Can Michael Jackson Save Figure Skating?
There are also judges to consider, and as skaters weigh the competing interests of appealing to an aging pool of judges and coveted younger audiences, maintaining a competitive edge generally takes precedence over cultural capital.
Figure skating is, in spite of the spangles, a judged sport. And its athletes tend to be less concerned with TV ratings than making the podium. Choreographer Mark Pillay points out that skaters train hard year round for a handful of competitions, and they don’t work that hard to look cool; they want high marks. In some ways, the lyrics present a catch-22: the new judging system has made figure skating competitions more difficult for casual viewers to understand, so the sport has allowed music with lyrics – music that most skaters are afraid will offend a milquetoast panel of judges.
“We’re trying to win the judges over, and the demographic of the judge is not necessarily the demographic of the more widespread audience,” Olympic coach Bobby Martin says. “I’ve had teams where I know they’re not going to be cracking the top six or seven at the event, but we want to win the audience, so we might approach their music in a different light. One of my teams right now is not in the medal hunt at the senior level but they’re skating to Grease.”
Grease might not seem like much of a consolation prize, but that is an issue of taste, and figure skaters are a rare, wonderful breed – somewhere between snowboarders and theater geeks. They throw themselves off glorified ice picks into acrobatic maneuvers with terrifying names like “Death Drop” and “Broken Leg Spin,” yet they enjoy emoting while doing so. Show tunes aren’t cloying or schmaltzy to most skaters; they’re admired.
This year, Pillay choreographed a program for American men’s title contender Max Aaron to the music of Footloose. And he’s excited:
“There’s so much energy in that music. It gets an audience immediately. People connect with it. They know what it is right away,” he explains. “There’s that really amazing guitar riff in it. It’s just incredible.”
That said – and with no offense meant to Kenny Loggins – Footloose isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of millennial audiences (2011 remake notwithstanding), which goes to a more problematic point: Perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect that figure skating will ever enter mainstream pop culture. Whereas pop and dance music has continually evolved, the technical demands of figure skating are not necessarily conducive to on-the-fly adaptations.
“It’s very difficult to implement modern choreography or hip-hop choreography,” Chernyshova says. “We are moving fast – not only that, but your center of balance can’t shift, and you’re not standing on your feet. You’re really standing on a two-inch blade.”
In other words, the physics of skating mostly precludes the hip shaking, swiveling and popping so characteristic of today’s popularized dance forms – there’s not room for the kind of movements that made Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” video go viral.
Then again, figure skating might not need baby oil, undulating pelvises or even lyrics to connect with a new generation of fans: Last year, a video of Jason Brown’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships long program became an Internet hit, lauded for the joy expressed in his performance. The music? Riverdance.
Can Michael Jackson Save Figure Skating?, Page 2 of 2