Dream of the Perfect Double Axel

I love to be captivated by a skater. Michelle Kwan has managed to do it for me several times, and various others have hit the mark with outstanding routines. Lucinda Ruh always captivates me, though it's difficult to see her perform unless you fly to Switzerland to see Art on Ice. Stephane Lambiel captivates me, as do Weir and Savoie when they're skating well--and judging from what I saw on the Marshall's Figure Skating Challenge today--pure fan-baiting cheese--they're both skating very well this year.

As for the ladies, well, dear old Michelle can't continue to carry the captivation mantle all by herself after all these years, now can she? I saw her make her season debut today (after recovering from hip injuries) on the Marshall's Challenge, where she managed to break my heart as usual with the pure spirit she poured through her performance, but made me quail at the thought of all the work she has to do to get her technical elements back up to snuff. Sasha Cohen--well, she just doesn't do it for me: too narrow and high strung for my taste. Cizny, too: same complaint. I'm not big on delicate, beautiful ballerina types, even though both of those ladies are certainly in the running for Olympic and world championship glory this season.

But I'm talking captivation here, not appreciation. When I think about skaters who have really captivated me, besides the goddesses Ruh and Kwan, I think of Midori Ito. I don't know why, really, because she could be such a clod, but there was something about her unbounded energy and positive attitude that made her thrillingly appealing to me. No Japanese skater has really managed to captivate me like that since, though I marveled at Yuka Sato's quiet, light mastery and still love watching Arakawa take her own somber control of the ice when she's having an "on" day.

This weekend was a boon, then, because it brought me (via television) two large helpings of captivation, in the form of the two young Japanese firecrackers who stole the show and the gold at the NHK Trophy--the last of the Grand Prix preliminary events--last weekend in Osaka (When, oh when, will we skating fans get live broadcasts like all the football and baseball aficionados do?). Nobunari Oda and Yukari Nakano are the new wonder twins of the sport as far as I'm concerned, and they're my favorites for the Olympics. Why? First of all, they both display a wonderful blend of Ito's power-chutzpah and Sato's subtle control that feels almost scientifically derived. In addition, they're both incredibly powerful jumpers (Nakano's in the exclusive female triple axel club) and consummate spinners, and though they're still young (Oda's 18 and Nakano's 20), they're already amongst the most polished and sophisticated when it comes to artistic expression as well. In other words, they're both shining examples of "the whole package."

But it's not really any of the above that captivates me--the international figure skating world is brimming with "whole packages." That's what it's all about. No, it takes more than pogo-stick jumping ability or like-a-top spinning prowess, or even ultra-elegant footwork, to move this demanding fan. Irina Slutskaya is current most famous avatar of what I'm talking about, and that is an ability to channel pure joy through one's skating. That's what I felt today watching Oda and Nakano, even though I only got to see their short programs (tomorrow night's the free skate, and I have to work; and my VCR's recording apparatus is broken--time for Tivo, right?). It wasn't just that they jumped and spun and interpreted the music like pros, but that they also did it with a kind of energy that made watching them pure pleasure.

Of course, I am partial to their technical abilities, too. Oda, though he may not have solid quadruples yet, executes some of the airiest, most graceful triples ever, and spins right up there with Weir, if not Lambiel. He has the most enchanting openness when expressing himself to his music, and a truly compelling way of mixing abandon with control, as seen in a relaxed air position that leads to a solid, deep-edged landing, or in a meticulous three-turn series performed with a lithe and limber free leg. Over the next few weeks, he'll be battling it out with teammates Takahashi and Honda for the one available Olympic spot available to a Japanese man--the showdown should be one of the most heated in sports this year. Too bad we can't get the Japanese Nationals broadcast here--or can we? Anybody know if that's possible? I'm rooting for Oda to capture the spot; after all, he's a direct descendant of a famous samurai--now that's some heavy warrior karma. It seems he's got a poet's heart, too--a good combo; gotta love the title of his personal website: Smile Wind.

Nakano may be an even better technical skater than Oda, with jumps that have a sort of luxurious solidity about them, a pleasant heft that one can feel even a week later, via satellite. Today on the NHK Trophy short programs on ESPN, I think it was Paul Wiley who was going off about "that wrap" that she has, "that high wrap" (yeah, the same one Midori Ito had), complaining that it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. I disagree entirely with that judgment. I find the high wrap exciting, powerful--it displays centrifugal force in motion more expressively than does a low wrap; it gives a sense of another dimension to the jump; a slight air of wildness--and in short, if it doesn't interfere with technique, I believe it's a matter of style. I think Nakano's high wrap is integral to her "whole package," and it makes her skating all the more exciting. It's different. It's underdog. It's the ice skating equivalent of punk, because it flies in the face of proper skating technique and etiquette. And if you can get away with landing a triple axel with a high wrap, you know you're jumping high.

I remember when I was a kid in artistic roller skating, I had a high wrap that my coach was constantly trying to get me to lower, but I kept it willfully because all the most out-there, exciting skaters who I secretly worshipped had high, wild wraps; most notably one Robbie Coleman of Memphis, Tennessee--her wrap was practically around her waist, and watching her skate was like catching a glimpse of some wild figure skating animal doing its instinctive thing in its natural habitat.

Nakano, luckily, is also an experienced dealer in grace and high style. She can smoothly shift moods and characters, and she also wore a Slutskaya-inspired one-piece jumpsuit for her short program at the NHK Trophy meet--a bit of fashion iconoclasm that I adore. On top of that, her spins are nearly as powerful as her jumps, and since the new scoring system has gone into place, that will count for a lot as she mixes it up with a truly awesome field of Japanese ladies in the quest for the three Olympic berths available to them.

At this pivotal point in the season, I say go forth and conquer to my newest discoveries, the joyful jumpers of Japan. And I hate to even broach the topic, but I don't know if I can really take watching our dear Michelle struggle and slave to make it to another Olympics... Still, I wish her all godspeed as she goes for her tenth world title. I just think the teen terrors are finally going to get the best of her, don't you?

Wonder Twin powers activate!--form of ballistic figure skating world domination apparatuses!

I'm talking about Natalie Dunn, who, as you'll notice in the picture to the right, is on wheels, not blades. When I was a kid in competitive roller skating, the sport was all about Natalie Dunn, and for good reason: She was the first American woman to win the artistic roller skating world championships in 1976, defended that in 1977, and appeared on National TV several times, where she was interviewed by Jane Pauley and taught Gladys Knight and the Pips how to roller skate on the Mike Douglas Show. With Natalie captaining the ship, it looked like roller skating was set to become the next big thing, and finally move out of ice skating's long, chilly shadow.

Of course, she wasn't on television just because she was one of the century's most amazing athletes. She was also drop-dead gorgeous; a mix between Natalie Wood and a gypsy dancer, with a strong, powerful body and a naturally graceful line that followed her on and off the skating floor. I remember a conversation I had with a bunch of other skating munchkins one year at the regional meet, in which, while Natalie was warming up for the Senior Ladies Finals, we compared her to every movie star we could think of and deemed her the most beautiful "lady" (we used the word "lady" back then) in the world. She was certainly the most glamorous, as well as the most prestigious, phenomenon to rock our shared hometown of beautiful Bakersfield, California.

Back then, I was wowed that the world champion of my own sport lived in my own hometown, but I was really a crusader for her further glory, proclaiming to everyone who would listen--with copious meticulously-explained technical evidence--that she was better than Dorothy Hammill and Linda Frattiane put together (I was such a geeky kid, too adamant about almost everything), and I wished everybody else in the world could see her skate, too.

Thirty years later, after thorough review of my many years of diligent figure skating viewing, I still think she's the best skater ever, and here's why: First, look at the line in that picture I posted. I'm sure she studied ballet, but the elegance and perfection of the shapes she made with her body and the way they flowed between one another were instinctive, I think. When she was skating she became a presence rivaling any prima ballerina or opera diva, a presence much more commanding and moving than she ever dared let loose while in her street clothes. And I guess now I'm moving into a separate, though related, part of her complex excellence, and that is her soul, which came shining through with a soft, burnished, moody glow when she was skating. It felt like praying watching Natalie skate; the auditorium or rink always went very silent. She was one of those skaters for whom skating is the most perfect expression of their selves. There are artists like that in every field, whether artistic or not. These charmed people are so turned on (and completely unself-consciously so) by what they're doing that they almost seem to become the thing itself while doing it. Natalie was one of these everyday alchemists, and all of us fledgling skaters got a big hit of that kind of powerful connection being around her.

Aside from her artistry, which she would surely vehemently deny, always casting herself as a hardworking craftsperson before anything else, Natalie was a technically breathtaking skater. She was ultra-smooth and fast, never slowed down or telegraphed too long before a jump, and pogoed straight up into the air, always higher than anyone else, with textbook-perfect upper body form and a tight, low wrap that was the envy of all us wild daredevil kids who couldn't get our free legs below our knees on our double jumps. Meanwhile, Natalie was popping off triples that looked as easy as doubles, but somehow more exhilarating, and she spun like a top, too,with the kind of centered, centrifugal force that can be mesmerizing.

To showcase all of these both hard-won and native qualities, her programs were sturdily crafted, beautifully choreographed, always elegant, and set to music that was uncannily suited to her style and tone, even when it was the same old Tchaikovsky et al. that everyone else was skating to. I remember one program in particular--it might have been her '76 world championship program in an early rendition--in which, at the beginning of the traditional "slow part" (you know, when the music gets dreamy and the skater calmly does her loop and salchow, maybe a double axel, and a couple of spins before revving up for the grand finale), she stopped dead and did a set of serpentine loop school figure moves that were perfectly timed to the interlude portion of Weber's "Invitation to the Dance," and the crowd at the competition went wild. It was the kind of simple, understated, yet astounding, move that Natalie was always pulling out of her boots. Her skating was always a couple of steps more focused and more sophisticated than anybody else's.

And she always had tasteful costumes. That counts for a lot, as far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately, the move into the limelight that Natalie was prompting for roller skating back in the 1970s never came to fruition, though it's getting closer all the time, and roller skating has advanced at the same rate as ice skating as far as technique and program sophistication go due in no small part to Natalie's continued leadership from her helm as owner of Skateland in Bakersfield, which she took over from her Mom and Dad many years ago. Natalie has produced a great number of champions since she switched from skating to coaching over twenty years ago, and shepherds a large contingent of podium-hoggers through the national and world meets every year. This year, her daughter is skating at the senior world level for the first time, and it looks like she's set to follow in her mother's toestop marks. Omar, Natalie's dad, says (with typical grandfatherly pride) that his granddaughter is even better than his world-champion daughter was at the same age. I haven't seen her skate, but no matter how good she is, Natalie Dunn will always remain for me the pinnacle of figure skating prowess and finesse.

My dream television special event would be a compilation of all the very best world and Olympic figure skating performances both on blades and wheels. I'd bet anything that at least one of Natalie's would make the cut no matter who the judges were, and I'm sure if a larger audience could see her skate, there might be a larger group of people who agree with me about her status in the sport of figure skating, on or off the ice.

Categories: backstory, bakersfield, skating, tributes