Short Dance Cup of China

[CARA]

...Ice Dance will always be...Ice Dance, with two sides to the same coin, so long as it is justifiable.

Do you think it is justifiable?

[Tex]

Evan and Madison have been together longer than Emily and Todd, so of course they're going to be better. Emily and Todd just need more time.

Very true. Evan and Madison have been together since June and Madison and Zachary have been together since May and every little bit of time counts.

Here's Emily's quote from the Goldenskate recap of the SD: We tried out in the middle of August in Lake Placid and we continued sort of training by ourselves until the end of August,” Samuelson shared. “Then we went to Colorado to get choreography. [B]We’ve been training these programs for about a month[/B]. The progress that we’ve made I can even feel myself is tremendous in the short time we’ve been working. We’re actually excited to have some more time to train.”

Those comments people are making about Emily's weight are beyond tacky and seriously irresponsible.

On a side note, she had a gorgeous gold dress on during practice, so that would have fit this SD much better. I'm anxious to see how this team continues to improve.

[Nadine]

I gotta tell you I was totally disappointed in their SD yesterday b/c I had such HIGH expectations coming in.

It's no joke that Emily & Evan were my favorite ice dance team since Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat retired after winning the gold medal in 2002, and since then I haven't bothered to watch. That is until Emily&Evan entered US Senior Nationals in 2008.

So I was devastated when I heard they broke up last Spring. Reminiscent of when Marina's partner dropped her out of the blue (sucker punch) and she searched high & low for a new partner, finally finding one in France. Anyhow, this reminded me of the same scenario, and therefore I was expecting to see Emily show up at COC "cut" and ready to blow everybody out of the water, lol, so I said what I felt, thought, and saw.

And I still feel the same way.

Though I've calmed down since then, especially after seeing their FABULOUS FD.

Now I see they just need time, and PRACTICE, Practice, practice!


GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EMILY & TODD!!!!

[dorispulaski]

That SD of S&G's is such a mistake; they should scrap it before Nationals, before it does them any more harm.

I like the choreo on the FD a lot, but it needs work too, as 3 extended lift deductions is not a good thing. But that's one program from CoC that I want to see again.

[Art&Sport]

Emily's forward progress has obviously been hurt by being away for a season. Now at least she's happy with a new partner, and it will take time to grow together, define who they are together on the ice and find the right music and choreo to express that. S/S and the Russians B/S are obviously the class of this field.

ETA: I think S/S have been kept down in the marks a bit.

[dorispulaski]

Yes, this is true.^^^^^

[Tex]

Emily's forward progress has obviously been hurt by being away for a season. Now at least she's happy with a new partner, and it will take time to grow together, define who they are together on the ice and find the right music and choreo to express that.

At first viewing, I did not like their SD but a big part of that was the audio or lack of audio. Now, I like their SD but not as much as their FD. I applaud them for chosing something totatlly different, and I will take Goldfinger over another J.Lo, Mark Anthony, Shakira, etc. in this years SD.

For improvements, I suggest she get a better dress that fits the song and dance style. Plus, they need some more samba and mambo moves in the dance, but for 8 weeks, this program is still a big work in progress. Of course much more practice will help.

I am smitten by this team and just the happiest camper to see them both skating again!!!!

The scoring/results of Cup of China might not have been what they wished for, but hopefully this Cup of China experience lights a fire under them to continue to improve exponentially.