Compulsory Dance Report | Golden Skate

Compulsory Dance Report

Anna

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 26, 2004
Well, I do not know much about ice dance, so it's going to be very general report. It's the first time I attend the CD at French GP, and it's very weird event. It is closed to public, so the only people is attendance are accredited journalist and fellow competitors, coaches and officials. Really eeirie feeling, dancers all dressed up in a very large and nearly completely empty arena. Of course, CD is never that well-attended anyway, but usually at least there are some die-hard fans making the noise for their favourites.

Ok, to skating.

Denkova&Staiviski, in last year CD costumes (olive with flowers). To my untrained eye they were excellent. Smooth, with great flow, deep lobes and unision.

Delobel&Schoenfelder, she in red, he in tails. Also very smooth, with, perhaps, even slightly better glide than Bulgarians, but I do not have proper "waltz" feeling from them.

Vitrue&Moir, she in neon pink, he in tails. Really unlucky draw for them. I believe they would have made much better impression on me had they skated at the second warm up group with their main rivals. Right after both D&Ss one cannot help but notice what they are nowhere as good. Shallower pattern, worse unision, worse glide.

HcCurdy&Coreno, she in blue, non-waltz, dress, he in tails. Outclassed in this group. One could almost see them pushing to gain the speed, while for the other teams gliding across the ice looked effortless.

Pechalat&Bourzat, she in blue, non-waltz, straps-across-the-torso dress, he in tails. I liked them much better than V&M (probably because they were not skating right after leaders), good flow, good unision. They did not seem to raise their free leg as high as the other teams do, though. But I am not sure if it is a "deductable".

Faiella&Scali, she in red, he in tails. Good. Smooth, powerful. I think they were closer to D&S than to P&B, but judges gave them only two-points advantage.

Huang&Zheng, she in pink-to-violet dress, he ?, don't remember. Clearly outclassed, but they weren't truly bad.

Hoffman&Elek, she in blue, he in tails. Warm up was rather funny. Usually teams warm up with the crossovers/basic stroking, not-touching, but keeping in proximity of one another. Nora however so clearly outstripped Atttila during this warm up, that I fully expected him to call back after her :) Very good dance, smooth, confident, with good waltz feeling from Nora. I would have them behind Italians, but I do not really understand the techinique.
 

Anna

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 26, 2004
Nagy&Elek. Surprise, surprise, Chinese weren't actually the worst coupel of the event. In fact compared to Hungary#2 they were pretty good. This team is really weak, in almost everything they do, starting from the basic skating and all the way to expression.

Carron&Jost. Very much improved, I remember them being rather jerky in the last years, but now they have a nice flow and soft movements.

Capellini&LaNotte. Very good. I have only seen them on TV before, but they were much better than I expected. Smooth, confident with very good flow and nice lines. I think I would had them ahead of V&M, but the judges only gave them better technical score.

Grebenkina&Azroyan. I was expected more from them. I cannot point the finger at what was wrong, but their dance simply looked wrong somehow. They looked rather hesitant too.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Nicely done, Ana. You have a good eye for dance better than you think. I always enjoy the compulsories more that the other dances because one can compare teams easily. The seasoned skaters are in the top 3.

Joe
 

La Rhumba

Supporting All British Skaters!
Medalist
Joined
Aug 9, 2006
Country
United-Kingdom
Pechalat&Bourzat, ..... They did not seem to raise their free leg as high as the other teams do, though. But I am not sure if it is a "deductable".

I like to think it's a style decision, as personally, I'm not in favour of those incredibly high free leg positions for the CDs.

Capellini & LaNotte actually got the 4th highest TES score for the CD.
Another couple new to Seniors creating waves.

Thanks for the great report Anna. :bow:
 
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