What changes should Mao make before the Olympics?

Since making changes is a hot topic as of lately, I thought I would make a poll for it. I think I covered everything. Let me know if I left out something.

I voted for "She should make no changes" and "I'm not sure".

Mao should change the music of her Freeskate! Its way too dark for her brightness!

I voted "I am not sure". If Mao makes changes - I am fine with it. If everything stays the same - I am fine with it. She should do whatever she is comfortable with and whatever helps her to achieve her goals. And I will support her all the way!

kaarolcia wrote:

I voted "I am not sure". If Mao makes changes - I am fine with it. If everything stays the same - I am fine with it. She should do whatever she is comfortable with and whatever helps her to achieve her goals. And I will support her all the way!

I agree 100%

I voted "Change coaches", because I think that Mao is in need of some change...I think Tarasova is a good coach, and it's good that Mao feels comfortable with her, but it I don't think she is the best coach for Mao...
In any case, I hope she does what she thinks is right and that no decisions are pressed on her. It is her future, and she should be able to decide ^___^

I voted for change type coaching (move to russia) and dresses, I was one of people didn´t like the dresses, esp the dress of sp en paris, but has you visited this site? http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ossai_maomaotaishi/e/39699f2de0faa86705b43fb87b911b4e
http://1st.geocities.jp/ossai_maomaotaishi/

OMG she looks like a princess in all pictures

sorry my english

I saw Jeffrey Buttle tweeted "Dinner and Opera tonight. Yay!".
Mao only goes to gym&rink, sometimes a karaoke box.
I'm not sure, but it might be good for Mao to be impressed with the artistic beauty like ballet or opera, and to have more relaxing time.
I hope Mao will be satisfied with not only her training but also her lives.

Don't think too much, feel it, Mao-chan!

I've given up on giving Mao advice, but I do have one suggestion.

If Mao still plans to do 3A+2T, 3F, 2A, then she should practice making the 3F into a combo (3F-2Lo) and maybe do a 3Lo at the end. That way if she messes up the first 3A, it can be counted as a failed 2A, and she'll get credit for doing a combo and a triple.

If only the time constraints weren't so tight in the SP, I would say Mao could even potentially try doing the 3F as planned and THEN go for the 3A-2T again instead of the planned double axel.

That is the one advantage of having two axel-type jumps in her program...

chapis wrote:

I voted for change type coaching (move to russia) and dresses, I was one of people didn´t like the dresses, esp the dress of sp en paris, but has you visited this site? http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ossai_maomaotaishi/e/39699f2de0faa86705b43fb87b911b4e
http://1st.geocities.jp/ossai_maomaotaishi/

OMG she looks like a princess in all pictures

sorry my english

I wonder who made all of those things?! They're very pretty!

I have to agree! those pictures are so fairy-like!
Anyway, I would support Mao in whatever she decides...

But the fangirl in me wants Mao to change her music!! In the past, i wasn't convinced that she needed light airy music. :X She did seem like she thought too much and not so expressive at some events but not to that extent. Until I saw the montage to skater's waltz! Can't believe it makes such a BIG difference. :O Bells is nice,but i sort of fell in love with the piano concerto(tchaikovsky)montage. What (I feel) works best for Mao is a music with highlights and not so monotonous. It's really dramatic and oh so wonderful!!!

Here's the link for piano concerto if you guys want to watch it...fits the choreography so well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOqjRI5Xykg

but then again, I will support her in what she wants to do,but I do hope she really enjoy herself this time:D

sweetdream - I agree, Mao is so good at bringing out the melody that I too wish she wouldn't skate to music that is so monotonous. And I would absolutely love for her to skate to some Tchaikovsky someday...

Actually, it remains my dream to see Mao skate to "Swan Lake." Can you imagine her in a beautiful snowy white swan costume?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rq5nXJNkY

I'd settle for "Sleeping Beauty" or one of his other pieces too. Just heard Lang Lang play Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio last week. That's a dark and melancholy piece but still so melodious!

Batsuchan wrote:

sweetdream - I agree, Mao is so good at bringing out the melody that I too wish she wouldn't skate to music that is so monotonous. And I would absolutely love for her to skate to some Tchaikovsky someday...

Actually, it remains my dream to see Mao skate to "Swan Lake." Can you imagine her in a beautiful snowy white swan costume?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rq5nXJNkY

I'd settle for "Sleeping Beauty" or one of his other pieces too. Just heard Lang Lang play Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio last week. That's a dark and melancholy piece but still so melodious!

I agree too. I can understand why Mao wants to proove that she can skate to the opposite type of music than what she usually does. However, I think the saying, "if it's not broke, don't fix it" fits perfectly here. Light, pretty music suited Mao perfectly. It was... part of her whole package. Mao can skate to more "somber" music, but it's not going to be as good IMO.

I really want to see her skate to Tchaikovsky again someday too! As you may or may not remember, I've mentioned a couple times how my dream song for her would be the Sleeping Beauty waltz. I would settle for Swan Lake next out of all his stuff probably, since she's already used Nutcracker. lol. Funny how we're opposites on this Batsuchan!

Unfortunately, the Sleeping Beauty waltz is the kind of pretty, princessy type of music she talks like she wants to get away from Maybe Swan Lake would be "somber" enough for her?... lol. I don't mean for that to sound offensive at all towards Mao, and I hope no one takes it that way. I thought it was kind of funny... hehe.

I see that the majority of votes are for Mao to change dresses. I have to say that I was one of those that voted for a costume change, largely because I'm not crazy about the black and red LP dress. I still think that Mao should aim for something with a cleaner silhouette.

While we're on the subject of costumes, here's an excerpt from Sasha Cohen's autobiography Fire on Ice about Tatiana's input in her skating dresses, which I found very humorous:

"The dress was a little more of a struggle. Tatiana and I have very different taste in costumes, and she wanted me to be a full-out swan for this one, feathers everywhere. My taste in costumes is much more conservative, so I went ahead and had the dress made by a Canadian designer, without the suggested feathers on my shoulders or in my hair. When Tatiana first saw the dress, she said, "Oh! Let me take that and fix it for you! There are no feathers!" We compromised."

I have to wonder what Mao's taste in costumes is, but maybe a 'compromise' would be appropriate here

chineseteacup wrote:

I see that the majority of votes are for Mao to change dresses. I have to say that I was one of those that voted for a costume change, largely because I'm not crazy about the black and red LP dress. I still think that Mao should aim for something with a cleaner silhouette.

While we're on the subject of costumes, here's an excerpt from Sasha Cohen's autobiography Fire on Ice about Tatiana's input in her skating dresses, which I found very humorous:

"The dress was a little more of a struggle. Tatiana and I have very different taste in costumes, and she wanted me to be a full-out swan for this one, feathers everywhere. My taste in costumes is much more conservative, so I went ahead and had the dress made by a Canadian designer, without the suggested feathers on my shoulders or in my hair. When Tatiana first saw the dress, she said, "Oh! Let me take that and fix it for you! There are no feathers!" We compromised."

I have to wonder what Mao's taste in costumes is, but maybe a 'compromise' would be appropriate here

Hmm... well, her lp, i don't really get the red and black...the blue one seems more suiting in a way
anyway, that red dress kind of reminds me Yukari's firebird, especially at the TEB warmup when they skated together. I felt that her dress was very "firebird-y"

I can't really imagine Sasha with "feathers everywhere" Thankfully she didn't (or maybe it's a little like Shizuka's sp in 2004?)

chineseteacup wrote:

I see that the majority of votes are for Mao to change dresses. I have to say that I was one of those that voted for a costume change, largely because I'm not crazy about the black and red LP dress. I still think that Mao should aim for something with a cleaner silhouette.

While we're on the subject of costumes, here's an excerpt from Sasha Cohen's autobiography Fire on Ice about Tatiana's input in her skating dresses, which I found very humorous:

"The dress was a little more of a struggle. Tatiana and I have very different taste in costumes, and she wanted me to be a full-out swan for this one, feathers everywhere. My taste in costumes is much more conservative, so I went ahead and had the dress made by a Canadian designer, without the suggested feathers on my shoulders or in my hair. When Tatiana first saw the dress, she said, "Oh! Let me take that and fix it for you! There are no feathers!" We compromised."

I have to wonder what Mao's taste in costumes is, but maybe a 'compromise' would be appropriate here

Hm, that's interesting. Tat has very big, fabulous, old fashioned taste.
I liked both of Sashas dresses for Swan Lake, especially her black and white one. I think it was perfect. The feathers might have been over doing it, especially if Sasha didn't feel comfortable with them. I wonder how comfortable Mao feels with her new frilly dresses. They don't look like they would exactly be the most comfortable thing in the world to me...

I thought that my favourite Sasha's dress, black for malaguena was Tat's idea, am I right?

polosatik wrote:

I thought that my favourite Sasha's dress, black for malaguena was Tat's idea, am I right?

I have no idea, but I did like that dress too.

Star85 wrote:

chineseteacup wrote:

I see that the majority of votes are for Mao to change dresses. I have to say that I was one of those that voted for a costume change, largely because I'm not crazy about the black and red LP dress. I still think that Mao should aim for something with a cleaner silhouette.

While we're on the subject of costumes, here's an excerpt from Sasha Cohen's autobiography Fire on Ice about Tatiana's input in her skating dresses, which I found very humorous:

"The dress was a little more of a struggle. Tatiana and I have very different taste in costumes, and she wanted me to be a full-out swan for this one, feathers everywhere. My taste in costumes is much more conservative, so I went ahead and had the dress made by a Canadian designer, without the suggested feathers on my shoulders or in my hair. When Tatiana first saw the dress, she said, "Oh! Let me take that and fix it for you! There are no feathers!" We compromised."

I have to wonder what Mao's taste in costumes is, but maybe a 'compromise' would be appropriate here

Hm, that's interesting. Tat has very big, fabulous, old fashioned taste.
I liked both of Sashas dresses for Swan Lake, especially her black and white one. I think it was perfect. The feathers might have been over doing it, especially if Sasha didn't feel comfortable with them. I wonder how comfortable Mao feels with her new frilly dresses. They don't look like they would exactly be the most comfortable thing in the world to me...

ITA. I really loved Sasha's swan lake dress, especially because it was black and white, and the contrast in that dress looked really amazing in her spins.

I also think though that Mao's dresses look very, very heavy this season. The one exception was the one she wore at JO. I went back and watched a video of her JO performance, and I actually really like the dress. I think it evokes the mood of the music more instead of the dramatic red and black one, and while I'm not crazy about the gloves or the mesh fabric in that costume, it looked really stunning on Mao, highlighted her beauty and gorgeous figure ( ), and didn't make her look old, frumpy, or odd like the other dresses have. Unless she comes up with a new, better dress for Japanese Nationals, I hope she wears that one again instead of the weird red one.

ETA: Comparision between the two:

JO: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reb-ship/3986149467/in/photostream/

TEB: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43143551@N02/4034914292/

I just noticed something else I immensely dislike about the red dress and have disliked about some of Mao's dresses in the past: why is her mesh fabric in that dress so mismatched to her skin tone? The dress from JO wasn't perfect, but really, really close. While I still think there was a bit too much mesh in that costume, it looked beautiful to me because it basically matched her complexion. The red one has an almost orange mesh fabric. I wonder if the designer just looked at a picture of Mao and guestimated her skin tone.

@ sweetdream - Yukari's 'firebird' costume actually reminded me of Chazz's (from the movie Blades of Glory) costume a little, right down to the strips of fabric on the underside of the arms.

You can see it at 0:18 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBh_k2ieM84

@ star85 - I like the swan lake dress too! Actually, I like all of Sasha's dresses.

@ polosatik - My favourite dresses of Sasha's (I have two) are the yellow one with the black collar she wore for Malaguena at the 2004 Worlds, and her 2006 Olympics SP one. I love all the different colours in it, and the flower details on her skirt and how she matched it with tiny flowers in her hair.

Sorry, I'm getting a bit carried away. I love looking at fashion on the ice.

@ Liffey - I liked the colour and silhouette of the JO dress for Mao's LP, but wasn't crazy about the cut-outs. But I thought the colour co-ordination really matched the mood of 'The Bells'.

One of the reasons why I didn't like her red and black 'Bells' dress is because of the puffy neckline. And also, there were too many colours going on. Maybe if the dress had been grey/silver and black only, it would have looked better. Red and black is a hard combination to work with. I think red and gold would have been much better (like Mao's 2007 Worlds Czardas dress).

Hee, I think I've been watching too much Project Runway. I'm starting to sound like Tim Gunn