Ice Dance, Free Dance review
Ice Dance FD
The dominance of North American Ice Dancers, continues and wether you like it or not, the Russian dancers have quite a gap to fill, especially in the short, where they just don´t have what it takes, to be placed in the final group for the FD and this makes it so difficult, to keep up with the PC´s, as the judges always go a tad higher there, with every pair that steps on the ice, not necessarily unjustified though, if I may add.
Does this make the Russian teams less exciting to watch? No, definately not, as they have amazing programs and at least for me, super choreographies and performance skills. The base value in TES is very similar and was even superiour by 36 in the Free to 35.50 (and Mcnamara / Carpenter) 34.50 (Parsons), but they lost in execution as the GOE´s by both US American couples hardly left the two´s and three´s, while the top Russian pair, Alla and Pavel had achieved everything from 0-3.
Before, I want to take a closer look at this, let´s start with the absolute best lady on ice,
Betina who is such a beast every time that I see her and together with Gracie Gold, she is someone who you can really fall in love with and if I had a million dollars, I would spend it for just one evening with either of these two.
As different they are, as fantastic their personalities come across and as for Betina, she was holding back in the short, but oh boy in that Free to "crazy in love", the wildcat was back! For me, the best story line, the best choreography and interpretation of music at the juniors this season, everything is just so spot on, from her hair cut, the pictures that both can create, like in the straight line lift, the fantastic opener with the spin – it´s just all so "crazy in love".
As a skater you always try to be what you skate and they absolutely nailed that for me. We all know sex on the beach or sex on the rock and that was sex on the ice! The elements picked, the change of tempo, - the piano solo superb interpreted, when they start their program or during the break down in the middle, when they stand back on back, it is absolutely gorgeous if you ask me and one of the reasons, why they so grab me, it´s not just her, it´s them!
Same story with the drama, when it get´s more busy with the musical arrangement, the twizzles come out or that superb rotational lift with the pitch raise in music, huge moment in their performance.
I really think, that
Yuri has stepped up his game a lot this season and we must be honest here, no matter how much we want to be nice to the ladies, especially me, the mistake by her in the second twizzle of their sequence, did cost them quite a few points, but overall, the top two positions were still out of reach, due the reasons mentioned above. I so want them to become the top Russian pair in future, but they need to be perfect, not just in what they already are, performance, interpretation, but also the execution of their elements, striving for these grades of execution, that can mean so much these days.
That there was still a Russian medal, however, was because of two skaters who even missed, that so important final group, coming 6th in the short and yet, skating the third best FS!
Alla Loboda and Pavel Drozd, had a very quiet and almost relaxing performance at the start, very calm and friendly facial expression, with an almost perfect twizzle sequence, perfectly aligned, not changing the distance to each other by much and good attack there, just a minor miss timing at their openings at the last turn, but we are really talking of almost perfection here!
Their timings and interpretation, towards the end with their midline stepsequence and the rotational lift, was really well done, great choreography and nicely executed, to music by the local superstar Edvin Marton with Paganini 5, music that also Plushenko likes skating to. Together with the top two Americans, they offered great skating in hold, very close and if they are able to fix the little errors, like in the serpentine where she was caught out of balance and therefore lost the connection with her partner for a second, then they have huge potential for the future and winning the junior nationals, does not come easy, great couple and I so had to laugh, how she always wanted to step on the top of the podium, during the VC. Already practicing for the future, young lady?
A bright future,
Anastasia Shpilevaya and Grigory Smirnov might have, I so loved their music "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and they came 6h in total, with a super twizzle, maybe the best of the day, super alignement and in general, their execution is really good, just trailing behind a bit with the levels on their step sequences. Interpretation wise, but also from the timings like with the straight line lift, where the changes come right on beat, great exit there, using the music wonderfully! In general, they caught the essence of the music beautifully, super smooth movements and relaxed, facial expression. But I also like how original they are, they have a very unique style, like with the stationary lift and they have a superb balance on the ice, she is so holding on to him, it just goes under your skin!
Under your skin also goes what the
Parsons do, I was so hugely impressed, by their skate in hold. There is no space in between them, not even a piece of paper would fit, just super amazing and their blind understanding on ice, knowing exactly, where their partner is, every element, connects flawlessly with the other, just like these two skaters, do.
Their Tango, was greatly executed, I love that knee fall at their last twizzle, right on beat and I can´t believe, how these two are just brother and sister, so much chemistry in between them! I would say, they even top the Shibutanies with their fantastic coldplay performance, in that regard. Great ice coverage, really making sure to appear everywhere on ice which can be a bit tricky, as the ice at the boards, is a little bit dangerous for skaters, you can easily get stuck there, but they skated these passages without any trouble, super edges, greatly aligned – what a discovery these two are for me! At Cinderella they were flying and at the Tango, they were arrogant and ice cold, yet with fire – brilliant couple if you ask me, highly talented, well deserved PB of 162.74. I believe, that they never skated better in their life and if that midline would have been a three, then they would have won the competition.
That they didn´t, was due the sheer perfection, of two other Americans,
Lorraine Mcnamara and Quinn Carpenter, who achieved 163.65 in total, jumping up one position, edging our the Parson family, by 0.91 points. Skating to Carmen, these two never dropped below two in GOE and how amazing are these transitions between the various phrases of music, I so love what they do there and how their expression changes over the course of their program, wonderful timings on all of their elements, so much hard work put into this program - 40 hours a week, every step, turn, move – is absolutely on beat, you can not skate it better, the essence of the music, brilliantly understood and executed. I often criticize the judging in ice dance, maybe rightfully or just because of my heart that is so close to that brilliant sport, but these two here, deserved to 100% what they received by the judges.
I would personally, favor their Free over the short as I feel that I have hardly seen Carmen executed so perfect like of these two, as the music is so hard to portrait due it´s changing and complex arrangement and as I said, the timinings are so brilliant, I really hope that they will get the credit they deserve for that in the US. You should invite these two to ice shows, interview them and spread the word, it was not from this world, what they did to Georges Bizet masterpiece and even Alexei Kiliakov was a part of the performance, that posture and look while they were performing – so fitting to the program of his skaters.
Overall, a brilliant competition with good judgement by the officials, it could had gone either way between the two Americans, both are very unique and so different to each other, it was a real joy and don´t write me of these Russian skaters or the French and Italians
Sara and Giona – what a beautiful couple they are, I was really impressed with their programs, that sport is so wonderful, it is so wrong to call it the 4th competition of ice skating.
The sport and artistry is so progressing, these skaters work so hard, they push each other to the limits and even if for many it is hard to understand what happens on ice, it´s really worth it, to dig deeper into this beautiful competition, I was highly entertained and just like I analysed the top pairs, I could have done the same for all of them, there was so much beauty in these programs, but who would read all of this, so as usual my thank goes out to the skaters, coaches and choreographers – it was a super event on both days and even if I love the ladies so much, ice dance is pretty much on the same level for me these days, great work guys!
Protocols:
Full result:
[TABLE="class: grid, width: 100%, align: center"]
[TR]
[TH]FPl.
[/TH]
[TH]Name
[/TH]
[TH]Nation
[/TH]
[TH]Points
[/TH]
[TH]SD
[/TH]
[TH]FD
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1
[/TD]
[TD]Lorraine MCNAMARA / Quinn CARPENTER
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]163.65
[/TD]
[TD]2
[/TD]
[TD]1
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2
[/TD]
[TD]Rachel PARSONS / Michael PARSONS
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]162.74
[/TD]
[TD]1
[/TD]
[TD]2
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3
[/TD]
[TD]Alla LOBODA / Pavel DROZD
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]151.19
[/TD]
[TD]6
[/TD]
[TD]3
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4
[/TD]
[TD]Elliana POGREBINSKY / Alex BENOIT
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]146.83
[/TD]
[TD]5
[/TD]
[TD]4
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5
[/TD]
[TD]Anastasia SHPILEVAYA / Grigory SMIRNOV
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]146.55
[/TD]
[TD]4
[/TD]
[TD]6
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6
[/TD]
[TD]Betina POPOVA / Yuri VLASENKO
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]146.21
[/TD]
[TD]7
[/TD]
[TD]5
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7
[/TD]
[TD]Angelique ABACHKINA / Louis THAURON
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]145.25
[/TD]
[TD]8
[/TD]
[TD]7
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8
[/TD]
[TD]Marie-Jade LAURIAULT / Romain LE GAC
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]144.26
[/TD]
[TD]3
[/TD]
[TD]8
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9
[/TD]
[TD]Mackenzie BENT / Dmitre RAZGULAJEVS
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]138.61
[/TD]
[TD]9
[/TD]
[TD]9
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]10
[/TD]
[TD]Sara GHISLANDI / Giona Terzo ORTENZI
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]131.18
[/TD]
[TD]12
[/TD]
[TD]11
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11
[/TD]
[TD]Nicole KUZMICH / Alexandr SINICYN
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]128.91
[/TD]
[TD]14
[/TD]
[TD]10
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12
[/TD]
[TD]Melinda MENG / Andrew MENG
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]128.83
[/TD]
[TD]10
[/TD]
[TD]12
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]13
[/TD]
[TD]Marjorie LAJOIE / Zachary LAGHA
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]128.06
[/TD]
[TD]11
[/TD]
[TD]13
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]14
[/TD]
[TD]Ho Jung LEE / Richard Kang In KAM
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]119.13
[/TD]
[TD]13
[/TD]
[TD]14
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]15
[/TD]
[TD]Anzhelika YURCHENKO / Volodymyr BYELIKOV
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]112.65
[/TD]
[TD]15
[/TD]
[TD]16
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]16
[/TD]
[TD]Ria SCHWENDINGER / Valentin WUNDERLICH
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]109.00
[/TD]
[TD]17
[/TD]
[TD]15
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]17
[/TD]
[TD]Maria OLEYNIK / Yuri HULITSKI
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]106.31
[/TD]
[TD]16
[/TD]
[TD]18
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]18
[/TD]
[TD]Maria GOLUBTSOVA / Kirill BELOBROV
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]105.90
[/TD]
[TD]20
[/TD]
[TD]17
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]19
[/TD]
[TD]Rikako FUKASE / Aru TATENO
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]102.10
[/TD]
[TD]19
[/TD]
[TD]19
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]20
[/TD]
[TD]Alexandra BORISOVA / Cezary ZAWADZKI
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]100.31
[/TD]
[TD]18
[/TD]
[TD]20
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Xibei LI / Guangyao XIANG
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]21
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Guoste DAMULEVICIUTE / Deividas KIZALA
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]22
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Villö MARTON / Danyil SEMKO
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]23
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Ekaterina FEDYUSHCHENKO / Lucas KITTERIDGE
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]24
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Viktoria SEMENJUK / Artur GRUZDEV
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]25
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Jenna HERTENSTEIN / Damian BINKOWSKI
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]26
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Hannah Grace COOK / Temirlan YERZHANOV
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]27
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Kimberly WEI / Illias FOURATI
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]28
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Elizaveta ORLOVA / Stephano Valentino SCHUSTER
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]29
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Matilda FRIEND / William BADAOUI
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]30
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Yana BOZHILOVA / Kaloyan GEORGIEV
[/TD]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FNR
[/TD]
[TD]31
[/TD]
[td][/td]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]