Mariah Bell skating to “Hallelujah”

Hawayek/Baker’s Free Dance (Chopin selections)

“Hallelujah”

Free Skate for Mariah Bell (2019-20, 2021-22)

First and foremost… it was not intended as a Christmas song. Let’s be clear about that. 

Then what was “Hallelujah,” the best-known composition of Canada’s revered singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, intended to be? Religion? Sex? Faith? Disillusionment? Joy? Sorrow? Like countless songs ahead of it, the lyrical (and melodic) beauty is typically found in the eye of the beholder… and with hundreds of “Hallelujah” cover versions now in existence, that’s a whole lotta “eyes.”

But Cohen himself, who reportedly wrote around 80 different verses before first committing the song to vinyl in 1984, had this to say about the meaning of “Hallelujah”:

Though it was first recorded in the mid-80s, “Hallelujah” didn’t find a hint of mass popularity until a series of significant events in the 1990s and early 2000s: 

• In 1991, Welsh artist John Cale recorded it for a Leonard Cohen tribute album after hearing Cohen himself perform it in the late 1980s. The tribute album did not sell particularly well at the time.

• In 1994, American artist Jeff Buckley recorded it for his album Grace after hearing Cale’s version. Grace did not sell particularly well upon its release either. And with Buckley’s accidental drowning in 1997, Grace became his only full-length album (with his version of “Hallelujah” finally released as a single in 2007, 10 years after his untimely passing).

• John Cale’s version was featured in the 2001 blockbuster film Shrek (while another version, by Canadian-American artist Rufas Wainwright, appeared on the Shrek soundtrack album). Later that year, Cale’s version was also featured on a first-season episode of Scrubs entitled “My Old Lady.

• Jeff Buckley’s version was prominently featured in the season 3 finale of The West Wing in May 2002.
  

From there, “Hallelujah” became, by one description, “A frequent shorthand for emotion in pop culture” as it graced TV shows and films steadily through the 2000s… and over 300 cover versions had been documented by the mid-2010s.

As for the path carved between pop culture and competitive figure skating programs– arguably, three big steps were taken in 2010:

• Canada’s k.d. lang performed “Hallelujah” to a “claimed audience of three billion” (according to this article)  at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. (She’d first recorded it back in 2004 as part of her tribute to Canadian songwriters entitled Hymns of the 49th Parallel.)

• 2006 Olympic Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen used Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” as an exhibition program. (Cohen’s profile had risen that year after she finished 4th at U.S. Nationals in her comeback quest to make the 2010 Winter Olympic team.)    

TV’s competition program So You Think You Can Dance featured Buckley’s version as a contemporary selection “about redemption” during its 7th season:

So after a decade or so of “Hallelujah” making a theatrical impact, it transitioned to a vehicle for artistic movement– and found its way into more and more skating programs. At first, they were exhibition programs only,  since vocals weren’t allowed in most disciplines until the 2014-15 season. But at least a dozen competitive programs from skaters around the world have emerged since 2014…

Also at the 2018 Winter Olympics, China’s longtime top pairs team of Sui/Han used k.d. lang’s version for their short program, helping earn them the silver medal (this clip shows their Olympic skate alongside one from earlier in the season; it’s cool to study the small choreographic changes made)

As for the U.S. contingency, ice dancers Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue have worked “Hallelujah” twice: once for the rhythm dance in the 2015-16 season (the k.d. lang version combined with an instrumental “Hallelujah March” to comply with the waltz/march requirements of the rhythm dance that season)...

…and once again for the 2020-21 free dance (a combination of Buckley’s and lang’s, with an instrumental interlude to accommodate the key change between the two versions). 

In a sense, USA’s Mariah Bell has also been to the “Hallelujah” well twice. But in her case, it’s virtually the same program used in two seasons– once in 2019-20, when she won silver at Nationals but was denied a Worlds performance when COVID canceled the event…

And while Bell started the 2021-22 season with a completely different free program (to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”), she’d returned to her 2019-20 program by the time of her Grand Prix appearances.

Bell is representing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as the current U.S. Women’s Champion.

Chopin Selections in E Minor

Free Dance for Hawayek/Baker (2021-22)

Like many of us– especially those who grew up with competitive figure skating in their sights– I took ballet lessons as a young girl. Ten years’ worth, in fact, just as my own daughter is about to complete and just as several of her friends have done. But there was one part of my ballet years that I’m not sure exists in the modern-day equivalent, and that was “Edith”-- the living, breathing piano accompanist at each and every class. 

Edith had short white hair, spoke rarely during class, and smoked constantly (another thing that doesn’t take place in today’s dance studios, thank goodness!). Her age-spotted hands flew effortlessly up and down the spinnet piano in the studio corner as she mined an extensive repertoire of classical music week in, week out. Certain pieces were for barre work; others were better suited for the second half of class when we trained combos, grand jetes and chaine turns across the floor. And while I’m pretty sure she included a fair share of Petr Tchaikovsky and Ludwig Minkus in there– I became rather fond of a certain selection for the barre that I later learned was from Don Quixote– the composer I associate the most with Edith, and ballet, is Frederik Chopin. 

Chopin was, fortunately for the rest of the world, a child prodigy who was composing polonaises (Polish dances) at age seven. He eventually added etudes, preludes, improvisations, nocturnes, and more to a collection of over 150 works. And of the handful of those that have been embraced by the figure skating community in recent years, the tendency is to favor Ballades, as Yuzuru Hanyu did with his short program (to Chopin’s “Ballade #1 in G Minor Op. 23”) in PyeongChang in 2018…

Or Nocturnes, as Mao Asada did with her SP (to Chopin’s “Nocturne #2 in E Flat Minor Op.9”) in the 2013-14 season…

And both Evgenia Medvedeva and Mirai Nagasu did with the same Chopin composition (“Nocturne #20 in C Sharp Minor”) in 2017-18…

When it comes to some of my personal Chopin preferences– gleaned both from days at the ballet barre and elsewhere– they tend to be far less dynamic than those options above:

• Berceuse In D-Flat Major, Op. 57

• Prelude No. 15 In D-Flat Major, Op. 28 

• Nocturne No. 1 In B-Flat Minor, Op. 9 No. 1

• Etude No. 3 In E Major, Op. 12 

• Prelude #4 in E Minor, Op. 28 (more about this in a minute)

And of course Chopin's Prelude number 20 in C minor, Op. 28, which is the backbone of Barry Manilow’s early hit “Could it Be Magic”.

But my absolute favorite, both to listen to and for figure skating, is Fantasie Impromptu No. 4 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 66. I’m not alone, as I’ve heard it used by everyone from Kristi Yamaguchi to Mao Asada (Asada has a particular endearment to Chopin I guess!):

I even remember a program from back in my own competitive skating days that utilized a disco “Fantasie Impromptu”... honest to God, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. (I wonder if it turned up on the same album that gave us a disco version of “Firebird”?)

Anyway, when it came to American ice dancers Kaitlyn Hawayek and Jean Luc Baker choosing Chopin selections for their Olympic-season free dance, it might be more accurate to say the selections chose them. This Golden Skate article from a few months ago explains that Hawayek has “had a vision about this program” dating back to her earliest days in ice dance: 

The edit between the two pieces is quite seamless, given that they start and end on the same chord in Hawayek/Baker’s program. “Prelude,” only a page long in sheet music form and largely carried by a descending melody line, is the quieter and more haunting composition with a soft fall/rise/fall quality. This makes sense, given Chopin chose it to be played at his own funeral.

And “Nocturne,” a somewhat more expansive work portrayed by Hawayek/Baker with escalating joy– especially in the final minute– was actually published posthumously due to Chopin’s personal dissatisfaction with it. This particular nocturne (meaning “music evoking elements of the night”) was his first effort. He eventually wrote 21 of them. I’ve read in some places that Chopin wrote this at age 17 after the passing of his own 15-year-old sister– which could certainly explain the fluctuating emotions within it– but I haven’t been able to verify this. (If you happen to know, please leave a comment!) 

Hawayek/Baker are the four-time U.S. Bronze Medalists in ice dance, and plan to perform their Chopin FD at the Beijing Winter Olympics.