Wilson inspires coaches with life story
Choreographer to Buttle and other stars says new judging system is the key to his success
By Liz Leamy, special to icenetwork.com
原文地址： http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080711&content_id=49316&vkey=ice_news
(07/11/2008) - David Wilson certainly has one heck of a story. Just ask any of the coaches who heard him speak at the Professional Skaters Association conference in Chicago this May, where he delivered a keynote address.
Wilson, one of the premier choreographers in the sport today, had an interesting prediction about himself as a child. He thought he was going to be an architect when he grew up. As fate would have it, his intuition was partly on target, since he designs and builds some of the finest skating programs around.
Last season alone, he crafted winning short and long programs for fellow Canadian Jeffrey Buttle, the 2008 world champion. He also created routines for Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison of Canada, who clinched the world pairs bronze, as well as Canadian champion Joannie Rochette. Over the past several years, Wilson has done medal-winning work for Yu-Na Kim of Korea; Nobunari Oda of Japan; and Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, the Canadians who won world ice dance silver medals in 2006 and 2007.
"I love what I do and I am blessed to be here," he said. "Anything is possible with a good spirit and good heart."
David Wilson当然有很多故事，你只要问问今年五月在芝加哥职业滑冰联盟大会上听过他演讲的教练就知道了。但对这位当今最优秀的花样滑冰编排来说，小时候的梦想还有点神奇，因为他想当建筑师，而命运最终选择让他在冰上建造最好的节目。和Wilson合作的运动员有Jeffrey Buttle、Dube/Davison、Joannie Rochette、YuNa Kim、Nobunari Oda、Dubreuil/Lauzon。
An Inspired Star
In his younger years, Wilson trained in Toronto with Osborne Colson, the esteemed late Canadian Olympic and world team coach. He also worked with Petra Burka, an Olympic bronze medalist and the 1965 world champion, with whom he flourished. During his tenure with Burka, Wilson reached the gold figure and freestyle test rung and competed through the novice level.
"She made me feel that I had something special in me," he said.
Although he showed promise, Wilson said his heart wasn't in competition. Rather, he only enjoyed skating when nobody was around.
"I was painfully self conscious," he explained, adding that watching skaters like Brian Orser, the two-time Canadian Olympic silver medalist, at competitions was a bit of a deterrent to him as well.
他早年和Osborne Colson一起在多伦多训练，后者现在成了加拿大国家队的著名教练。他也接受过奥运会铜牌获得者、1965年世界冠军Petra Burka的指导，在她手下，Wilson成绩突飞猛进，赢得了novice级别的冠军，“她让我发现自己与众不同”。尽管前途光明，但Wilson的心思并不在比赛，他只想一个人静悄悄地滑。“我相当自卑。”他解释说，尤其是看到两届奥运亚军Brian Orser的比赛，自信心备受打击。
Wilson also started to suffer from Osgood-Schattler disease, an inflammation of the growth plate on the knee, in his later teens. Despite undergoing some effective surgery, it represented enough of an obstacle to prompt Wilson to retire from competing by the age of 18.
At this stage, Wilson decided to pursue the professional show circuit. He performed with Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice, then two of the top shows in the business.
Wilson described this experience as a major turning point in his career because he had the opportunity to work with Sarah Kawahara, the esteemed American choreographer. One day during a rehearsal, Kawahara said she didn't 'feel' Wilson's skating, which sparked a powerful reaction within him.
"I thought I was pretty expressive and when I realized I wasn't, it opened me up to a whole other way of seeing and doing things," he remembered.
在他青少年组的晚期，Wilson同时饱受Osgood-Schattler病的摧残，一种膝盖生长面上的炎症。尽管接受了一些有效的手术，伤病还是黯淡了他的运动前程，以至于他不得不在18岁时退役。退役后的Wilson加入到Ice Capades和Holiday on Ice进行巡回职业表演。
Wilson将这段经历看作自己事业的转折点，因为他遇到了备受尊敬的美国著名编排教练Sarah Kawahara。某天排练时Kawahara表示Wilson的演出缺少一点“感觉”，这让Wilson思索良多：“我一向自认为富于表现力，但突然意识到事实并非如此，这让我不得不重新认识许多东西。”
Several skaters also influenced Wilson during this time. He said that this contingent included Simone Grigorescu, Tom Dickson and the late Robert Wagenhoffer, who were all renowned for their fantastic artistic abilities.
"They performed in a manner I had never seen before; they were so involved in their movement," said Wilson.
By 1991, Wilson had grown tired of shows and decided it was time to settle down and buy his 'own fridge.' At that point, he decided to relocate to Montreal. There, he began to coach with his friend and longtime partner, Jean-Pierre Boyer, and begin teaching.
团队里的其他成员也深深影响了Wilson，这里有Simone Grigorescu、Tom Dickson以及后来加入的Robert Wagenhoffer，它们无一不以出色的艺术表现力著称。“他们的表演方式是我闻所未闻的，他们是如此的投入。”到了1991年，Wilson已经厌倦了各种演出，他觉得是时候安顿下来开始自己的事业了。于是他搬到蒙特利尔，和自己的朋友也是长期的合作伙伴Jean-Pierre Boyer一起执教。
Several years later, the duo decided to move their business to the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club. It was there where Wilson and his partner were first asked to try their hand at choreography.
"J.P. had already said 'yes,' so I figured I would do it, too," said Wilson.
Suddenly, he started to realize he was enjoying his newfound line of work. His first client was a senior lady who he said was "reasonably happy" with his programs. Several skaters later, he saw that this was indeed something he might have a knack for.
"Sometimes we have hidden talents that we might not know about," he shrugged.
By the mid-1990s, he had been hired to do programs for Sebastien Britten, the 1995 Canadian men's champion, an opportunity he considered himself lucky to have had.
"With Sebastien, I began to find my voice," he explained.
几年后，Wilson和JPB决定搬到多伦多的Cricket Skating and Curling Club，就在这里两人首次被邀请尝试编排。“JP同意了，所以我想我也行吧。”不久，他就发现其实做编排更有趣。他的处女作是给一位senior女单选手编的节目，这名选手表示滑他的作品“相当开心”。几个节目下来，他意识到自己是在擅长于此。“很多时候我们都不知道自己有多少才能。”Wilson耸耸肩说。到90年代中期，他已经为95年的加拿大全国冠军Sebastien Britten编排了节目，而他将这事看作一种荣幸：“和Sebastien的合作让我充分发掘了自己的才能。”
Tough times lead to career breakthrough
The excitement of this period in Wilson's life was to be short-lived. Later that year, his father, with whom he had always had a close relationship, passed away at a young age. Just prior to this, his relationship with Boyer had ended, and Wilson decided to start working on his own. This was a risky financial move, since at the time he was working under an hourly, rather than flat rate, and could only be guaranteed 10 hours of work per week.
Shortly thereafter, Wilson had a lucky break when he received a call from Orser, who had been performing with Stars on Ice and needed some new programs. The dynamic between them turned out to be terrific.
"We had this great energy between us and to see how much he (Brian) believed in me -- I can't tell you how much that did for me," said Wilson.
Nearly one year into this new chapter of his life, however, Wilson was hit with another major blow when his mother passed away just eleven months after the death of his father.
好的开始却太短暂，不久，他和Boyer的关系破裂，就在那一年底，他挚爱的父亲去世了。Wilson不得不独自工作，而他不幸陷入财政危机，因为他之前与运动员签订的是小时合同而非统一收费，而他每周工作时间只有十小时！还好，Orser向他伸出了援手，当时他正在Stars on Ice表演而需要新节目。两人一拍即合，开始了成功的合作。“我们之间有很强的信赖，这无疑是对我最大的帮助。”
正当他信心爆棚开始事业的新篇章的时候，他的母亲却去世了，距离父亲的早逝才不过几个月。
"She was nurturing and full of sunshine, and she always believed in me," he said.
Somehow, Wilson found the strength within himself to grow from this situation. "Once you realize your parents are gone, you kind of see that you are them," he explained.
Right around this time, Wilson had also been asked to do choreography for Midori Ito, the Japanese jumping wunderkind of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He had been assigned two competitive programs for her, as she planning to make a comeback at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
Although the comeback never materialized, Machiko Yamada, Ito's coach, liked Wilson's work and asked him to work with her younger skaters. Wilson said this turned out to be a wonderful learning experience and described how Mrs. Yamada would sit by the sidelines all day long chain-smoking cigarettes, watching his every move.
"When you know you are pleasing someone, you want to try really hard to do your best," he said.
“她从小把我养大，永远给我希望，永远相信我。”不过，Wilson还是凭着勇气度过了难关。“当父母远去，你似乎有种感觉你长大了。”
就在这时，Wilson应邀为日本8、90年代之交的跳跃神童Midori Ito编排了两套节目，当时她要准备复出参加98年长野冬奥会。尽管Ito最后没有复出参赛，但她的教练Machiko Yamada对Wilson的作品十分欣赏，她邀请他为她手下的小队员编排。Wilson说，这段经历让他受益匪浅，他还记得Yamada整天坐在冰场护栏外抽着香烟凝视他的每一个动作。
IJS proves to be a windfall
Over the next few years, Wilson continued to do top-tier work. The real break in his career, however, occurred when the International Skating Union decided to implement a new code of points judging system -- now called the International Judging System (IJS) -- following the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic judging scandal.
The manner in which Wilson always had formulated his programs carried a similar philosophy to that of the IJS. In fact, he said he even got a call from Louis Stong, a prominent Canadian world and Olympic team coach, at that time, telling him the new system would be ideal for him.
"I like the IJS. It makes sense and encourages all aspects of the sport in a really good way," stated Wilson.
后面几年，Wilson继续创造他的杰作。而他事业上真正的突飞猛进，还得力于国际滑联在盐湖城冬奥会裁判丑闻发生后施行的新打分规则（IJS）。Wilson在他的作品中突出的东西恰好是新规则的要求，所以他的工作更加顺风顺水。Wilson说过，当时加拿大国家队的著名教练Louis Stong甚至给他打电话，告诉他，新规则出台了，你的春天到了！
“我热爱新规则，它非常全面也很有意思，在每一个方面促进这项运动的发展。”Wilson说。
At that point, Wilson took the ball and really began to run with it. In 2005, he designed a memorable free dance for Dubreuil and Lauzon to music from the Somewhere in Time soundtrack that not only helped them capture the 2006 world silver medal, but earned major artistic accolades.
From that point on, much of what Wilson touched seemed to turn to medal. He worked extensively with Buttle, and the rest has been history.
Wilson said he owes much of his success to the talent of the skaters he has worked with and to those who have supported him. He is also quick to credit the structure of the IJS.
从那时起，Wilson找准目标，并且不懈追求。2005年，他根据电影Somewhere In Time的原声音乐为Dubreuil/Lauzon编排了一套精彩的自由舞，不仅让他们拿到了2006世锦赛银牌，更赢得了高度的艺术赞誉。从那时起，Wilson的作品就是奖牌的保证。他和Buttle展开深入的合作，and the rest has been history（不明白这句话）。
Wilson要把他的成绩归功于同他合作的选手的才华，还有那些帮助过他的人们。他还有一个巨大的优势：吃透新规则。
"The IJS encourages everyone to keep the integrity and complexity of skating so that it still has artistic involvement," he said. Today, Wilson continues to work at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, an environment in which he seems to flourish. There, he works alongside Orser and Tracy Wilson (who is no relation to David), the 1988 Olympic ice dance bronze medalist.
Perhaps more than anything, he gleans happiness from the entire process of crafting a program, from the beginning stages of searching for music to the end product of seeing a skater perform the work.
Most of all he cited the importance of music, and said it plays an integral role for the skater, since it affects them and everyone else who happens to hear it.
"Music is a universal language and it speaks to all of us. It goes right inside of you and it chronicles the human spirit," he said.
Spoken like a true architect of his own destiny.
“新规则既鼓励选手尝试更高难度，也要求保证节目的完整性和艺术性。”现在，Wilson在为他创造了巨大成就的多伦多Cricket Skating and Curling Club工作。在那里他的同事有Orser和88年冬奥会冰舞季军Tracy Wilson（和David并非一家）。
也许作为编排，Wilson最大的满足就是在创作新节目过程中得到的星星点点的幸福：从开始的选择音乐，到最后目睹选手滑着成型的节目在面前翩翩起舞。
Wilson无比推崇音乐选择的重要性，他认为这一步对选手至关重要，因为音乐能影响每一个人，包括表演它的选手和碰巧听到的观众。“音乐是没有国界的语言，我们每个人都能得到共鸣。它潜入你的灵魂深处，它记录了人类的精神史。”
说起来就像一位命运的建筑师，他就是David Wilson。
| David Wilson and Kitty Carruthers. (Liz Leamy)
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显身卡
