#program appreciation

Choreography by Shae-Lynne Bourne

Photo from @sportsnavi_figure

The Concept

Living in the busy city of Baghdad, a girl goes about her morning routine. It’s a simple concept, fitting enough for a short program. When you have less than three minutes for a performance, it’s much more strategic to flesh out the nuances of a single scene or simple concept.

The program interprets a single text: the music, Breakfast in Baghdad. Because this music piece isn’t tied to any pre-existing text (it hasn’t been used in films or shows or any pre-existing narrative), how the skater presents it becomes pivotal in relaying whatever concept they have in mind for it. 

BIB in particular is an example of how merely changing the costume can shift perspective. One interpretation of the music is seeing it as a modern jazz program, which is what we gathered as much from her performances in ice shows last summer when she was dressed in modern black pants and a black top. Naturally, this understanding invited cognitive dissonance when she debuted the program in a deep, bright blue dress in competition. Given that Rika herself said in a recent interview that she had two costumes made for this program and both are dresses, we can assume that a modern jazz program hadn’t been the image she had in mind for this program at all. 

Another interpretation of the music, which quells that dissonance, is as I’ve mentioned: a girl in Baghdad going about her morning in the city. That sheds light on the costume choice and the expressions in choreography. This isn’t about a scene as soft and tranquil as a girl leisurely dancing under moonlight, nor is it about dancing to jazz while the spotlight is on you—this is about the busy, stressful morning rush.

Photo from @sponichitokyophoto 

The Music

Breakfast in Baghdad portrays a busy, fast-paced morning in the city. The music is upbeat, with multiple changes in rhythm and minimal differences in tempo (it’s relatively fast overall, but there are short moments where it slows down, e.g. the moaning). The song is composed by Swedish jazz musician Ulf Wakenius. The version used for this program in particular is a cover sung by Youn Sun Ah, a Korean jazz vocalist.

I’ve pointed it out before, but just to recap: this has no cultural significance in Iraqi culture, and it is also in no way mocking Middle Eastern music with the vocals. It’s a song inspired by the city of Baghdad, which you can tell from the style of strumming and the beat. Youn Sun Ah is a vocal jazz artist, and scat singing is a style of vocal improvisation. If you’ve listened to the original song, you’ll observe that she’s imitating the original sounds and her high-pitched vocals changes the song’s energy and adds a pinch of humour. Ulf Wakenius’ original rendition of the song is much less perkier than this cover, and I reckon that’s why they didn’t go with it. Youn Sun Ah’s cover is attention-grabbing and theatrical, making it more fitting for performances.

GIF from @rika-kihira​

The Choreography

Shae-Lynne Bourne absolutely killed it with the choreography. Raykey did a brilliant job of annotating the program here. You can see that it’s packed with steps, transitions, multi-directional skating and wide range of body movement. The footwork is complicated, but that’s one of the major factors that makes the program come alive—relying on natural charisma without committing to those nuances could easily make this become less impressive. As the song has a relatively fast tempo as well, this makes performing the program even more difficult: you need precision and control, commitment to the choreography, and a high level of stamina maintained from beginning to end.

In terms of storytelling, the choreography reflects the rush of going about a morning in the city: from the hurried steps and frantic pacing to the languid moaning about a stressful day’s start. There’s a lot of dynamic, creative movements and varying expressions. 

My favourite part of the choreography is definitely her step sequence—I could watch that incredible footwork all day—but I also love the little bits of choreography in between elements, like this bit after the 3A:

GIF from @beth_gifs 

Other Notes

Breakfast in Baghdad was a program I had fears and doubts with at first watch, but now I can honestly say it’s Rika’s strongest short program yet. It’s several notches higher in difficulty not just in comparison to her previous programs, but also in comparison to most ladies’ short programs in competition right now. (Note: I emphasise on difficulty. Preference is personal.)  

Anyway, some other remarks:

On skating skills: This is an extremely challenging program, which is why anyone who pulls it off illustrates a terrific command of skating skills at a high level. You’ve got flow, ice coverage, precision, control, variety, and difficulty... how she hasn’t been rewarded 9s for this category is beyond me. 

On transitions: Packed, packed, packed! In a lot of other programs, skaters will have time to breathe after spins or jumps, but this doesn’t allot much of it at all. The structure also makes it difficult to maintain the speed and flow between elements. 

On composition: If you’re going to pay a choreographer some thousands of dollars for a program to help you win competitions, the choreography better be as well-composed and creative as this. The phrasing is clear but also blends into the entire choreography.

On interpretation of the music: The music has a fast tempo and upbeat rhythm, and Rika has no problem matching up to it. This is also much more well-suited to her strengths in expression compared to Claire de Lune, imo. She thrives much better in dynamic, playful, energetic programs like this. 

On performance: Despite what earlier performances may show, the SC performance shows that this program is a really good match for Rika. It challenges her performance quality: while her carriage and clarity of movement has always been very good, this demands her to be involved. When she isn’t, it becomes lacklustre, like what we’ve seen in ACI. When she is, however, she comes off strong and impressive. Her performance in Skate Canada was the most confident and happy I’ve seen of her in a long while and I can only hope we’ll see more performances like that in the future.

(Because I clearly I didn’t gush enough about it in my program review, haha! I came across some interesting stuff, will update later on if more comes.)

Raykey on Twitter pointed out the difficulty of the program composition. The jumping passes are split into four sections, compared to other programs that split it only into two.

There is a monument in Germany called Angel of Peace where the virtue resonates with the story being portrayed in the program.

“In the hall of the temple are gold mosaics which depict the allegories of war and peace, victory and blessing for the culture.”

The angel statue in the monument is modelled after Paeonius’ statue of Nike, goddess of victory. 

It’s called “International Angel of Peace” because there are different depictions of peace symbols in different religions. (I can’t believe this wasn’t obvious enough to some people so I’m putting it here.)

There are only three times Rika puts her hand in prayer position throughout the program:

After the opening movements depicting the angel waking up, music is playing to O Virtus Sapientiae (morning prayer)

After the first spin, when the music shifts to Wings of the Eagle—the part where the angel comes across the ~flowers~ before the war (praying for success in her mission)

Before going into her last combo jump, when the music is playing Sacred Stones (praying for the era of peace to continue and flourish)

As she grows more comfortable with it, I think I’m also beginning to get the concept of what she’s going for with this program. If in Claire de Lune she portrayed a girl waking up and dancing under the moonlight, in Breakfast in Baghdad, she’s portraying a girl in Baghdad going about her morning routine right before she steps out of the house, with all those moments of rushing about (times where the tempo picks up) and moaning in between (times where the vocals stretch). If you’ve experienced living in the city without the privilege of a slow morning, you’d get what I mean. Think New York City morning rush, but the setting is in the equally busy city of Baghdad instead.