I so appreciate this thread and the positive first post! Too often threads get sucked into everything that's ruining figure skating (quads, IJS, TES, PCS - you name it, someone's blamed it for the demise of the sport). I sometimes forget to celebrate the amazing skating that's happening right now. I agree that these Olympics were just incredible and I loved watching every minute.
What's interesting about ice dance for me is that when I first started following the sport seriously, in 2013-2014, I couldn't have cared less about ice dance. But I started watching events here and there and now it's my favorite discipline! Personally, I think it's where you find the most creative, interesting, and authentic programs.
PS - Old Cat Lady, please post long and often! I think most of us are here because we don't have as many "real life" friends to talk about figure skating in excruciating detail with.
I agree with everything you said! It's so nice to have people to talk to about the sport!
Tanith and Ben got my attention in 2006, but it wasn't until the 2010 Olympics when I really got into Ice Dance and I'm with you --it's my favorite discipline, along with the men.
I will say -- I went back and watched the top three from 1994 Olympic Ice Dance last night and while I adored Torvill and Dean and there are some things where they are superior, I have to say IJS made me appreciate the qualities of Grischuk/Platov and Usova/Zhulin a lot more and could even understand why they beat T&D at the time. I do appreciate IJS in a sense that it gave some sort of objective means to judge the dances -- even if it isn't perfect.