiler from Switzerland! A fellow fanyu sent me a video link, and I was really impressed by his transitions, edges and low number of crossovers. His spins and carriage are nice too. And he has the full Yuzu-field-move-arsenal: Ina Bauer, hydroblading, and side lunge Yuzuru Hanyu´s Legacy: Discover Ean Weiler Novice skater 2 times Swiss national champion Ean also has his own YT channel and is looking for support to finance his skating career. I wish him all the best. The FS world needs more young talents like him, especially from smaller feds.

Devastated to hear the news, I send my prayers and deepest condolences to her family. As a fellow of the letter campaign, it makes me feel especially sad. We only knew each other for a short period of time, but it was a very enriching and educational collaboration that I will always treasure. I hope that our efforts can pay off one day and make figure skating a better sport (I am still considering to complete and forward our project, when the right time has come, so that our efforts were not in vain). Quick news from Wiki: some fellow template editors helped us to add two new parameters to the infobox: "years competitive" and "years professional". They are a more detailed alternative to the parameter "retired". The change was initiated by @Briq_S, thank you very much for that! With this addition, Yuzu's Wiki article no longer contains the term "retired" or any of its derivatives.

One more thing that has come to my mind: It would be really awesome to up Yuzu's Final Time Traveler video to 1 million views before GIFT. There might not be enough time left, but I think it's worth a try. The video needs 336K more views to reach 1M, this means ca. 34K per day from now

Hi everyone I don't know if the info has been shared already, but yesterday the official YouTube channel of British Eurosport uploaded Yuzu's "Hope & Legacy" performance from Helsinki 2017: It is a recording with the orginal live commentary by B.ESP. Apparently, it seems to be geoblocked outside Europe, but I heard from fellow fanyus that they watch it with VPN.

Thank you very much for the feedback Yeah, vandalism was quite an issue, especially on his main bios around the Olympics. There were countless idiots who messed up the infobox or section titles, or wrote some sh*t in the lead section. Thankfully, Wikipedia has very effective methods to deal with vandalism. We can revert edits manually to previous versions, block notoric vandal accounts or IP addresses - and if things get out of control, admins can lock articles and give them a temporary protection status, so that only experienced authors can edit them in that period. Unlike Twitter or other social media platforms, Wikipedia is very fast in taking action and it's some hell of a challenge to get a blocked account unblocked again.

Just noticed: Twitter Wiki mentioned Yuzu too

Quick news from the Wiki frontline: Yuzu's appearance in the 'Did you know?' column has been going smoothly so far. No page vandalism or flawed edits yet. Last time, when his Olympic seasons article got featured, I spent 24 hours with gate-keeping and reverting one nonsense-edit after the next. Thank God, this is not the case today

I drop this news here too: You can access Wikipedia's main page from this link here: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia There is no separate Hall of Fame for "Did you know"-articles by view numbers, but we would be very happy if you gave the article a read and maybe a quick feedback too. Our long-term goal is to bring it to FA class, so every proofread or constructive suggestion is welcome. The article is pretty new, it was published on January 9 this year. I'm still overjoyed that we managed to get it ready almost two months before GIFT I'd like to thank @Beatrice and also Marika-san from the AWW team for proofreading the article and contributing pictures from the venues. Sidenote: We decided to mention Nikkan's criticism re GIFT because Wikipedia places big importance on neutral POV, and it would be suspicious if we only included media with positive resonance. Anyways. We hope that you enjoy reading it