Okay, I'm ready to share my thoughts.
First of all, I'm very happy, because Katia and Dima warmed up right in front of me! It was so cool I've seen them this close. Katia looks amazing, VERY slim, probably better shape than ever, and her hais color is gorgeous. And THAT dress! Fabulous.
Second, I again was surprised HOW big is the difference at judging teams on the TV at home and live at ice rink. Every nuance visible here, body postures, speed and amplitude, quality of skating, smoothness etc. Who never seen a competition live SHOULD do it, it's amazing abd beautiful to see these dances.
I watched two groups of juniors first and was surprised to be honest, some of them were GOOD, considering I have no idea who they are. The winners for me are the team who skated almost exect copy of B/S 'Chess' SD, same music, almost the same dress as Katia's, less drama. They looked cute.
About Bobrova/Soloviev: They prepared for the dance with such determined faces, very focused. I was like
Their shape for September is great, they's fast and confident. I actually LOVED their twizzles, I was very skeptical about this first set at first, but now I see why Zhuline keeps them. That position with head bowed down looks solemn and somehow scary live (in a good sense), not to mention very difficult. They twizzled in almost perfect unison today, without any stumbles or losses of balance, and they rotated pretty fast. When I've seen them live last time with 'A Man with a harmonica' FD their twizzles were slower and had less amplitude.
The lift looked effortless and much better than at test skates. Very fast rotations, and it seemed like Dima gained speed during it. Very nice. I don't even know what lift I like better now: this one or that crazy straight line upside down lift from their FD.
Edges, lines, speed, power, maturity... it seems like they improved all components of their skating since the last time I've seen them live. I'm impressed to be honest, much more than I expected to be.
And the best part of the dance for me was march part. It looked polished actually, big, dramatic and somewhat very organic with music, their body movements and facial expressions. The right word to describe it will be powerful. I know there will be a LOT people who will not like it, because of a lot of dramatic gestures, arm movements etc. But it was very them, their style. And the final pose, when she's 'freezing' him, when done exectly with the end of music (like today) looks very nice, perfect match with a mood of the whole dance.
So I'm pretty happy with them, their performance and their score. They will improve over the season, and with clean skates their scores will be big. I'm very optimistic
