The judges were actually TOO generous with I&Z. They shouldn't have been close to G&P or The Shibutanis, and they are lucky they didn't drop further. I&Z's program was slow & heavy, choreographically empty, & had major errors like the twizzles.
I&Z had one mistake, not more, they were fast like usual. With all new Transitions program is hardly called choreographically empty.
Choreography is one thing (important, yes) but as long as we have new judging system and judges will decide to be influenced by Handbook for judges then results will not always be about having entertaining program scoring better then great couples “no matter what choreo they skate“.
I agree that both S&S and I&Z had worse choreography then G&P (unfortunately Shibs had choreo which didn‘t accept Waltz rhythm that much). But that is everything where G&P are better in. Yes, in FD they had better Twizzles than I&Z.
But judging system is also about elements where for example in Step Sequences G&P are painfully loosing to Shibs and even more to I&Z, spin and lifts are overage for both G&P and I&Z (in this place Shibs have an advantage having better lifts). This time I&Z’s Twizzles were bad, while G&P’s Twizzles were good and Shib’s Twizzles were great. Element score shows the difference between program with big mistake in one element and two programs without major mistake (45 points versus 50 points). Where do you see the problem here?
Presentation which is represented mainly in Performance and Interpretation (in new judging systém) is influenced by choreography, but much more is influenced with dancing qualities of the skater. If you like entertaining and funny program more than dramatic, why not. But if you want to say that Elena & Ruslan showed drama, suffering and love emotions (which is concept of their program) less succesfully than Piper & Paul showed that they had funny time, well…than you have to continue arguing that Paul is better dancer than Ruslan…that Piper is better dancer than Lena…you would be probably the only person on the world who would think so.
And Skating Skills – Shibs are good, I&Z are great and G&I – I even don’t want to start with comparison because comparing two couples with World top 5 Skating Skills against G&I…
You know I like some of Righini’s programs because he can be entertaining. But it doesn’t mean that I will close my eyes on his Skating Skills and other skating qualities and start to say that clean Righini belongs to top 5 just because he didn’t make a mistake. Really not.
And how about G&I getting more points then they deserved in SD? With all Timing issues they had during Paso Doble they should score 2 points less for sure (even 3 points less with strict Technical panel). And their Timing Component should be lower as well. No problem with that?
It was an interesting TSL section, but I am not entirely sure what to make of it.
