2025-26 U.S. Ice Dance | Page 7 | Golden Skate

2025-26 U.S. Ice Dance

@IceDancingQueen, I saw your post in the Coaching/ Country Switch thread. I am asking about it here to avoid topic drift in that thread:

Which U.S. team would you have expected to see switch to IAM rather than or before seeing Flores/ Jepsen make this switch? I'm just curious about your thoughts.

F/J are a new team definitely in need of help. It is Isabella Flores' talent that stands out and distinguishes every partnership she's been in. Regarding her current partner hook-up, she's the one who has the stellar track record and promising results with prior partners.

As was mentioned in the other thread, IAM has a connection to the Lyon, France rink (where F/J used to train). Marie-France, Patch, and Romain H trained together in Lyon with coach Muriel Boucher-Zazoui (who also trained many past top French ice dancers, including Anissina/ Peizarat and Delobel/ Schoenfelder).
 
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Zingas/ Kolesnik interviewed on This Week in Skating. A very good interview. I agree with Vadym and the icedance.com host, Daphne Backman, that spins in ice dance (the combo spin mostly) are not needed and should be eliminated. They have twizzles, rotational lifts and stationary spins, and that's enough. The choreo element is also not needed, as the entire program is choreographic already.
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
Je@IceDancingQueen, I saw your post in the Coaching/ Country Switch thread. I am asking about it here to avoid topic drift in that thread:

Which U.S. team would you have expected to see switch to IAM rather than or before seeing Flores/ Jepsen make this switch? I'm just curious about your thoughts.

F/J are a new team definitely in need of help. It is Isabella Flores' talent that stands out and distinguishes every partnership she's been in. Regarding her current partner hook-up, she's the one who has the stellar track record and promising results with prior partners.

As was mentioned in the other thread, IAM has a connection to the Lyon, France rink (where F/J used to train). Marie-France, Patch, and Romain H trained together in Lyon with coach Muriel Boucher-Zazoui (who also trained many past top French ice dancers, including Anissina/ Peizarat and Delobel/ Schoenfelder).
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Oh yeah, the link from the Lyon rink makes sense. As Flores and Jensen are such a new team they weren’t really on my radar as a team looking to move to a new camp after subpar results. I was honestly thinking we’d hear of one the teams, possibly from MIDA like Bratti Sommerville/Green Parsons/Wolfkostin Tsariveski just because they have competed more internationally and have decent but not spectacular results. So I had assumed we’d hear about one of these teams moving first but maybe they are all staying put.

I have no issue with the Flores/Jepsen move, just didn’t have it on my bingo card!
 
IceDancingQueen said:
I was honestly thinking we’d hear of one the teams, possibly from MIDA like Bratti Sommerville/Green Parsons/Wolfkostin Tsariveski just because they have competed more internationally and have decent but not spectacular results.
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Yes, thanks for your response. I didn't think you were underrating Flores/ Jepsen. I was just curious who else you were thinking about. How you were thinking about it makes sense re the fact F/J are a new team. Except, as Isabella has more of a track record and medal-winning results, the change definitely makes great sense for her, especially. In fact, with Desyatov, Isabella was right up there in competitiveness with Brat/Somer, Wolf/Tsar, and even Gr/Par.

In regard to these MIDA teams, it seems as if, right now at least, that they are committed to staying loyal to their coaches, Tanith and Greg.
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
Yes, thanks for your response. I didn't think you were underrating Flores/ Jepsen. I was just curious who else you were thinking about. How you were thinking about it makes sense re the fact F/J are a new team. Except, as Isabella has more of a track record and medal-winning results, the change definitely makes great sense for her, especially. In fact, with Desyatov, Isabella was right up there in competitiveness with Brat/Somer, Wolf/Tsar, and even Gr/Par.

In regard to these MIDA teams, it seems as if, right now at least, that they are committed to staying loyal to their coaches, Tanith and Greg.
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Yes from Isabella’s perspective it is definitely the right move. She has been on the scene for some time and had bad luck with partners so she will want to ensure she and Jespen can climb the ranks quickly. She is talented so wishing her the best. I’m also glad she is away from the training camp that was encouraging teenage marriages!
 
IceDancingQueen said:
Yes from Isabella’s perspective it is definitely the right move. She has been on the scene for some time and had bad luck with partners so she will want to ensure she and Jespen can climb the ranks quickly. She is talented so wishing her the best. I’m also glad she is away from the training camp that was encouraging teenage marriages!
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Don't believe the gossip and rumors, please. There is no evidence to indicate that the 'training camp' or the 'coaches' at WASA Ice Dance "encourages teenage marriages." All three couples in question fell in love and decided to marry on their own, separately and individually. Not all were teenagers when they married either. The teenaged individuals had the full approval and consent of their parents. All three couples are still married, and two of the couples no longer train at WASA (with, of course, Isabella now partnered with an athlete who is not her husband). The information about Isabella's marriage was purposely and maliciously fed to Dave Lease and he subsequently began snooping into public records.
 
Hey, all Shibutani fans, I heard about a new podcast: The Flattest Edge! The two female hosts (not sure where they are from, but they are fs aficionados who have a particular fascination for ice dance). Earlier this year, they started their podcast, based on an idea inspired by The Runthrough's lore episodes on each discipline. The Flattest Edge begins with a detailed and very nostalgic two-part feature on The ShibSibs! Lots of info is provided that I was unaware of. A great trip down memory lane, for sure. These ladies did their research. It is kinda funny, though, that they were only able to reference Judy Blumberg as a coach and an ISU judging official. 🤣 Apparently, it's lost to them that Blumberg is a very distinguished former U.S. ice dance competitor with Michael Seibert. I remember those days. 🎗 Yet, I had no idea that Blumberg and Slavka Kohout were early coaches to the Shibs. Wow, they had a great foundational start!

It is really nice to see younger fans actively engaging with and eager to know more about the sport's history. 😊 👍

podcasts.apple.com

The Flattest Edge

Sport · A figure skating podcast by two fans focused primarily on the personal and competitive histories of some of the most compelling athletes to enter the sport. Join for the lore drops, stay for the ill-a...
podcasts.apple.com podcasts.apple.com
 
The Flattest Edge podcast episodes on the Shibutanis covers a lot of the competitive dynamics when they were on the rise as a young team. Some details I was unaware of since I did not closely follow ice dance back then. I was aware that the Shibutanis suffered a lot for excelling so young and for winning a World bronze medal in their senior season debut. I didn't realize that the Canton rink dynamics further exacerbated their subsequent competitive struggles.

OTOH, I think the podcast hosts are being overly influenced by the Shibs' recent comeback results and by their early years when they suggest that the Shibs were never that good at twizzles. Not true. Sure, Maia & Alex may have struggled on twizzles early in their career. But that must have led to them working hard to improve in that area. By the latter period of their career, they were absolutely great, consistent, fast and synchronous with their twizzles. They came by their rep for superior twizzles honestly.

It's also interesting that the Canton rink coaches and students were not prepared for the blowback criticism they received within the skating community after their stellar successes circa 2011 Worlds. Contrastingly, in a different era, Montreal's I.AM juggernaut seem much stronger and more prepared to weather jealous criticism. This is likely because I.AM founders have a solid, close relationship and they built their academy with sound vision, ideals, and wide-ranging collaborative input. Canton was a much smaller, more insular operation with a lot of tension existing between coaches, talented teams, parents, and rink management.
 
bckabck said:
If its anything like the fresh take Benoit did for Romeo & Juliet then I am down even though I am tired of Bolero.
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Yeah, well. The 'fresh take' idea Benoit got came directly from Kaitlyn Weaver's West Side Story modern take for Flores/ Desyatov's 2023-24 FD.

A number of teams and their choreographers (not just Z/K and Benoit) followed suit, e.g., Pham/ Spirodonov's FD, Ghost: the Musical, pulled the modern love story take from Weaver's WSS choreo, along with the movement style and similar costume of Desyatov; also Bekker/ Hernandez's Romeo & Juliet FD, and Lim/Quan's modern, evocative war time love story FD, were patterned after the modern love story approach of Weaver's WSS for Flores/ Desyatov.

It ain't easy to come up with good ideas. Thus, when an exciting team and a choreographer such as Flores/ Desyatov & Kaitlyn Weaver come along with creative, brilliant work, expect inspired imitations...

I would also say that Weaver's Poor Things for Flores/ Desyatov and Romain Haguenauer's Dune I & II have hugely influenced the current trend toward dramatic, creative storytelling drawn from film scores, e.g., the Brown siblings recent FD to The Godfather. In 2025, both Weaver and Haguenauer deserved awards for their work. Romain was nominated for Dune I at the ISU awards, but he failed to deservedly win!

The 2024-25 ice dance season was lackluster for choreo, except for Dune I, Poor Things, and the Tango FD Massimo Scali created for Turkkilla/ Versluis.
 
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BlissfulSynergy said:
Yeah, well. The 'fresh take' idea Benoit got came directly from Kaitlyn Weaver's West Side Story modern take for Flores/ Desyatov's 2023-24 FD.

A number of teams and their choreographers (not just Z/K and Benoit) followed suit, e.g., Pham/ Spirodonov's FD, Ghost: the Musical, pulled the modern love story take from Weaver's WSS choreo, along with the movement style and similar costume of Desyatov; also Bekker/ Hernandez's Romeo & Juliet FD, and Lim/Quan's modern, evocative war time love story FD, were patterned after the modern love story approach of Weaver's WSS for Flores/ Desyatov.

It ain't easy to come up with good ideas. Thus, when an exciting team and a choreographer such as Flores/ Desyatov & Kaitlyn Weaver come along with creative, brilliant work, expect inspired imitations...

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I would also say that Weaver's Poor Things for Flores/ Desyatov and Romain Haguenauer's Dune I & II have hugely influenced the current trend toward dramatic, creative storytelling drawn from film scores, e.g., the Brown siblings recent FD to The Godfather. In 2025, both Weaver and Haguenauer deserved awards for their work. Romain was nominated for Dune I at the ISU awards, but he failed to deservedly win!

The 2024-25 ice dance season was lackluster for choreo, except for Dune I, Poor Things, and the Tango FD Massimo Scali created for Turkkilla/ Versluis.
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I will have to go back and watch the West Side Story from Flores/Desyatov, but from what I do remember I didn't get the modern take of West Side Story. Again its been awhile since I saw so maybe with fresh eyes and keeping this in mind I'll see it. As for some of the other's mentioned I didn't get modern love story either from them. Either because I didn't see a connection between them or it looked like programs from the Zueva and Shpilband golden era (Davis, White, Belbin, Agosto, Virtue, Moir, Shibs, etc.).

I love Kaitlyn Weaver (follow her on IG)!!! 🥰 She choreos for many singles skaters and sadly not enough ice dancers. We need more of her in ice dance!!!!

Hot take as I do love Jean Luc working with Green/Parsons, but could you imagine a Green/Parsons Weaver routine...... I think that could be a good combo
 
Z/K's new FD is mostly being discussed in the new programs thread. In order not to take that thread too deeply off track, I briefly mentioned it here. Again, not for any long, drawn out discussion. There's always a bit of overlap from one season to the next in these threads. It's inevitable.

In any case, the new Z/K program discussion is not going to take off until we actually see the program in competition. Well before that happens, the new thread will be available. Again, I think most new season threads are usually created toward end of May, beginning of June. Whoever has enough info available to start threads they are interested in, can do so.
 
bckabck said:
I will have to go back and watch the West Side Story from Flores/Desyatov, but from what I do remember I didn't get the modern take of West Side Story. Again its been awhile since I saw so maybe with fresh eyes and keeping this in mind I'll see it. As for some of the other's mentioned I didn't get modern love story either from them. Either because I didn't see a connection between them or it looked like programs from the Zueva and Shpilband golden era (Davis, White, Belbin, Agosto, Virtue, Moir, Shibs, etc.).

I love Kaitlyn Weaver (follow her on IG)!!! 🥰 She choreos for many singles skaters and sadly not enough ice dancers. We need more of her in ice dance!!!!

Hot take as I do love Jean Luc working with Green/Parsons, but could you imagine a Green/Parsons Weaver routine...... I think that could be a good combo
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Yeah, you never know which choreographer is going to hook up with which team or individual athlete and create something significant or just serviceable. Some match-ups are made-in-heaven. Weaver with Flores/Desyatov was definitely magical. Weaver was clearly inspired creatively by what she saw in their partnership, which she helped to bring out with her movement, music, and concept ideas.

To each their own in what you are able to see in a team, or to perceive as an influential trend, program, or movement style that has impact. Or, that you are able to recognize as influential in a standalone program or performance. Check out Flores/ Desyatov's magical 2024 FD at U.S. Nationals. Their 2022-23 RD was also very special and electric (it was choreographed by their coach, Elena Dostatni). Massimo Scali is the choreographer of their equally mesmerizing 2022-23 debut season FD to Woodkid's Acoustic I Love You and Jamie Duffy's Solas. Scali also choreographed Flores/ Desyatov's 2023-24 sassy, energetic 80s RD to Def Leppard and Prince music selections. Weaver choreographed their 2023-24 West Side Story FD and their sadly little seen 2024-25 90s RD and creatively groundbreaking Poor Things FD.
 
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