The new products from the best skaters are here! This weekend, Russian championship medalist Pyotr Gumennik showed the public a new short program by Daniil Gleikhengauz. The image and music are from Dune by Frank Herbert. Thanks to the film adaptation by Denis Villeneuve, this fantastic universe has gained a sea of new followers, also in the world of figure skating.
It is rare for Russian athletes to present news so early, but it is even more interesting to watch them. Gumennik’s program is as new as possible, it was installed only a couple of weeks ago, it has yet to be implemented and deployed. However, it is already clear what references to the original source the choreographer left.
“Dune” – what is it about? Of course, it is better to see or read it once, but we will try to summarize. Arrakis is a desert planet where a drop of water is as valuable as a good partner for the world of ice dancing, local oil is a spice, and a monstrous sandworm is a deity for the locals. The main character of the saga, Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto, arrives here on the orders of the Emperor. Previously, this planet was ruled by the enemies of the Atreides – the Harkonnens. As a result of renewed hostility, Paul and his mother find themselves in the desert and encounter the indigenous people – the Fremen, among whom is the girl who appeared to Atreides in his dreams.
At first it may seem that Gleikhengauz directed Dune too directly, “head on,” but this is a misleading impression. The production contains obvious allusions and choreography inspired by movie scenes.
At the beginning of the production, we see something similar to a sandy promenade; after all, you need to slide along the surface in a special way so as not to wake up the worm. The snow crumbs in your hands are like sand flowing between your fingers. After two jump elements, there is a pause and Peter makes the next clue: a needle in the neck, a hand in a box: this is how Paul passes the test of the Bene Gesserit order, to which his mother belongs. . This is the first scene of the novel and one of the first of the film.
Facing the path of stairs, Gumennik hits the ice and summons a worm; This is how in the second film he undergoes the rite of passage to the Fremen. The slide back at the end refers to Paul passing the test and riding the worm. At the end we see the gesture with which the hero greets his opponent before the fight in both the first and second parts. The only difference is that in the film he puts a sacred dagger to his forehead.
Condensing a story of two films that add up to more than five hours into a 2.40 minute program is not an easy task. This is where plot references come into play and create atmosphere.
In 2022, Ekaterina Mironova and Evgeniy Ustenko told the Championship how difficult it is to translate the plot of “Dune” onto ice. After the premiere of the first film, the couple performed a free dance.
“The film itself is strange, long and incomprehensible. Few people have read the book, so we decided for ourselves that we would take some basic things that would be easier for the viewer to understand,” said Ekaterina.
The theme is winning, brilliant and you can even trace the visual resemblance between Bean Man and Timothee Chalamet, but “Dune” has a problem: there may be too much of it.
After the release of the second film, “Dune” began to be performed widely and in different types of figure skating. It is already known that in the women’s individual the Japanese Wakaba Higuchi (short program) and the Estonian Nina Petrykina (free program) addressed this issue. In pairs skating we will see “Dune” by Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernández from the USA, and in men’s singles by Mikhail Shaydorov from Kazakhstan. There is still a chance that Mikhail Selevko will produce Dune, but it is small: the skater posted a small excerpt from the show, putting Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack on top.
There is a risk of chaos between the Atreides sexes at home. In June, Artyom Fedorchenko posted a preview of Dmitry Aliev’s new program. The moves in the video fit very well into the atmosphere of Dune. The skater and choreographer did not indicate that it is a short program, we know the theme of the free program, so there is a possibility that the performances will still be different.
But if not, then we will have the most striking case – a confrontation between the strongest skaters of the country with the same image in one season. “Carmen” by Maxim Kovtun and Mikhail Kolyada was actively discussed throughout the season, and the duel of the two Carmens at the 1988 Olympics between Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas is still remembered!
“Dune” is ideal for a new duel of this type. For Gumennik, the production ends with a greeting before the fight, after which only one is left alive.
In the spring we spoke with Peter.
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