New Dance couple - Stavitskaia / Shibnev

[Abraxis12345]

I think the lesson here is, beauty and instagram photos mean nothing if you can't do steps in hold. This couple has a TON of work to do. Maria is stiff legged and Anton has very poor edges. And I cringed seeing Anton dragging Maria around considering his last partner had to drag him around.

 

[hanca]

I think the lesson here is, beauty and instagram photos mean nothing if you can't do steps in hold. This couple has a TON of work to do. Maria is stiff legged and Anton has very poor edges. And I cringed seeing Anton dragging Maria around considering his last partner had to drag him around.

It must be extremely hard to switch to ice dance. In fact, harder than switching to pairs. When she was working on her triples, the dancers were spending hours to work on their edges and turns. It is very optimistic that she will suddenly and miraculously catch up, while the other ice dancers (her current competitors) have put in hours and hours of work in the past. They have spent perhaps last ten years working on it. She just can't suddenly have it. There is a lot of work to be done. A lot of people think that ice dance is just skating without the jumps, but it doesn't work like that.

 

[chuckm]

They finished 8th of 9 couples at Lombardia Trophy. Not a sparkling debut, to say the least.

 

[AlexRus]

Lombardia Trophy - 8th of 9, score 96.49.

2nd Event of Russian Cup - 2nd of 5, score 110.76, video FD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB6pwRSJ6nM
They have good chance to qualify to Nationals - it would be a very good result of absolutely new couple, where Lady never skated as dancer (she was at previous Nationals as single skater, 11th place with score 160.85, with this score she would earn the same place - 11th - at US Nationals).

 

[Abraxis12345]

It's not hard to qualify for nationals as a senior dance couple as there are hardly any couples. The first flight at last year's nationals was quite horrifying and it says a lot that a pair like Sosnitskaya and Golovishnikov are in the reserve team by default.

ETA: if you compare them to Lorenz and Polizoakis, where the man also just switched a few months ago, their result is really not good

 

[hanca]

I wouldn't say that they are bad, but they are just not good enough. And even though Russia may not have currently the top of worlds dance couples, I think I/Z and B/S could fight for a place at the podium at worlds, and S/B and M/K are top ten at wolds, plus then there is Sinitsina/Katsalapov (if they pull it together) and Zahorsky's/Gurreiro (if she gets release) and Y/M who are freshly out of juniors but have the potential to become pretty decent. So that's seven couples who are far ahead and I don't think Stavitskaya/Shibnev have a chance to catch up on that. And even if they managed to catch up one or two couples, that still won't be enough to get anywhere except of B competitions. Unless they change countries.

 

[sabinfire]

I hear they aren't skating together anymore. If true, that didn't last very long!

 

[bramweld]

I hear they aren't skating together anymore. If true, that didn't last very long!

Yup, I went on her ask.fm page, she confirmed it. So disappointing. They weren't going to make a meteoric rise to the top but they seemed like a lovely pair to me. Oh well, she says she'll continue to skate in Zhulin's group. She is also looking for a new partner. :sad46:

In case Bagin feels that his partner has outgrown him, maybe he could try with Maria? No offence intended to his current partner.

 

[hanca]

Well, I really liked watching her when she was a singles skater, but quite honestly, I don't think they have any chance to get through in Russian seniors. I know that the Russian seniors are not that strong, but she will be competing against pairs that won junior worlds. Most of the pairs who skate in seniors had pretty decent results in juniors. I don't think one can afford to skip five or ten years of specialising in dance and suddenly match their skills to those pairs who have concentrated on dance since they were perhaps ten years old. I am not saying that Stavitskaya was not skating at that time, but she would have spent considerable time practising her jumps and spins, while the dancers were working on edges and turns. I don't think one can make up ten years. But we will see. If they are doing it just for enjoyment, why not. But I can't see them making Russian team (probably not even after this coming season) and may end up on B competitions only.

Well, I knew they would not get anywhere. If she was at least paired with a partner who is very good, maybe he would be successfully dragging her around and the judges may not notice that he would be doing job for both of them, but he is not that great and she is complete beginner...

 

[hanca]

In case Bagin feels that his partner has outgrown him, maybe he could try with Maria? No offence intended to his current partner.

As a male skater, I think there would be plenty of female skaters he could choose from, and they would be much more experienced in ice dance. Why would he want to skate with an ice dance beginner? That would be career suicide. Even if he had to break up some junior ice dance couple, the female partner would probably be much better than Maria. And that's nothing personal against her, but it will take a while before she is a decent ice dancer.

 

[bramweld]

As a male skater, I think there would be plenty of female skaters he could choose from, and they would be much more experienced in ice dance. Why would he want to skate with an ice dance beginner? That would be career suicide. Even if he had to break up some junior ice dance couple, the female partner would probably be much better than Maria. And that's nothing personal against her, but it will take a while before she is a decent ice dancer.

Could be right about that, but they seem to be well paired with their current partners.

 

[Layback11]

Already?!?

:roll9::hslap:

What is happening to all these dance teams?!?

 

[bramweld]

What is happening to all these dance teams?!?[/QUOTE]

From your lips to...who knows where :sad21: They gave up before they even got started. But anyways she's still looking for a partner. I'm not sure about Shibnev.