Recent content by Jun Y

The competition in Novice dance is fierce. After pattern dances the top 4 teams are so close. I am impressed by all of them. Even the teams that occasionally stumbled skated with verve and attack. Most skated close together with good unison. Many teams have stuck together for a few years and...

There is a vast range of real people between beautiful and ugly, where 99.9% of us reside. Yet some seem to suggest that any mention of less than beautiful must equate ugly. That must be a cultural thing. It's as if the word "ordinary" is derogatory or worse. What I think is that an insistance...

All of these are classically, uncontroversially beautiful skating, but I would like to see the boundaries being pushed farther out of these styles. For example, Adrian Schultheiss' psychiatric free program and Pechalat/Bourzat's straight jacket free dance. How rare were these programs and how...

I find Papadakis to be quite beautiful. If she were a singles or pairs skater or in another sport, her beauty would not be questioned. But alas this is ice dancing. Today's standard, or expectation on ice dancers, is too high. I used to believe that skating "beautifully" is critically important...

Of course, I like watching beautiful people too. When it comes to ice dancing, beautiful rockers and brackets and choctaws and twizzles can be equally pleasing, in a way that's different from quad jumps are thrilling. Unfortunately the latter are less talked about than the former. The question...

That's very true. I often forget that my regard for beauty is not on the same level as the mainstream. Also this doesn't help me win arguments with non-skating fans about whether ice dancing is a real sport or not.

Maybe not everyone believes that naming specific ice dancers who have overcome lookism to succeed is a terrible insult to them.

First, I personally do not feel it's an insult to call someone ordinary looking or average looking, but I understand some might feel it is. Second, I wanted to point out how rare and difficult it is for an average-looking but excellent skater to succeed in ice dancing. Ted Chiang once wrote a...

How about "Lookism in Ice Dancing"? But how does one change the thread title? Or do I have to delete and start a new one?

Well I guess this is a topic more taboo and offensive than anything in the world. Everyone is beautiful and no one is even ordinary. Yet not talking about it doesn't mean skaters aren't judged by their looks. I am wondering why looks seem to be a bigger factor in ice dancing than in singles and...

There have been bald pairs medalists and ordinary looking singles champions, but we cannot talk about non-beautiful ice dancers. My thinking is exactly about skating skills, and why looks appear to be more important than skills, which is a phenomenon not decided by me. I am watching a bunch of...

Disclaimer: Yes, I know beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but there is nevertheless collective social standards for what is generally considered beautiful, which evolve but not drastically. I am often struck by how much better looking ice dancers are than singles and pairs skaters. The...

On a different thought ... If Phil Hersh is such a gadfly, can he not do an investigative report on why Ice Network's streaming technology is so appallingly bad? We don't need USFSA to get Olympic gold medals. We just need them to at least get their streaming into the 21st century.

The problem with Ice Network today was totally their Website. Not only was the streaming down, but old competition videos could not be played either. Ironically, because Flash Player had caused so many problems ALL THE TIME, I too thought it was a flash player issue on my end and re-installed...

Maxim Zharkov from Dallas just won Intermediate men at the Nationals with lovely jump techniques. I especially like the pewter winner William Annis. Both of his programs are fab, well choreographed and well performed. Look forward to seeing more of him.