All Things Ice Dance: Canadian | Page 4 | Golden Skate

All Things Ice Dance: Canadian

slipslidin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
I don't imagine Weaver and Poje will have any trouble with the Yankee Polka. Let's not forget that it isn't their first year together and they'll be performing a short dance, not an OSP or CD.

This year, I thought they had the best two programs and great costumes, and I feel they gained in international reputation. I expect higher marks for them next year.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
I'm certainly expecting W&P to stay ahead of G&P--and I wonder how that will be going down in Scarborough.
 

heyhey

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
I'm certainly expecting W&P to stay ahead of G&P--and I wonder how that will be going down in Scarborough.

It will be interesting to see what GP events Skate Canada lobby for W/P and G/P and whether there is a head to head competition prior to Nationals. It will also be interesting to see whether G/P get a slot at Skate Canada. I am also sure that if Paul/Islam are healthy - there will be some noise from that camp as well. Unfortunately, I don't see a push for Ralph/Hill due to their coaching situation. I would prefer to have Ralph/Hill be coached by Wing/Lowe...my two cents...
 
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Dragonlady

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
I don't imagine Weaver and Poje will have any trouble with the Yankee Polka. Let's not forget that it isn't their first year together and they'll be performing a short dance, not an OSP or CD.

This year, I thought they had the best two programs and great costumes, and I feel they gained in international reputation. I expect higher marks for them next year.

Why does everyone in this forum talk about international reputation? It really has no meaning. I expect W&P will get good marks next season because of the trememdous improvements they made this season in their technical ability.

No wonder people think this sport is fixed, when ardent ice-dance fans keep talking about "internationala reputation" as something that matters in the placements. If you don't' understand what's being judged, OK, that can be explained but please stop with this ridiculous notion that the skaters are getting their marks and placements based on their reputation. It's not happening, and hasn't been happening since CoP was introduced.
 

slipslidin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Yes, Ralph and Hill are at a political disadvantage, but would Wing and Lowe be the answer? Wing and Lowe coach Orford and Williams, a worthy team that lost out big-time in the shennanigans at this year's Nationals, so I'm not sure they have the political clout necessary to help R/H.

By the way, I wish somebody would tell me whether O/W will be on the National Team this year.
 

slipslidin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Why does everyone in this forum talk about international reputation? It really has no meaning. I expect W&P will get good marks next season because of the trememdous improvements they made this season in their technical ability.

No wonder people think this sport is fixed, when ardent ice-dance fans keep talking about "internationala reputation" as something that matters in the placements. If you don't' understand what's being judged, OK, that can be explained but please stop with this ridiculous notion that the skaters are getting their marks and placements based on their reputation. It's not happening, and hasn't been happening since CoP was introduced.
Some of us think there's an elephant in the room.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Why does everyone in this forum talk about international reputation? It really has no meaning. I expect W&P will get good marks next season because of the trememdous improvements they made this season in their technical ability.

No wonder people think this sport is fixed, when ardent ice-dance fans keep talking about "internationala reputation" as something that matters in the placements. If you don't' understand what's being judged, OK, that can be explained but please stop with this ridiculous notion that the skaters are getting their marks and placements based on their reputation. It's not happening, and hasn't been happening since CoP was introduced.

To me, what's worse than that is the assumption that a skater's advancement in the sport is due to the political pull of that skater's coaches. :disagree:

Worst of all would be if it is true.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
No wonder people think this sport is fixed, when ardent ice-dance fans keep talking about "internationala reputation" as something that matters in the placements. If you don't' understand what's being judged, OK, that can be explained but please stop with this ridiculous notion that the skaters are getting their marks and placements based on their reputation. It's not happening, and hasn't been happening since CoP was introduced.

Well, that's one perspective.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
R&H had a great FD this year--I hope that some kind federation will invite them to their GP event this coming year!

Which is another question.

I'm assumiong V&M will of course want to do Skate Canada on the GP. What other 2 teams with Skate Canada the organization pick for the host spots?

And have Orford & Williams aged out of Juniors? (presuming that the ISU doesn't change the eligible ages again)?
 
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Dragonlady

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
Crone & Poirier were also what Carol Lane calls "a home-grown team". She put these skaters together as children and developed them to elite international teams.

At Thornhill, we marvel at all of the Scarborough teams. They are all so well trained, with strong skating skills, good choreography, and beautiful packaging. They stand out even from the Mariposa teams, especially in the packaging. I have not been similarly impressed with dance teams from any other Canadian based skating school, including the BC teams. I was absolutely shocked that anyone thought that Orford Williams should have been ahead of Gilles & Poirier. O&W scored 10 points higher at Canadians than they did at Jr. Worlds so the judging for that team wasn't that out of whack at Canadians.

I think Crone & Poirier are one of the BEST arguments against "reputation judging". They entered their first GP event in Ottawa with a coach with no international reputation, having just come up from juniors and picked up the silver medal ahead of P&B, who really skating badly at that event. They were 4th in the CD, which is understandable since they were just up from juniors and not as strong in the CD's as the older, more experienced teams, and then skated lights out the rest of the event and won silver, ahead of B&S, P&B and other teams with more reputation and more experience. How did they manage to place 7th at 2010 Worlds if reputation is so important?

If reputation matters, why are the Shibutani's placed lower when they skate badly? If reputation matters, why did it take so long for P&B to win a medal? If reputation and politiks matter, why haven't the Russians managed to place a dance team on the podium since Dom/Shabs?
 
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Mattieu

Medalist
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
R&H had a great FD this year--I hope that some kind federation will invite them to their GP event this coming year!

R&H will be in the top 24 WR so are entitled to 1 GP (16th now about 22nd after June)
They are ranked 25 in Season's best, so will be top of the list for a 2nd GP, should there be any withdrawals.
I would expect them to get 2 GP's in their own right, going by the number of withdrawals for injury last season!!
 

slipslidin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Crone & Poirier were also what Carol Lane calls "a home-grown team". She put these skaters together as children and developed them to elite international teams.

At Thornhill, we marvel at all of the Scarborough teams. They are all so well trained, with strong skating skills, good choreography, and beautiful packaging. They stand out even from the Mariposa teams, especially in the packaging. I have not been similarly impressed with dance teams from any other Canadian based skating school, including the BC teams. I was absolutely shocked that anyone thought that Orford Williams should have been ahead of Gilles & Poirier. O&W scored 10 points higher at Canadians than they did at Jr. Worlds so the judging for that team wasn't that out of whack at Canadians.

I think Crone & Poirier are one of the BEST arguments against "reputation judging". They entered their first GP event in Ottawa with a coach with no international reputation, having just come up from juniors and picked up the silver medal ahead of P&B, who really skating badly at that event. They were 4th in the CD, which is understandable since they were just up from juniors and not as strong in the CD's as the older, more experienced teams, and then skated lights out the rest of the event and won silver, ahead of B&S, P&B and other teams with more reputation and more experience. How did they manage to place 7th at 2010 Worlds if reputation is so important?

If reputation matters, why are the Shibutani's placed lower when they skate badly? If reputation matters, why did it take so long for P&B to win a medal? If reputation and politiks matter, why haven't the Russians managed to place a dance team on the podium since Dom/Shabs?

Crone and Poirier are history, a promising team that did not persist. And in my opinion never lived up to their billing.
 

romanoff81

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
I agree its clear they quit after worlds last year i think Paul knew Vanessa had too many limitations as a skater to continue with her, Piper is much better technically right of the bat the twizzles are so much better and fast.
 

colleen o'neill

Medalist
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
I'm not worried about W/P either. I expect K/C to be right on top of making sure they have good choreo. I'm not at all worried about their ability to see what they need and setting about getting it. I wish them continued good health , and that the good times will continue to roll...Hmmmm..as I type this, that sounds like an exhibition number ... B.B. King and Let the Good Times Roll ...;) ?

Oops! I sent myself off on a YouTube side trip there , and now there's more responses.:biggrin: Look , no one says that the politiking exists to the same obvious degree that it did in the bad old days , but to pretend that it plays no role is either naivete or denial ...(in my humble opinion ). To have an effect , it doesn't have to include backroom deals and payoffs.

People are always pointing out in that judges are human and may see the same thing in slightly different ways and still be correct, or honest. that's true. It's also true that humans can be affected by hype , or international reputation. If you go to, say, a movie after having read a review by a critic whose opinion you respect , or after having been bombarded for months by ads featuring glowing opinions , you may well go in expecting it to be good from the outset, and not have quite the critical eye you would have had if you went in cold. If you've seen something featuring an actor or director whose work you loved. You may well expect them to be good next time out and pay a bit more attention than to an actor or director you're unfamiliar with.

I have to go out and come back in ...

ETA; I think O/W were shafted at Canadians,as well..OK , I didn't like G/P's SD it was full of details copied directly from the year's successful SDs.. notably C/L and P/B .I didn't like the costumes, and I always tend not to like the overdone O-faces . But should they have scored lower than O/W ? I don't know .. but I do know that they should never have scored that much higher.
Even Tracy Wilson was compelled to theorize that they may have received such phenomenally high scores because they were obviously so much better than the teams around them ( don't forget they skated very early..and don't forget that part of Tracy's job is to put things as diplomatically as she can for Canadian skaters ).

By comparison ( allowing for national boost ) O/W were somewhat under marked at this stage, I think. A slight under mark added to a very healthy over mark can lead to devastating results. Next , SC's and CTV's tinkering make a contribution. Due to the split competition, O/W missed the final flight and didn't have a chance to be seen in the company they deserved to be in. Instead of a 20 min resurfacing break there many hours separating them from their closest competitors.

As it was , their FD outscored R/H and very nearly caught P/I. Can we be sure all the judges were totally unaffected by this ? Can we be sure the atmosphere, ice conditions, etc. remained the same , or that the good scores that they posted might not have had an effect on the teams that needed to stay ahead of them..if it had been a normal competition ? Not in my opinion..and it can't be amended. For the finishing touch, their FD was therefore not shown on TV, keeping them out of public awareness , and off the radar of anyone watching from abroad.

As a result, was a fair chance at a higher level of funding also denied them ?
 
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NorthernDancers

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
I'm not worried about W/P either. I expect K/C to be right on top of making sure they have good choreo. I'm not at all worried about their ability to see what they need and setting about getting it. I wish them continued good health , and that the good times will continue to roll...Hmmmm..as I type this, that sounds like an exhibition number ... B.B. King and Let the Good Times Roll ...;) ?

Oops! I sent myself off on a YouTube side trip there , and now there's more responses.:biggrin: Look , no one says that the politiking exists to the same obvious degree that it did in the bad old days , but to pretend that it plays no role is either naivete or denial ...(in my humble opinion ). To have an effect , it doesn't have to include backroom deals and payoffs.

People are always pointing out in that judges are human and may see the same thing in slightly different ways and still be correct, or honest. that's true. It's also true that humans can be affected by hype , or international reputation. If you go to, say, a movie after having read a review by a critic whose opinion you respect , or after having been bombarded for months by ads featuring glowing opinions , you may well go in expecting it to be good from the outset, and not have quite the critical eye you would have had if you went in cold. If you've seen something featuring an actor or director whose work you loved. You may well expect them to be good next time out and pay a bit more attention than to an actor or director you're unfamiliar with.

I have to go out and come back in ...

ETA; I think O/W were shafted at Canadians,as well..OK , I didn't like G/P's SD it was full of details copied directly from the year's successful SDs.. notably C/L and P/B .I didn't like the costumes, and I always tend not to like the overdone O-faces . But should they have scored lower than O/W ? I don't know .. but I do know that they should never have scored that much higher.
Even Tracy Wilson was compelled to theorize that they may have received such phenomenally high scores because they were obviously so much better than the teams around them ( don't forget they skated very early..and don't forget that part of Tracy's job is to put things as diplomatically as she can for Canadian skaters ).

By comparison ( allowing for national boost ) O/W were somewhat under marked at this stage, I think. A slight under mark added to a very healthy over mark can lead to devastating results. Next , SC's and CTV's tinkering make a contribution. Due to the split competition, O/W missed the final flight and didn't have a chance to be seen in the company they deserved to be in. Instead of a 20 min resurfacing break there many hours separating them from their closest competitors.

As it was , their FD outscored R/H and very nearly caught P/I. Can we be sure all the judges were totally unaffected by this ? Can we be sure the atmosphere, ice conditions, etc. remained the same , or that the good scores that they posted might not have had an effect on the teams that needed to stay ahead of them..if it had been a normal competition ? Not in my opinion..and it can't be amended. For the finishing touch, their FD was therefore not shown on TV, keeping them out of public awareness , and off the radar of anyone watching from abroad.

As a result, was a fair chance at a higher level of funding also denied them ?


W/P will be fine. They are in a good place right now. I'm sure they will have fun with the YP. Andrew's dad is German, I believe, and Andrew if from Kitchener-Waterloo, which is the home of Oktoberfest.... Take the heritage and add some interesting music choices and choreography from K/C, and it could be really wonderful. Yes, it is true that the YP is more difficult for tall people, but it can also look really strong and fabulous with all those lines. They'll have to spend a lot of time in the gym working on the muscle memory for quick action.

100% agree that the politicking doesn't happen the way it used to in the bad old days. Thankfully, there are levels and scores to keep things more honest. But I agree that that it is naive to think it doesn't happen at all. G/P were ridiculously over-scored at Nationals. There is just no way they deserved those marks. They have power, but that's about it right now as a team. They should have been 4th or 5th this year. Do they have potential? Absolutely. But they need to find some unison, edges, lines and real dancing instead of just a bunch of tricks skated at break-neck speed. I saw some of those first competitions, and there was clearly a "lobby" effort ongoing. It was obvious and a little nauseating, to be honest. These kids need a chance to develop. They both individually have some excellent experience and raw materials. Now they have to put it together in proper way. And we all have to give them a chance to do it. They are really young. So they have time.

I agree that R/H need a new coaching team. I imagine that is difficult, given school and life situations, but my suggestion for them is Montreal with D/L. It's nice and close to home yet. And D/L will give them a different view of their technique and some different choreographic material. I'd be interested to see what they would do with R/H. I think there is a lot of potential there yet.

For what it's worth, I think O/W are over-rated. They are an un-evenly matched team, which does not bode well for the future for them. He has improved his speed over the last couple of years, but that has been at the expense of quality. It's like they have to move at such a speed as to hide the fact of the missing lines and unison and edges. I stopped counting the number of times she did a twizzle as a highlight move in the FD. He's great at lifts, twizzles improved, but the basic dancing and skating skills just aren't there for him. She is really very lovely and so much better than he is. And it is just so obvious. Unless they even out between them, I don't see them finishing higher in the ranks internationally. I think they deserved 6th place in Canada, which is a very wonderful spot to be when one considers the talent in the top 5, and you are straddling Junior and Senior. I was kind of hoping that she might end up with a fabulous dancer like Keith Gagnon, but perhaps she is too tall for him. But that's the quality she needs. If R/H have another year of progress and good programs, G/P improve their skating skills so they don't get dumped internationally, and if I/P have a great, healthy off-season, I don't see how O/W will catch any of these teams right now. I'm hoping to see some more mature, more developed programs out of BC for all their teams. Speed is good, but let's see some beautiful dancing, more complex choreography, and skating skills and variety in music choices.

I really, truly, am begging that Skate Canada re-think the whole split competition idea. It was horrible. It was awful for the fans. It was awful for the schedule. It was awful most of all for the athletes. And this should be all about the athletes. I have to think that some results would be different had the event be treated like 1 event, as opposed to 2 events. This is not just for dance, but for pairs as well. It is off-setting for the top flight as well to skate separately from the rest of the event. The atmosphere was different. It is wrong on so many levels. There are so few teams and skaters at Nationals, thanks to Challenge, that the least they could do is keep the integrity of the events. I'm sure it wouldn't be a huge trouble for Tracy and whomever to commentate a few more teams. Seriously. This is Nationals. Or if they really have no interest in the developing teams, they could just start broadcasting the last flight. Just make sure they also stream the whole thing or relegate it to TSN2. Maybe bring in PJ to help. She's been fantastic. I have not met a single person throughout the season or at Nationals who felt that the new schedule was a good idea. Not a single person.
 

romanoff81

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
Gilles and Poirier you know will come very prepared next year they think they already have the goods for world and olympic medals i heard Piper say that, weaver and Poje better be on the lookout.
 

Dragonlady

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
ETA; I think O/W were shafted at Canadians,as well..OK , I didn't like G/P's SD it was full of details copied directly from the year's successful SDs.. notably C/L and P/B .I didn't like the costumes, and I always tend not to like the overdone O-faces . But should they have scored lower than O/W ? I don't know .. but I do know that they should never have scored that much higher.

I went back and watched O/W's programs before responding to this O/W wuz robbed stuff and I'm afraid I don't share this opinion at all. They looked very junior to me. They were very light in their transitions, and their edges are not deep. Mostly they stand upright and lack the deep knees to contend with any of the teams who finished above them. Nicole does not lock her knees and as a result, their lines suffer. Last, but not least, there is a great deal of distance between the two of them. I could not help but note that they scored 10 points lower at Jr. Worlds than they did at Canadians and that their two lowest PCS scores were for transitions and skating skills.

Then I watched G&P and I saw speed, deep edges, strong matching lines. I noted that Piper has very strong lines and good positions. As for Tracey Wilson, she noted how close they skated together. They used all levels, while O/W are only using one level. Everything G&P did was more difficult and performed better than O/W.

O/W are a true junior team with a ways to before they can compete with senior teams. I have no problem with their placement, and they will get full junior team funding.
 

PatC

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
I really, truly, am begging that Skate Canada re-think the whole split competition idea. It was horrible. It was awful for the fans. It was awful for the schedule. It was awful most of all for the athletes. And this should be all about the athletes. I have to think that some results would be different had the event be treated like 1 event, as opposed to 2 events. This is not just for dance, but for pairs as well. It is off-setting for the top flight as well to skate separately from the rest of the event. The atmosphere was different. It is wrong on so many levels. There are so few teams and skaters at Nationals, thanks to Challenge, that the least they could do is keep the integrity of the events. I'm sure it wouldn't be a huge trouble for Tracy and whomever to commentate a few more teams. Seriously. This is Nationals. Or if they really have no interest in the developing teams, they could just start broadcasting the last flight. Just make sure they also stream the whole thing or relegate it to TSN2. Maybe bring in PJ to help. She's been fantastic. I have not met a single person throughout the season or at Nationals who felt that the new schedule was a good idea. Not a single person.

Well, it doesn't matter at this point in time what Skate Canada does. Bold is on the chopping block so the days of great coverage is going to be gone. CTV will probably be the norm, so it's net watching for die hard fans.

I am so po'd.
 
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