With whom would you like Yuzuru Hanyu to skate?

[Paskud]

WRONG

the best partner is Pooh-san

[Neenah]

Mascots 

[SitTwizzle]

On 3/19/2020 at 11:47 PM, rockstaryuzu said:

If ever there was a time for him to start...

 

He can't train on ice, at least ballet you can do easily at home. 

The question being : does he really need it?

For anybody else I would say yes. "Everybody need ballet training." ;-)

For him, maybe I'm lacking imagination, but he has already built his own dance language, and it is so beautiful, unlike most contemporary wannabe choreographs', even with strong ballet training. I don't know how to express it. It is pure, like ballet is without skates. He will certainly improve it with time, as he has already done, but I just can't imagine how. It looks so perfect already.

The only use I would see of ballet lessons for him, would be to see how ballet is taught, in order to, when he coaches, make his own method of "yuzu-dance" training. But then he may have better benefit in having teacher training classes? Unfortunately Vaganova Schools' are in Russian.

 

Stéphane Lambiel? Oh yes, a duo of the two please! Two different skates, answering each other, and sometimes going along.

[FlyingCamel]

11 minutes ago, SitTwizzle said:

The question being : does he really need it?

For anybody else I would say yes. "Everybody need ballet training." ;-)

For him, maybe I'm lacking imagination, but he has already built his own dance language, and it is so beautiful, unlike most contemporary wannabe choreographs', even with strong ballet training. I don't know how to express it. It is pure, like ballet is without skates. He will certainly improve it with time, as he has already done, but I just can't imagine how. It looks so perfect already.

The only use I would see of ballet lessons for him, would be to see how ballet is taught, in order to, when he coaches, make his own method of "yuzu-dance" training. But then he may have better benefit in having teacher training classes? Unfortunately Vaganova Schools' are in Russian.

As a ballet dancer myself I think Yuzu would be good at it! He already has natural turnout, flexibility and poise despite not receiving formal ballet training.

Of course the only problem now is that most ballet schools around the world are closed too... he would have to teach himself at home with Youtube haha. 
 

Although I am sure Yuzu has tried to teach himself some ballet basics by watching videos! Compare his Notte Stellata to Svetlana Zakharova’s “The Dying Swan” for example:

 

Also look at his arabesque line in this shot:

 

 

 

[SitTwizzle]

Of course he would be good at it, I have no doubt about it. I hadn't even thought of it, just wondered if he would need it to improve his skating, and I tend to think it wouldn't, but of course I may be wrong.
Yet I think he may have as fruitful discussions with the GOAT in ballet, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, as he must have had with the GOAT pianist, Krystian Zimerman (though the latter speaks Japanese, the former only so-so English), but this wouldn't be ballet lessons either.

[FlyingCamel]

Maybe not necessarily improve his skating but it could maybe help especially since he probably can't get ice time for a while? I think he himself thinks it will help, judging by how he said something about Nathan having years of ballet training while he doesn't have that (can't remember exactly what he said)

[SitTwizzle]

56 minutes ago, FlyingCamel said:

Maybe not necessarily improve his skating but it could maybe help especially since he probably can't get ice time for a while? I think he himself thinks it will help, judging by how he said something about Nathan having years of ballet training while he doesn't have that (can't remember exactly what he said)

Wasn't this indirectly teasing Nathan Chen, who got so little from his ballet training? Or precisely addressing advice for ballet training, by showing it was not the one and only secret to dance on ice?

Of course some ballet would be better than taking 10kg or injuring his ankles with aerobics. ;-)

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, FlyingCamel said:

As a ballet dancer myself I think Yuzu would be good at it! He already has natural turnout, flexibility and poise despite not receiving formal ballet training.

Of course the only problem now is that most ballet schools around the world are closed too... he would have to teach himself at home with Youtube haha. 
 

Although I am sure Yuzu has tried to teach himself some ballet basics by watching videos! Compare his Notte Stellata to Svetlana Zakharova’s “The Dying Swan” for example:

 

Also look at his arabesque line in this shot:

 

 

 

For me, it's not so much about improving his skating or making him 'more balletic' or whatever, as it is about giving him a new set of tools that he can choose to incorporate into his movements or use to build up his techniques. Remember Yuzu is all about technique being the support for artistry. Any new movement vocabulary he can pick up will only help him with that. Instead of thinking of him inside the boxes of 'figure skater' or 'ballet dancer', think of him as a master of movement for performance. Any and all forms of performance movement could, and maybe should, be in his toolbox of skills so he can pull them out at a moment's notice in order to create something new. 

 

The hydroblade-leap combo he used in Otonal and Origin is the perfect example of this. Hydroblade is a movement you can only do on the ice. It only makes sense on the ice. But the huge leap is clearly a ballet movement, one you can see in many classical performances. Put them together and you have something beautiful and new that only Yuzu could do. 

 

Anyway, right at this very moment, ballet exercises would be a useful option for keeping his conditioning at home, provided he pushes all the furniture back...

 

 

 

[Paskud]

but consider: Yuzuru and Javier doing together flamenco program

[SitTwizzle]

11 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

For me, it's not so much about improving his skating or making him 'more balletic' or whatever, as it is about giving him a new set of tools that he can choose to incorporate into his movements or use to build up his techniques. Remember Yuzu is all about technique being the support for artistry. Any new movement vocabulary he can pick up will only help him with that. Instead of thinking of him inside the boxes of 'figure skater' or 'ballet dancer', think of him as a master of movement for performance. Any and all forms of performance movement could, and maybe should, be in his toolbox of skills so he can pull them out at a moment's notice in order to create something new. 

 

The hydroblade-leap combo he used in Otonal and Origin is the perfect example of this. Hydroblade is a movement you can only do on the ice. It only makes sense on the ice. But the huge leap is clearly a ballet movement, one you can see in many classical performances. Put them together and you have something beautiful and new that only Yuzu could do. 

 

Anyway, right at this very moment, ballet exercises would be a useful option for keeping his conditioning at home, provided he pushes all the furniture back...

 

 

 

Well, I understood FlyingCamel's argument like this too. I just have the impression he has already managed to take whatever he needs from ballet and incorporated it in skating, without having to do that sort of double translation skaters usually have to do from ballet to skating. A few weeks ago I dreamed seeing him doing "piqué en tournant" in first position, just to notice later he did so in several programs and I had not noticed explicitly the beauty of this movement, in its simplicity, but then it was impressed unknowingly in my memory.

[rockstaryuzu]

1 minute ago, Paskud said:

but consider: Yuzuru and Javier doing together flamenco program

And then Javi has to do the Bon dance with Zu.

[SitTwizzle]

Just now, rockstaryuzu said:

And then Javi has to do the Bon dance with Zu.

What's the Bon dance?

[rockstaryuzu]

1 minute ago, SitTwizzle said:

What's the Bon dance?

 

It's part of the annual Obon festival in Japan. I actually don't think it's a dance meant for performance the way flamenco is, but it's the only common Japanese dance I know about. 

[monchan]

5 hours ago, FlyingCamel said:

Maybe not necessarily improve his skating but it could maybe help especially since he probably can't get ice time for a while? I think he himself thinks it will help, judging by how he said something about Nathan having years of ballet training while he doesn't have that (can't remember exactly what he said)

Yuzu has said in his interview that u can learn ballet/dance etc. to incorporate in skating, he took ballet course for a month or so, but he himself feels it's not essentially what skating is about. So i'm pretty sure he's not that interested.

 

It's just a polite complement to Nathan, like if not about "ballet" then what else Yuzu can praise him when Yuzu is, objectively, better in everything.

[Dreamer]

I believe Yuzu's grace, beauty and lines are innate. 

He has the most beautiful arm, hand and finger movements(I am a sucker for beautiful expressive arms and hands and adore dancers with this attribute).  And that is before I even get to the rest of his body movements!!. 

 

His great flexibility gives him the tools to execute those movements but he also has consummate grace.  I look at his practice and competitive photos and videos....just beautiful.  Not posed, just intuitively gorgeous, he has incredible spatial awareness of his body.

 

 I love Fay's avatar...just a random practice photo...but he is literally flying: gorgeous, soaring and natural.  

He doesn't need dance training, his movements are just naturally mesmerizing and graceful.