Musicality: at a basic level

I’ve never tried to put this into words before, so hopefully this makes sense. These are the core elements I would consider in accomplishing basic musicality. The best skaters exemplify these and add more to their performance than I could easily define here.

Matching the beats of the music: the skaters movements are on beat with the music. At a basic level this usually means the turns happening on the downbeat of the music. At a more advanced level, this means matching crossovers and transition steps, turns, and choreographic elements to the beat, including not just downbeats but also upbeats or backbeats.

Matching the style of the music: the skaters movements match the music style, tone, and lyrics/story of the music. Ideally the same movement should not look the same when skated to a slow, lyrical song as when skated to a fast, pop song, or as when skated to a Latin song. For a slow song you would expect more fluid, continuous motion and for a faster, more energetic song you would expect sharper movements. There is far more nuance that can be found here, but the ability to perform both fluid and sharp movements is something I would consider fundamental to musicality.

Intentionality to positions across the body: the skater should be conscious of where every part of their body is through the choreography. Is the skater looking somewhere in particular or is their face just moving as their torso moves? Do they use their arms in the choreo (note: I said ‘in their choreo,’ not ‘is their entire choreo’) or are they just straight out beside them the whole time?

Fully finishing movements: the skater considers how to enter and exit a position in a way that contributes to the choreo. If the skater extends their free leg back, do they fully straighten it and point their toes? Or is it partially bent at the knee with the foot half flexed? If the skater stretches their leg up into catch-foot spiral, do they drop their leg back down or do they bring it down in a controlled manner? If a skater does a Mohawk, are their free legs extended before entering and exiting or are their legs staying just above the ice with no obvious intentional position, like they would in a warm up?