2023 Skate America Free Dance

[moonvine]

Ben Agosto.... Former ice dancer for US with Tabitha Belbin

Tanith Belbin (now White)

 

[4everchan]

I liked Lopareva/Brissaud the most, the selling point of their programme is basically just skating, no storyline or fancy gimmicks. And I'm here to watch skating!
Makes me want to skate to Bells of Moscow now

I really like both of their programs too. I still like LaLa more but they'd be my second choice

 

[dorispulaski]

Ben Agosto comments on Chock & Bates FD



Post FD interview.

 

[dorispulaski]

Press Conference

In which we learn C&B have been working on this dance and concept for more than a year. They are doing it this year because it is the 50th anniversary of "The Dark Side of the Moon" Pink Floyd album.

We also hear that Stéphane Lambiel has been raving to a reporter about their FD.

 

[labgoat]

We also hear that Stéphane Lambiel has been raving to a reporter about their FD.

High praise indeed

 

[labgoat]

I still can't get over how well they skated after a fall in practice on the rotational lift. I am relieved they are mostly alright. I have not seen the fall nor do I want to see it but hear that it was quite a hard fall.

 

[cheerknithanson]

Why is there no thread for the EX?

 

[Rikku]

Why is there no thread for the EX?

2023 Skate America Exhibition

It has just started on Peacock.

www.goldenskate.com

 

[rain]

Watchng LaLa and CB back to back. Let's give LaLa their dues : their edges and gliding are superior. CB have a great program here with a ton of twisting and lifting movements intertwined in the choreo. I really like it... But they pose a lot. They don't skate through the whole 4 minutes of the FD. What about ice coverage??? Isn't that a huge factor in ice dance? Judges loved them when we see the GOE, even for the straight line lift that was wobbly and received perhaps the highest GOE of all straight line lifts... with 1.58. So yeah... if I were very positive with CB's RD, and if I do love this FD, I wished they skated more and I wished the other teams who do skate and make this more about sport than acting were rewarded.

LaLa were by far my favourite here. But it was love a first sight with this FD for me. Look at that stunning one foot step sequence, then compare to C/B. There's just no contest (as in, LaLa were miles better), but you wouldn't know it by the scores. Sure, I think everyone expected C/B to easily win here. They are the hometown favourites and defending world champions. Nobody in this field was going to beat them. I just wish I agreed they were that much better in the scores. I, too, noticed the straight-line lift — I was actually kind of scared for Maddie. And a couple of the other lifts looked uncharacteristically laboured.

I'm on the fence about this Pink Floyd FD. To start with, I'm not a big Pink Floyd fan, so the music was a background drone that utterly failed to excite me. The choreography was interesting and there was some innovative stuff here. It was also noticeably a work in progress, as one might expect with such a challenging piece this early in the season. But that meant it was kind of slow. And it didn't make me feel anything. I didn't feel like it went anywhere. It was just kind of one thing after another that was like "oh, that's kind of neat" but it didn't add up to anything. Maybe I will feel differently later in the season. The commentator started gushing (he seems to have a bit of an uncomfortable crush on Maddie, which I've noticed before in his commentary) during the choreographic spin, which was neat, sure, but she's literally standing on his blade, not skating. Being so conceptual, I actually think in some ways, at least right now, it's working against Maddie's strength, which is her performance ability. Full props for trying something different.

Lopareva/Brissaud bored me. Sorry....

Now off to watch the rest of the field.

 

[IceDancingQueen]

The thing is, everything he has to say is so superficial? Like it's either very basic stuff (which is important, but should not be all your commentary), very obvious things (like Oh no, she fell) or just kind of generic compliments. It's not terrible, but it is not great either.

It’s so generic and meaningless that it makes it almost worse for me cause like what’s the point? He literally has no value to add with his commentary. I’d rather have nothing at all!

 

[4everchan]

LaLa were by far my favourite here. But it was love a first sight with this FD for me. Look at that stunning one foot step sequence, then compare to C/B. There's just no contest (as in, LaLa were miles better), but you wouldn't know it by the scores. Sure, I think everyone expected C/B to easily win here. They are the hometown favourites and defending world champions. Nobody in this field was going to beat them. I just wish I agreed they were that much better in the scores. I, too, noticed the straight-line lift — I was actually kind of scared for Maddie. And a couple of the other lifts looked uncharacteristically laboured.

I'm on the fence about this Pink Floyd FD. To start with, I'm not a big Pink Floyd fan, so the music was a background drone that utterly failed to excite me. The choreography was interesting and there was some innovative stuff here. It was also noticeably a work in progress, as one might expect with such a challenging piece this early in the season. But that meant it was kind of slow. And it didn't make me feel anything. I didn't feel like it went anywhere. It was just kind of one thing after another that was like "oh, that's kind of neat" but it didn't add up to anything. Maybe I will feel differently later in the season. The commentator started gushing (he seems to have a bit of an uncomfortable crush on Maddie, which I've noticed before in his commentary) during the choreographic spin, which was neat, sure, but she's literally standing on his blade, not skating. Being so conceptual, I actually think in some ways, at least right now, it's working against Maddie's strength, which is her performance ability. Full props for trying something different.

Lopareva/Brissaud bored me. Sorry....

Now off to watch the rest of the field.

I watched French CBC commentary... they are annoying but less than the English dude who thought that Lala's entry in the stat lift was a mistake.... and kept on talking about that one element being flawed, until it wasn't

Yeah... I am not sure how Maddie standing on Evan's foot counts as a lift but i guess it does

Re Lopareva-Brissaud, I think I just like their flowing skating and I am biased towards the Rachmaninoff Elegy...

and yes about everything you say bout LaLa versus, CB : the one foot step sequence was indeed such a striking highlight... but also the ice coverage in twizzles... Of course, it's hard to tell from the screen but it certainly did look like CB didn't cover much ice and were slower, while LaLa were really covering so much ice.

But you know... this is unfortunately the sport of ice dance... LaLa are what??? 10 years younger than CB? Let's just hope for them that they won't have to wait ten years to get the big big scores needed to contend for podiums.

 

[muptgirl]

Tanith Belbin (now White)

Ugh... Not sure what my auto correct did there... Thanks for the correction

 

[rain]

I watched French CBC commentary... they are annoying but less than the English dude who thought that Lala's entry in the stat lift was a mistake.... and kept on talking about that one element being flawed, until it wasn't

Yeah... I am not sure how Maddie standing on Evan's foot counts as a lift but i guess it does

Re Lopareva-Brissaud, I think I just like their flowing skating and I am biased towards the Rachmaninoff Elegy...

and yes about everything you say bout LaLa versus, CB : the one foot step sequence was indeed such a striking highlight... but also the ice coverage in twizzles... Of course, it's hard to tell from the screen but it certainly did look like CB didn't cover much ice and were slower, while LaLa were really covering so much ice.

But you know... this is unfortunately the sport of ice dance... LaLa are what??? 10 years younger than CB? Let's just hope for them that they won't have to wait ten years to get the big big scores needed to contend for podiums.

Yeah, it was really noticeable how the commentator harped on the mistake that didn't happen in LaLa's program and not a peep during the skate as Evan heroically managed to save C/B's scary straight-line lift.

I was under no illusions that LaLa were going to be any kind of competition to CB here. CB are world champions and LaLa didn't even go to worlds last season (in one of the most unfair turns of bad luck in recent years). The result was nothing less than what I fully expected. The silver medal is actually a great outcome for LaLa here and gets their season on track.

On a totally different note, does anyone know what happened in the Czech team's FD just before the spin? They clearly missed something and I wondered what it was....

Thoroughly enjoyed Green/Parsons.

 

[lariko]

I though it was all super wonderful, though I was gutted for Mrazkova/Mrazek of whom I am a die-hard fan. But I just loved the variety of the performances and C/B concept of the dance was just wonderful. I also loved Taschlerova/Tascher's lift! When I saw it in practices I was freaked out that she was falling down, heh. Anyway, so much fun!

 

[IceDancingQueen]

Levels looked really good throughout for LaLa!! I don’t think Chris is right about there being a mistake

This made me so annoyed. He really doesn’t know what he is talking about at all - it ruined part of the performance for me cause I was sure it wasn’t a mistake but then I slightly panicked cause I wanted LaLa do to do well. He needs to just keep his mouth shut during the performances!

 

[rain]

This made me so annoyed. He really doesn’t know what he is talking about at all - it ruined part of the performance for me cause I was sure it wasn’t a mistake but then I slightly panicked cause I wanted LaLa do to do well. He needs to just keep his mouth shut during the performances!

There was no mistake and it never looked like there was one. I have no idea what he was watching. It was a bit of a strange commentary moment. I thought maybe I'd missed something, but nope, the replay clearly showed a controlled and smooth entry into the rotational lift.

 

[4everchan]

Yeah, it was really noticeable how the commentator harped on the mistake that didn't happen in LaLa's program and not a peep during the skate as Evan heroically managed to save C/B's scary straight-line lift.

In French, it was the opposite they mentioned CB's scary lift.

I was under no illusions that LaLa were going to be any kind of competition to CB here. CB are world champions and LaLa didn't even go to worlds last season (in one of the most unfair turns of bad luck in recent years). The result was nothing less than what I fully expected. The silver medal is actually a great outcome for LaLa here and gets their season on track.

Agreed.

On a totally different note, does anyone know what happened in the Czech team's FD just before the spin? They clearly missed something and I wondered what it was....

It looks like they were perhaps going to do a transitional move into the spin. They missed the push/lift of that transitional move but then were able to start their dance spin without a problem. They are lucky because they could have lost the dance spin altogether if they had missed the entrance into it. I am saying this without having seen them perform at another event. Maybe someone else can tell us what they are supposed to do.

Thoroughly enjoyed Green/Parsons.

You are team GP... i am team LB

 

[viennaskater]

this is the song you play when you're ugly-crying in your car, i don't know if it fits the Brown

It doesn't.

 

[viennaskater]

Chris: "they really did skate to the music"

That is...the aim

Yes, but not everybody does.

 

[viennaskater]

Ah no, that program was even better, but I like this one a lot as well.

Agree. Suits them far better than that pot of bland FD of last season.