I love that first camel-catchfoot-biellmann spin! It's gorgeous! Are there names for those beautiful intermediate positions? Where she first catches her foot in the camel, then lowers it into almost a layback, then raises it again? That final Biellmann is very pretty! A perfect tear shape, with her free arm draped across. I'm glad she's bring that spin back, she used it earlier on in her junior competition programs, I thought maybe she lost it along the way due to growth, but in fact she still has it, faster, prettier than ever, and topped with that new Biellmann position. Wow!
I also liked her spread eagle and ina bauer. But maybe the Japanese audience is finally getting over the ina-bauer craze generated by Shiz? First Mirai, now Caroline. It seems every other girl seems to be holding these ultra-flexible ina bauers in Japanese exhibitions nowadays.
The forward Charlotte in the encore is nice, wish she'd held it longer. The illusion spin looked a bit odd somehow: it was eerie how her upperbody and leg were alternating up-and-down, and her standing leg was perfectly still & completely centered. Do other people do the illusion spin like this?
Overall though, her skating was somewhat slow, tentative, and labored, and the jumps weren't there. Nary a smile. Just compare the lack of joy and energy in the encore to her JW exhibition encore. She looked like she wanted to go home.
Maybe the jetlag is finally getting to her... On the other hand, her first outing of her stunning YRMU exhibition last year at JGP Mexico was unremarkable, and she fell both there and in JGP Taipei. So maybe she can still improve on this exhibition piece. I don't really like the music, though, it's kinda bland, not much to work with...
