VANCOUVER — For those novices turning on the TV to figure skating for the first time tonight, don’t just watch the skating. Listen to the music. You might learn something about the skater you’re watching.
The judges count on it.
Take Rachael Flatt. The Cheyenne Mountain High School senior will skate her short program at 9:40 p.m. MST to “Sing, Sing, Sing.” It’s from the 1999 Broadway musical “Fosse,” and an adaptation of the 1936 song written by Louis Prima and popularized by Benny Goodman.
Great Britain’s Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean used it to ice dance their way to the 1981 world championship in Hartford, Conn. However, what skaters can put on their walls isn’t just why they pick a music. It’s what they can put in their souls.
“It’s a visceral reaction, is the best way to put it,” Flatt said after Monday’s practice, “something that’s really inspiring to me and kind of moves me.”
If skaters don’t land jumps, they won’t win. However, if their skating doesn’t match their music, they won’t win, either. Interpretation is one of five parts that make up the program component score.
“It’s what differentiates figure skating from all the other sports,” said Tom Zakrajsek, Flatt’s coach. “Even in gymnastics, floor exercise doesn’t quite come close to what figure skaters have to do. You have to skate based on what the music is saying. You have to interpret it in your body movement and your face.”
Flatt’s music for Thursday’s long program is another extreme. “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” was written for piano solos and piano concertos in 1934 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The music jumped out at her. After spending five hours going over music for her short program with choreographer Lori Nichol in Toronto, Flatt spent only two on her long program.
“They’re very exciting,” she said. “They’re very different. They reflect two different types of my personality.”
Music isn’t just important for a piece of the podium. It’s important for piece of mind. Figure skaters practice four to six hours a day. Can you imagine listening to the same two songs for six hours?
That’s why no one skates to Devo.
“I like to try to do something different than what I’ve done in previous years so that I can continue to grow and evolve as a skater,” said Jeremy Abbott, the Aspen native who finished ninth here last Thursday coming off his U.S. championship. “I don’t want to be a one-trick pony. I try to pick pieces of music that I have an emotional attachment to and that will push me through the season.”
Abbott’s short is the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” performed by Jeff Beck, a piece Abbott loves so much he has it on his iPod.
“It’s a very emotional piece,” Abbott said. “It has so many sides to it. It’s bluesy and a little sad at the beginning, and I feel the middle section is very upbeat and exciting. I feel I’m kind of strong and powerful, and I love the way it’s edited.”
When he moved his training base from Colorado Springs to suburban Detroit last spring, he switched music for his long program. He got bored and in September switched to “Jupiter” from “The Planet Suite,” an orchestra written by Gustav Holst.
“It’s very classical and very classic skating,” Abbott said. “I’ve always been kind of more modern or contemporary. It’s kind of vintage skating. I love the music. It’s strong. It’s powerful. And the movement fits along with it.”
