photo © of J. Barry Mittan

The Fate of Carmen, Michelle’s short program for the 98-99 season, represents another link in an ever-growing chain of styles Michelle can express. Criticisms of this program appear over the bluntness of its musical cuts and the lack of a continuous story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Many people feel this new program is a mix between Romanza and The Dream of Desdemona; however, despite the similarities in drama between these three exceptional programs, I think The Fate of Carmen assumes a more momentous image, one of the human experience. When I first watched Michelle skate this program, I formed an interpretation of it. Hopefully by reading my thoughts about this program, some can better appreciate the subtleties of this program.

photo © unknown

It is important to realize Michelle is not Carmen; in my own interpretation of this piece, Michelle represents an inhuman object that undertakes the actions of Carmen. She is perhaps an artist’s rendering of Carmen, a statue crafted in the likeness of a woman consumed with a passion for life. One night the masterpiece comes to life, flooded with memories of the life Carmen led. The statue begins its story positioned as its artist willed. By living the events of Carmen’s life, the statue experiences the gifts that life brings to us: passion, ecstasy, seduction, even fear. The entire life Carmen savored is compacted into one night’s worth of flashbacks the statue itself lives. The figure, unfamiliar to the human experience, cannot comprehend the entire scope of Carmen’s life, but it can understand the loneliness, the solidarity of Carmen. With this knowledge, the work of art cannot return to its former position; it is no longer ignorant of the joys and the pains of life. In the end, the statue stands differently than when it first began its journey. The figure clutches its side, like Carmen grasping the wound her love inflicts on her, and bares its own face to the world, positioned anew.

In my interpretation, Carmen becomes an almost secondary fragment of this masterpiece. To me, this program is not the story of one women’s life and death; it is the story of how one woman can influence a world. For me, that is the true fate of Carmen and perhaps of Michelle.

photo © of J. Barry Mittan

Michelle's long program Lamento D'Ariane for the 1998-99 season leaves behind the heavenly aura of Lyra Angelica to explore the tragedy of a love lost. Inspired by the haunting melodies from the opera "Ariane" by Jules Massenet, the late French composer, Michelle explores the longing and despair of Ariadne, a princess in Greek mythology.

In ancient lore, Ariane, daughter of the cruel Cretan King Minos, falls in love with Theseus, an Athenian hero. Minos sends Theseus to confront the fearsome Minotaur, a beast half man and half bull the king keeps as a pet in his Labyrinth. Ariane, consumed with passion, defies her father and reveals the secret to escaping the Labyrinth after Theseus destroys the monster held within. From there the legends diverge, and Massenet's opera creates an interpretation. Theseus desires Phaedra, Ariane's sister, and abandons Ariane; scorned, Ariane is left to suffer in her own self-pity and tears.

The music Michelle has chosen to create this program is very interesting; the first three movements are composed simply of strings and piano. Michelle begins with her arms stretched before her, fingers flaired, running forward to the gentle crescendo of rolling drums. After her triple Lutz/double toe combination, Michelle enters her Charlotte spiral, where her hands reach down onto the ice, her head drops near her knee and her free leg extends nearly vertical to the ground.

She slowly spins out of the spiral and the wails of soulful violins fill the air. Reaching to the audience, Michelle begins the story of Theseus' betrayal; with sensous strains and staccato accents, the music unleashes the passion of Ariane, and the forbidden passion between her lover and her sister. After her triple loop and signature layback, Michelle enters a sequence of steps only seconds long but filled with drama produced by the quickness of the steps in contrast to their extravagant motions. After a combination spin, the mood of the music changes and the lyre sings a song of longing and despair. Pain shadows any signs of joy on her face as Michelle grasps the betrayal tearing apart the soul of Ariane. Her arms caress her body, only seeking to release emotions but only adding to her tortured anguish. At the end of this section, Michelle performed a reverse camel with a catch foot position at the World Pros; however, she replaced the reverse camel at Nationals with a flying camel. We'll have to wait until Worlds to see which spin Michelle performs.

photo © of Manny Millan

Suddenly, the music explodes as the full orchestra launches Michelle into her footwork leading to her second triple Lutz and another footwork sequence slightly adapted from her Rachmaninoff steps. After a falling leaf into a spread eagle, Michelle skates into a final combination spin. She throws her head back, arm over her head before she throws down her hand in a final expression of Ariane's sorrow. Her lament has ended, but not before her song reached the conciousness of a world.