A New Routine

摘要

Coach mary scotvold couldn't fathom what had gone wrong with Jennifer Kirk's skating performance in Germany last November. A year earlier, Kirk―then world junior champion―had dazzled a Paris audience with her "Nutcracker." But now the German crowd wasn't the least bit stirred by her exotic rendition of Turkish belly-dancing music, even though the 17-year-old was a far more polished performer. Kirk finished a disappointing fourth. "Jenny looked absolutely beautiful out there, and she skated quite well," says Scotvold, "but the fans just sat there on their hands." Back home on Cape Cod a week later, Mary and her husband, Evy, watched ABC's telecast of the German competition. When it ended, Evy was certain where Kirk's problem lay. "It's the music that's killing her," he said. "There's no power to it―nothing that makes your hair stand on end or that makes you want to cry." Evy knew that the months spent on the belly-dancing routine were wasted. They would have to fashion a new program╚Dand, with the Olympic trials looming, do it quickly.