Junior dance was the easy highlight of the Minto event, which in a lot of ways could be expected; it may make judging difficult, but dance is the one event where you can generally count on even the lower-level contenders to do something that's at least entertaining and easy to watch. We didn't end up quite getting a mini-Nationals, with Natalie & Bruce and Emmy & Aissa skipping (indeed, this might have been the only faceoff between all six major teams, since two of them will presumably be bound for Lausanne rather than Mississauga), but the debuted programs were interesting. I'd say that Miku & Tyler have the best pair of programs, at least of those I saw -- I missed Irina & Grayson's rhythm dance and since Skate Ontario apparently isn't archiving them, looks like I'll have to wait until Lake Placid for that.
I think Iliya's short program was very nicely designed, and when skated cleanly will serve him well.
The senior and junior pairs events had a lot of promise for the future, even if the present is very much a work in progress. The new junior and senior teams had some good qualities, and I was impressed at how much elevation Brooke McIntosh was getting on the triple twist that she and Brandon are working on.
I think at this point, Nic really needs to look into some sort of new coaching situation, or something. It's painful seeing so much natural talent never reach its potential.
EDIT:
Team Canada at JGP USA:
Men
Stephen Gogolev
Beres Clements
Ladies
Emily Bausback
Pairs
Brooke McIntosh & Brandon Toste
Gabrielle Levesque & Pier-Alexandre Hudon
Ice dance
Irina Galiyanova & Grayson Lochhead
Miku Makita & Tyler Gunara
