Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir

Both programs were outstanding...if they skate like that they are the best skaters for me by far. Love all the changes it flows so much better the FD and the short is genius. Are they not the king and queen of rotation lifts or what? lol
Their skating ability is second to none. Wow great programs!!! Hope they sake this well at the Olympics!

I don't know how it felt from the TV (I've been seeing a lot of people still hating the ending) but my god that FD was amazing live! The end was so amazing! Gunna be an Olympic moment for the history books!

ChanClan said:

I don't know how it felt from the TV (I've been seeing a lot of people still hating the ending) but my god that FD was amazing live! The end was so amazing! Gunna be an Olympic moment for the history books!

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First of all, I am green from jealousy that You witnessed this whole experience live, but happy at the same time for all of those who were there to see such a send-off

I think that You mentioned an important notion about this 'Olympic moment' creation by the way program is designed and how it works in action. Seeing their work done on this FD throughout the season, I can really appreciate this final effect of the search for the balance between all these factors so important for others and those significant for them personally. This second part now really seems to translate the dramatic/theatrical vibe from Tango part, but into more lyrical ground, building up mainly between them to the big finale than just for the 'public eye'. Also, the final pose kept, although still criticized for this lack of cohesion with re-worked 2nd part, just change its meaning and emotional vibration in context of new choreography and musical arrangement: for me, it's more if a sign of affection and bond shared together, contrasting with opening pose, standing opposite to each other, with no contact, but with same purpose to tell the story on the stage being set. It all makes up to the bigger impact of the FD wholesome, the dance appears more united around them specifically, accentuating their connection and this physicality in expression, strenght and power exuded while being together in holds. At the same time, the transition of music is much better reflected in movement - the dance is looking more continue as a whole, not only in edgy/lyrical part, respectively and it really makes a difference to have uninterrupted focus on the program, yet still feeling surprised by it (also due to great management of 'wow' moments in the program, being both big, bold elements like lifts and smaller, more intimate embelishments highlighthing music, connection like e.g. this spread eagle/spiral sequence after last lift). I liked very much the remake of 2nd step sequence, especially in terms of musicality, reflecting on lyrics, mood of the piece (particular loved delayed twizzles at the end of it so in synchronizacji with the music, very thoughtful).

Rewatching the dance and slo-mos after it, I am also amazed how multi-dimensional the dance became (same goes to the SD) - looking en face and looking from side nagle allows to really see and appreciate the nuance and detail in their movement added.

Generally speaking, I am quite confused about all this hate and cry over perfect score given for the FD... After all, this is National event and inflation is very much a given notion for basically everyone who will pull off their stuff - this is basically the condition they have to fulfill to get this kind of marks. Them doing it in a manner that quite few people did not expected gave them a score that seems to totally overshadowing the fact that they went for it and brought it on the very top of the table this time; reading some comments not even there makes the impression that Tessa and Scott are ones to blame for that score deemed as undeserved, overblown, which makes no sense. Then, it was probably their last Nationals - so why their own country could not give them a generous send-off, especially with that kind of execution and performance quality they presented? Last, but not least - should we blame Canada, of all countries, to give a generous support and boost to Tessa and Scott's program which is not generating universal love and appreciation, where they then should seek this confirmation about the rightfulness of the program and change made in it? They sought in my opinion an approach if the program is impact fulfill and effective enough, not if it is a 'winning' one from default in any surrounding. I mean, for me the score at Nationals should be always put in the perspective of an actual performace put on ice and the goal set for the skaters going forward - there is no way they will get that perfect score at Olympics, that sole fact should calm and comfort people bothered about the score, heck, if the Nationals are deemed that irrelevant, why so much focus on them? Besides, there is no guarantee that they will repeat such execution at Olympics.

I posted a few Virtue & Moir photos from Saturday's program on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd8C-lFDbYf/

Also from the morning practice... where I felt sufficiently inspired to hail a TransLink 99 BRT and race to the Whole Foods & back.

NoNameFace said:

First of all, I am green from jealousy that You witnessed this whole experience live, but happy at the same time for all of those who were there to see such a send-off

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I was there too and OMG that arena was absolutely on fire for them. The revised program is a masterwork. People were in tears!! It was magnificent!

ChanClan said:

I don't know how it felt from the TV (I've been seeing a lot of people still hating the ending) but my god that FD was amazing live! The end was so amazing! Gunna be an Olympic moment for the history books!

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If it's TSL harping about Tessa's death pose ending, it's because I think they're solidly pro-G/G or are cheering for their US teams. But hey, we're all biased, just a bit.

Yes: history, please!! And if they do this for the team event too? Wow!

anyanka said:

If it's TSL harping about Tessa's death pose ending, it's because I think they're solidly pro-G/G or are cheering for their US teams. But hey, we're all biased, just a bit.

Yes: history, please!! And if they do this for the team event too? Wow!

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myself, I did not yet see anything from TSL about the ending pose staying as it was previously...I think this is more about people generally opposite to the program overall are pulling out the argument about all those edits/changes made in the 2nd part of the dance and then leaving 'death' pose, nothing I have not seen before, nor expected for people, really. Thing is that Tessa and Scott moved along with the program concept and re-worked it to the point of their satisfaction, not for the universal praise of people around who in some part seem to be stuck on the older version/concept of the dance (2nd part of it) and narrative told therefore. It's not Virtue/Moir's fault to evolve their dances and their responsibility to 'make it right' for other people's logic - I am just immensely glad to see them believing in the dance and take a chance on it where there are so many around who are not giving them any.

And - as usual - green from jealousy that You had a chance to witness that glorious moment, the crowd in Vancouver sounded like was sooo into performance, both SD and FD. I think that Tessa and Scott kind of gave people there the very essence of what they brought into Ice Dance world: speed, edge, quality of movement, musicality, personality, showmanship, attitude, connection, chemistry, attention to the detail, nuance of movement, versatility, flow, emotion, skill, creativity...This feeling of having it all, presented in such intricate, perfect execution, effortless and easy on eyes. And at the same time they showed how much they will be missed on competitive scene...

NoNameFace said:

myself, I did not yet see anything from TSL about the ending pose staying as it was previously...I think this is more about people generally opposite to the program overall are pulling out the argument about all those edits/changes made in the 2nd part of the dance and then leaving 'death' pose, nothing I have not seen before, nor expected for people, really. Thing is that Tessa and Scott moved along with the program concept and re-worked it to the point of their satisfaction, not for the universal praise of people around who in some part seem to be stuck on the older version/concept of the dance (2nd part of it) and narrative told therefore. It's not Virtue/Moir's fault to evolve their dances and their responsibility to 'make it right' for other people's logic - I am just immensely glad to see them believing in the dance and take a chance on it where there are so many around who are not giving them any.

And - as usual - green from jealousy that You had a chance to witness that glorious moment, the crowd in Vancouver sounded like was sooo into performance, both SD and FD. I think that Tessa and Scott kind of gave people there the very essence of what they brought into Ice Dance world: speed, edge, quality of movement, musicality, personality, showmanship, attitude, connection, chemistry, attention to the detail, nuance of movement, versatility, flow, emotion, skill, creativity...This feeling of having it all, presented in such intricate, perfect execution, effortless and easy on eyes. And at the same time they showed how much they will be missed on competitive scene...

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I cannot begin to tell you, NoNameFace, how much I love reading your posts. You are so eloquent and respectful. Thank you so much and I look forward to reading your posts from European Championships and Olympic Games.

nunner said:

I cannot begin to tell you, NoNameFace, how much I love reading your posts. You are so eloquent and respectful. Thank you so much and I look forward to reading your posts from European Championships and Olympic Games.

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why, thank You a lot nunner for your kind words::!

I always repeat this, but if I am feeling inspired by athletes, performances, acts that move me in some way, words just flow out of me - happy to see people are enjoying it as much as I enjoy writing them, and it's quite easy for me to do it with Tessa and Scott, finding their return to the competition field as a source of enjoyment and real inspiration.

Congrats to Tessa and Scott for being named Canada's opening ceremony flag bearers! First time a man AND a woman will carry the flag for Canada!

ChanClan said:

Congrats to Tessa and Scott for being named Canada's opening ceremony flag bearers! First time a man AND a woman will carry the flag for Canada!

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Yay!!!!! What a well-deserved honor!!! Remember the days when Ice Dance was barely known in North America at all? How times have changed! (Before B&A, followed by V&M and D&W, I myself did not pay attention to Ice Dance).

Cannot stop watching their reworked free dance from Canadian Nationals... it's so magical and flows like water now. The only improvement I can think of is a more connected ending pose that emphasizes their love for each other rather than death? The team event cannot come soon enough so we can get another wonderful performance of the program

I am a new virtue/Moir fan, and I have just been reading some interviews on how Marina Zoueva was behaving as if she was favouritising Davis/white before the Sochi Olympics. And how it was vice versa in 2010 Vancouver.
As far as I know, Davis is engaged to zoueva’s son, but I don’t know when they started dating.
If meryl started dating zoueva’s son before Sochi olympics, it doesn’t surprise me that she favoured the Americans more. Just a thought, correct me if I am wrong as I am new to this thread. This isn’t impossible, I mean if one of your students is dating your son... , like that’s a step up in the ‘coach student’ relationship.

I am 99% sure that virtue/moir swapped coaches after their comeback to Gabby and Guillaume’s coaches.
If they went back to zoueva, they might risk the same thing happening again, with the Shibsibs who are American. Shibsibs are the biggest ice dance thing in US right now, so I don’t think they wanted history to repeat itself.

And I think personally, they went to gabby and guillaume’s coaches even though they would be sharing coaches again, it was probably for the purpose of getting to the top again with the coaches of the dominating ice dance pair in the world.

Anyway, please share your thoughts and comments, fellow virtue/moir fans, I’d love to hear.
Good luck Tessa and Scott in pyeongchang! I am rooting for you and I really hope you can fulfill your gold medal dream again! <3

Omg I just had this thought, since pyeongchang olympics is probably the last olympics for Tessa and Scott, it would be dream come true and so cute if they won gold and then Scott asks Tessa to marry him like many other Olympic athletes proposing at during the games.
This will never probably happen because they say they are not ‘romantically involved’ but anyway

They didn't "go to Gabby and Guillaume’s coach". They asked d/l if they wanna be their coaches (if they wanna comeback) right after sochi when p/c was not even in the picture. It has nothing to do with p/c, they trust d/l so they choose to train with them.

Here's the RDS (the French version of TSN) coverage of Tessa's & Scott's Nationals performances, in case some of you might be interested in the French commentary.

SD: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6djmja

SD kiss & cry: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6dhlt6

FD: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6dlqkb

FD kiss & cry: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6dlrjk

Although I had filmed these with my camera (which creates 1080p videos) from my friend's TV screen, the quality is fairly good for this type of recording. I don't have a tripod, so I did my best not to move my hands as much as possible.

russianskating4ever said:

Anyway, please share your thoughts and comments, fellow virtue/moir fans, I’d love to hear.
Good luck Tessa and Scott in pyeongchang! I am rooting for you and I really hope you can fulfill your gold medal dream again! <3

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Sometimes I think I am the only one in the world who does not like P&C. Maybe it's safe to say here that I mostly see elbows, knees and hair when they skate. V&M's skating is eternal and my most favored team only after T&D. As a former skater I'll add that I've been following it for+ 65 yrs.. I'm also rooting for T&S for them big time.