Hey, remember when I got through 15 days of this, and then I went to Canadians and forgot to finish? Me too. I opened my blog because I wanted to write about the situation with Worlds and Japan, but my thoughts on that are far too scattered, so I'm channeling my energy into a different skating post. Just for fun.
Day 16: What is your favourite ladies professional/show program?
This is turning out to be a tough category to pick from. Shows and galas always seem to be full of girls skating to GFBs (Generic Female Ballads, for those of you that don't speak FSU) and everything kind of looks the same. And when the girls try to do something different, it often comes off looking fake and overchoreographed. So it's a tough category, and I'm going to pick two true classics for my favourites.
The first is "The Sweater," a bit of comedic genius by one of my favourites, Josée Chouinard. There's just something about it that still makes me giggle now, and something about it that made me wear out my tape of it when I was about 13. I didn't tape a lot of skating in those days, but I was determined to have a tape of "The Sweater," so I sat with a video tape and the remote at the ready every time skating was on TV, just in case Jos happened to be in the event and she happened to be skating that program. I finally got it, but I didn't understand that rewinding a tape without stopping it is bad for it, and that tapes wear out after a while, so using a tape that had already been used for countless episodes of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was probably a bad idea. So the tape didn't last long, but the memories are still there.
I like to think that my second pick was part of what inspired "The Sweater." I will never, ever forget the first time I saw Kristi Yamaguchi's "Doop Doop" or how much I loved the entire thing. It's so quirky and goofy and I just ate it up. I want to say that the year was 1994, I know the event was Ice Wars, and I know that I was eating Market Day Split Topper pizza while watching skating in my parents' bedroom. They were probably watching a movie or a game or something out in the living room, and I almost preferred it when they took over the big TV, and I got the little TV in their room, because I could close the door and get lost in the skating world. The skating world seemed so far away to me then, and so glamorous. I remember watching Ice Wars because I was taking very careful notes on the event so that I could write about it for some school project. I guess it was the first time that I wrote about skating. And Kristi's program was the one to get the best review from me...despite the fringed epaulets.
Honourable Mentions:
Michelle Kwan's "Fields of Gold" - Of course I still wish that she'd had the skate of her life and had won gold in a home Olympics, but I think this program was even better without having won gold, you know? Totally heartwrenching.
Joannie Rochette's "Summertime" - After considerable thought, I think this is my favourite Jo show program. I feel like it's a good choice, since she liked it enough to reprise it last year on tour (she originally skated to it in the 2007-2008 season).
Yuka Sato's "I Love You Always Forever" - this program began my obsession with this song that is still ongoing even today, after like 15 years!
Angela Nikodinov's "To Love You More" - Okay, okay, I know I just railed on GFBs, but this is a special program and it was perfect for her. Plus, I love Céline Dion more than I can possibly explain in this post, so to me, this isn't a GFB.
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