General Yuzuru Chat

[micaelis]

3 hours ago, Forcefield said:

This better be translated poorly or I'm going to knock whoever asked this question stating it AS IF it was a fact, as if it was the truth. Posture, sure maybe, but it's almost as if they implied it's about the forever subjective "artistry" and PUH-LEAZE as if Yuzu is inferior to either of them on that. Once again ballet does not equal artistry no matter what ubers and the US PR machine thinks, and I'm so tired of the thinking that Nathan's programs being much more appealing this year and new suddenly makes him the epitome of the gold-medal deserving skater who is pushing the envelope with artistry and quads.

We are in an area that I have some background in and I have to say that I don't think Yuzu required any degree of ballet training even going all the way back to junior competition days.  Ballet training can help some skaters, gymnasts and such primarily to give them a sense of how important stylistic elements are in competition.  With ballet the fundamentals involve turnout and pointing the toes when the leg is elevated and leading with the toes when moving across the floor.  Also the importance given to elements like port de bras (the position of the arms) and for those training seriously in ballet eventually a memory of the vast language of specific moves that comprise the art of ballet.  The intent of such basic ballet training is to give the athlete some sense of how the ENTIRE body is involved when moving. 

 

Yuzu never has needed that.  If you look at the programs he was skating back in pre-TCC days you will see his programs even then are very densely choreographed, meaning that there is hardly a moment in the program where he isn't engaged in some pre-planned movement.  Particularly if you look at the sheer drama in some of his earlier programs (R&J1 is the best example as it is the best-choreographed program he skated before Brian came along) you see how even then Yuzu was the complete skater his reputation is built on, even though that completeness needed some polishing.  It is very significant that when Yuzu started with Brian and Tracy he was steered away from the jumps and drilled on basic skating skills before they finally got around to the jumps.  They did this because they knew from Yuzu's earlier years that Yuzu had the talent to handle highly detailed choreography but that he had to acquire a mindset that treated every detail in a program with the same level of importance.  That he has heeded that philosophy through the succeeding years is testament to how well that mindset has become ingrained.  It also meant that those choreographers he worked with knew that he was capable of handling a densely detailed program.  The results are plain to see in that those records he's set over the years are not only the results of jumps to die for but also spins and steps and those myriad smaller details that have given his programs, when skated cleanly, the aesthetic polish that have made him the superlative skater he has been over these last few years.

 

I'm not sure which other skaters have had some ballet training but on the basis of what they're skating I can see that a number of them would have benefited from a few months in non-intense ballet work.  Those who talk about 'artistry' are not seeing the picture for what it really should be, for it's not the specific ballet aesthetic that is at issue but the building up of a sense of how those elements that constitute figure-skating's aesthetic core are of great importance.  Basically the ballet is to help the skater develop a sensitivity to skating's artistic elements.  Yuzu has never lacked that so he really didn't need it, though if there were some ballet training back whenever it wouldn't have hurt.  It just wasn't necessary.

 

I will conclude by saying something I've said in earlier posts, that if Yuzu had a couple more inches in height (you need the height and the strength that goes with it to handle those lifts that are part of a top danseur's required skills - notice that in skating's pairs and dance the men are always very tall and the ladies petite) and had trained in ballet from the age he started training in skating, he would today be a world class dancer because the innate talent he has is the same innate talent that dancers, gymnasts, divers and skaters need to truly succeed, and that is the ability to perform and remember specific patterns of controlled movement, skills that if mastered put them at the top in their field.

[sweetwater]

26 minutes ago, SparkleSalad said:

 

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

(I'm getting quite annoyed by these incorrect translations from some people. That's quite a simple sentence to translate, too, even for me.)

I’m a bit annoyed too, especially when the content of the text includes something negative. But the translator is always fast and not always wrong. When the tweet is a translation of someone else’s tweet, we need to check the source to see the context.

[kiches]

While I think the phrasing of the text in the tweet is a bit confusing, I took it to be the tweeter injecting a bit of their own POV and not a straight translation of the question that Midori was asked. 

 

I think the part about “inferior” comes from the fact that some skating fans think Yuzuru doesn’t have classic ballet training and thus has poor posture or lines. It’s just that they didn’t make a good distinction between what was asked and why they chose to translate this tweet in the first place. 

[WinForPooh]

7 hours ago, MrPudding said:

thats the tea 

 

I think I might have tea this morning instead of coffee.

[Hydroblade]

:themes

Spoiler

We're working on the Oly theme already i hope you guys like it, it's almost ready

 

[WinForPooh]

Been wondering for a while, how long did Nathan do ballet? Because if he did it for long enough, what excuse does he have for not doing even one spiral?

[SparkleSalad]

Just now, Hydroblade said:

:themes

  Hide contents

We're working on the Oly theme already i hope you guys like it, it's almost ready

 

 

Spoiler

We'll love it but none of us are anywhere near almost ready. 

 

[WinForPooh]

1 minute ago, Hydroblade said:

:themes

  Hide contents

We're working on the Oly theme already i hope you guys like it, it's almost ready

 

I think it's confirmed that I will just never be ready.

[Hydroblade]

Just now, WinForPooh said:

I think it's confirmed that I will just never be ready.

i'm using it already for testing purposes and just let me tell you this: doesn't get IT'S THE OLYMPICS!!! in your face. I didn;t want it to be too dramatic lol

[WinForPooh]

Just now, Hydroblade said:

i'm using it already for testing purposes and just let me tell you this: doesn't get IT'S THE OLYMPICS!!! in your face. I didn;t want it to be too dramatic lol

So we'll die slowly and softly instead of all at once. *sigh* I sound ungrateful, I'm not. I'm sure it's wonderful and it will get us used to it gradually, so there will be fewer cases of extreme shock on The Day.

[sweetwater]

Live or you might miss something like this

or this

Source: A photo history of Yuzu presented by Harper’s Bazaar Japan

[matchanodoame]

39 minutes ago, sweetwater said:

Live or you might miss something like this

or this

Source: A photo history of Yuzu presented by Harper’s Bazaar Japan

 
Did someone gifted him yellow shoes / slippers??? 

I thought they were a pair of yellow crocs for a bit  (and I was a bit triggered )

[SparkleSalad]

7 minutes ago, matchanodoame said:

 
Did someone gifted him yellow shoes / slippers??? 

I thought they were a pair of yellow crocs for a bit  (and I was a bit triggered )

 

I think they’re clogs.

[KatjaThera]

8 minutes ago, matchanodoame said:

 
Did someone gifted him yellow shoes / slippers??? 

I thought they were a pair of yellow crocs for a bit  (and I was a bit triggered )

I think it was in Netherlands, so, yes, they're probably clogs. Kind of nice, since I'm not sure Yuzu got to do any souvenir shopping lol

[MrPudding]

are we finally getting that fashionable photoshoot..