Viewing Single Post From: Beatrix Schuba and FIGURE skating

Viewing Single Post From: Beatrix Schuba and FIGURE skating
kioewen	Nov 21 2008, 02:24 AM
Novice Posts: 114 Group: Members Member #242 Joined: July 22, 2008	I only recently discovered what the phrase "figure skating" actually means. The word "figure" refers to forming actual figures (shapes) in the ice with one's sakes. (Remember that old children's TV song that included the line, "When you skate a figure 8"? This is what it refers to.) Figures are no longer performed, but they used to be a significant part of skating competitions -- worth more, in fact, than free skating, which is what they call what skaters do in their SP and LP programs today. Apparently, figures were phased out because the public found them boring, but I have to say, I recently saw a video from the 1972 Olympics in Japan, where a skater named Beatrix ("Trixie") Schuba performed figures, competing with an American rival, and I found it absolutely fascinating. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTDLjhTUMbA&fmt=18 There's something quite compelling about watching Beatrix perform the figures. It helps that the camera work is so dynamic. I love hearing the sound of the skates scraping across the ice, the slow, graceful movements of the skater as she turns a curve by the camera, and watching her skates switch directions in a flash. So that's what figures are; what figure skating is (or was) all about. Also interesting is this clip from a skating documentary, which talks more about the figure/free skating transition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzvtjbcv-Cs&fmt=18 But what I find especially notable in the latter clip is the commentary about Ms. Schuba's appearance. Beatrix was no more full-figured than Emily was at Ice Chips 2008, or Lisa Ervin was in the clip that I posted on this board a while ago, but she does have a natural, womanly body. Note the commentators' tone: Quote: "Her size and her weight was an asset, because she was steady as a rock, and the line on the ice was absolutely perfect...." "Trixie went out there -- large, elegant, statuesque in her own way..." Large. Elegant. Statuesque. Even in a doc that was obviously biased against Ms. Schuba and favoured her American rival, those terms for Beatrix's curvy figure are not negative. In fact -- and this is something that I've never encountered before in skating discussions -- the commentators offer a qualified appreciation of her body type, an acknowledgment that the curvier build has its own beauty. I find that very refreshing. I wish there were more acceptance of fuller-proportioned skaters -- and less focus on jumps, jumps, jumps, and more on executing beautiful movements on the ice. Edited by kioewen, Nov 21 2008, 02:25 AM.


Beatrix Schuba and FIGURE skating · Skating Discussion