ArtisticTalent

[passion]

What do you consider to be qualities of a naturally artistic skater?

[Mel On Ice]

The ability to relate to a piece of music is one thought. Grace, fuildity of movement. I've seen people walking on the street with such fluidity that I immediately thought they'd make a great skater.

I guess you can just see it in some people. Sergei Federov, the former Red Wing, played hockey with such smoothness and grace, I always thought he'd make a great ice dancer.

[loveskating]

Naturally artistic? Not sure that is possible...aesthetics are so much a social construct, it seems impossible to be a fully realized artistic skater without being able to understand to some degree and interpret a piece of music from your own cultural point of view??

However, somone like Victoria Volchkova comes to mind...great flow, edging, speed, wonderful line.

I think when someone says a young skater is "a natural" they mean that the child's body was made for skating -- smallish height, thin, flexible back, really skates on the edges, that the child has a great line, skates musically...the real interpretation of the music waits for the child to become more culturally aware and to develop a point of view of his or her own.

I was showing my daughter's boyfriend some tapes from her competitions, and she had great edges...I didn't realize how great at the time, although her coach was telling me that. She got too tall, however.

[ice-princess]

Can you really be too tall to skate? There are some great skaters like Carolina Kostner who have an amazing quality to their skating....and she's very tall!