The free skate is about 4 minutes long; I think the men's programs were 4.40 - just about a minute shorter than an Indoor Percussion program. In both sports, choices must be made about the theme, what music to play or skate to and what outfit will best fit express these choices. What do you want to convey? Are you more connected to the music or the theme? Either way the program must be well paced and allow the performer(s) to highlight both their technical and artistic abilities.
The other obvious comparison is that although there are many rules to be followed, the performances are judged by a panel. There are many efforts to make the judging process as objective as possible, but it's pretty difficult to not allow your personal preferences to creep in. I understand that the Olympic judging has been honed down to looking at every move and transition; each skill defined from a technical view and also artistic scores added as well. In WGI, they avoid defining what exact skills are necessary in each division, but they are scoring on rubrics that are both descriptive and numerical.
Both are what WGI calls Sport of the Arts. There is music, demand, athleticism and expression. The judging will never be as precise as putting a timing device on a race, a camera on the finish, but both sports do their best to reward the top performers and usually get it right.
We may not always agree with the exact order, but the best are usually at the top with some wonderful talent in the middle of the pack. And for the performers, it's always a thrill to perform for a live audience, put yourself out there when you're nervous, let it fly for 4+ minutes and let the scores fall where they may.
There are many obvious differences, like we don't have to march on the ice and they don't have to skate with drums, but for tonight, I'm enjoying what we have in common.
Btw - Girls Won their Semifinal basketball game today! No judges - the most points win and we had two more than Flagstaff.
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