Short Dance 5:30 PM EST

[katia]

D/W are the USA's best chance for gold in Sochi. That's not the case of V/M, and some of speculated that Skate Canada spend their political capital elsewhere

Imaginary Pogue
I can understand your two other points but I can not figure this one. Do you mean there is other Canadian pair with better chance for gold? Or there is another Canadian pair equal to V/M?
Or there are other young Canadian pairs which are as good as American Shibutanis?
If neither of the above is true than what exactly do you mean?
I understand that Tessa had surgeries, but I thought she is OK now.

[claphappy]

Imaginary Pogue
I can understand your two other points but I can not figure this one. Do you mean there is other Canadian pair with better chance for gold? Or there is another Canadian pair equal to V/M?
Or there are other young Canadian pairs which are as good as American Shibutanis?
If neither of the above is true than what exactly do you mean?
I understand that Tessa had surgeries, but I thought she is OK now.

I think that it was implied that Chan is Canada's best chance for a gold medal in Sochi.

[dorispulaski]

That's what I thought he meant...and it's true.
If there is any politicking being done, it will be most for Chan, especially since I'm sure Canadian wants their first men's gold more fervently than it wants its second dance gold.

[WeakAnkles]

It was never a good Short Dance to begin with. They needed to keep the BRILLIANT opening from their Free Dance last season and they should have cut out the "Temptation" portion instead of trying to turn all 3 pieces of music from their Free Dance last season into a Short Dance.

This x 100.

And Scott has hip action? I've yet to see it. Look, no one in the world right now can portray "romance on ice" better than him, but sexy ain't in his wheelhouse.

I'll stand by something I said earlier in the season: Charlie is learning to dance. Whereas Scott can do romance like nobody's business, no one can touch Charlie for passionate exuberance. But I think this is the season he's finally (finally!) learning to temper it. Sometimes less is more, a lot more. For one thing, it's giving Meryl far more chance to shine (and that's a good thing--she's turning out to be quite the little saucy performer).

Should be a very interesting LP.

[glam]

That's what I thought he meant...and it's true.
If there is any politicking being done, it will be most for Chan, especially since I'm sure Canadian wants their first men's gold more fervently than it wants its second dance gold.

It also seems to me that Chan will be Canada's gold medal "lock" and D/W will be America's. The pairs and ladies gold medals are reserved for Russians in Sochi.

[ImaginaryPogue]

It was never a good Short Dance to begin with. They needed to keep the BRILLIANT opening from their Free Dance last season and they should have cut out the "Temptation" portion instead of trying to turn all 3 pieces of music from their Free Dance last season into a Short Dance.

While I agree it wasn't the greatest short dance, I think keeping "Temptation" was the correct move - it sets the scene for the Rhumba beautifully, in a way that Hip Hip or Mujeur Latina wouldn't. I'd actually argue that the section from the twizzles to the and of the Rhumba is the best section of this SD as currently structured. But the tinkering made it worse. It seems like with the slowing down and speeding up, there are five pieces of music and the ending is just bad. I think they were hamstrung by their decision to keep the music but make it as different from their FD as possible. I wish they did keep the old way: twizzles + lift in Hip Hip, rhumbas in Temptation, circ steps in Mujeur.

Sexy ain't Scott's wheelhouse? Really? I thought he's done wonders there - check out his gala performances of this dance (the way he imbibes Tessa) or the simple moment in the FD at Worlds where he strokes himself during the straight line lift. Very hot.

Imaginary Pogue
I can understand your two other points but I can not figure this one. Do you mean there is other Canadian pair with better chance for gold? Or there is another Canadian pair equal to V/M?
Or there are other young Canadian pairs which are as good as American Shibutanis?
If neither of the above is true than what exactly do you mean?
I understand that Tessa had surgeries, but I thought she is OK now.

No, I think Chan is Canada's best chance for gold. The ISU is in a spread the wealth mood. See how unhappy they were in Turin when it looked like it was gonna be a Russian sweep (Arakawa stopped that).

We know that Tessa tells us she's okay. Which she said in the 09/10 season. I don't think we'll ever know for sure and that means we'll always speculate.

[Mathman]

3. D/W are the USA's best chance for gold in Sochi. That's not the case of V/M, and some of speculated that Skate Canada spend their political capital elsewhere.

This year, having sent their ladies' champion off to Worlds with a ringing vote of confidence, they could offer to swap Weaver and Poje's shot at bronze for a top ten placement for Lacoste.

[ImaginaryPogue]

Wouldn't surprise me if they did try that.

ETA: There's an article at icenetwork that has all the top four doing a little grumbling about the levels on the Rhumba.

[jcoates]

[QUOTE=eyria;616983]Am I the only one who feels like Virtue/Moir have fiddled too much with their short dance? I really loved it at the beginning of the season, but not so much now. That raw, exciting, hot quality it had last fall is gone. I just wonder if they've reworked it so many times they've lost some of the original spirit.
QUOTE]

I agree that too much tinkering has taken place. It does not communicate confidence to the judges if you keep making tweaks virtually every month of thse season. Som changes are fine, but they really should either go back to a version they like better or refine what they have, but don't create any more new changes.

And Scott has hip action? I've yet to see it. Look, no one in the world right now can portray "romance on ice" better than him, but sexy ain't in his wheelhouse.

Tessa has fantastic hip action and she really makes the opening section of both the SD and FD programs they've put out. Scott plays off her morevent nicely, but his range of movement in his own hip action is faily limited.

It's certainly not this, or this.

Actually, of the three Canton guys, I'd say that Alex has the best hip action.

[Tonichelle]

That's what I thought he meant...and it's true.
If there is any politicking being done, it will be most for Chan, especially since I'm sure Canadian wants their first men's gold more fervently than it wants its second dance gold.

I thought that, too, but just imagine a Canadian Ice Dance team that wins two Olympic titles BACK TO BACK... that'd be pretty epic, too.

[colleen o'neill]

Just hopping in to say that if it all comes down to which male partner has the best hip action at World's, get ready to crown C/L. Luca has them all beat...

[dorispulaski]

It would. But it would not relieve all the heartbreak and unhappiness over Kurt and Brian Orser not doing the trick, when they looked like locks for the OGM at their respective Olympics.

Patrick's OGM will be sweet redemption

[Tonichelle]

It would. But it would not relieve all the heartbreak and unhappiness over Kurt and Brian Orser not doing the trick, when they looked like locks for the OGM at their respective Olympics.

Patrick's OGM will be sweet redemption

Heaven help them, then, if Patrick doesn't do it... but don't these bad things come in threes (though I guess Elvis also qualifies...)

[dorispulaski]

Yes, Elvis does qualify! See, more need for redemption.

[ImaginaryPogue]

(My) Perfect world? Two for Canada, one for Russia, one for Germany.

World I can be excited about? Two for Russia, Two for Canada

World I think we'll get? Two for Russia, one of Canada, one for the USA

World that would be wonderfully confuddling? One for Germany, one for Canada, one for Japan/Russia, one for the USA

Any other possiblities would genuinely surprise me.

---
So what is it: two for Browning, two for Orser, two for Stoijko. There's the three (twice). Unless you don't count Orser's first entrance.