I was driving from out of town earlier getting heart palpitations at all this news. At this rate, Dave Lease probably won't sleep until the 4th of July.
Igor and Pasquale- i have been saying for years that i thought that would be the BOMB combination. Pasquale is a very good ice dance choreographer. He does go a little simple sometimes but that's where Igor can help.... HELP with the transitions. On the other hand, Pasquale relied on Anjelika to help with levels etc. but Igor is good at that. I think that Ice Dance teams flourish when they believe in their material and want to skate it to it's best. When the music, concept and choreography comes first, it's better. Chock and Bates have suffered because their material was sometimes a loose concept. More on that. Anyway, i think that Igor is FINALLY finding someone that is a suitable replacement for Marina. Blending lines, adding cohesive choreography and creating a look for a team.
Chock and Bates- I thought that retirement was going to happen. I feel like Igor spent 4 years giving them complex lifts and working on their feet/blade skills and ignored body line, posture and the two of them skating on the same plane. Marina was good at making sure that the details were good; matching angle of the head and shoulders etc. Pasquale spends hours working on that with his teams so i would have thought that he would be great for Chock and Bates previously.
This coaching change is confusing to me coming from the skaters and confusing as well from the coaches. What are Madison and Evan hoping to get from this? Marie-France has not always struck gold finding a look and point of view for her teams. It took a while for her to nail it with Madison and Zack. Also, Madison and Evan have so much work to do that i think it will take them 4 years to catch up. I do question adding them to the coaching roster though. I think burn out is real and having too many mouths to feed is a tough thing to manage and navigate.
Christian Carreira and Anthony Ponomorenko- I know that Marina Klimova works with Igor sometimes. I've see her in Novi working with teams. It makes sense that Anthony is there. One problem; Igor is styling them like Lang and Tchernyshev.This team can benefit greatly from having Pasquale work with them and i hope that they do.
Marina Zueva- Well, the good news is that she does good pair choreography. Bad news, nobody is using her these days. In terms of Ice Dance though, she's the odd "man" out. I think that in this quad, she is going to have the toughest time building a name for herself. Nobody at the top has stayed with her the past quad with the exception of the Shibs. Now that they're gone, i'm not sure. I don't know if she desires to mold a team from scratch at this point. I wonder if she would be a good advisor? I do wish she would work with American pairs and not just giving them an overused classical piece to skate to. I am wondering what she will be doing the next 4 years. I would hate for her to become like Natalia Linichuk but...