Leap of Faith
Nov. 30th, 2003 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetLast night I watched Ice Wars X on CBS. This is a professional figure skating competition which this year included the two pairs gold medalists from Salt Lake City, Sale & Pelletier and Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze. I tend to enjoy the Canadians' skating more than the Russians'--Jamie and David are the only skaters who've ever actually made me cry while watching one of their routines ("Love Story," as performed at Skate America in 1998). But Elena & Anton have this one move that is just stunning to me--physically, artistically and emotionally. It's called the "leap of faith."
The move was originated by Dafoe & Bowden and made into a signature move by Underhill & Martini, but somehow Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze take it somewhere new, perhaps because of the contrast in their physical appearance, or the ethereality of their skating style. In it, the woman is skating in front of the man and while still moving, suddenly jumps so that her body is horizontal and he catches her and keeps moving. She can't see him, she could easily misjudge and hit him with her blades, he could fail to be there to catch her. But he is there, he catches her and carries her, soaring around the ice. In a routine choreographed to Josh Groban's "Let Me Fall" it is particularly moving.
The move was originated by Dafoe & Bowden and made into a signature move by Underhill & Martini, but somehow Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze take it somewhere new, perhaps because of the contrast in their physical appearance, or the ethereality of their skating style. In it, the woman is skating in front of the man and while still moving, suddenly jumps so that her body is horizontal and he catches her and keeps moving. She can't see him, she could easily misjudge and hit him with her blades, he could fail to be there to catch her. But he is there, he catches her and carries her, soaring around the ice. In a routine choreographed to Josh Groban's "Let Me Fall" it is particularly moving.
