2016 Trophée de France Short Dance

just re-watched and..., Diane and Reggie, WHY??!

have to say that my heart sank while Piper 'Diane' stumbled on twizzles, never saw that coming...Nevertheless - there is someting I can't even put my finger on in this SD that gets me despite of any issues. There is a pure entertaining value of that dance, there is no caution, no hesitation, just going for it all way in disco style on which some people are heavily complaining...The issue for the is that the SD feels a lot like EX program and the costuming is distracting - for me it's one of the most risky and 'stylish' SD this season with choreo,music and costuming all being complimentary over theme chosen which is a very rare thing to accomplish in my opinion. And for this SD being for of an EX - actually, there is a very hard thing to do to make a SD which would make you grab your sequin dress and go to disco party in a heartbeat. They captured easiness, laidback character, entertaining value on a very high level at the same time meeting tech requirements in a very effortless manner - that's a treat. Despite of that twizzle drama, SD felt refreshing and amazing as always, they are made to make tacky stuff sophisticated in their own style, wish them luck and strenght tomorrow.

Madison and Zach...the SD is stiil a 50 shades of mess for me, nothing changed since Skate America. Whereas Piper and Paul are a model example of cohesion among music, choreo, costumes, expression thorough the SD, I feel like Madison and Zach's SD is the opposite - there is no balance between 2 parts of that dance, no balance in choreo, expression and the hip-hop is really weak there...Sure, they try to act, but there is something wrong if the acting is more visible than the dance itself on the ice which was a cause for me today. I'd say again - busy music cuts and messy choreo are not doing them any favours.

As for Gabriella and Guillaume...I have to divide two things - first, the skating itself and presentation was top notch, there is no doubt about it, they could pump up more the volume, expression, but I guess it's a 'French' way of expression as they never been 'loud' performers. Guillaume's skating skills, the way he moves and partners is on another level - guy is like liquid moving on ice, no scratch, no glitch, no error...Just fluid movement. Gabriella is not on the same level, but she's a match for him as they seems to have similar level of expression and 'loudness' in their performance. The second thing however...the program itself, the choreo, music combo are quite underwhelming and bland for me. To be honest I expected something more 'bold', even on the 'darker' side of the blues. For me, the program feels a bit too forgettable and one-dimensional, just anoher charming blues/swing combo. My taste this season is for something that stands out and dare to be different from the rest, hence my unconditional adoration for Piper and Paul, that being said I'm fully aware that P&P's SD is not a common thing to do for everyone.

Skater Boy said:

Two OGM's to be precise lol. You love Oksana which one? The "good" Oksana or the "bad " Oksana - remember Ms.Gritschuk saying she had to change her name to Pasha because she is so passionate and did not want to be mixed up with the bad, evil, horrible Oksana Baiul - the orphan waif who in her no name dress which had feathers to cover for her growth who got badly injured by the German girl who jumps in the opposite direction who was then picked off the ice by diva Katarina witt with injries to her back and back of legwho had some alcohol struggles later on against the American princess in her $12000 Vera Wang who got whacked on the knee by the former husband of the real bad girl Tonya Harding and co porn stars? oh the 90's. what do we have now. Animae Hanyu and his pooh bears; Evgenia and her love of Sailor Moon , another animae dude named Kevin Reynolds whose hair looked like it loss the battle with a weed eater and the new male skater look of wear what's in your closet screw Vera Wang and Christian LAboutin, Givenchy and Armani.

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Goodness what a mouthful. Love it!

Although the last part could be "wear whatever is in the Lost & Found bin."

Gabriella PAPADAKIS / Guillaume CIZERON will be unbeatable this season with skating like this. The guy is really outstanding. They have completely changed my notion of the ice dancing. Simply great!

Gabriella did not convince with this dance. Her limbs were all over the place, there were a couple missteps, and this style of dance is really not her. This program is beneath them anyway, it's like a caricature of swing to me.

aka_gerbil said:

Not having dance choreography is dependent on the 27 music cuts because having so many cuts makes it impossible to choreograph to. The cuts are constantly changing and you can't put anything to that choreo-wise other than random moves. Changing the music cuts should mean a change in choreography since choreography is supposed to be done to the specific piece of music being used.

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For me there is so much music cuts because they try to hide there ie no dance choreography in SD. They need to change both choreography and music. Only music changing not going to work.

elif said:

For me there is so much music cuts because they try to hide there ie no dance choreography in SD. They need to change both choreography and music. Only music changing not going to work.

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We're on the same page. I, too, think they need to change the music and choreography in the hip-hop part of the program. They need to replace the 27 music cuts with one piece of music that they can actually choreograph something to.

I actually enjoyed P/C's SD. They're trying to do the swing steps but they're doing it the boogie-woogie way. The jumping around is a characteristic of boogie-woogie. Of course, it can't be helped because swing evolved from boogie-woogie. I think I have to stop watching ice-dancing from a dance perspective: I'll go nuts. As regards the scores, of course, it is inflated. The 'I love my own' scenario is something to be expected, after all, it's performed in France. However scoring high in the Grand Prix and in Worlds is not far-fetched: as a team, they are highly favored and judges often put on blinders when it comes to their favorite couples. Anyway, now that they have found their signature style, I don't think we'll see something different from them.

The levels of I/Z and H/D were so horrible!

Just rewatched. Papa cizer just rule ice dance. I truly love Tessa and Scott and especially their New short dance but the Speed flow edges And everything from the French is just another level

In the last two seasons P/C won the world but they are quite bad at compulsory dance part. Doesn't CD demonstrate skating skill the best? I find this very odd. I guess either P/C are not that good at basic ss as people suppose or they are super limited at styles.

Just watched Piper & Paul. After that twizzles the lift didn't go well either... Heartbrokren, but I know they can do better, and I'll keep my fingers for them to rebound in FD.

I really liked how Lauriault/Le Gac has skated! I hope they will get spots to Europeans and Worlds, they seem like a solid team nr 2 in France T/T I've watched yesterday and I really like that team, Isabella is the diva type in good meaning of that word

Nazarova/Nikitn had a great lift, but some visible problems on twizzles. The costume though are putting me off, hope they will change it in later part of the season.

I/Z need to get the levels in order, H/D need to change SD at least partly, I hope they will get feedback and will do something, I'm not their biggest fan, but I think they deserve better. Last year SD did wonders for them.
Curious, were there any commentators that were not suprised by I/Z passing over H/D? Because Polish ones were really, really suprised and still talked about it after N/N skate....

Mango said:

The judges also have them on track to win the Olympic gold. Why are we crying about a 78 here when we'll be seeing 84 at Worlds like we did at French Masters?

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Hopefully it will be higher than 84 at Worlds. And Olympic gold, definitely. There is no team to challenge them so of course they will get it.

The second half of P/C's short has some personality finally. It's skill kind of boring though, I really expected more.

apple123 said:

In the last two seasons P/C won the world but they are quite bad at compulsory dance part. Doesn't CD demonstrate skating skill the best? I find this very odd. I guess either P/C are not that good at basic ss as people suppose or they are super limited at styles.

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What skaters have you been watching?Not P/C .Quite bad at CD part? they have amazing SS.

apple123 said:

If we're being shallow, do people really find Cizeron so hot? I mean with that neck? His body has a weird disportion because of the neck. Can't overlook it for me.

Anyway, back to the program, the whole thing is quite boring, nothing pops really. I'm not buying it's a winner.

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Yes, people really find Cizeron so hot.

Deal with it.

And everything else.