Requiem for a Dream Notes:
Requiem for a Dream Notes:
Story-related notes:
- Soojung’s injury is based on that of Gabriella Papadakis, a French ice dancer and the reigning World champion with Guillaume Cizeron. She hit her head in practice recently and let us pray for her quick recovery-and may she not experience Soojung’s fate. I also took elements from the injury of former Russian pair skater Tatiana Totmianina.
- In the confession scene, the song Yixing sings is “You N Me” by JJ Lin
- “I love you” in Changsha dialect is the same as that in Mandarin. The only difference is how the words are pronounced.
- The song they skated to at the 2016 World Champonships gala was “Perfect” by Nell.
Ice Dance Basics:
Ice dance is pretty much ballroom dancing on ice. It is composed of two rounds-the short dance (2:50 minutes) and the free dance (4:30 minutes). The short dance requires all skaters to use a pre-determined pattern dance and rhythm, but allowing choreographic freedom within the constraints of the required elements-thus increasing the risk of people skating to the same music. Meanwhile, the free dance allows skaters freedom to choose their own rhythms, program themes, and music.
Just to illustrate my point, last year’s short dance was the paso doble and the rhythm was one to three Spanish Dance rhythms. There isn’t a wide variety of music you can use to satisfy these requirements, so you can imagine how every single ice dance fan was just SO DONE with it by the end of the season, hence the hashtag #ceasethepasos. Another example, this season, the junior-level short dance is the Starlight Waltz. And in watching just ONE Junior Grand Prix competition, I’ve already lost count of how many ice dance teams have used either “The Masquerade Waltz” or music from the opera La Traviata.
Both programs are judged based on technical elements (step sequences, lifts, dance spins, and multi-rotation turns called twizzles,) and the program components (skating skills, interpretation, choreography). The points for both parts are added for the SD/FD score, and the final competition standings are based on the combined scores for both programs.
Unlike singles and pairs skating, ice dancers must always skate to music with a definite beat or rhythm. Singles and pair skaters more often skate to the melody and phrasing of their music, rather than its beat.
Unlike pairs skating, jumps and throws are NOT allowed in ice dance. The man can’t extend his hands above his head, when doing lifts, but allowing a wider variety of holds. Unlike pairs skating, ice dancers are not allowed to lift their partners above their shoulders.
Since Ice Dance is governed by the same group as Singles and Pairs skating, I have taken Bea’s notes and will link them for your convenience (instead of making my own). For more information on ice dance and figure skating, you can go here and here.
Real-life athletes mentioned:
Ice Dance:
- Shiyue Wang / Xinyu Liu (China)
- Megan Wing / Aaron Lowe (Canada) - coach
- Yura Min / Timothy Koleto (Korea) [They split as of November 2014. Now Yura skates with Alex Gamelin for Korea, while Timothy skates with Thea Rabe for Norway]
- Rebeka Kim / Kirill Minov (Korea)
- Madeline Edwards / Zhao Kai Pang (Canada)
- Hojung Lee / Richard Kangin Kam (Korea)
- Elena Ilinykh / Ruslan Zhiganshin (Russia)
- Madison Chock / Evan Bates (USA)
- Meryl Davis / Charlie White (USA)
- Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (Canada)
- Jayne Torvill / Christopher Dean (Great Britain)
- Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje (Canada)
- Gabriella Papadakis / Guillaume Cizeron (France)
- Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani (USA)
- Ksenia Monko / Kirill Khaliavin (Russia)
- Kana Muramoto / Chris Reed (Japan)
- Alexandra Paul / Mitchell Islam (Canada)
- Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev (Russia)
- Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue (USA)
- Alexei Yagudin (Russia)
- Chengjiang Li (China)
- Nan Song (China)
- Yuna Kim (Korea)
- Jinseo Kim (Korea)
- Soyoun Park (Korea)
- Haejin Kim (Korea)
- Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan)
- Denis Ten (Kazakhstan)
- Javier Fernández (Spain)
- Minseok Kim (Korea) [Yes, there is an actual skater named Kim Minseok, and he also has baozi cheeks. He retired on January 2015.]
- Junehyoung Lee (Korea)
- Patrick Chan (Canada)
- Kiira Korpi (Finland)
- Qing Pang / Jian Tong (China)
- Shin Heasook - coach (Korea)
- Kanako Murakami (Japan)
- Zijun Li (China)