Free Dance 8:05 AM Eastern Time Saturday

life684 said:

I agree these teams are very close at olympics fai/sca may very well beat Koh/nov and if Deo/Sho are not fit for the Olympics Pec/Bou will surely beat them (if d/d shows up that is unlikely).

Worlds is different issue, Dom/Shab will retire after Olympics (unlikely to stay on even if they don't get the gold) and Koh/Nov will be russian No.1, they will surely get the boost there starting CD.the inflation in the score will be enough to keep french and italians at bay even if they make mistakes at FS

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,
I know that history speaks in favor of your theory, but I cannot see the russians supremacy to keep it going in the next Olympic cycle, simply because Koh / Nov are not good dancers. I am sorry to rain on the russian fans parade, they are just OK, except their lifts and that is not dacning!


And by the way, there was interuption in their string between Krylova and Lobacheva, so it won't be an inconceivable thing, and those teams were alot better than Jana and Serghei ever will

I haven't finished watching all of the FD's yet but wanted to comment on Faiella and Scali.

I am so impressed with their OD and FD this year. They really thought about the themes they wanted to portray and came up with 2 pieces that are deeply personal and build on each other to almost portray a complete story.

OD- a dance centered on the old world life in Italy
FD- a dance about the immigrant experience in the new world

And really great costuming for both numbers to boot- spare, elegant yet with the right theatrical touches to portray the character of the music. (I love Federica's FD dress- the collar in the front evokes the period of the 1900s without breaking her line with the fussy sleeves of the period. And the pleats in the back of the skirt enhances the flow of her movement.) Plus Massimo- what expression there is never any doubt that they feel their music in their bones. The expression in his face and body in that back spiral life towards the end of the FD- just gorgeous. I'm so pleased that they placed second in the FD.

I watched some ice-dance :yes: I know nothing about ice-dance, but I still want to give my five cents!

I think the new coaches made Belbin a better skater. This new program is miles better than last year's Tosca, which I loathed with passion.

But - I don't think it's the right choice for an Olympic year. They look good, the skating is fluid, I love their lifts so much more than D/W's and V/M's. It's just that in a non-Olympic year, this would have been a good program for them, branching out, going dramatic. But I think they should have done something more upbeat this year, something that suits their personalities better.

We already got one top ice-dance team that does fluid, lyrical and weepy skating to dramatic-lyrical music best - Virtue/Moir. I don't know, they should have done something voidy, something like e.g. the Circus program P/B had last year. She is so beautiful, in a bright happy way, he looks like a guy everyone would like to hang out with and have fun. Maybe their coaches got the couples mixed up. Those two are a perky Canadian lass with her hot Latino partner, not some uber-dramatic Russian lion and his temperamental lady. Sigh.

Tosca was horrible... I much prefer the more back to Tanith and Ben we all know and love programs they have this year...

they went dramatic two years ago and I loved that program... this is a great program full of potential. whether or not it works in their favor I don't know.


ETA - Ben's hair scares me.

Tanith and Ben's new FD- so far I think it's my favorite FD of the season- with reservations.

The music is lovelier than I thought it would be- the first piece with the gorgeous cascading notes that follow them into that first major lift sequence that keeps changing into these gorgeous positions (too bad that Tanith slips on the last ending position). The lift seems to go on in this never ending flow- but in a good way. Better intricate position changes that really fit the music than I think the lifts that Marina Zoueva devised for either V/M or D/W's programs this year. (Their never ending lift changes seem acrobatic and mechanical and don't really enhance the music.)

The one major caveat that I have that broke the mood of the program for me was Tanith. (And I'm not normally a Tanith-basher.) There are moments when she is still trying too hard. When she feels the need to "try and work hard" she stiffens and hardens up in her movement and gets this "I'm determined" look in her eyes that takes me out of the powerful yet enlightened quality of this music. For me, Ben is able to portray the deep, soulful yet light touch that this music calls for. She is detracting from it. She needs to concentrate on keeping her movements soft- which she does for parts of the dance very nicely- and really blending her body better with Ben and letting him carry the expression of the piece.

One additional note of critique ;-): I find her costuming a little out of place. Ben's costume is a very nice execution of the theme of the music- a modern version of a classical/baroque-ish, spiritual piece. And his hair- curly and riotous- is as another poster put it- beatific. Her dress is like a modern day wedding dress- nice but out of place with this high-classic theme. They need to change her costuming- though they could keep the white color. And her hair while on the right track with the low plain pony tail needs to straighten out. If her hair were straightened and not so bouncy curly (again like a prom or wedding style) it would help streamline her look a little better and let her not detract from Ben's presence so much. (This is only of course if they recognize that to really pull this piece off they need to emphasize Ben's emotional presence.)

But overall, I liked this dance a lot. The music and choreography are classical, spiritual, and soulful in a way that's hard to achieve. A gentler successor if you will to Denkova/Staviski's Seven Deadly Sins FD from 2006-2007 season. There's a clean-ness to it that I find appealing. Virtue and Moir's FD this year while "beautiful" comes across a little too sweet for me.

Tonichelle is rigth, the program works for them and it have a great potential, And like Missysays said, in some parts Tanith demontrated that she is really truig hard and some move are a bit withouth flow, but is just the first time that they skate so is looking fine.

Her dress is beatifull but I wouldn't mind if she changes

So who got the silver F/S or K/N?

Audrey19 said:

So who got the silver F/S or K/N?

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K/N got Silver and F/S Bronze. F/S came in 2nd in the FD but 3rd overall.

I think BA's programme is the most succeesful piece since 2004-2005 season. It really works for them and I do like every movement of their dance. The music choice is Olympic routine as well. So much better than Tosca and their coaching change is really work. And I think Linlichuk really discover BA's potential. Well done!

i haven't seen d/b skate and france d/s skate--so i don't know,
but as of now i see d/w and v/m fight out for gold with b/a in a fight for bronze.
hopefully they will work out glitches (b/a). i see improvement in emotion and artistry from b/a.

d/w are doing great. vm/ has to skate clean and no dumb mistakes.as of now

gp title between all three.

demarinis5 said:

K/N got Silver and F/S Bronze. F/S came in 2nd in the FD but 3rd overall.

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Thanks!
Am I the only one who thinks that Fede & Massi were robbed? Haven't seen the CDs but IMO they were clearly better than Jana & Sergei in both the OD and the FD. What happened to them btw? Russian folk for the OD and the FD? :scratch: They used to be so much better than this! Both programs were empty and uninteresting, I didn't even want to watchtheir FD until the end...
Faeilla & Scali however They were fast, dramatic, smooth-a pleasure to watch, costumes were great and the OD was really original. definitely deserved the silver here!
Tanith & Ben, they were in a class of their own! The OD was by far the best I've seen so far! Eastern european folk yet different from the lot, great costumes, they carried the mood throughout the performance with speed, effortless steps, interesting & beautiful lifts...just perfect
And the FD I'm speechless... beautiful costumes, everything was perfectly timed to the music, so much flow and ease, nothing looked laboured, outstanding lifts... I love them so much!
OK, enough gushing...
But still

I really did not like F&S last year. This year I found them to be a refreshing surprise. I enjoyed all of their programs. Although Fede's open mouth at all times does bug me.

Found Tanith and Ben to be a work in progress. Things did not flow at times, but I think this FD has loads of potential.

C&Z- I really love Madison, but Greg just fades into the background and you don't notice him. It was really pronounced for me in the OD- he just wasn't there at all. I thought his presence in the FD was better but they really need to work on that.

The Chinese team who skated to Cats- I was expecting the absolute worst in voidy-void-voids when they skated but I thought it really could have been worse!

Pretty nice FD from B/A. Definitiely much better than Tosca, while you can see that program was a stepping stone for this one. A lot of roughnees in this though, glad it didn't score too high in this incarnation. If they can smooth it out, and avoid having it become to "pose-y", I think this will be an interesting dance. Not sure how crowd-pleasing the music will be.. but they can pull it off if they skate with authority and smoothness. A good challenge for them, this may be the the first B/A program I halfway like...

B&A-I really like the photo-pose lift in the last part of the program that looks like a heart-Linichuk does that kind of thing so well.

The picture here:
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091031&content_id=7586198&vkey=ice_news

Since F&S beat K&N in the FD, the question you'd have is, were they underscored in either the CD or OD (or were K&N overscored there).

F&S got about a point less than K&N in the CD, all in PCS. (their TES was virtually tied) OTOH, I thought K&N had a more waltzy feel and more speed than F&S, so I would have probably graded the CD about as it was. The feed wasn't well enough synched for me to tell you about their timing.

For the OD, F&S did a nice OD that was a lot like their 2006/2007 OD-a regional tarantella. That may not have helped them in the PCS department, because ice dance panels often are unimpressed by reused, repurposed programs. Also F&S only got level2 on their lift. K&N got level 4 (and just aced the lift). Their other levels were the same. So for the lift, F&S got 4.0 and K&N got 5.8, and that was the difference. This is obviously something F&S can fix.

The two teams were very close in all 3 segments, so I don't think there is a huge case for a 'wuzrobbed'. Plus Faiella's dress in the CD was dreadful and not waltzy (IMO only of course). And the FD dress made her look 45 years old with bad hair and makeup, and the sleeves torn off her blouse, truly ice dance sins. Granted, they are immigrants in the FD, so perhaps bad dress is required for the lady.

Faiella looks like Anna Magnani! Ergo, I'm on their side.

I know I'm a bit obsessed but ok, here we are. I found who is a designer of all K/N costumes for the past two years. It's a very famous, quite old Russian fashion designer who makes huge accent on Russian theme and volumous shapes. Here is his oficcial website. It's in Russian but you can see his photo on that page. http://zaitsev.info/
Also I got to know that not all Russians are happy with K/N outfits and some think thay have to change them. I personally hated their last year OD costumes as well!
I just think that with normal costumes even the programs they have these season would look better. Although they just don't impress me so far. Why it has too be soo similar for OD and FD? Odd.. Well, I have know idea how to make them change those costumes because it's apparently consedered too be a big deal to use outfits by Zaitcev. Like Cavalli for Costner I suppose. But there is a difference!

Ben's Wild Hair

Tonichelle said:

ETA - Ben's hair scares me.

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Delurking to comment with a laugh because I immediately thought of Andrei Bukin (1988 Olympic champion). In the early 90s he and partner Natalia Bestimianova performed a dark show program depicting Rasputin - the wild haired notorious Russian mystic in the court of Nicholas II. In designing B&A's program, Linichuk would surely have remembered the program when constructing this dance which is based on a medieval poem and explains Ben's costume. Wild hair aside, Ben is not portraying Rasputin in this dance. Besides Ben is much handsomer and a super nice guy.

character or not, it still scares me

Both of K/N's programs look to me like nothing more than exercises intended to display her flexibility. There's not much dancing going on in either the OD or the FD.

They were a novelty in their early years, but now their shtick has taken over to such an extent that their dancing hasn't improved. At this point, I find Rubleva/Shefer far more enjoyable.

I would like to have seen Faiella/Scali in second place. But with 4 judges from former SSRs on the panel (UZB, RUS, KAZ, UKR), that was not going to happen.

KKonas said:

Delurking to comment with a laugh because I immediately thought of Andrei Bukin (1988 Olympic champion). In the early 90s he and partner Natalia Bestimianova performed a dark show program depicting Rasputin - the wild haired notorious Russian mystic in the court of Nicholas II.

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I remember that one too!