She's also really good at singles commentary. Her voice is great for it and she imparts knowledge without being dull. And I love when she gets excited (she and Rod always feed off each others excitement so well). IMO the best skating commentator (of the 'experts') in North America.Originally Posted by loop9497
Who knew CDs could be so interesting?
Miss having Tracy on the Canadian network. I'm pleasantly surprised by Victor Kraatz. He always seemed on the quiet side, but I find his tone and presence reassuring. Jennifer Robinson on the other hand - tuned in to CTV and noticed this woman pouting at the camera and thought "Whoa, who is this woman with the attitude?" and then realized it was her. She adamantly described D/S's skating today as sloppy and slow - to which I thought, "Pot, meet kettle." I was surprised to read all the positive comments about D/S here. I'm a little concerned she might give the wrong impression to the Canadian public about the judging in subsequent segments. I might be tuning in to NBC for the rest of the ice dance coverage from now on.
I found their acting over-the-top and yes, I'm mainly referring to Tanith's exaggerated O-face. I thought they were trying to show too much attack and not enough romance. JMO.
ITA, CTV should get Jennifer off her microphone before she creates an unwanted Olympic controversy. She gives all kinds of personal opinions. She is very critical and judgmental for someone who was a B level skater in her highest time of career.
I thought they presented it really well too. According to the commentators I was listening to, they mentioned that their footwork wasn't as sharp as the other couples, especially Benjamin's so that's probably where they lost the marks. I'm looking forward to their OD and FD though. They are my favourites in the entire competition.
Hm, that must be it, although I didn't notice. As to the pure sharpness, S&B, for instance, are always sharp I thought, and yet they aren't at the same level yet.
Every couple today tried to play the sexy card, and the most natural it looked on B & A. Well, at least to me it did. Domnina & Shabalin looked like grown-ups too, of course, but I didn't buy their chemistry as much as I did B & A's. DomShabs looked more like 'ex-lovers' meeting for a last dance.
Ah, I know, it all sounds silly.
Thanks guys for telling me about Tracy's situation.
I am mosdef grateful for her to help us to understand the icedance better.
And I totally forgot that Sandra is a Canadian too,
whom I wish Tracy could replace (sorry, Sandra).
But it is kind a shame that US has to borrow two people from Canada for commentating
despite of the fact that there are so many champion skaters of the past.
Maybe we need a school for those medalists to be good commentators of the future.
But Canadians are hilarious. Tracy will be commentating and chugging along and I'd almost forget she's a Canuck, and then BOOM! She pops in an "aboat". It's adorable, really. Although I am getting awfully sick of her talking about every ice dancer's height.
Sandra Bezic, on the other hand, can't even do that "aboat" thing right. She's pretty irredeemable aside from the fact that this go-around, she seems to be shutting up during most of the performances. I like my commentators to do as little of their namesake as possible.
Last edited by DesertRoad; 02-20-2010 at 01:54 AM.
It seems the board had some problem after V/M, so I was not able to post the last comment from Klara Engi (and myself, lol), she said VM were one of the best on the night, most balanced, skated very close together, but preferred D/S expression though, and agreed with second place and placements in general except for French D/S.
I also think D/S deserved first on this dance and V/M second, and this margin between them is not very big and fair enough. To me D/S were the only ones who looked like they were dancing, and V/M were also much better than the rest from this aspect, but not as good as D/S.
I miss the old days of ice dance, this is very subjective of course, but for most couples I'm not feeling the dance quality that was present in CDs before, it's hard for me to explain this in words, but if you look at the Argentine tangos of past great couples like Klimova/Ponomarenko or Torvill/Dean or G/P (all are up on youtube) you can see what I mean by "dance" quality. Not that I mean to diss today's couples, but I much prefer the interpretation of those "old" couples, and D/S came closest to that for me.
Finnish commentator liked Scott Moir's style. Tessa's dress was very beautiful.
I thought the placement was pretty ok tonight. Domnina/Shabalin really skated this dance well and had the most mature presentation commanding and dramatic with a touch of softness and really, really sophisticated in a natural way. Virtue/Moir had really lovely moves and good deep edged skating. Good expression but I preferred the slightly off the cuff feeling of Domnina/Shabalin better. Davis/White skated really well and had good expression. I think the thing that kept Belbin/Agosto out of third place was the fact that Tanith in her attempt to be super dramatic hunched her shoulders forward in this slightly awkward way and not only did it mess with her body line but it made her skating not as smooth. She was trying too hard- I understand why but I hope in the following evenings she would ease up just a bit- it would help their skating.
Good evening of skating all around I was pretty happy.
Who is Klara Engi???
Tracy and Sandra are on US TV because of their professional association with Scott Hamilton. Scott was the lead commentator for CBS from the mid 80s through the 90s. He brought Sandra (who was the head choreographer for Star on Ice, Scott's show) on board at CBS for 1990 Worlds. NBC bought the rights to Worlds from 91 through 95. She already was calling World Pros for them, so she was paired with Robin Cousins the first year, then worked on her own with a color commentator (Enberg, etc) the other years except 94 when she was pregnant. Then she went to Canadian TV for 98 Olympics.
Tracy did some Canadian TV (1990 World for example with Toller Cranston) while her pro career (also with Stars on Ice) was coming to an end (due to Rob McCall's illness and death). Then CBS picked her up for 1992 Olympics in part because Scott hated calling ice dance. She's been paired with him in TV roles ever since for "amateur" and pro events.
When NBC bought the rights to the winter games and hired Scott he brought Sandra and Tracy on board with him. Scott has a lot of behind the scenes influence regarding who gets opportunites. For example, Michael Weiss (a longtime Stars on Ice cast member) is doing behind the scences tech analysis with the NBC production crew.
She's part of Engi and Toth, a Hungarian dance team from the 80 and 90's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klara_Engi
German Eurosport commentators who apparently were completely unaware of the Aboriginal-dance-pc-heckle were hilarious about it.
Sigi Heinrich: "Why are they wearing carpets?"
Hendryk Schamberger: "No idea. Maybe they want to tell their rivals they have wrap up warm." (This is an almost untranslateable word pun in German language. It means something like they were great and their rivals should prepare for hard times.)
Sigi Heinrich: "Still I don't know why they should wrap up in carpets."
Obviously completely innocent and unaware of the whole discussion. Where have they been the last weeks???
Last edited by viv; 02-20-2010 at 05:49 AM.
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