2014-2015 GPF Free Dance 12/13

sisinka said:

No, seriously…I know something about dancing, but I don’t know many things also…so I take every opportunity to learn something new, what I didn’t notice before…

I share my opinions and I try to explain them and I am reading other people’s opinions with interest to get another way of view which is very often useful and refreshing and allows to get better point of view at the topic. If I don’t agree, I want to hear that person’s arguments to be able to re-think my way of view and decide whether I was wrong or whether we will really have different opinions in this topic.

And for dancers like for every sportsman plays: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.“

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uhh said:

It's strange, because I do agree with you about the mismatch in the FD, but I find they compliment each other nicely in the SD, and you would expect that to be the dance where she overpowers him so much more because she's playing such a strong role. For whatever reason, the FD just doesn't really suit them as a team or show off anything more than their nice basics. (And I love her new dress but his grey clothes don't help him to shine at all...) But this whole season is about figuring out what works & what doesn't - the FD was made very early on in the partnership & maybe it would have been better to wait until they knew themselves & what they could do a little better, or perhaps something more obviously "dance-y" and less reliant on emoting like the Shibs' waltz would have helped. Off the ice Ruslan seems like a pretty quiet & chilled person, and I don't think the :: comes as easily to him as it does to Elena - he can do it in the SD because it's a clear role, story and style, but the FD is a mashup of all sorts and it seems he's not quite comfortable with whatever emotions they're supposed to be portraying yet. But as you said, the potential is there & it would be foolish to expect it to all be realised at this point.

I still wish they would go with a different coach, or even just go to work with someone like Igor or Platov for a training camp over the summer. It's great that they are both so obviously happy with Kustarova & it's clearly a supportive environment, but I think it would be good for Ruslan in particular to be taken out of his comfort zone and just have someone taking a new approach to iron out the little weaknesses he still has in his posture & presentation sometimes.

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Snow63 said:

Do you know which teams are doing Twizzles without steps between first two sets this season? I can't remember anyone, but I'm sure someone did it.
Last season B/S did them this way too.

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sisinka said:

Sorry for being late, I forgot to answer.
Both Ilinykh & Katsalapov and Sinitsina & Zhiganshin were doing it also in their programs in past.

Right now I don't remember anyone doing it this season.

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bramweld said:

I don't think I/Z have any steps between their first two sets of twizzles. No steps at all IIRC.

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bramweld said:

I don't think I/Z have any steps between their first two sets of twizzles. No steps at all IIRC.

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Snow63 said:

Yes, I meant any teams beside them.
It's strange, but I was sure someone else did it though. Juniors, maybe...

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sisinka said:

Thanks for your opinions, WeakAnkles, really interesting to read…

After seeing Carmen program where both I&Z shows so much fire and passion…. frankly I didn’t expect some notes about him having lack of presence or being placid…

I am also very surprised that such dance expert like you is mentioning lack of presence and being placid…. And then you start to explain it with baby face and placid smiling while Lena’s face is more emotional. It is like you would say that some actor is a great actor because he has great hair cut. Dancing means movements into the music, expressing the music or the story or both by your movements, not by your facial expression. Face is a part of the game, it is not much higher than things like proper costuming and make-up. Not mentioning the fact that while skaters are skating, you really don’t have time to watch such details in face. And if you really spent time watching face on the first place – than it is a failure of the dancer not being able to catch your attention by dancing.

I also don’t catch Lena being divine Diva Glory – she can be real Diva, no doubts, but she is no way portraying Diva in FD, the program shows completely different story and emotions – it is a little bit passionate, very tender, it is about suffering also…and probably about hope for better tomorrow…so if you see Lena – Diva only, than she was not able to express feelings they planned towards you.

Also mentioning Ruslan’s placid smiling and behaving…I remember people criticising the couple for too much fire and presentation over the top in Cup of Russia SD…first picture in the article… http://www.neveitalia.it/sport/figu...ykhzhiganshin-infiammano-il-pubblico-di-mosca
... yes, Ruslan’s placid smile and lack of presence…. but frankly I don’t see any moment in FD where such passionate and fire dancing would be appropriate for Appasionata music or story…

But it happens that people are seing different stories in one program.

I would take it from another point of view…and ask you a question… There are many dance couples where one of partners is really weaker than another one – and it is discussed by many people here. Take our finalists…

S&S – I am not sure who is weaker one (I never thought about it), but here I have an idea that more people say that Maia is not as expressive like she should be…
P&C – most of people here tend to think that Guillaume is stronger dancer and skater than Gabriella…but it now way stops them from appreciating THE COUPLE, not Guillaume only…
W&P – some people admire Andrew like stronger of these two, but you noticed that he starts to learn how to use arm movements (quite basic thing for dancer, no?), so in your eyes he lacked this in past, so probably Kaitlyn was stronger than him in your eyes…for me Andrew is weaker in both technique and presentation yet…
G&P – Piper is visibly weaker technician while Paul is worse like performer – so double imbalance…
C&B – in every dance Madison is much more visible than Evan, most of time he just accompanies her…but you like this team a lot looking at your comments although they are not the same in presence…

You don’t find all these imbalances in other teams distracting?

Or do you think that the differences in skater‘s presence or technique become less distracting after some years of watching them?

Or do you think that the difference between Lena and Ruslan’s presence (especialy in SD) is such a huge gap like a difference between Tatiana Navka and Alex Ovekhkin… while other couples have smaller differences in presentation?

Many people believe that Lena was more expressive than Nikita, so an imbalance situation also…but you will probably say that Nikita was fitting Lena while Ruslan is not.

But stop with theorization…my second question is – give us some examples where in movements Ruslan is less visible / less tender / less passionate / less expressive than Lena is. Take some YouTube link and post certain minute and second in the dance when such situation happens (but please, nothing like: “Here is Lena smiling more WARMLY then Ruslan.“…this is not what describes main dancer’s qualities).

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sisinka said:

Many couples are usually close in Killian hold, the biggest differences are usually seen in Waltz/Tango dance holds.

I think that the best thing is a comparison…

I already made a comparison of all 6 couples from Grand Prix Final, so you can compare who was better = smaller distance the most…

…
P&C with Pechalat & Bourzat and young Annissina & Peizerat and Krylova & Ovsiannikov from 1995 Original Dances.

P&B looked to be a closer to each other in comparison to P&C (also watching whole P&B Step Sequences I have the same idea, that they were closer to each other), but the really smallest distances between dancers were from times when old judging system and Original Dances were strictly about dancing, not about doing elements in “whatever“ hold.

But it is true that those “old“ teams didn’t need to make all those difficult turns is such holds. But those “old times“ dancers had Compulsory dances where they were able to balance close distance with great edges in difficult steps…this is one of things why I really regret not having typical Compulsory dances like it used to be.

Compulsory dances used to be the best comparison of couples in terms of technique and in terms of understandment what is essential for every Ballroom / Latin dance. We can see that this year there are only about 4 couples who are perfectly catching what is Spanish dance about in every second of the dance – W&P, I&Z, P&C and Spanish H&D. And some other couples which keeps Spanish mood also. But most of dancers have some Spanish looking like moves, but they miss what is Spanish dance and mostly Paso Doble about, they miss the spirit of it.

Also having Compulsory dances – it forced the couples to practise close holds also. Or can you imagine that for example Chock & Bates would be doing WHOLE Golden or Viennesse Waltz in such big spacing between each other which is seen on the picture above?

I think that all finalists from Grand Prix Final should improve their spacing. What is the order of the biggest spacing and the smallest spacing – I let the opinion on you. I am sure that the worst spacing have Chock & Bates, but then I would have problems to make an order for next places – P&C looks to be worse than W&P and I&Z and S&S and probably also G&P…

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sisinka said:

And then you start to explain it with baby face and placid smiling while Lena’s face is more emotional. It is like you would say that some actor is a great actor because he has great hair cut.

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sisinka said:

I already made a comparison of all 6 couples from Grand Prix Final, so you can compare who was better = smaller distance the most… http://i60.tinypic.com/oz384.jpg

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