The Apple of Averbukh’s Eye

As I ventured over to Youtube to watch Mikahil Kolyada’s The White Crow LP for about the 19301484th time during this famine of a figure skating season, a thought struck my mind like an ice pick to the skull: is Ilia Averbukh actually one of the best figure skating choreographers working today?

I know, to even suggest such a thing would undoubtedly condemn me as an unwashed neophyte among certain of the figure skating cognoscenti. After all, Mr. Averbukh is often remembered for his wacky interviews when not being denigrated for representing the worst excesses of early-2000s ice dance before the penitent wave of fresh, squeaky-clean Marina Zoueva teams cleansed ice dance of its sins.  I for one am not going to defend Jesus Christ Superstar or Fever.  Nor can I explain Mr. Averbukh’s inexplicable decision to dump the legendary Marina Anissina for Irina Lobacheva.   

But judge a man by his deeds, not his choice of ice dance partner/wife.  So let’s take a look at the evidence at hand here:

YES:

Mikhail Kolyada, The White Crow LP 
The venerable Alexei Mishin is getting a considerable amount of credit for Mikhail Kolyada’s career renaissance this season–and deservedly so!–but Mr. Averbukh arguably deserves some praise as well.  The White Crow LP is Mr. Averbukh’s first piece of choreography for Mr. Kolyada, and it is, as the Irish would say, a corker.  After years of Russian kitsch and muzak with the occasional flashes of brilliance, Mr. Kolyada is finally given a program that infuses his skating with a real sense of pathos and grandeur, and it is sublime. 

Julia Lipnitskaya, Schindler’s List LP
I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: this Schindler’s List LP is just brilliant in terms of packaging, and the choreography is quite solid as well.