Lecuona

As pleased as Malinin was with his short program, set to “Malagueña” by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, the reigning U.S. champion thought there was room to improve.

Malinin began his short program, set to “Malagueña” by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, with a quad toe loop in which he spun so fast he was a blur.

His grandfather, Francisco Formell, was a conductor of the Havana Philharmonic and the arranger for the Lecuona Cuban Boys, a popular big band starting in the 1930s.

But at least it gets these supplely skilled dancers moving, with an odd but often persuasive musicality: slinking, measuring space, poking at one another to a mixtape score that shuffles Ernesto Lecuona, Panda Bear and Arvo Pärt.

The ingenious script by screenwriter Ximena García Lecuona sprang from her reading a Reddit post of a guy eliciting advice about whether he should ask a trans girl out.