Are Belbin and Agosto better than... | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Are Belbin and Agosto better than...

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Tonichelle said:
Tanith and Ben rocked it OUT with Elvis... so I'm not sure if you're saying that G/P (or who ever) did a great job with teh jitterbug or not? LOL

My dad is a huge Elvis fan and he just LOVED that program... it was pretty fun to watch for me too lol

I seem to recall a moment in that program that I had to rewind about 6 or 7 times to figure out HOW exactly they did a particular move -- and never did figure it out. And their speed was incredible.

And actually that comment right there could also explain, at least in part, B & A's success. They do have incredible speed (almost too much so, IMHO, because I personally find "speed" to be an overrated commodity in dance and most of the time in skating in general) and have come up with some really well-done tricky maneuvers. Both of which do impress judges -- the speed, especially. They really do like to see couples racing around at 90mph out there. (Which is fine, unless the music happens to be going about 40mph......:sheesh: )
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
dancindiva03 said:
Better than? I don't even think that B&A are as good as the other teams mentioned. Belbin is so unbelieveably unpolished and sloppy. Ben is good, but I cannot stand to watch Tanith. She has all the elegence of a freaking CHICKEN. Never got the hype, never will.

ITA on Belbin. She is the sloppiest silver medalist ice dancer I have ever seen. However Ben is an excellent skater and I think in their case, the reason why they are doing well is because Ben is so strong. Many of the top couples are mismatched and a strong male is somewhat of an anomaly in this day and age of ice dancing. This isn't the K&P and U&Z era...
 

Fredegunda

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 4, 2006
Pixie Cut said:
They didn't petition. They wrote a letter to their Congressman and Senators urging that Gorsha Sur not be given his citizenship early. It was kind of tacky, but hardly awful. The fact is, Congress virtually never grants citizenship ahead of schedule (there was a unique twist to Tanith Belbin's case), so Punsalan and Swallow probably could have stayed out of the situation and the result would have been the same.

It was Renee Roca, not Gorsha Sur, who got injured at 1994 Nationals. She sustained a broken wrist in practice due to an on-ice collision with Galit Chait and her partner.

Thanks, I knew that I was misremembering somewhere. This past year, didn't Loren Galler-Rabinowitz's parents also write to their congressment and senators asking that Tanith not be given her citizenship early?
 

Pixie Cut

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Fredegunda said:
Thanks, I knew that I was misremembering somewhere. This past year, didn't Loren Galler-Rabinowitz's parents also write to their congressment and senators asking that Tanith not be given her citizenship early?

I guess you excel at misremembering. It was David Mitchell's mother. Big diff -- it wasn't David Mitchell. It was Punsalan and Swallow themselves who signed letters.
 
I

IcyBallerina

Guest
rjulie510 said:
Their last year's Flamingo FD didn't capture the essence of Flamingo dance at all.

HAHAHAHA Best typo type thing ever! The essence of flamingo dancing! I'll never be able to say "flamenco" again without cracking up!:rofl:
 

gk_891

Rinkside
Joined
Jun 10, 2006
IMO, Belbin & Agosto are much more capable of handling difficulty (in terms of footwork) than the other two couples. But I think that Punsullan & Swallow have better chemistry and can interpret dramatic rhythms better. I also think that Tanith is very sloppy but she seems to be improving (not by much though). Personally, my biggest problem with B&A is that at times, it seems like they're frantically chasing the music. I thought that Punsullan & Swallow used their music a bit better and played with its nuances.
 

Fredegunda

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 4, 2006
Pixie Cut said:
I guess you excel at misremembering. It was David Mitchell's mother. Big diff -- it wasn't David Mitchell. It was Punsalan and Swallow themselves who signed letters.

Hehe, little did I know when I started replying this thread that it would provide a painful showcase for my lack of ice dance knowledge. Glad to have you here to set me straight. ;)
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Tonichelle said:
Tanith and Ben rocked it OUT with Elvis... so I'm not sure if you're saying that G/P (or who ever) did a great job with teh jitterbug or not? LOL

My dad is a huge Elvis fan and he just LOVED that program... it was pretty fun to watch for me too lol
It was Aurvback and his partner who did Elvis in a competitive routine right after B&A did theirs as an exhibition.

There was more to Elvis than his hip swinging, imo.

I was not at all impressed with the G/P jitterbug. I much preferred the other Russian couple and I adored Tovahl and Dean's Fox Trot.

Joe
 

CzarinaAnya

Medalist
Joined
Aug 29, 2003
Joesitz said:
I know my Spanish is rusty but doesn't flamenco mean Flemish as in Belgium?

Joe

No, the last name, Fleming, means, "from Flanders", which is in Belgium. I did get called "flamingo" a couple times when I was little though.;)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Well, now I really have to check out this puzzle, LOL.

Here is what I discovered about the origin of this word. One theory is that "Fleming" (or rather it's Spanish equivalent "Flamenco") was a word that was first applied to the Andalusian gypsies in the thirtheenth and fourteenth centuries. There is some speculation that it derives from an Arabic (Moorish) word meaning "fugative peasant."

The dance, then, just means "music in the style of the gypsies of Andalusia."

Somehow or other this word came later to be applied to the nordic people of Flanders and came into the Dutch language as "Flemish" and "Fleming."

(This is not the only theory -- there is also a less colorful one in which the Dutch word developed independently of the Spanish one.)

Likewise, there seem to be two competing theories about why that name was applied to the pink bird. If you go with the Andalusian theory, it is because the gypsies were ruddy-skinned people, so they called this red bird a "gypsy." (Sort of like a cardinal (the red bird) is so called because it is the color of the robes worn by those church officials.)

If you go for the Dutch origin, then the theory is that the Dutch people of Flanders are fair-skinned (pink), compared to the darker-skinned Romance people, so a pink bird was a "Dutchman" from Flanders.

(I love this stuff!) :)
 
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julietvalcouer

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 10, 2005
Pixie Cut said:
I guess you excel at misremembering. It was David Mitchell's mother. Big diff -- it wasn't David Mitchell. It was Punsalan and Swallow themselves who signed letters.

Not only was it his mother, David and Lauren didn't know about it, either, or so I'm assured by my coach, who used to train with them when he was competing. Not quite the same thing (and Tanith's situation was different, too, as she wasn't asking for a special dispensation, but rather had gotten into a bureaucratic shuffle.)
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Mathman - I go with my spanish teacher (from Spain) who translates flamenco to being Flemish. There is a historical politcal connection between Spain and the Netherlands with Belgium coming into question.

Apparently, anything in Spain at that time which wasn't Spanish was 'flamenco' including the gypsy dance. The gypsies didn't give it that name, the Spanish did.

Now where does this put our beloved Peggy? Is she Flemish or Gypsy?

Joe
 
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