Ok.. Watched the entire thing from start to finish, and the end right now is not right. In my opinion:
1. Weaver/Poje - a little tentative, but very clean, complex moves and holds, speed, and intensity; great edges, close twizzles, speed out of the steps, ....
2. Papadakis/Cizeron - close 2nd. they dance with more fluidity than W/P tonight, but their choreo was not as complex, and was not completely clean
3. Shibs - completely underscored here; so clean, if a little understated
4. Capallini/Lanotte - that was really, really good; liked the intensity, the speed that grew over the course of the dance, and the clean and tidy feet, but it wasn't quite as tidy as Shibs
5. Chock/Bates - not understanding the love for this team - their lines don't match, there is little fluidity, it's very mechanical and contrived; the drama is the old "uber drama" that I was so glad to see go in the 90's; way over-scored here
6. Paul/Islam - seriously underscored here. That was a fantastic performance, great tone, amazing lines, good speed, matching movements, and they skate like real dancers
7. Illynyk/Zighanshin - they benefited greatly from being in the first group, where they were just way better than everyone else; they are coming along nicely, but they need more time to get the connections between them, there's some "pushing and pulling" between them yet as they work out unison, knowing where the other person is at all time, and just bodies flowing naturally together, lining up at the right times, etc.; but I really like this team, and I think they have way more chemistry and promise than Illynyk/Katsalopov.
8. Fournier Beaudry/Sorenson - they did a really, really beautiful job, and I think they would have had higher scores in a later flight. They were truly very, very good.
9. Gilles/Poirier - they may have checked the boxes technically to get levels, but I don't think the GOE should be as high, and they are way overscored on the PCS. Sorry, but they still look mismatched, and the crazy uber drama is only there to hide their flaws, which clearly worked because the judges over-scored them. The amount of 2-foot skating and ridiculous number of cross cuts are hidden in all that uber drama. The quality should start below the waist - in the edges, lines, movements, transitions - augmented with expression through the rest of the body. Not "look at my arms, and cape and face" so that you don't see what's really going on with the skating.
10. Hubbell/Donohue - yes they had a mistake, but I still think their skating skills and everything else were better than M/K, who I thought looked really awful. Not just the costume which was ridiculous, the skating was just so stiff, poor posture, and not dancing
And regarding the splat-fest - ice dancing is not as easy as it looks. It is more difficult in many ways than any other discipline in terms of skating as a team, complexity of lifts in off-centre positions at great speed, close footwork on edges at speed in holds, etc.
This thread confuses me in all kinds of ways, but it's been interesting reading tonight.
I still love you!
