What is it about Alysa Liu?
Commenter “RigelDog” has this request:
Neo, have you seen the video of Alysa Liu’s skating at the Olympics? I am so impressed by her dance/ movement, and I can’t describe why it seems different, and wonderful. I would be interested in hearing your informed opinion, as I have come to appreciate the art of dance to some extent from the videos and comments that you have presented over the years.
First, the video (it can’t be embedded, but this will lead you to it on YouTube):
Many things combined to make Liu’s performance golden. One was, of course, that she skated what’s called a “clean” program in the technical sense, meaning that she made no obvious errors (or even subtle ones, as far as I can see, although I’m no skating expert). That was absolutely necessary.
But some of the other skaters did the same. And anyway, her special qualities weren’t just technical. Liu skated with remarkable fluidity and ease. That requires an ability to be somewhat relaxed at the same time you’re marshaling all your finely-honed physical forces. It’s a quality even some of the best skaters (or dancers or other performers) lack, and it’s something that helps the audience relax as they watch. They trust that she will do well and not give them any cause to feel tense. And her radiant smile helps, too.
But Liu has another special quality, which for want of a better term I’ll call unity. It comes from a very solid core – the center of the body from which all movement emanates – and it means that the movements of every part of the body are integrated into a seamless whole. There are no unincorporated parts, no herky-jerky movements. The head, hands, arms, back, every cell of the body is always part of a seamless whole that the watcher’s eye reads as satisfyingly one.
That can’t really be explained, although I just tried. Baryshnikov had it more than any other human being I’ve ever seen, before or since. The man was incapable of making a false move.
With Liu, it also helped that her music was fun: Donna Summer. Many of the other skaters used music that was extremely uninspiring.
“That requires an ability to be somewhat relaxed at the same time you’re marshaling all your finely-honed physical forces.”
Kind of like basketball in the sense that the player is racing down the court, there may be contact from the defender, but the shot has to be put up softly and not hard if it is a jumper or floater.
My wife and I were dance teachers and competitors. We both observed what you saw. Her performance was deserving of a Gold Medal and she got one. She was a joy to watch.
What struck me about her, watching her routine, is that she is just really enjoying herself. It’s like there’s no where else she rather be.
Cornhead — “the shot has to be put up softly and not hard if it is a jumper or float”
It’s amazing how they do that in a crazy crowded chaotic space!
Fun to watch, and again in slow motion!
I appreciate Neo’s technical analysis, but what struck me, and contributed to her performance, was the great joy she emanated while skating. That came through immediately. I couldn’t help but have a huge grin while watching.
physicsguy:
That’s why I also mentioned her “radiant smile “
I haven’t been able to keep up with much in the Olympics, but know bits here & there.
Eg, Alysa’s story, her father’s story.
I haven’t heard anything about her mother.
Any help?
Hey, I am famous now, I made it into a Neo headline!
Yes, Liu is so fluid, it’s all one! Something like, if she was made of the same Liquid Metal of the Bad Terminator in the second movie.
I was thinking too that her joy made her seem even lighter.
Thanks for the insight!
RigelDog:
Everyone here is famous for 15 minutes. 🙂
Marlene:
It’s kind of an unusual story. Liu was born from her biological father’s sperm and an anonymous egg donor as a surrogate baby. Here’s more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alysa_Liu#:~:text=Alysa%20is%20the%20oldest%20of,after%20she%20and%20Arthur%20divorced.
Thanks for the request RigelDog. I’ve followed the Olympics pretty closely, but with a full time job I can’t watch everything. Glad I got to see this, particularly with neo’s thoughts. I agree entirely that the joy comes out in her skating.
If she had gone onto the ice and put this together on the fly just for the fun of it on a really good day, it would look like this.
Lovely. Thanks for posting this!
I think the shape of her body helped in the unity department. Compact and muscular, yet fully feminine. Not too much, not too little, just perfect.
ok Neo,
you got me in the doghouse. I haven’t followed the olympics nearly as much as I follow your posts. So after reading what you wrote I watched her and was mesmerized. My better half heard my computer and saw me watching. She is mad that i didn’t listen to her and watch Alysa by her recommendation!
i think im gonna watch again,
Well, I was holding my breath with my heart in my throat for the first three minutes!
The other medalists gave technically perfect programs too, but no way were the judges going to put any other performance above that all out skate. Pure, sheer joy of skating. Way to go Alysa!
Liu retired from competitive skating – at age 16 – after the Beijing Olympics 4 years ago, and from what I read was completely away from the sport for about 2 years.
She came back for the enjoyment of the sport. I saw what showed in her performance as wanting to do it versus feeling obligated to do it.
All of your comments coincide with how it appears to me. I think what Richard Aubrey and Dave L. wrote is especially key. She is amazingly talented and performed perfectly, but there is somehow an underlying appearance that it is her creation, in real time, and created from joy; a love of skating and performing.
And her origin story fits that development. Training constantly and diligently from an early age, so all the technical attributes are practically innate. Then, zero involvement for 2 years. I heard her say in those 2 years she rarely even thought about the sport. Then, lacing up her skates again simply because she wanted to skate.
About Liu’s music choice: the song was MacArthur Park!! Just a ridiculous song that she must have chosen ironically — swelling melodramatic musical bombast (well suited to figure skating) but all that drama to carry these lyrics:
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no, oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The sheer fun of this choice! I think she was subtly poking fun at the institution of figure skating itself, even as she triumphed in it. The song choice was only one of many reasons for my silly grin as I watched her skate.
Mrs Whatsit, did you notice how Liu incorporated melting into her dance at the point where the lyrics talk about “all the sweet green icing flowing down”?
Chef’s kiss!
Also, I must confess that I like MacArthur Park. The melody is gorgeous and the lyrics move me at points. They remind me the transition from oblivious Youth, when the world appears before you, and the deep melancholy as loss makes its way into your life.
“I will take my life into my hands,
And I will use it.
I will win the worship in their eyes
And I will lose it.
I will have the things that I desire, and let my passion flow like rivers to the sky.
And after all the loves of my life—
Yes, after all the loves of my life—
I’ll be thinking of you,
And wondering Why…”
Another fan of MacArthur Park. Way, waaay over the top, but that’s why I like it. 🙂
BTW, the US men’s hockey team just won gold for the first time since 1980.
Cue Free Bird…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mh-v02-Tw
Not crying…the sun’s in my eyes…
Neo, thank you for posting that. That was a truly amazing display of grace, strength and joy.
USA hockey!! According to commentary, a team member had a grandfather on the 1960 Gold Medal team, and his father was on the 1980 Miracle on Ice squad. Wonderful!
That’s so cool! Thanks for telling us, Kate. 😀
This is a wonderful moment for US Olympics. 😀
Actually, not quite accurate, BJ. My error. Brock Nelson, on this team, is a nephew of a member of the 1980 team, sprung from a premier hockey family in Warroad, Minnesota. Check out the wonderful post-game statement from Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal in overtime.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/02/usa-hockey-gold.php
@Kate,
No worries. Thanks for the Powerline link. That was such a great statement! When so much divides us, we should celebrate what unites us 😀
BTW, here’s a link from Salon, which tells the story Johnny Gaudreau, also known as “Johnny Hockey”. He dreamed of joining the American Olympics hockey team, but he and his brother were killed last year, a few hours before their sister’s wedding. 🙁
The US team hung his jersey in the locker room in his honor, and his widow and their children were there to see the winning game.
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/22/us-hockey-gold-honors-gaudreau-on-miracle-on-ice-anniversary/
No, still not crying…dang sun…
Had another thought.
In the blessed old days maybe better than sixty-five years eighth graders in our school were required to take “general music”. Music categories, instrument usage and sound. Composers. Recording technology.
And we learned about the “dance hand” which looks better on hands younger than mine. The need for long, flowing lines, aided by the dance hand.
At least once, perhaps more, in Liu’s performance, I saw an instance where the dance hand was replaced by the hand cranked as far back, approaching 90 degrees, fingers spread. For a couple of seconds it was splayed almost as if waving to someone. And as if the enthusiasm broke through the disciplines of dance, could not be contained.
I wonder.
And I wonder what lessons such ice dance and other related activities will take from this.
BJ, thanks for the info & link, re Alysa’s origins.
Yes, a very unique situation!
I have to wonder if her 4 siblings are involved in sports competitions.
I hope they all are doing well, whatever their paths.
RigelDog and BJ, yes, I like MacArthur Park too — I kind of have to, because of its sheer nerve — and yes, even though the metaphor is absurd, it works and I feel it, especially now as I’m getting old and that song about the end of youth is from my youth and here is this vivid brilliantly alive young woman skating for a sheer joy that I’m so glad to remember — yes indeed. I do keep watching the clip. What a lovely gift to be given, entirely unexpected, this original young artist dancing so easily and gleefully on the ice and reminding everybody what it means to be young and strong.
I’ve been intrigued by the commentary here on the choice of “MacArthur Park” as the music choice. Of course, it is a ridiculous song, though it’s worth reiterating that she didn’t choose the original version, recorded by Richard Harris in 1968, but rather the extended Donna Summer dance mix version from 1978, which combined the campy ridiculousness of the song itself with the infectious rhythms of the disco era. As Neo said, that contributed to making her performance so much fun, and that was one of the reasons that the audience was also really getting into it.
neo:
Stay safe in the bomb cyclone (Noreaster snow storm) coming to visit.
Althouse noted that one reason she quit was a desire to eat the food she liked, and when she started training again one condo was she would control her menus.
She’s not emaciated, though obviously also without fat. More voluptuous, a bit, than most.
Great dance.
I’m reminded of Nancy Kerrigan vs. Oksana B (I’m not sure how to spell her last name.)
Now, I have limited sense of taste, smell, and emotion*. But I could tell that Nancy was technically perfect, but Oksana let emotions flow through.
*to the point I’m unable to for any romantic relationships.
No recollection that Donna Summer covered ‘MacArthur Park’. Ann Althouse admits the song is a favorite of hers, go figure.
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One thing looking at the Billboard 100 for particular years is that there’s quite a mess of mass entertainment you’ve plumb forgotten and some you recall only because it was dreck. The agreeable singles from that year include…
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Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel).
Harper Valley PTA (Jeannie C. Riley)
Love Child (The Supremes)
Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde (George Fame)
Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
A Beautiful Morning (The Rascals)
Green Tambourine (The Lemon Pipers)
Reach Out of the Darkness (Friend & Lover)
Revolution (The Beatles)
Scarborough Fair (Simon & Garfunkel)
I Say a Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin)
Think (Aretha Franklin)
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Sergio Mendes released a cover of “The Look of Love” which sold well. Song belongs to Dusty Springfield.
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Missing Maclin Horton. Hoping he’s well.
Art
I remember all of those songs. Scarborough Fair is the only one I liked and I’ll still call it up by various artists, of whom there are a bunch, on youtube.
I don’t remember Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park either but it was #1 in Billboard for 3 weeks in 1978, a considerable hit.
Here are the other #1 songs from 1968 not mentioned by Art:
Hello Goodbye (Beatles)
Judy In Disguise (John Fred & His Playboy Band)
Love Is Blue (Paul Mauriat)
Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay (Otis Redding)
Honey (Bobby Goldsboro)
Tighten Up (Archie Bell and the Drells)
This Guy’s In Love With You (Herb Alpert)
Grazing In The Grass (Hugh Masekela)
Hello I Love You (Doors)
People Got To Be Free (The Rascals)
Hey Jude (Beatles)
I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
The last two were monstrously huge hits – Hey Jude 9 weeks #1 and Grapevine 7 weeks. Revolution was the flip side of Hey Jude. From Art’s list Green Tambourine, Mrs. Robinson, Harper Valley PTA and Love Child also made #1.
Great lists of 1968’s Golden Oldies!
Most of them were favorites of mine, as was MacArthur Park, even though the lyrics really don’t make much sense.
A really great skating tune, though.