#Machida Tatsuki

[hoshidensha-art]

Annual Tatsuki Machida birthday art!! Inspired by the opening pose of his 2013-14 short program, East of Eden. Still an inspiration after all these years~

(Experimented with a more realistic style, black line art, and rendering with this cool marker brush I found! Also I've been reading a lot of Steinbeck lately, hence me picking this specific program to illustrate this year hehe)

[hoshidensha]

A little late, but happy birthday to my favourite (underrated) figure skater, Tatsuki Machida! ♡

Beethoven’s Ninth is still one of my favourite programs and costumes of his, and I tried to do it justice with a proper exhibition background here. Bc I swear I read an interview somewhere where he said he would’ve added so much more to this program if he wasn’t limited by the competition program requirements 

[raininyourblackeyes]

In hindsight, Euler thing makes sense considering new jump repetition rule, also decreasing number of combination jumping passes does too, because not everyone can put a Loop into combo as a second pass, and Toeloop is the jump we see is used the most in the protocols etc. In theory, new rules should allow for novelty and creative combinations. In practice I can already see Ilia's protocol with 6 out of 6 jumping passes being quads

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

This essay is a beautiful tribute to Tatsuki Machida and a brilliant analysis of his short programme East of Eden (2013-2014 season):

Machida skated this programme as a homage to Michelle Kwan whom he held a deep admiration for and who skated the programme more than a decade earlier. If you are a fan of Machida and/or Kwan or just enjoy figure skating meta, I highly recommend reading this.

As a fan of both figure skating (including meta) and Yuri!!! On Ice, reading this article was a delicious double-serving. Machida is rumoured to be one of the figure skaters who inspired the character of Yuuri Katsuki, especially as Mitsurou Kubo is a huge fan of him. Machida's career had some striking parallels to Yuuri's and discovering these, makes my nerd heart beat faster.

Like Yuuri, Machida has the skill to make music with his body. His skating is just mesmerising. I wanted to honour this and thus had Yuuri skate the two programmes Machida skated in the 2013-2014 season in my canonverse AU A Song of Fiery Birds and Endless Winter, in which Yuuri and Viktor meet 2014 Winter Olympics. And we all know which fictional skater Yuuri holds a deep admiration for.

But I digress. Read the article. It's excellent.

[stepffan]

Some thoughts on Lambiel's choreography - part 2

With Part 1 out of the way, let's look trace Lambiel's choreographic career from the beginning.

[[This is by no means a comprehensive list, just for reference.]]

Lambiel started in 2010 with Denis Ten (Primavera Porteno by Astor Piazzolla for 2010-2011 season) and Daisuke Takahashi (La Valse d'Amélie by Yann Tiersen, an exhibition program for 2010-2011 season).

But the program I really want to talk about is Tatsuki Machida's FUYA, from the 2012-2013 season, and how it very clearly illustrates some of the Lambiel's choreographic lexicon.

Lambiel worked with famous flamenco dancer Antonio Najarro on his Poeta program, and many components of the Flamenco dance tradition find their way into his programs. Machida's arm movements at the beginning of FUYA are clearly informed by the flamenco tradition. He begins with precise and isolated hand gestures, making use of every finger as he opens and closes his hands in the same direction of the wrists. That gesture of opening and closing around a circular rotation is then repeated in the arms. He sweeps his arms in an arc, starting and concluding in a crossed position in front of his torso.

In flamenco vocabulary, braceo (which in Spanish means "to wave" or "to swim") refers to the arm movements, and floreo (meaning "to flower") the hand. They are two distinct and isolated concepts.

Similar principles of movement are at work in the opening position of Lambiel's Poeta -- the small, isolated hand rotation, that flows into the larger movement of the arms.

An interruption to discuss arm movement -- when we look at arm movement, we are looking at 3 main segments -- the hand, the forearm, and upper arm. There are 3 main joints - the shoulder (joining the torso and upper arm), elbow (joining the upper arm and forearm) and the wrist (joining the hand and forearm). The shoulder joint can rotate like a ball; the wrist joint, on the other hand, is a hinge that allows the connected segments to either bend or straighten on a two dimensional plane. The elbow is complicated. It is a hinge joint, but allows for the wrist to rotate, without rotating the shoulder joint. Thus, the appearance of the hand/wrist rotating is actually created by rotating the entire forearm at the elbow joint, and not the actual rotation of the wrist joint. Any movement of the arms can be broken down into a combination of movements along those joints. An arm movement looks "big" when movement flows from the shoulder joint all the way down to the wrists in a chain, in the opposite direction from the wrist to the shoulder, or when movement of the elbow joint flows out in both directions. It can be made "small" or "isolated" when that flow is broken or stopped by a joint along the chain (i.e. the elbow). The speed and rhythm of those bodily movements is one element of the skater/dancer's "musicality."

Generally speaking, Lambiel's choreography tends to highlight movement of the forearms and arms. Here, the hands and forearms act like arrows, broadcasting the direction Machida will turn.

Compare this moment to the parallel arm movements here in Geissel Drama, or at 1:32 --

I'm tired and have to go back to school tomorrow, so I'll end this post here. Part 3 will continue on FUYA and what I like to call the Lambiel Pop Star Sensibility.

[back to Part 1]

[capitanogiorgio]

DAI AND TATSUKI ARE GOING TO REUNITE ???????

[hinami0118]

2014.10.24

Figure skating FA

[madetolove]

Tatsuki Machida's The Firebird

[merionettes]

rubicon program references

due to the slow death of twitter i'm collecting my program links here. (almost) none of the rubicon skates are meant to be identical to real life programs, but some of the inspiration is pretty one-to-one… and some is a little less direct.

if you find yourself region blocked, try a free vpn - i recommend the veepn browser extension (firefox | chrome) or proton. 

if you only have so much time, i've starred the most important ones. if you want more… i have so many more.

chapter one

**tessa virtue/scott moir - mahler no. 5 (olympics 2010)

chapter two

tessa virtue/scott moir - carmen (worlds 2013)

kaitlyn weaver/andrew poje - the way you make me feel (canadian nationals 2017) | bonus worlds finish

chapter three

nadia bashynska/peter beaumont - romeo & juliet (gp espoo 2023)

maia shibutani/alex shibutani - smile (4cc 2011)

**michelle kwan - tosca (us nationals 2004) | music

chapter four

**meryl davis/charlie white - scheherazade (olympics 2014)

shizuka arakawa - turandot (olympics 2006)

**alexei yagudin - winter (olympics 2002)

chapter five

daisuke takahashi - blues for klook (worlds 2013)

mirai nagasu - pirates of the caribbean (olympics 2010)

chapter six

miki ando - the mission (4cc 2011)

meryl davis/charlie white - my fair lady (olympics 2014)

chapter seven

katarina witt - where have all the flowers gone (olympics 1994)

chapter eight

mao asada - bells of moscow (olympics 2010)

shoma uno - dancing on my own (internationaux de france 2019)

chapter nine & ten

mao asada - rachmaninov no. 2 (olympics 2014)

kazuki tomono - one more time (rostelecom cup 2018 gala)

tessa virtue/scott moir - what's love got to do with it (niagara ice show 2016)

yuna kim - les misérables (all that skate 2013)

ensemble - uptown funk (ice fantasia 2019)

chapter eleven

madison chock/evan bates - touch/contact (olympics 2022 team event)

chapter twelve

yuzuru hanyu - romeo and juliet (worlds 2012)

chapter thirteen

tatsuki machida - east of eden (worlds 2014)

johnny weir - the swan (olympics 2006)

kaitlin hawayek/jean-luc baker - feeling good (us nationals 2017)

tessa virtue/scott moir - prince medley (worlds 2017)

chapter fourteen

**jeremy abbott - lilies of the valley (olympics 2014)

nathan chen - le corsaire (us nationals 2017)

chapter fifteen

yuzuru hanyu - heaven and earth (olympics 2022)

denis ten - the artist (worlds 2013)

chapter sixteen & seventeen

ashley wagner - moulin rouge (us nationals 2015)

chapter eighteen

kaori sakamoto - elastic heart (worlds 2023)

shoma uno - dancing on my own (japan nationals 2019)

**adam rippon - arrival of the birds (olympics 2018)

chapter nineteen

michelle kwan - fields of gold (olympics 2002)

**tessa virtue/scott moir - moulin rouge (olympics 2018)

epilogue

tessa virtue/scott moir - long time running (olympics 2018 gala)

bonus 

the rippon lutz (quad edition)

stationary lift BASE?

f/f ice dance feat. madison hubbell and gabrielle papadakis

best of kpop in figure skating

fs dynamics 101

[hoshidensha]

Quick portrait of my fave figure skater, Tatsuki Machida, for his birthday on March 9!

Instagram, Twitter

[raininyourblackeyes]

Okay to clarify, obviously there were skaters with terrible skating skills 10+ years ago, too, but my point is that skaters we today consider the top in skating skills do not have SS as good as the skaters 10+ years ago. Adam Siao Him Fa for example, whom I love and cheer for and do consider an amazing skater, would probably struggle with Patrick Chan's or Tatsuki Machida's programs. Which is not his fault really, he has skating skills honed just right to be considered amazing in his time. It doesn't say anything about skaters' dedication, but it does say something about how important are skating skills regarded now compared to then by the ISU because their scores dictate the standards.

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

Tatsuki Machida's Études No. 1 "For Charlie" is the first of a series of basic programmes to teach skaters how to incorporate elements like spins and jumps into a performance and to me it's one of the most beautiful routines I've ever seen.

Honestly, I was so sad when I discovered him and found out he retired long ago and didn't expect to ever hear from him again. I'm beyond thrilled to learn that he hasn't hung up his skates and started this project. And I'm thrilled to see his beautiful skating again.

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Let's talk about Shoma...NHK edition...

Two 2nd places and Shoma is in the GPF. He had a much better free skate than at CoC. So it should be something to be happy about. But clearly I am not.

If you have seen my post from CoC you know that I am not upset about Shoma getting 2nd, I am upset about the way he got 2nd. Fight me on this but in any other tech panel of the season he would have a 195+ score for his skate, if not even 200. (And if you looked at the tech box it was 106 TES and that would have given him a 198 score even with those PCS) I don't want to speculate about any political games or anything, for now I simply want to believe Shoma was simply disliked by the tech panel ppl.

(And btw I like Yuma a lot and I am happy he is back! Iif one is winning over Shoma, I am happy if it's Yuma just not like this and this isn't Yuma's fault ofc, so nothing against Yuma.)

What's most sad about Shoma's silver today is that it made him question competing and his abilties. 😭😭😭

He felt good about his performance and then tech panel completely deflated all positive feelings. His comments are so defeated. Ofc he is Shoma so his reaction is still polite and everything and he smiled at Yuma and interacted like normal. But still this is a new low. He perfomed good, he did all combos, landed the 4F and Axels that he was insecure about in the practice, even yoloed a 4T which alone shows his superiority bc who else can do that??? And yet it wasn't enough for the fcking judges to give him high scores.

We all knew Shoma wasn't gonna skate forever and I always knew that it could very well be his last season, but his comments didn't sound so final, so I thought there was maybe a tiny bit hope he'd still continue. But today I am not even sure he will not retire after Nats. I have my doubt he would neglect the opportunity if he's selected for Worlds but if you'd ask him today he probably won't go. Pulling a Tatsuki Machida never seemed more real...and part of me wouldn't even mind. I would lie if I say I won't be sad about Shoma's retirement, but all I really want is him happy and if competing isn't making him happy anymore...better retire on own terms than the Jfed and ISU waving you goodbye by lowballing you...

I hope though that while his comments now are negative, that he will rethink the attitude bc it's not him who has reached a limit or who isn't capable of better scores, it's a fcking judging mishap. Keiji said his 4Loop was brilliant and rotation clean, Shoma himself said he was surprised about the 4Lo and 4T being called (as he could see his landing), Stephane shook his head at the score, no it's not your fault Shoma. And I hope he gets the prep talks of his life by his surroundings!

There are two ways this could lead to, Shoma being on the verve of retiring and motivation for competition is completely lost or Shoma is fired up and rebounds stronger than ever from this disappointment with new fire. As Shoma fans we have seen many ups and downs of Shoma and usually Shoma always came back stronger. Ppl saying that's the end for him after IdF 2019 -he went on to win JNats, ppl saying he is done at WTT 2021 proceeds to win an Olympic medal and World Gold 2022, let's see what happens now...atm a positive way seems impossible but after a few days the world may not seem as dark...

I am truly furious for his 2nd place and petty me who thought I could stand seeing Shoma in 2nd is now completely on skating gods pls let Shoma win all Gold medals from now on as perfect revenge arc 🔥🔥🔥

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #376

Figure skating Life vol. 6, Let's talk more with Kenji!, Guest: Mitsurou Kubo

Part 4.

Ku: So for us it was something like: "How are we supposed to be dealing with those feelings...?". "Medalists on ICE" the next day turned out to be Machida's last performance and we had front row tickets. So there was no other option... like I don't know why, but because of how we felt at that time, we just thought that we wouldn't be able to find peace if we didn't put up a banner - we decided. And that same night, we decided to buy what we needed in a stationary store the next day and make a banner.

Ke: What? You made it in Nagano?

Ku: Yes, in Nagano. Because we didn't plan to put up a banner at first, and I hadn't yet announced at that time, that I started to watch figure skating. So the next morning, we went to a stationary store in Nagano and we bought sturdy paper and pens and color paper to make the colors of the banner stand out.

Ke: Woah.

Ku: We found an available party room at a karaoke place, so we rented it and in two hours, we made the banner. Our first work together was that banner - the Director was attaching the color paper with a glue to the line art that I did.

Ke: So that's the story of the banner, huh.

Ku: Yes. We were wondering if we should add a few words, and we decided on "Tatsuki, I looove you~!! [Tatsuki, daissuki da-!!"].

Ke: Pretty straightforward, isn't it (laugh).

Ku: We were straightforward - we had no other choice. While we were working ,we were listening to "Eden" [music from a TV series "East of Eden"] and "9th Symphony", music that Machida-kun skated to, on repeat, getting ourselves more and more excited.