Now that the season is definitely over, I feel free to comment about their last programs. I was free before, of course, but they are one of my favourite ice dance couples, I try not to criticize them, at least not while there still are possibilities of improvement. Here it goes:
RD: Just to be clear, I didn´t enjoy their tango, not at all. At the beginning I had doubts, maybe it will grow with time... but at some point, I realized that no matter the high levels of the elements or even if they could get a perfect set of twizzles, there was something missing in that program, for me there was no interest, no soul that I could connect with. That movement at the beginning, a jump into a lift, all I could see was Sara trying to escape and Kirill trying to catch her to put her back on the ice: “Sara come back, we really need to do this...”
. On the bright side, at Worlds they were able to put it together, even the twizzles!
FD: Since the beginning, I thought that they were taking a risk with the music and, specially, with the choreographer, betting on a contemporary (maybe avant garde?) Spanish choreographer with no experience in icedance... I don´t think that the choreo was good or original enough, time didn´t help that program to grow, but a risk is a risk, there’s no guarantee for success, and they had to take it, to learn from the outcome, whatever it may be.
EX: IMO, their best program of the season, by far. That music, a Rosalia’s cover of “Aunque es de noche”, is absolutely hypnotic. For the choreo they recycled pieces of their previous programs, it’s not original but it’s not bad at all. And they looked so relaxed and connected to the music during the last performances that it’s amazing to watch them.
After three seasons together as a team, I have a few conclusions:
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Technically, it is evident that Sara has improved a lot with Zhulin and they are a real team now. But there’re still some problems that should be solved by now and they are not: Sara’s twizzles were painful to watch all season long and the closing lift in the FD, so simple, beautiful and original, gave them problems even at worlds. I’m sure that some savvy tech fans can add a few things to this list.
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Artistically, I can see the effort they put in order to look for inspiration and develop their own style but I can see too the lack of resources, and by that I mean financial resources but school resources too, it seems that they are on their own and they depend on the external choreographer they can pay: it didn´t pay off this last season. Paying little attention to the artistic side is a quite common criticism to Zhulin camp and, even though I agree with those criticisms most of the time, I don´t mean it that way at this time: I can name some Gadbois teams too that made bad artistical decisions this year or even teams that struggle trying to find their own style. Many of us are still missing old Sara and those absolutely stunning programs we all remember, but that Sara (with Adri) doesn´t exist anymore. IMO, it’s absolutely evident that there’s a lot of hidden talent in Sara&Kirill’s team, but they need help and resources to put that talent in their programs and on the ice.
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Antonio Najarro is an enormous asset for the team, most of his choreos for skaters are pure gold, they work extremely well for Sara and I think for Kirill too. Last year I thought that Sara&Kirill had to be careful with spanish music, that they needed to diversify... What for? They probably only have three more seasons of competitive career and the programs they are doing with (and without) Najarro are using very different types of spanish music and dance styles. Najarro’s programs have quality and are unique, they are really adding something special to figure skating. They should keep Najarro as their main choreographer or as a permanent advisor, at least.
- They are
top 10 material as a team, even in this era of extremely deep field, but they need to run the extra mile to compete with so many stunning teams. I hope that this season they can find “top 10 material” programs too... the few bits that we have seen of the FD are promising, we’ll see if their Hello Dolly RD is good too.
As an opinión, I'm not sure that this is of any interest to anyone but I needed to get it off my chest and begin the new season clean: this seemed to be the best place to write it.
I'm cheering for them again
And very cool!!! 
. I'm really looking forward to their FD.
