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Rika Kihira - International Angel of Peace | Program Review

Choreography by Tom Dickson

The Concept

International Angel of Peace tells the story of an angel on a mission to end war and conflict between different religions of the world and unite them in peace. This concept is reflected in multiple facets of the program, such as:

the music, which is a medley of different pieces to represent and allude to a diversity of places, religions, and cultures

the choreography, which builds on the inspiration of the music and depicts varying expressions from faith to anger to joy and triumph

the costume, tailored by Satomi Ito, which has gold embellishments reminiscent of gilded sculptures, a common art form found across multiple cultures and religions

Unlike her previous programs, International Angel of Peace isn’t an interpretation of a pre-existing text. This isn’t choreographed to a single piece of music (e.g. Breakfast in Baghdad, Kung Fu Piano, Beautiful Storm, Claire de Lune, Rhapsody in Blue, Tzigane) or songs tied already by a theme (e.g. La Strada). While drawing inspiration from various sources, everything from the medley of songs and the story that accompanies it results to the creation of an entirely new text. This makes it distinguished and incomparable.

I’m a big fan of how layered and substantive this program is. As I especially appreciate it when the choreography goes above and beyond expectations, I thought I’d write this up.

Pardon the inconsistent and poor quality of GIFs as these are from various performances and sources. Some are mine but some are also from: @rika-kihira | @chibihao | @reimz

The Program

International Angel of Peace begins with the sound of a bell being rung, which is matched by arm movements that depict the opening of a dance. The choreography that follows, now as the music plays a beautiful cello cover of O Virtus Sapientiae (composed by German Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen), also portray a gentle awakening. She circles twice before opening her chest, like so:

The tempo in O Virtus Sapientiae is slow, giving her ample time for her opening jumps. For the duration of the song, she’s allowed to focus on jumping and landing her highest scoring jumps, the 4S and 3A2T. (Note that as of this writing, she has yet to perform both jumps to avoid aggravating her ankle injury.)

The music then picks up, shifting to the slightly more upbeat, thrill-inducing Beirut Taxi (composed by Alexandre Desplat for the movie Syriana) as she does a series of transitions into her 3Lz. Serious, grim expressions of the face and body complement those steps — the angel in this story is gearing up as she sets forth to accomplish her mission.

After the jump, she wastes no more time getting into her combination camel spin, matching the beat of the music. As she ends the spin, the music fades to the next song, Wings of the Eagle (composed by Uttara-kuru). The music invokes less combative emotions and harks back to traditional Japanese sounds. The image of a Japanese garden comes to mind, but we aren’t allowed to gaze at the flowers for long as the music doesn’t take long to shift again - this time to Caravans on the Move (composed by Mike Batt) - and the angel comes across the war.

Rika jumps her second 3A and transitions directly into the step sequence, the first part of which is set to the music, Mother Tongue (composed by Dead Can Dance). The tempo is faster, demanding her to perform quicker, sharper movements. In no way, however, does this sacrifice her fluidity and motion on the ice. She makes use of the size of the rink, covering as much ice as there is available. Just watch her go (and the camera follow her):

The first part of the step sequence ends with a brief but decisive halt. The battle stops for a moment, and the angel puts on a smile.

The tempo slows down, but we still see hints of truculent stances throughout the choreography before it mellows down completely.

This part is rather brilliant imo: there is scarcely a war in history where the parties involved do not still encounter hiccups in negotiations and compromises for peace, and this portrays that period pretty well.

When the step sequence ends, the music shifts to Sacred Stones (a world music-style rendition of a Sanskrit chant by Sheila Chandra). Rika takes a breath and gathers speed again for her 3Lz3T (x) and transitions out of them to this choreography:

Personally (and this is probably an unpopular opinion), I’m a bit perplexed by the takes about how controversial the arm movements are in this part. The position is popularly credited to Egyptian style dance, but there are also strong similarities in even just the first video you see when you search up traditional Indian dance in Youtube (e.g. the positions in 1:47-1:51 in this). Not for me to deny how others felt about this part of the choreography, but it doesn’t strike as appropriative when the exact music used doesn’t appear to be used in actual prayers (and is performed by a woman of Indian descent) and the choreography doesn’t appear to demean or devalue the culture it draws inspiration from.

If anything, this is the most solemn part of the program. The war has ended, the people are in a state of rebuilding, and the angel is praying for continued peace. At this point in the program, the hymn evokes feelings of hope and faith, which I find beautiful.

Moving on, Rika jumps her last combo, the 3F-Eu-3S (x), and swings right into her combination I-spin as the hymn fades and transitions into the last piece of music, In A Moment of Greatness (composed by Larry Groupé). The title speaks for itself: the Angel of Peace has accomplished her mission, and the last three elements evoke that triumph.

In the choreographic sequence alone, we watch the angel express her joy with a beautiful, victorious Ina Bauer to a gleeful stag jump. I also really like these arm movements in between, as they're expressing this ‘opening up’ — a recurring theme in the entire element. Her arms rarely take a break and are not held sloppily, as you can see:

After the choreographic sequence, Rika does a cross-grab spiral before her last jump, the 3Lo (x), directly transitioning into the final element and her best spin, the layback — a mere ten seconds away from the end of the program. This part of the choreography is not only difficult to execute, but also complements the music really well.

Her end pose is, of course, of a triumphant fashion. Her posture is impeccable, so even a simple pose like this looks elegant and beautiful. I also like thinking of this as the part where the angel finally spreads out and shows off her wings.

Further Thoughts

Putting her varying jump layout aside (the ones I’ve labelled here is from the original plan, which is more ambitious than what she’s performed so far), I thought the program itself is pretty solid from concept to execution.

On skating skills: The program highlights Rika’s strengths very well, showcasing her varying use of speed, ease of flow and acceleration acquisition between elements, wide range of body movement, clear edge control, and skills in multi-directional and one-footed skating. Her skating skills have visibly improved since last season.

On transitions: The transitions between elements (jumps, spins, sequences) are smooth and complex. Three of her jumps (3Lz, 3F-Eu-3Sx, and 3Lox) exit into spins, one jump exits into the step sequence. There are steps before her combos and the solo 3Lz. All the transitions also match the music overall, as I’ve elaborated above.

On composition: The program demonstrates a clear concept, matching plot and choreography to music and maximising the space of rink. There’s more to this than being another angel program. The points of the plot are defined, and the details of the concept (i.e. how this is meant to evoke a diverse set of cultures, religions) are sprinkled in different ways (music, choreography, even the warrior-like costume) throughout the program.

On interpretation of the music: Rika is one of the few skaters I know who match their movements to the music. The music is a medley and by its very nature demands the portrayal of multiple emotions, which is an expectation I think the choreography and performance meets. The movements here are nuanced and expressive, enough for the attentive viewer to grasp the story being told even if you’re seated far.

On performance: While I do think we have yet to see this program in full form and performed with a similar ferocity that Rika showed in NHK+GPF2018, it’d be unfair not to give credit to her lines, carriage, posture, and expression in movement, not to mention performing this cleanly so far even under immense pressure.

There is so, so much potential in this program and it’s really quite a lot more meticulous, structured, and difficult than most people give it credit for.

#Rika Kihira #Tom Dickson #figure skating #Team Hamada #Satomi Ito