Rika Kihira - Kung Fu Piano Program Review
Choreography by Tom Dickson
The Concept
The art of figure skating meets the art of kung fu. The program is a nod to martial arts and all its beauty, strength, and power. That’s pretty much it, short and sweet. Concept brevity is ideal for a program performed under three minutes.
The Music
Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends is a remix arranged by The Piano Guys. It takes from the score of the Kung Fu Panda movie, highlighting the track Oogway Ascends in particular, and arranged it with Chopin’s Prelude No. 20, aptly nicknamed the Funeral March. (source) In the film, the music plays when (as the name suggests) Oogway passes away in a scene of peach blossom petals carried by the wind.Â
The piece emulates the sound of traditional Chinese stringed instruments. I think of it as one of those pieces very suitable for skating since it has variations in tempo that can be complemented really well with good choreography — which, in this case, it does.Â
The Choreography
(All the GIFs for this post were made from Raykey’s wonderful annotation video. Give it a watch!)
Kung Fu Piano was performed in Rika’s last season in juniors (2017-2018), and around this time, all jumps in the second half were given bonus points instead of only the last jumping pass, so the composition of elements is quite different from what we see these days.
For comparison: KFP Layout: LSp - 2A/3A - StSq - 3F3T (x) - FSSp - 3Lz (x) - CCoSp BIB Layout: 3A - 3F3T - CCoSp - 3Lz (x) - FCSp - StSq - LSp
While the KFP layout puts jumps in the second half and BIB puts them in the first half, both layouts are designed to cater to the rules set at the time.Â
The choreography nods to martial arts in several moments. This is still figure skating, though, and not every movement will directly replicate the one it’s in reference to. For example, this side lunge at the beginning of the program:
—alludes to the drop stance commonly seen in martial arts like wushu and kung fu. In actual martial arts practice, the position is much lower, though it is not necessary to fully replicate this on ice.Â
Here’s another example:
The position before the inside Ina Bauer is loosely reminiscent of the eagle stance in wushu:
(source)Â
Notice how the position of leg left is different to help maintain the right leg’s glide and flow on the ice. Not that she can’t do it, of course, but it’s also just unnecessary to do the exact pose for a split second and sacrifice the skating (which matters much more) in the process.Â
The arm position is different, too, but this is more of a congruence with the skating than the martial arts, as they face the same direction before and after the movement.
There aren’t frontal high kicks in this program, but there are a couple of kicks, like this side kick with a straight leg before her Ina Bauer leading to 2A:
or this one in the middle of her step sequence that loosely resembles a hook side kick mixed with eagle arms:
(source)
There’s also a reference to the backward hook kick in her glide after the opening layback spin:
There’s also a few lunges mixed in the choreography. I like this sequence from the StSq because it reminds me of the fist lunge in karate:
—while this one is a side lunge with crossed arms block:
Speaking of blocks, I love the allusions to blocking motions littered throughout her step sequence. (Again, these aren’t direct replications since the choreography is designed for a figure skating performance rather than a martial arts exhibition, but you can see the similarities from several references like this or this.)
I’d say the most recognisable pose throughout the program is the kung fu salute which she does near the beginning and at the end of her step sequence:
Tom Dickson did a really good job making the sharp movements look so fluid. I love how unusual all these movements look in dance and how they accentuate the music notes while complementing all the steps. The pattern of the step sequence is unusual, but it highlights Rika’s multi-directional skating and her vast range and control of movement.
I would like to also add that this program has some of my favourite transitions she’s ever done. I love the arabesque spiral to layback spin, the Ina Bauer to 2A, and the spread eagle - edge change - rocker - choctaw - crossed step to 3Lz. I’d say this is less packed compared to BIB, but a beautiful and theme-fitting composition all the same.
Personally, I think this is one of the programs that best captures Rika’s personality and spotlights her strengths. It’s a really good step-up from her Tzigane short program from the previous year, which imo is also good but definitely more conventional in terms of choreography. Kung Fu Piano was a great vehicle for her to demonstrate her skating skills, performance qualities, and her technical proficiencies. It’s energetic and graceful, much like Rika herself. While the next season is very much up in the air, I wouldn’t mind watching this all over again.
