Free Dance

[Apple Pi]

The British Eurosport guys have proven to be curious in their commentary recently. While they certainly are appealing in that they don't generally exhibit bias, they have really been off at certain competitions in terms of predicting who will score well. They seem to be governed by anything from personal preference for particular styles, status/standing, or even by a less than solid understanding of the current rules. That does not mean they don't know skating. Obviously they do. But, like Scott Hamilton, they seem to judge it at times based on no longer used standards.

They favored D/W over V/M at the Olympics in both the OD and FD.
They reversed themselves at 2010 Worlds.
The favored V/M in the FD at 2011 Worlds.
Now they apparently favored W/P over D/W??? I can only imagine that they preferred the dramatic concept to traditional ballroom on ice. Considering the era in which they competed, that's somewhat understandable I suppose.

They thought Crone/Poirier could win gold over Davis/White back at Skate Canada 2008 as well. Biggest ever for me.

I love the Brits' commentary, but they go completely off the rails with their predictions sometimes.

[dorispulaski]

It's Nicky Slater, after all. There are three of them, Nicky, Chris & Simon. Simon is the talking head.

Nicky was a great dancer in his day but has the strange opinions, sometimes, and they get involved with whether their coach was coached by his mother Joan Slater, or even whether their coach's coach was coached by his mother. If there is a Joan Slater connection, Nicky is there.

[KKonas]

It's really difficulty IMO to judge speed and quality of edge work by just watching on TV, which is what the Brits were doing. Plus I don't think they are up-to-date on all the new tech requirements, especially on the SD. When I am at an event, I try to sit with one of the ISU judges or tech specialists, (not judging the event) especially in dance, so I can continue to learn what the judges look for in the dancer's progams. I do know that this year the judges in general are rewarding fun or happy programs greater in PCS, rather than high drama, which is why almost all of S&Z's programs this year are not high drama.

[Tinymavy15]

109.12 for Davis and White--wow!

highest FD score of the season. by 2 points. Seems D/W have a slight edge in the FD and V/M have a better SD. And that's the way it usually seems to pan out. Worlds is going to be a nailbitter. Neither one of them can be anything less than perfect.

[chuckm]

I think the judges loved D/W's FD after B/S's angsty FD and W/P's celebration of sado-masochism.

[wallylutz]

I think the judges loved D/W's FD after B/S's angsty FD and W/P's celebration of sado-masochism.

Or they could be trying to save their own bacon after what happened in the SD knowing that the referee will likely be asking some tough questions in the judges' meeting - so they can claim they in fact did take deductions on PCS during the SD.

[ImaginaryPogue]

The British Eurosport guys have proven to be curious in their commentary recently. While they certainly are appealing in that they don't generally exhibit bias, they have really been off at certain competitions in terms of predicting who will score well. They seem to be governed by anything from personal preference for particular styles, status/standing, or even by a less than solid understanding of the current rules. That does not mean they don't know skating. Obviously they do. But, like Scott Hamilton, they seem to judge it at times based on no longer used standards.

They favored D/W over V/M at the Olympics in both the OD and FD.
They reversed themselves at 2010 Worlds.
The favored V/M in the FD at 2011 Worlds.
Now they apparently favored W/P over D/W??? I can only imagine that they preferred the dramatic concept to traditional ballroom on ice. Considering the era in which they competed, that's somewhat understandable I suppose.

At Worlds 2010, they thought D/W deserved to win - when the scores came up indicating that V/M had won overall, they thought it was controversial.

They favoured B/S over W/P in the OD (it's gonna be close but probably not beat the Russians).

[cassiem]

Those scores for D/W are so over-the-top all I can do is laugh. They imply we've just witnessed something out of this world, one of the all time great dances. That was certainly not on show here, it wasn't awful but nothing spectacular either. I'm really hating this favoritism of "uplifting" dances. I feel no emotional connection to them. It's turning me off ice dancing.

[gmyers]

Yeah I don't get any feeling of D/W for or from the skating to the music at all.

[CARA]

Could someone help me understand the almost 20 points difference (95.14 vs. 76.90) between B/S & R/T? I admit that I am a non-tech person, so I do not know the intricate technical analysis that go into come up with the total scores.

We have discussed endlessly just how "horrid" Bobrova's posture is, and it is horrid! Too bad bad posture does not count for anything. Both teams also excecute ugly looking lifts rather badly. Soloviev's twizzles are usually a trainreck waiting to happen, and in this particular twizzle sequence, both Bobrova and Soloviev basically "spinned" rather than twizzled the reverse twizzle portion. Bobrova also tripped several occassions. Yet they managed to receive 8.57 average skating skills for example, which is higher than W/P, who received 8.21 SS. (For the comparision, R/T's SS is 7.04.) Those are just once example, but do these teams really have close to 20 point worth difference?

I would really appreciate it if someone enlighten me. Thanks.

FYI: I'm not a Russian dancing team hater - on the contrary, I'm quite fond of several Russian teams, including R/T, I/K, etc.

Editing - correcting my misspellings.

[Spun Silver]

^^ Cara, thank you for asking this. I'm wondering the same thing and hope one of our resident dance experts will explain. Meanwhile though, we should probably at least write B/S's names correctly: Bobrova (with an r) and Soloviev (with two v's). (I loved hearing their names announced in Russian, I've been repeating them all day!)

[CARA]

^^ Cara, thank you for asking this. I'm wondering the same thing and hope one of our resident dance experts will explain. Meanwhile though, we should probably at least write B/S's names correctly: Bobrova (with an r) and Soloviev (with two v's). (I loved hearing their names announced in Russian, I've been repeating them all day!)

Oops, my bad. Thank you for pointing out my misspelling. That was disrespectful. I've corrected all of my misspellings.

[Spun Silver]

There's a reason I always stick to the initials.

[CARA]

There's a reason I always stick to the initials.

[SkateFiguring]

Probable reasons for this season's PCS:

1) Some judges think that PCS is a duodecimal system.

2) The PCS ceiling has been raised in lieu of increasing the factor for Men's PCS to match the increased TES, what with all the quads in this season's programs. Judges then find it expedient to apply the same valuation in all disciplines.

3) This happy panel has been hired for all competitions.