Pairs Free Skate

[Tinymavy15]

M/T's costumes (and low-risk choreo) were awful! I'm sorry, but it literally distracted from my enjoyment of the program. Their technique and elements were wonderful-- so why ruin it with bland choreography and dress that shows complete ignorance of the story?! IMO every skater needs to go behind the music to truly understand the background/history to truly do justice to interpretation (many coaches require this)-- even if they make it their own. The silk pink grey white getups do NOT go with Love Story (especially her horrid white tights-- made her look like a 7 year old!). Perhaps they should read the story first and then ask D/D for costume recommendations (they had the perfect look and choreography for The Way We Were)...Erich Segal must be cringing right now.

Why to the russains associate Love Story with white ballet tights and pale pink? The other russian team didi the same thing two years ago. They skated pretty perfectly, but I still don't see any chemistry from them and nothing significant in the choreography.

I really thought that Dube and Davidson hit a homerun with that LP. The chemistry was right on and it reminded me of Sale and Pellieter at times.

Inoue and Baldwin impressed me. really nice program and those throws! Wow. Nice to see them actually going for the triple twist. It wasn't bad in the freeskate.

[i love to skate]

I read that they chose the music because Maria has always wanted to skate to it, not because the Olympics are in Canada (not saying that didn't influence the choice, but that's what I heard).

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-ska...sid=17557.html

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/artic...&vkey=ice_news

Here's the two articles I read which mentions wanting to infuence the Canadian audience (as well as Maria wanting to skate to it)

[oleada]

Ah, thanks. Anyway, I don't think Sale/Pelletier own the music at all, so they can skate to it if they want. The bigger problem, imo, is the spare choreography and their lack of connection.

I like Maxim's outfit but not Maria's. In any case, I'm so happy they skated clean.

As for D/D, I generally find them pretty dull, and "The Way We Were". was no exception. It was well skated for this point in the season, but it was pretty one note and boring. I liked M/T's program better.

[vmfan89]

I agree that Salé/Pelletier don`t own the music. Their Love Story was one of my favorite programs of all time, but I don`t constantly compare their program to whoever uses Love Story. Skaters are free to use whatever they like. The same thing happened last year when Yu-Na used Scherezade, some people accused her of copying Michelle. I don`t think it`s copying at all, I think she just liked the music. As for M/T, I heard that Maria really likes this music, and that she has been wanting to skate to it for some time now, so I couldn`t think of a reason why they wouldn`t use it. Although the program isn`t perfect yet, and has room to grow, I liked it a lot. I like it more than K/S Love Story a few years back. Can`t wait to see it in Vancouver.

[Tinymavy15]

S&S are the most overrated pair. How many clean long programs have they done in their entire career so far?

That was a disaster. They really should have just give up and gotten off the ice, because after the fall they obviously did not know what to do. She could have gotten very injured.

The fact that they medaled is a joke. I know they had a big lead after the SP, but not THAT big.

[Tonichelle]

That was a disaster. They really should have just give up and gotten off the ice, because after the fall they obviously did not know what to do....

that's not the attitude that makes a champion.

[oleada]

I think the freak fall rattled them so much that they messed up the rest of their skate. It's a bit unusual for them (see: Worlds LP, where Robin fell in the footwork but you forgot by the end because it was so good).

I only hope that they go back to Schindler's List which was a much better program.

[i love to skate]

that's not the attitude that makes a champion.

I agree but they should still have been able to pull themselves back together. I have never seen a team get so rattled after a simple fall. They were totally lost and had absolutely no idea what to do. It was actually quite dangerous to continue skating like that.

[vmfan89]

What particularly threw me off is that she seemed really mad at him after the program. Agreed that some things might have been his fault, but not all of it was. She made mistakes too. I just think to go off on your partner like that in front of everyone in very unprofessional and unchampion like. Maybe that's not what happened, but it looked that way to me. Your thoughts?

[i love to skate]

What particularly threw me off is that she seemed really mad at him after the program. Agreed that some things might have been his fault, but not all of it was. She made mistakes too. I just think to go off on your partner like that in front of everyone in very unprofessional and unchampion like. Maybe that's not what happened, but it looked that way to me. Your thoughts?

It looked to me like it was mostly disbelief and shock. I'm not a huge fan of this team as I find them usually sloppy and inconsistent and I much prefer the clean lines, deep edges, and emotion from pairs such as D/D...but that's just my personal preference.

[ImaginaryPogue]

Yeah, I didn't think she was angry at him per se. Angry at what happened, a little surprised, bothered by the lack of a simple explanation, but at him? I didn't see that. Compare that to the Fusar-Poli death glare. Hell, she almost smiled on the ice afterwords (disbelief more than anything, but still).

[gold12345]

That was a disaster. They really should have just give up and gotten off the ice, because after the fall they obviously did not know what to do. She could have gotten very injured.

The fact that they medaled is a joke. I know they had a big lead after the SP, but not THAT big.

I think it would look really bad to give up, unless you are injured. You pick yourself up, keep fighting through it until the end, and do the best you can.

As for S/S's SP lead- they had a very big lead over I/B, who were down in 5th (18 points). For this reason, I don't understand why S/S scored so high in their LP. It wasn't like they needed the 101 to maintain a medal position.

I don't think the judges were very fond of Inoue/Baldwin... They scored about the same as the very average French team in PCS even though C/C had quite a rough time during their LP. There's no way the judges were going to rank S/S behind I/B. Heck, I/B still didn't even come close to beating them even with the meltdown.

[Medusa]

It looked to me like it was mostly disbelief and shock. I'm not a huge fan of this team as I find them usually sloppy and inconsistent and I much prefer the clean lines, deep edges, and emotion from pairs such as D/D...but that's just my personal preference.

Inconsistent I can stomach - but sloppy? Bad lines, bad edges? Who are you watching? I can totally accept that not everyone is everybody's cup of tea, but your critique seems to have nothing to do with reality. It would be like me saying that Chan has bad skating skills, just because I don't like him.

Oh yeah, my personal preference? The only emotion D/D can convey is soulful staring, which is why they had to go back to blah-blah-musak, because it's the only thing they can actually skate to.

[oleada]

Inconsistent I can stomach - but sloppy? Bad lines, bad edges? Who are you watching? I can totally accept that not everyone is everybody's cup of tea, but your critique seems to have nothing to do with reality. It would be like me saying that Chan has bad skating skills, just because I don't like him.

Oh yeah, my personal preference? The only emotion D/D can convey is soulful staring, which is why they had to go back to blah-blah-musak, because it's the only thing they can actually skate to.

Very few teams, if any, can match the power and speed S/S have, which comes from their excellent skating skills.

ITA on D/D. They've been doing romantic schlock forever because it's the only thing Jessica can do.

[i love to skate]

Inconsistent I can stomach - but sloppy? Bad lines, bad edges? Who are you watching? I can totally accept that not everyone is everybody's cup of tea, but your critique seems to have nothing to do with reality. It would be like me saying that Chan has bad skating skills, just because I don't like him.

Oh yeah, my personal preference? The only emotion D/D can convey is soulful staring, which is why they had to go back to blah-blah-musak, because it's the only thing they can actually skate to.

I don't like their lines - she grabs her blade whenever she gets the chance - lifts, spirals, spins, death spirals (hideous postion this week). They often make several mistakes which results in a sloppy program. I've never seen a pair team fall so apart at a competition and I think they are the most over-rated.

I really don't care if you don't like D/D. That's your preference, fine by me.