2021–22 Canadian Figure Skating

[4everchan]

Free dances : well i am going to be musically biased here !!! star wars and adios nonino ( both with very interesting arrangements)

so my sentimental favourites are MG and BB gadbois.

from MG : i would have liked a bit more power and sharpness in the tango section... the lyrical stuff was nice and they really have nice flow.

BB i will have to watch again but loved the partial step sequence

not digging russian trad music so much : it's been done a million times.
sorry BB Lane

of course we know about swan lake for DAWA.. more refined but not sure i am that excited to see the same FD... I think that at that age, skaters are there to learn first then maybe get results... and not learning a new FD is stalling their progress....

 

[La Rhumba]

Thanks to my fave Skating Association, SC, I was able to watch this for the past 2 days on livestream. (Many Thanks also to those who uploaded to YT).

Overall I was very surprised Nadiia & Peter didn't win as they looked the most polished couple there, yet even dropped after the FD to 3rd.

The top 3 Rhythm Dances were all fabulous, it was very close score wise, though I feel we've heard Miku & Tyler's Disco music and seen interpretations recently (Fear & Gibson). I didn't enjoy either of their programs as much as previous years, accepting their FD wasn't as trained this early in the season.

Interesting that all of the top 4 couples had non vocal music for their Free Dances. And I was glad to see so many couples went down the Rhythm & Blues / Disco route rather than Hip Hop.

Emmy & Aissa, again not loving either program as much as previous years. Their FD had a fabulous Sliding Element, and a borrowed Lilah & Lewis Lift - really Gadbois needs to stop with the recycling.
But mainly they no longer look good as a couple aesthetically. Emmy has grown, Aissa hasn't and with his deep knee bend she sometimes looks taller than him. They don't match well. I personally wouldn't stick with these partners if they can find better suiting ones elsewhere. I didn't see much connection with them either.

Natalie & Bruce, strangely their FD to Excerpts from Swan Lake looked more exciting in Practise than in the competition when we saw the whole thing uninterrupted. There is alot of separation in it, I'd like to see more Choreo in hold.

For me what elevated Nadiia & Peter's performances were in the RD their unison, the Blues Pattern was beautiful, their matching free legs, their musical interpretation. It's a pleasure to see a proper icedance couple with the essentials of what icedance is: Closeness in hold, edges, interpretation, connection, steps, working together as one, they had all this in both programs, and I enjoyed it. I also loved the homage to Chris Dean with Peter's splits at the end of their Free Dance.

 

[Colonel Green]

Overall I was very surprised Nadiia & Peter didn't win as they looked the most polished couple there, yet even dropped after the FD to 3rd.

They lost several levels, particularly on the spin and one of their lifts, so that really hurt their technical mark.

 

[SnowWhite]

Free dances : well i am going to be musically biased here !!! star wars and adios nonino ( both with very interesting arrangements)

so my sentimental favourites are MG and BB gadbois.

from MG : i would have liked a bit more power and sharpness in the tango section... the lyrical stuff was nice and they really have nice flow.

BB i will have to watch again but loved the partial step sequence

not digging russian trad music so much : it's been done a million times.
sorry BB Lane

of course we know about swan lake for DAWA.. more refined but not sure i am that excited to see the same FD... I think that at that age, skaters are there to learn first then maybe get results... and not learning a new FD is stalling their progress....

I mean, they competed that program, what, once? We've really hardly seen it. So I don't think keeping it is a big deal.

 

[icetug]

Researching the music for Nadiia & Peter's program to identify it properly gave me a much better understanding of what that program is about (it's two Russian folk songs about a soldier and his girl back home).

In fact there are three Russian songs mixed together, starting from a walz "On The Hills of Manchuria" (it's about one of the battles of the Russian-Japanese War 1904-1905), then "Katyusha" (Katyusha -what is a nickname for Ekaterina- misses her boyfriend-soldier), and short fragments of "Kalinka" (a folk song quite frequently used by Russian skaters - e.g. Masha Sotskova, Alena Leonova, Irina Slutskaya etc.)

 

[4everchan]

I mean, they competed that program, what, once? We've really hardly seen it. So I don't think keeping it is a big deal.

as i said,not a question about competing often with it or not.. but learning new choreo, new move, new programs at that age is boosting the opportunity for progress and development... plus i will admit frankly that i am sick of tchaikovsky ballet+ figure skating...

 

[4everchan]

Thanks to my fave Skating Association, SC, I was able to watch this for the past 2 days on livestream. (Many Thanks also to those who uploaded to YT).

Overall I was very surprised Nadiia & Peter didn't win as they looked the most polished couple there, yet even dropped after the FD to 3rd.

The top 3 Rhythm Dances were all fabulous, it was very close score wise, though I feel we've heard Miku & Tyler's Disco music and seen interpretations recently (Fear & Gibson). I didn't enjoy either of their programs as much as previous years, accepting their FD wasn't as trained this early in the season.

Interesting that all of the top 4 couples had non vocal music for their Free Dances. And I was glad to see so many couples went down the Rhythm & Blues / Disco route rather than Hip Hop.

Emmy & Aissa, again not loving either program as much as previous years. Their FD had a fabulous Sliding Element, and a borrowed Lilah & Lewis Lift - really Gadbois needs to stop with the recycling.
But mainly they no longer look good as a couple aesthetically. Emmy has grown, Aissa hasn't and with his deep knee bend she sometimes looks taller than him. They don't match well. I personally wouldn't stick with these partners if they can find better suiting ones elsewhere. I didn't see much connection with them either.

Natalie & Bruce, strangely their FD to Excerpts from Swan Lake looked more exciting in Practise than in the competition when we saw the whole thing uninterrupted. There is alot of separation in it, I'd like to see more Choreo in hold.

For me what elevated Nadiia & Peter's performances were in the RD their unison, the Blues Pattern was beautiful, their matching free legs, their musical interpretation. It's a pleasure to see a proper icedance couple with the essentials of what icedance is: Closeness in hold, edges, interpretation, connection, steps, working together as one, they had all this in both programs, and I enjoyed it. I also loved the homage to Chris Dean with Peter's splits at the end of their Free Dance.

about Emmy and Aissa : i don't think we can expect a connection with programs that are so new... they looked like they were focusing on getting things done ... especially after such a big mistake in the RD.... i am not convinced that this partnership is not viable... we will have to see... at that age, so many things can still happen... Piper and Paul just celebrated 10 years together...so some of these partnership will end and others will be created... but I am not that convinced that Emmy and Aissa are the top candidates for couple-rejigging.. the only team that for me looks like a done deal is Miku and Tyler... but then... who knows???

 

[La Rhumba]

In fact there are three Russian songs mixed together, starting from a walz "On The Hills of Manchuria" (it's about one of the battles of the Russian-Japanese War 1904-1905), then "Katyusha" (Katyusha -what is a nickname for Ekaterina- misses her boyfriend-soldier), and short fragments of "Kalinka" (a folk song quite frequently used by Russian skaters - e.g. Masha Sotskova, Alena Leonova, Irina Slutskaya etc.)

I thought Kalinka was in it! Thanks for confirming, as it's such a famous tune. I think it's nice that this FD has music that is part of Nadiia's heritage. It's also a pleasure not to have an FD with an angsty Indie song with the vocals blaring out.

 

[La Rhumba]

as i said,not a question about competing often with it or not.. but learning new choreo, new move, new programs at that age is boosting the opportunity for progress and development... plus i will admit frankly that i am sick of tchaikovsky ballet+ figure skating...

You can improve technically within a program, it doesn't only come with learning new Choreo. Fear & Gibson kept Vogue to perform at Worlds, the only time they competed last season, and it was clear to see how much work they had done on technique with deeper edges, covering more ice for the same footwork sequences.

 

[Colonel Green]

In fact there are three Russian songs mixed together, starting from a walz "On The Hills of Manchuria" (it's about one of the battles of the Russian-Japanese War 1904-1905), then "Katyusha" (Katyusha -what is a nickname for Ekaterina- misses her boyfriend-soldier), and short fragments of "Kalinka" (a folk song quite frequently used by Russian skaters - e.g. Masha Sotskova, Alena Leonova, Irina Slutskaya etc.)

Interesting, as that’s different from what they describe here:

It’s a very fun and lively program with lots of character. For our FD, we decided on a folk program. It will be to music from “Blue Shawl” tied with Maria Lazareva’s interpretation of “Katyusha”.

Maybe they revised it since then?

 

[4everchan]

You can improve technically within a program, it doesn't only come with learning new Choreo. Fear & Gibson kept Vogue to perform at Worlds, the only time they competed last season, and it was clear to see how much work they had done on technique with deeper edges, covering more ice for the same footwork sequences.

definitely... but fear and gibson are not juniors..... i am talking about younger skaters.. and yes, I know that there is always room to improve... even someone who skates the same program for like 3 seasons can improve it... but at that age and development stage, I do believe that it is a missed opportunity. We can agree to disagree on this.

 

[icetug]

Interesting, as that’s different from what they describe here:

Maybe they revised it since then?

You are perfectly right, it's "Blue Shawl". What misled me was a description of "Russian folk song" while I know it as a Polish song (in fact it was composed by a Polish composer Jerzy Petersburski in 1940 in Białystok where he got stuck as a war refugee from Warsaw in the part of Poland taken by Soviet Russia; the song was extremely popular among Red Army soldiers...).

 

[Colonel Green]

JGP Courchevel II assignments:

Wesley Chiu
Kaiya Ruiter
Miku Makita & Tyler Gunara
Chaima Ben Khelifa & Everest Zhu

Kaiya, Miku and Tyler get some extra vacation time in France, as they're doing back-to-back events in the same location. I'll be interested to see if any other feds opt for this.

Also, it seems like we're ending up with two dance berths per event anyway, despite Canada finishing fifth among nations at Junior Worlds. That was to be hoped for, since Georgia's cup doesn't exactly runneth over.

 

[NanaPat]

I was behind in watching the nexgen camp performances, but have powered through the ice dance and pairs short.

My conclusion (I've observed this before but always seem to forget how true it is): pairs is really hard! I was disappointed with McIntosh/Mimar, as I have seen video of them that was much better (and harder elements) than what they did here. The seniors were noticeably better than the juniors, which reinforces the steep learning curve that pairs face.

I was a bit confused by the (smaller) seniors comps as part of the nexgen camp. Are those seniors also on the nexgen team?

 

[Colonel Green]

I was a bit confused by the (smaller) seniors comps as part of the nexgen camp. Are those seniors also on the nexgen team?

No, I think they just offered the seniors the chance to participate in a live contest since they were hosting it.

NextGen is for people who can compete internationally as a junior (though they've fudged that around the margins, as with Beres Clements still being on it this year).

 

[NanaPat]

No, I think they just offered the seniors the chance to participate in a live contest since they were hosting it.

NextGen is for people who can compete internationally as a junior (though they've fudged that around the margins, as with Beres Clements still being on it this year).

That makes sense. All the dance and pairs seniors are from ON or QC, so probably within easy driving distance of Kingston.

 

[Pairsfanforever]

I was behind in watching the nexgen camp performances, but have powered through the ice dance and pairs short.

My conclusion (I've observed this before but always seem to forget how true it is): pairs is really hard! I was disappointed with McIntosh/Mimar, as I have seen video of them that was much better (and harder elements) than what they did here. The seniors were noticeably better than the juniors, which reinforces the steep learning curve that pairs face.

I was a bit confused by the (smaller) seniors comps as part of the nexgen camp. Are those seniors also on the nexgen team?

Mcintosh is apparently injured. They have all triples as evidenced by their Challenge Skate. No doubt just getting some competition type mileage before the JGP season.

 

[Colonel Green]

Well, Kaiya stomped all over everybody else at the NextGen camp. Almost 40 points between her and second, an even bigger rout than when she won the junior title back in 2020. And that was despite falling on her backloaded combination attempt in the short program.

Fiona Bombardier is such a beautiful skater, and is trying a 3Lz-3T now, so presumably she can do it in practice. If she could stabilize those jumps, she'd go places. Chip off the old block, in all respects.

 

[4everchan]

in general, though i only "half-watched" the archives of the SP, i felt the level was pretty good... many of the girls attempted 3-3 combos. It is hard to not think about Josée when watching Fiona... her lutz is huge and she uses one of Josée's favourite spin positions (some sort of side camel spin variation???) I guess i should watch the FP now

ETA watched Fiona's FP : yup... very lyrical. When she gets her jumps more consistent, she will be very very good.

 

[Colonel Green]

The full assignments from Courchevel II are out. Miku & Tyler are going up against the Browns (as I figured) and Shichina & Khubulov, who were sixth at Russian Junior Nationals last year (I believe fourth among teams still competing junior).

EDIT: And Nadiia & Peter have announced that they're doing the fourth JGP (Russia), which I had guessed since they also went to the previous Russian event. By implication that would put Natalie & Bruce going out third (Slovakia).