2014 Olympics Free Dance

[Olenka1213]

Hi everyone, this far it's been 'read-only' for me, but I'm going to post here for the first time because I don't agree with most of the bashing of the Sochi audience, and I actually was there yesterday (and at Men's FS, if that matters). Someone questioned, why no big ovation for D/W. Well, believe it or not, most people from the audience I had a chat with, including those who'd never heard all these names before, actually preferred Virtue/Moir in the SD, this includes a couple of young men who had an enormous Russian flag and a horn thingy, which certainly doesn't belong at a figure skating event. Anyway, my point is that the majority of the audience was actually rooting for "the Canadians" rather than "the Americans", and they simply weren't as impressed with D/W. Most of them were no experts in figure skating, but I insist that good performances actually received the cheer they deserved. You can call this audience raw, but their response was very sincere.
If anyone's interested, I personally loved the Spanish team, MJ from C/B, V/M, W/P and I/K.

 

[sisinka]

Yes, here it is…enjoy my dear friend…

Maia & Alex – I would say that they improved since US Nationals. In my eyes this is still not Michael Jackson’s dance but much more dancing to Michael Jackson’s song using some of his movements (another question is whether is it possible to make a copy of Jackson on the ice, because he used a sort of static dances most of time, while skating is definitely not dancing and standing at one place). Maia is more expressive than Alex in most of arm movements and in all static movements. If you want to express what is music about you have to forget who you are (especially if you have nothing commom with a character you play), and take that character in music/story like it would be you, without any doubt. Without thinking if you look good or elegant. I have a feeling that while Maia doesn’t concentrate on how she looks like and goes for every arm movement with full energy, Ales is still hesitating if he looks well, if it is not too much crazy (it is, but that’s what is Jackson about). If he forgets it like Maia tries he will get the some wildness into his moves like she does.
Middle part is a little problematic to me – they come back to their elegant, polish style…while Jackson music and videoclips to those music (even slower pieces) are still very expressive and provocative. If you skate with concentrating to be elegant, you have a big chance to really look elegant, but that’s not Jackson, I would still prefer more dramatic, crazy, from time to time sharp movements even in those piece. Last part of programs comes back to fast music, once again, forget about who you are and dance on what you hear in your ears.

Technically – last part looks slow, there are many steps, unfortunately those steps are not helping to increase their speed, some of those steps never help to increase a speed or maybe there are just too many steps which particularly don’t suit this couple to make them fast. I like very much first step sequence, nice holds, very well done.
Overall their egdes are decent, sometimes Alex has a little bit deeper egdes than Maia. It is because they are not in deep knees (sometimes Alex has deeper knees than Maia, that is a moment when his edge is deeper), you will never get deep edges while standing on straight legs - compare them with Sinitsina & Zhiganshin - edges difference and difference in beding knees.
I love their twizzles, super.

 

[ice coverage]

.. But one thing D and W have over V and M no matter what is money. Being ameriicans they will rake in the money unlike v and m.

Do V & M not get paid for their sponsorships? I remember a big spread from Roots right after Vancouver. Do they not get paid as much for the professional ice shows? I guess I assumed that Olympic champions would get basically the same pay scale if they appeared on the same ice show.

Re professional shows:
When Virtue/Moir and Davis/White appear in the same show under the same circumstances, I find it hard to believe that they would not be paid basically the same amount.
[Maybe not exactly the same amount to the penny per Canadian Stars on Ice show, b/c V/M perform in all the shows of the entire tour, and D/W perform in only a few. But basically the same rate, I would think.]

Re sponsorships:
I think SB is speculating that the total amount of money available to D/W from U.S. sponsors is greater than the total amount available to V/M from Canadian sponsors. (I don't know whether I agree.)

 

[Angryyew]

I must disagree with you. Have you ever looked at a judge's scoring sheet and tried to understand all the technical details they are judging? Just because there are no jumps in the program, it does not mean there are not required elements, edges, turns, handholds, lifts, and spins to understand in detail, not to mention speed, unison, closeness, etc. All of these are NOT subjective, they are judged by people who are volunteers, have dedicated years to learning the sport, and who have reached this level though a lot of work and love for the sport. Before saying "ice dancing is not a sport", try it, or at least try to understand the way it is scored. Plus, would you include all the snowboarding and ski jumping in the "not a sport" classification? They also are judged on form, etc.

If you were responding to my post, go back and re-read. I wasn't saying I don't think it's a sport. I was saying that I don't think the perception that the judging is pre-determined or fixed is the primary reason ice dancing is not as popular with the general public as other sports or even other FS disciplines, as the person I was responding to alleged, though it doesn't help.

I was saying, based on reactions on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere, there is still strong sentiment in the general audience that ice dancing is not a sport and as long as that's the case, no amount of fiddling with the scoring will make the sport more popular with the unwashed masses.

If you were responding to someone else then never mind

 

[cjsk8fan]

I thought I/K's lifts looked the most difficult and exciting. V/M didn't seem as striking to me on the ice as I/K or D/W.

I agree. I/K lifts were by far the most inventive. I really enjoyed their FD. I do like the quickness and lightness of D/W. Everything looked effortless. V/M skated the best they skated all year. I do tire of the pretty pretty programs however. Also I believe D/ were rewarded for their consistency. V/M just struggled with consistency all year. They did peak at the right time though.

 

[cjsk8fan]

Hi everyone, this far it's been 'read-only' for me, but I'm going to post here for the first time because I don't agree with most of the bashing of the Sochi audience, and I actually was there yesterday (and at Men's FS, if that matters). Someone questioned, why no big ovation for D/W. Well, believe it or not, most people from the audience I had a chat with, including those who'd never heard all these names before, actually preferred Virtue/Moir in the SD, this includes a couple of young men who had an enormous Russian flag and a horn thingy, which certainly doesn't belong at a figure skating event. Anyway, my point is that the majority of the audience was actually rooting for "the Canadians" rather than "the Americans", and they simply weren't as impressed with D/W. Most of them were no experts in figure skating, but I insist that good performances actually received the cheer they deserved. You can call this audience raw, but their response was very sincere.
If anyone's interested, I personally loved the Spanish team, MJ from C/B, V/M, W/P and I/K.[/QUO

Interesting. Another person who was at the event said she was embarassed for the audience and that they cheered mainly for the Russians only. l also wonder if their is some antiamericanism going on especially with how the hockey game went and the United States relationship with Russia in general.

 

[Eddie Lee]

This is a measured, clear-eyed response from the lovely PJ. Thanks for sharing.

Though I believe "measured, clear-eyed response" is a bit of a stretch in describing P. J. Kwong's article in response to the Virtue/Moir loss, how could a devoted Canadian expert--who's been involved with Canadian Figure Skating for decades--feel differently toward such a close call?

 

[Barb]

Wow sisinka first time someone saying Maia is wild and Alex is reserved . I think they both have excellent posture, arm movements, energy and interpretation, I dont understand people saying Maia needs more, at least in MJ program she is very well, my problem with them are the lifts, none is imprssive, examples (i/k first in lp, d/w in split and rotating) those could not be so difficult but are very impressive and beautiful. Shibs get levels but I dont get anything about their lifts, in the first one in Lp Maia get a very ugly position, I dont know why, I think may be she needs practice more her flexibility.

 

[dorispulaski]

Maia needs not to tear her costume doing a lift in FD

 

[Mrs. P]

Maia needs not to tear her costume doing a lift in FD

Doris, do I sense a snarky comment from you? :think: And if so, is it toward Maia or her costume?

 

[Angryyew]

Interesting. Another person who was at the event said she was embarassed for the audience and that they cheered mainly for the Russians only. l also wonder if their is some antiamericanism going on especially with how the hockey game went and the United States relationship with Russia in general.

Given all the media attention to criticism from USA and other nations over Russia's social policy and suitability to host the games, some amount of resentment is probably to be expected. Even before the negative publicity regarding the anti-gay propaganda laws, there was a lot of anti-Russian propaganda coming from the tea party during the last US election, so it's only natural to assume similar propaganda or at least negative response to our propaganda amongst some of the Russian people.

However, I haven't really noticed the audience being specifically anti anybody, just very pro-Russian. I missed most of the figure skating season last season and hadn't read any forums for about two years prior to this Olympic season. I've noticed a very marked increase in nationalistic behavior and anti specific countries posting in the past couple of years, so I think no matter where the Olympics were hosted, it is likely that the audience would not be as supportive of all athletes outside their country as they may have been in the past.

 

[Matt K]

Or maybe the Russians just didn't enjoy D/W's skate as much as V/M and I/K.

 

[Angryyew]

Or maybe the Russians just didn't enjoy D/W's skate as much as V/M and I/K.

I think I/K in particular has a more audience friendly program than most, even if they weren't on home ice, so it's certainly possible.

 

[Mrs. P]

Or maybe the Russians just didn't enjoy D/W's skate as much as V/M and I/K.

Why am I not surprised that you posted that?

 

[WeakAnkles]

Why am I not surprised that you posted that?

Uhm because you read his 88 OTHER "I hate Marlie" posts?

 

[Mrs. P]

Uhm because you read his 88 OTHER "I hate Marlie" posts?

Oh WA, I'm so damn lazy. I only read like 10 percent of them.

I mean you can't make me do work..DANG IT. Reading these board posts is so much work. I mean...I can still be an effective GS citizen by doing less work. Give me the bronze medal in GS postdom!!!!

 

[bixby]

uhm because you read his 88 other "i hate marlie" posts?

lol

 

[CocoChanel]

Forgive me for a neophyte question but...isn’t there a sort of unwritten rule that once you win gold in the Olympics in ice dance, you move on and allow the other skaters to move up a placement? I can see how this is necessary in ice dancing because if you win the Olympics and stay in 4 more years, then you’re creating a “log jam” [assuming that all skaters continue at the same level of skating].

So what was the reason for V/M to stay on for another Olympics? Because I can see how the judges might have wanted to penalize them for that.

Also, I don’t know why Scott would bring up the coaching issue at this point. If they didn’t sign a lifetime contract, then they were free to switch and it should’ve been obvious that they weren’t going to get the same attention, or the same judging, as they did for the last Olympics.

 

[westernhalf]

Oh, my. I don't much like this.

Marina coached them to an Olympic championship and two other medals in Sochi and two WC's. I'd say she did a pretty good job.

I really felt that their two individual performances here were the best they've skated in years, it just wasn't enough to win.

Before the Games, I wondered whether distractions like their TV show were a good idea.

I think that's probably a more likely explanation than the coach.

Agree. If you're distracted with a tv show, it can't be good for focus/practice.

On another note, I got to wondering about Tessa's choice (if it was her choice) of dresses for the FS. In 2010, the story was that Marina told her to wear the white dress instead of a pink one, saying that T was not going to stand on the podium in a pink dress. So, I thought that it was interesting that she wore pink this time around--especially with the red one on hand, which I thought was stunning. (Not that the pink one wasn't pretty).

 

[Ryan O]

Many people have speculated for a while that Marina Z. had grown closer to Meryl & Charlie than Tessa & Scott over the past cycle, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea for V&M to air that feeling at this point in time. Perhaps they are feeling unhappy, but it would be an unfortunate way to end a long-term coaching relationship by having a public spat after the Olympics.