Who has the best new programs so far in this season?
- Thread starter soccerjc77
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2024
Davis/Smolkin RD
Amber Glenn SP
Ami Nakai FS
François Pitot FS
Amber Glenn SP
Ami Nakai FS
François Pitot FS
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2014
Lara Naki Gutmann FP
Amber Glenn FP
Amber Glenn FP
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2019
Forgot Slutzkaya/Goncharov's RD! I know they are juniors, but so much fun.
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2018
There really haven't been any great ones that I believe will be remembered after the season is over, but I guess that happens some times. Just not usually in Olympic years.
A few have been good. like Isabeau and Mone. The men have been especially uninspired which is a pity.
A few have been good. like Isabeau and Mone. The men have been especially uninspired which is a pity.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2025
i also like ambers short program. i do wonder if she will change anything to increase her score for milan because its kinda clear shes going. i do think at cup of china she looked a lil tired at the end but i think that down to it being ealry in the season and im sure that will only get better as the season goes on and she gets in her rhythm
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
It was wonderful at NHK where they did not fall!!I really enjoyed Green and Parson's RD until Michael fell.
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2018
I really really loved Sarah Everhardt's Poor Things free. Yes it's great packaging to hide some of her weaknesses in performance, but as far as themed programs go, it's choreographed very well and she executes them very well too physically. As I said in the NHK thread, I wish US Ladies have 4 spots because I really want the program to be seen by cinephile Twitter during the Olympics 
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2023
I mean Yuna Aoki short is the best program of all that were presented this season and it's not even close,but it is kinda expected from her 
Rion Sumiyoshi Short was most likely one that stands the most for me right now,but i also believe that Rinka Free is crazy good this season.
Rion Sumiyoshi Short was most likely one that stands the most for me right now,but i also believe that Rinka Free is crazy good this season.
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
Of the performances I have seen this season:
Ladies:
Lara Naki Gutmann's programs
; Amber Glenn's sp; Isabeau Levito's programs are very engaging and well-suited for her. Honorable mentions: Ami Nakai; Yuna Aoki.
Men:
AdamSHF's wonderful programs; Ilia Malinin's sp; Sasha Selevko's Prince sp; Mihhail Selevko's creative programs; Maxim Naumov's sp; Kazuki Tomono has interesting programs, but not skated to his full potential yet (same for Kao Miura, especially his original fp, which he dropped for a prior program
).
Honorable mentions: 1) Roman Sadovsky's exhibition, and his programs always suit his graceful abilities. I wish he could skate with more consistency and self-belief. 2) I loved the Tron exhibition Arlet Levandi skated to during the summer. I always enjoy watching Arlet perform! I look forward to seeing his new season's programs. He is so creative.
Estonia needs three spots for men! 3) Jacob Sanchez's sp and his exhibition filmed by OIP; Junior Men: Rio Nakata; Grayson Long.
Everyone loves Yuma's fp. For me, it seems slightly pretentious. Granted, it seems to be a worthy attempt to highlight his wonderful qualities and help him to emote more, instead of looking down. Yuma is so adorable and so talented. I want to see him releasing pent-up stress and the demanding expectations to increase his quad count, because his tech precision is suffering with non-called URs. I would like to see Yuma work with someone else (other than Kostner & Nichol) who might be able to bring out more of the sweet, mischievous, expansive side of his personality. The current crew around him seem to have these lofty, nose-in-the-air, grand ideas about what types of classic themes and music he should skate to.
For me, these over-ambitious ideas coupled with intense tech demands are weighing Yuma down with too much pressure and anxiety. Free Yuma to skate happy and peaceful, please! 
Ladies:
Lara Naki Gutmann's programs
; Amber Glenn's sp; Isabeau Levito's programs are very engaging and well-suited for her. Honorable mentions: Ami Nakai; Yuna Aoki.Men:
AdamSHF's wonderful programs; Ilia Malinin's sp; Sasha Selevko's Prince sp; Mihhail Selevko's creative programs; Maxim Naumov's sp; Kazuki Tomono has interesting programs, but not skated to his full potential yet (same for Kao Miura, especially his original fp, which he dropped for a prior program
).Honorable mentions: 1) Roman Sadovsky's exhibition, and his programs always suit his graceful abilities. I wish he could skate with more consistency and self-belief. 2) I loved the Tron exhibition Arlet Levandi skated to during the summer. I always enjoy watching Arlet perform! I look forward to seeing his new season's programs. He is so creative.
Estonia needs three spots for men! 3) Jacob Sanchez's sp and his exhibition filmed by OIP; Junior Men: Rio Nakata; Grayson Long.Everyone loves Yuma's fp. For me, it seems slightly pretentious. Granted, it seems to be a worthy attempt to highlight his wonderful qualities and help him to emote more, instead of looking down. Yuma is so adorable and so talented. I want to see him releasing pent-up stress and the demanding expectations to increase his quad count, because his tech precision is suffering with non-called URs. I would like to see Yuma work with someone else (other than Kostner & Nichol) who might be able to bring out more of the sweet, mischievous, expansive side of his personality. The current crew around him seem to have these lofty, nose-in-the-air, grand ideas about what types of classic themes and music he should skate to.
For me, these over-ambitious ideas coupled with intense tech demands are weighing Yuma down with too much pressure and anxiety. Free Yuma to skate happy and peaceful, please! 
Lidia Poet suits her perfectly (I recommend watching Netflix series!) and FP is also sooo Lara.- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
Of the programs I have seen so far:
Dance:
Top of the heap * Laurence F-B/ Guillaume Cizeron, especially their FD;
Piper/Paul's RD -- sadly, their Vincent FD reboot was a mess. OMG, could they please bring back the Wuthering Heights FD, the Evita FD, or the 2014 Hitchcock FD!!!! Let's flood their IGs with this request!
Green/Parsons have programs that work well for them and are enjoyable to watch;
Loved the Taschler's RD, but their Matrix FD has problems they need to fix;
The Browns have very good programs, especially their Godfather FD; IMO, Carreira/ Ponomarenko need to reboot their last season's FD asap;
Peal siblings programs are interesting, but not yet fully realized. As newbies to seniors, the Peals hit the jackpot in moving to train with IAM's Moir/ Hubbell/ Diaz.
Honorable mention: crowd-pleasing programs for Allison & Saul this season that they vibe to so well, but their skating skills are not great.
I'm also NOT a fan of Lauriault/ LeGac's lack of skating skills, but their programs this season are fresh and exciting, thanks to their IAM coaches coaching switch to Moir/ Hubbell.
Junior teams: Lots of lovely standouts, especially Jane Calhoun/ Mark Zheltyshev; Jasmine Robertson/ Chase Rohner; Layla Veillon/ Alexander Brandys; Aneta Vaclavikova/ William Lissauer, and last season's breakout team, Hana Maria Aboian/ Daniil Veselukhin
I honestly do NOT care much for Lim/Quan as an ice dance team, but IAM coaches have created for them a fun Men In Black RD, and a lovely, elegaic wartime-themed FD to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. This FD reminds me so much of modern dance choreographer, Paul Taylor's work, Sunset, danced to Edward Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Elegy for Strings. Oh my heart! I wish Flores/Desyatov were still together and skating to these very programs, as choreographed by Kaitlyn Weaver. F/D were her muses.
A move KW created for Flores/ Desyatov in their 2024-25 FD to the soundtrack of Poor Things has been copied by Benoit for Zingas/Kolesnik's Romeo & Juliet, an overall program choice undoubtedly inspired by KW's 2023-24 West Side Story FD for Flores/ Desyatov which had received a standing ovation at 2024 U.S. Nationals. It was a fresh, inspiring take on a much used theme and music selection.
I believe both Lim/ Quan's FD and most definitely Pham/ Spirodonov's FD to Ghost: The Musical were inspired by KW's WSS FD for Flores/Desyatov. Spirodonov is even wearing an outfit similar to that of Desyatov in WSS. Fresh, inspiring moves and musical choices are always being copied in ice dance and in figure skating, generally. Shae Lynn Bourne was also inspired by Flores/ Desyatov's Poor Things FD to use similar music from that soundtrack for Sarah Everhardt's free program, likely to challenge her. So far, PT is not working for Sarah.
Dance:
Top of the heap * Laurence F-B/ Guillaume Cizeron, especially their FD;
Piper/Paul's RD -- sadly, their Vincent FD reboot was a mess. OMG, could they please bring back the Wuthering Heights FD, the Evita FD, or the 2014 Hitchcock FD!!!! Let's flood their IGs with this request!
Green/Parsons have programs that work well for them and are enjoyable to watch;
Loved the Taschler's RD, but their Matrix FD has problems they need to fix;
The Browns have very good programs, especially their Godfather FD; IMO, Carreira/ Ponomarenko need to reboot their last season's FD asap;
Peal siblings programs are interesting, but not yet fully realized. As newbies to seniors, the Peals hit the jackpot in moving to train with IAM's Moir/ Hubbell/ Diaz.
Honorable mention: crowd-pleasing programs for Allison & Saul this season that they vibe to so well, but their skating skills are not great.
I'm also NOT a fan of Lauriault/ LeGac's lack of skating skills, but their programs this season are fresh and exciting, thanks to their IAM coaches coaching switch to Moir/ Hubbell.Junior teams: Lots of lovely standouts, especially Jane Calhoun/ Mark Zheltyshev; Jasmine Robertson/ Chase Rohner; Layla Veillon/ Alexander Brandys; Aneta Vaclavikova/ William Lissauer, and last season's breakout team, Hana Maria Aboian/ Daniil Veselukhin
I honestly do NOT care much for Lim/Quan as an ice dance team, but IAM coaches have created for them a fun Men In Black RD, and a lovely, elegaic wartime-themed FD to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. This FD reminds me so much of modern dance choreographer, Paul Taylor's work, Sunset, danced to Edward Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Elegy for Strings. Oh my heart! I wish Flores/Desyatov were still together and skating to these very programs, as choreographed by Kaitlyn Weaver. F/D were her muses.
A move KW created for Flores/ Desyatov in their 2024-25 FD to the soundtrack of Poor Things has been copied by Benoit for Zingas/Kolesnik's Romeo & Juliet, an overall program choice undoubtedly inspired by KW's 2023-24 West Side Story FD for Flores/ Desyatov which had received a standing ovation at 2024 U.S. Nationals. It was a fresh, inspiring take on a much used theme and music selection. I believe both Lim/ Quan's FD and most definitely Pham/ Spirodonov's FD to Ghost: The Musical were inspired by KW's WSS FD for Flores/Desyatov. Spirodonov is even wearing an outfit similar to that of Desyatov in WSS. Fresh, inspiring moves and musical choices are always being copied in ice dance and in figure skating, generally. Shae Lynn Bourne was also inspired by Flores/ Desyatov's Poor Things FD to use similar music from that soundtrack for Sarah Everhardt's free program, likely to challenge her. So far, PT is not working for Sarah.
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
Pairs:
Kam/ O'Shea are hands-down the best pairs team in how they move together and in the overall quality of their pairs elements. Ellie just needs to believe in herself in competition on the throw landings. She has mastered the sbs 3-salchow. Their musical selections are not as great as the past two seasons, yet, meaningful for them. Despite the cheesiness, they are managing to make their choices work;
Oxana Vouillamoz/ Tom Bouvart's sp to a Michael Jackson medley: Liberian Girl; Remember the Time; and Smooth Criminal.
Their fp to the much used Clubbed to Death from The Matrix, is also very good, but still a work-in-progress in terms of skating cleanly. In their first season together last year, they also had two great programs which immediately got them noticed. They are an exciting young, up-and-coming team with speed, power, good elements, and great chemistry. They just need more experience, polish, and mastery of their superb skills;
Honestly, when I saw Pereira/ Michaud's new programs at their Challenger event, I immediately felt that these are the best programs choreographed for them to date. I especially enjoyed their sp at Skate Canada, but even their fp to The Mission is just great for them (it's a direct copy of Savchenko/ Szolkowy's 2006-2007 fp -or homage-
Lia is wearing the same costume Aljona wore, in a slightly different shade, but still with the distinctive cross design on the front). Now, they just need to skate both programs cleanly;
While Pavlova/ Sviatchenko are not my favorite pairs team, boy did their choreographers do them a great service! Lovely programs, especially their sp to Earth Song ch. by Luca Lanotte, fp to Without You ch. by Benoit Richaud;
I do not care for Miura/Kihara as an overscored pairs team, although I admire their skating skills, exquisite knee bend, speed, and ice coverage. Unfortunately, they are NOT at all musically expressive, nor do they have any interpretive abilities. Their choreographers deserve much credit. This season, I especially notice that M-F Dubreuil learned just how not musical they are from working with them last season on the Benjamin Clementine fp to Adiós. Thus, this season, M-F brilliantly chose fp music and choreo for M/K which helps camouflage their lack of musicality. I was impressed by the operatic fp music from The Gladiator building beautifully and working hand-in-hand with the clever choreo. If M/K can manage to skate clean, this fp could work well for them at the Olympics. But seriously, do they need any help when the judges routinely give them scores out-the-wazoo for a cleanly skated sp, this year a slightly reworked repeat of SL Bourne's choreo to Paint It Black, by the Rolling Stones.
Honorable mention: I think Deanna/Max's programs are better this season and good to watch when skated well. There were some musical construction issues with their fp; it needs to build more as it lulls in the middle -- maybe they have worked that out;
While Hase/Volodin are one of my fave pairs teams, I was not blown away by their program choices for the Olympics season. Their Maxime Rodriguez tango sp is okay and safe. I was expecting so much more from Benoit's grand IG-advertised fp music for them to a Max Richter medley. What Benoit has created for H/V in their fp is not outstanding. It's okay, but not very memorable, nor does it pull on my emotions at all. I'm just waiting for something interesting to happen. Benoit over does it thrice with the much copied 'running in the air' move that Guillaume Cizeron originally created for James/Cipres, but is usually credited to Savchenko/ Massot.
For real, current and former competitive ice dancers are majorly the best choreographers in figure skating.
️
Kam/ O'Shea are hands-down the best pairs team in how they move together and in the overall quality of their pairs elements. Ellie just needs to believe in herself in competition on the throw landings. She has mastered the sbs 3-salchow. Their musical selections are not as great as the past two seasons, yet, meaningful for them. Despite the cheesiness, they are managing to make their choices work;
Oxana Vouillamoz/ Tom Bouvart's sp to a Michael Jackson medley: Liberian Girl; Remember the Time; and Smooth Criminal.
Their fp to the much used Clubbed to Death from The Matrix, is also very good, but still a work-in-progress in terms of skating cleanly. In their first season together last year, they also had two great programs which immediately got them noticed. They are an exciting young, up-and-coming team with speed, power, good elements, and great chemistry. They just need more experience, polish, and mastery of their superb skills;Honestly, when I saw Pereira/ Michaud's new programs at their Challenger event, I immediately felt that these are the best programs choreographed for them to date. I especially enjoyed their sp at Skate Canada, but even their fp to The Mission is just great for them (it's a direct copy of Savchenko/ Szolkowy's 2006-2007 fp -or homage-
Lia is wearing the same costume Aljona wore, in a slightly different shade, but still with the distinctive cross design on the front). Now, they just need to skate both programs cleanly;While Pavlova/ Sviatchenko are not my favorite pairs team, boy did their choreographers do them a great service! Lovely programs, especially their sp to Earth Song ch. by Luca Lanotte, fp to Without You ch. by Benoit Richaud;
I do not care for Miura/Kihara as an overscored pairs team, although I admire their skating skills, exquisite knee bend, speed, and ice coverage. Unfortunately, they are NOT at all musically expressive, nor do they have any interpretive abilities. Their choreographers deserve much credit. This season, I especially notice that M-F Dubreuil learned just how not musical they are from working with them last season on the Benjamin Clementine fp to Adiós. Thus, this season, M-F brilliantly chose fp music and choreo for M/K which helps camouflage their lack of musicality. I was impressed by the operatic fp music from The Gladiator building beautifully and working hand-in-hand with the clever choreo. If M/K can manage to skate clean, this fp could work well for them at the Olympics. But seriously, do they need any help when the judges routinely give them scores out-the-wazoo for a cleanly skated sp, this year a slightly reworked repeat of SL Bourne's choreo to Paint It Black, by the Rolling Stones.
Honorable mention: I think Deanna/Max's programs are better this season and good to watch when skated well. There were some musical construction issues with their fp; it needs to build more as it lulls in the middle -- maybe they have worked that out;
While Hase/Volodin are one of my fave pairs teams, I was not blown away by their program choices for the Olympics season. Their Maxime Rodriguez tango sp is okay and safe. I was expecting so much more from Benoit's grand IG-advertised fp music for them to a Max Richter medley. What Benoit has created for H/V in their fp is not outstanding. It's okay, but not very memorable, nor does it pull on my emotions at all. I'm just waiting for something interesting to happen. Benoit over does it thrice with the much copied 'running in the air' move that Guillaume Cizeron originally created for James/Cipres, but is usually credited to Savchenko/ Massot.
For real, current and former competitive ice dancers are majorly the best choreographers in figure skating.
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