Dance Writing Exercise: Ilia Malinin's "I'm Not A Vampire"

A semi-structured freewrite for an Arts Writing course.

 Ilia Malinin, Skate Canada 2024, “I’m Not A Vampire” Men’s Freeskate

1: Energetic, strained, dramatic, expressive, athletic, enveloping. Expressions of athleticism as well as rhythm and tone. Theatrical. Accomplished. Above his league. Epic, performative.

2: Ilia Malinin’s “I’m Not A Vampire” skate program serves as a culmination of his own artistic and athletic prowess, but also aims to set records in the ice skating world. The proclaimed “Quad God” skater is known for his quadruple jumps, including the quad axel, widely regarded as the most difficult jump in figure skating (and a feat that only Malinin himself has successfully landed in a competition). This program brings together his skill and theatricality, on his search and aim for a personal and athletic record – seven successful quadruple jumps in a program. Each time he has performed this program, the most recent of which being the US Finals in Wichita, KS, he has aimed to break the record of six quads, a feat which he is well on his way to earning. At Skate Canada in 2024, he performed the cleanest run of this program, with only one jump of error, resulting in a cleanly artistic and fluid performance. His choreography and dance segments add an air of rhythm and routine to his heavily skill-weighted segments, with the points of personal flair and style adding personality and customization to the program. The expansive rink is crossed by the skater in seconds, his movements pushing the boundaries of the space and constantly bordering on the walls of the arena.

In the beginning of the program, Malinin begins with his signature jumps, from quads to his own signature “Raspberry Twist,” then leans into the theatrical choreography segments that have become integral to his performances as a skater. His tendency to lip sync and perform to his music is not absent in the runs he has done of this performance, especially in the case of the 2025 US Finals, where the announcers reported his personal connections with the song and its story of self-acceptance and belonging. Further in the program, Malinin attempts his most well-known choreography sequence in the realm of social media and online performance – a previously-banned backflip culminating with the most impactful moment of the music’s apex. From his theatrically-rooted costumes to general performance, Malinin flits between a love of sport and of performance, carrying his athletic prowess and theatrical performance hand in hand as he takes the ice.

Excursion: metonymic