2013 4CCs Pairs FS

[icebeauty]

Me, too! I know I've written it before, but I see something young and fresh about them. I really haven't even been interested in pairs for years... and in American pairs for longer than that. That the US national bronze medalists have caught my eye is fascinating to me.

Switching subjects: I know this is off the wall, but I wonder if a good dance coach would take them on. I think Dance is much more innovative than the other disciplines now, and dance teams seem to have better carriage, choreography, steps, line... and DEFINITELY better pair spins than the pairs do. Yeah, I know we're supposed to call them "dance spins" but you get what I mean. In addition, dance lifts may lack some of the daring that pairs lifts do, but overall they're more inventive and interesting.

Wouldn't it be crazy to get someone like Marina to choreograph a program for them... just an awesome program with the tricks sprinkled in.

OOOH! i like this idea. and you have an excellent point that ice dance has progressed so much in innovation/keeping it fresh while pairs skating feels like it's been the same for YEARS. obviously, with the big flashy tricks, pairs teams spend so much time working on those that everything else in their programs often feel the same/bland. (don't get me started on the horrendous-ness that is a paris spin...like shouldn't they be able to do what the dance teams are doing? better speed, centering, postions...it's the same concept, right?). There's no apparent reason why a pair team can't get some of the skating skills/presence the dance teams do (granted they have to stay together long enough to get to that point...)
I think Zhang/Bartholomay are a team that has the potential to be awesome, and considering how much both of them love to skate (you just see it when they're out there), i really hope they they keep developing. They look good on the ice (good positions and posture and they have good flow across th ice and their speed is good compared to other teams). They have a solid foundation -- they have the skills, and now it's about consistency and getting the levels -- to build something special and i hope they do! it'll be interesting to see if they eventually go for harder solo jumps (changing that 2a-2a seq to a triple jump-2a seq? -- they have excellent timing on that sequence and look good doing it. i'm not fan of combos for pairs b/c unless you're absolutely sure you can hit it every time you put a lot of points at risk -- and doing a 3s (or another triple) as the solo?). Felicia was a solid singles skater so they have that to their advantage and they fact that such a young team can skate to WSS successfully and comfortably speaks volumes about their artistry and chemistry...and with their ages 19 and 23 there's not reason why they can't stay together through at least 2018!