The Dance Hall 9: Bring the Bling or No Beijing 2021-2022

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And yet Soucisse/Firus, as much as they've struggled and stalled, have three senior international medals, and Lajoie/Lagha have zero so far. You can call it timing or luck or whatever, and no doubt that plays a part. But it still suggests to me that, however successful L/L are domestically, they really need to step up their game if they want to hold their own on the world scene. Politicking can help, certainly, but they'll need to deliver the goods. Time will tell if they can do it.
Lajoie/Lagha had one senior season b4 v********* so actually this is their 2nd season as seniors.
Although Soucisse and Firus are both favs of mine I find they are kind of mismatched. Firus is kooky and can show so much personality while performing while I find Soucisse elegant and more classical. It is like they are dumbing down their inner skills to match each other. Maybe there is a magic program out there for them to bring to life but I haven't seen it yet.
My most favourite dance team right now in Canada is Fabbri/Ayer who also are quite new to Seniors & only had one yr.together in Juniors before they moved up. I would like to see them moving up. They are improving by leaps and bounds. Also the French team that have switched to Canada (but not eligible yet I believe) are very good. Lauriault/Legac.
 
If I had my way, Soucisse/Firus would have an "American in Paris" FD. It would give them characters to play, and I think those characters would suit their personalities. But we'll see what Carol and her team have in mind for them. The Aznavour FD was a step in the right direction, so I'm hoping she has further good ideas for them.
 
Seriously—I noticed Davis & Smolkin prominently standing on the sidelines next to the commentary team during the Ladies’ FS and Smolkin was clapping enthusiastically along with the Billie Eilish selection chosen by one of the young competitors, and I thought—I bet we get a Billie Eilish FD from them next season…:)
Igor wouldn’t know how to do that as it’s not something he can recycle.
 
Oh. Ehem...the advanced crawler here is Stepanova. Forgive me if I was unclear. :) Davis isn't that bad. Come on now. Let's at least see her at Europeans.

Scary funny though. Yeah.
oops...sorry I thought it was
Davis you were referring to. I did find Davis sluggish the few times I saw their program. In all honesty I did not watch this competition- xmas with a newly broken back which means I am moving around slower than molasses I am poking around looking for the competition but haven't found the ice dance. Now I have to go find it.
 
If I had my way, Soucisse/Firus would have an "American in Paris" FD. It would give them characters to play, and I think those characters would suit their personalities. But we'll see what Carol and her team have in mind for them. The Aznavour FD was a step in the right direction, so I'm hoping she has further good ideas for them.
I hope she does as I just think they are missing the program matching.
 
Oh gosh, @barbarafan! Hope you get well soon!
Me too....but I have a disease which was treated with high doses of prednisone & another drug. Prednisone worked great but was slowly being reduced to be completely replaced by another drug with hardly any side effects.......until it poisoned me. And then Osteoporosis jumped in there which has now produced compression fractures. Should be interesting to see what they will decide to do when I have my next appointment.
 
You know, I'd almost toss out anything but GPs and, maybe, Nebelhorn, because most of these events did have very generous panels (and everyone was also commenting, at the time, on how stingy the panel at Lombardia was).

In that scenario, the averages would be:

Komatsubara/Koleto - 65.85
Mueller/Dieck - 65.94
Nazarova/Nikitin - 66.07
Kazakova/Reviya - 66.95 (but currently injured enough to have pulled out of their Nov & Dec international assignments)
Turkkila/Versluis - 67.67
Garabedian/Proulx Senecal - 68.61
Taschlerova/Taschler - 70.51
I think Turkkila & Versluis have made a really strong argument if they skate well. They had a big mistake in the RD at Internationaux de France, but finished 5th there in the free ahead of Reed & Ambrulevicius and Carreira & Ponomarenko. Plus they won Nebelhorn handily. Even if you ignore Finlandia (since it was at home)--where they defeated both Spanish teams and Lajoie & Lagha and Carreira & Ponomarenko in the free, Nebelhorn and IDF made a strong statement.

As for the rest of the teams on your list, it's six of one, half dozen of another. Four years ago, I would never have predicted that Nazarova & Nikitin and Wang & Liu would get cut; but they did:p.

Well, DavSmo are going to take ZagGuer's slot, or maybe just below,
TBD.
 
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Come now, Green & Parsons could do it and it would be awesome :)
No Roxanne.

The music is so loud. (Not powerful. Loud. Especially in a rink. It overpowers almost everyone).

The exception being Takahashi. Weaver & Poje, I thought, did OK with it. And someone else, but I forget who the more recent person was and if I've forgotten, that's yet another reason for no Roxanne.
 
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No Roxanne.

The music is so loud. (Not powerful. Loud. Especially in a rink. It overpowers almost everyone).

The exception being Takahashi. Weaver & Poje, I thought, did OK with it. And someone else, but I forget who the more recent person was and if I've forgotten, that's yet another reason for no Roxanne.
Well, um, Virtue and Moir?
 
I think they deliberately avoided mentioning them ;)
I question the taste and objectivity of someone who holds up Weaver/Poje's MR program over V/M's myself...

I didn't even remember that W&P had skated to it. I thought they did Maria de Buenos Aires.
 
That was the year they rose past Crone/Poirier and became medal contenders in their own right. The Shibs won the bronze but some thought WeaPo should have won instead. Of course, you all know where I stand. WeaPo’s MR is actually one of my fave from theirs as it was just fun and flirty but had enough “earthiness” and drama that fits them like a glove. They showed a good bit of variety of emotions there. Then they started doing dances where it had one theme and emotion and it was mostly angst and drama. Which was fine when it worked and by did it work with Maria de Buenos Aires - my favorite routine of theirs though I admit the first incarnation of Je Suis Malade put them on an even higher level then MR did the previous season.
 
Question: How many World Standing points does an athlete get for a win at Europeans or 4CCs? I cannot remember. Is it 1,000 points? Or less?
 
Some notes from Russian Nationals:

SinKats looked sharp and ready in the RD, on a level above everyone else. Pattern, steps, choreography details (even if I am still not a fan of the first part) - everything was great. But as we all know, it's not the RD they should worry about, and I really hoped they could show some improvements in the FD. I really hope Nikita's back can survive through the next few months and they will be able to show their best at Euros and in Beijing.

Stepanova/Bukin
I think I haven't seen them live since 2019, and while I can't say that her SS have improved, their ice coverage and overall speed most certainly had. In the FD they were in the league of their own and considering they were skating after Diana Davis, they looked like skating gods :lol:
Looking at the Zhuk/Svinin/Morozov interractions at the boards and how all of their teams looked prepared and confident at this year's Nationals, I think was a very good strategical move to join their efforts.

I'd say that Shanaeva/Naryzhny were my pleasant surprise this time. I am not a big fan of Zhuk/Svinin group and they way they teach basics as most of their girls have very stiff knees and very arguable skating skills. However, Shanaeva looked pretty good and if we forget about all the daughters and other ice dance relatives, I'd say that this team has some potential.

For me, Morozof/Bagin should have been second and with some margin. Not because they are great, but as others are worse.
I was a bit disappointed in Skoptsova/Aleshin - I have always had a soft spot for them, but they really looked rough and like they have already given up. Ushakova/Nekrasov are a team with great skating skills and overall speed, amplitude of movements, but they need more suitable programs and I think in this case Zhuk/Svinin approach to choreography may help them in the future.

And I will keep my mouth closed about Davis/Smolkin/judging because I can go on and on and on about it ?
 
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I see Zueva has been griping about not getting a trip to the Olympics. :shuffle:

Adds some cold comfort to Diana Davis bringing Igor along.

But wow - when was the last time she didn't take a dance team to the games? I wonder if she's going as a choreographer this year for anyone?
 
I see Zueva has been griping about not getting a trip to the Olympics. :shuffle:
I don't know what she said/has been saying, but, in general, I think she was right to do that. Coaches have to defend their skaters, as long as they don't bring it to Plushenko's level of ridiculousness. Not doing so always looks worse.

Also, she would be right to mention their scoring potential, which, I think, is indeed higher than K/K's, as would be their chances of getting into the FD at the Olympics.
 
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I don't know what she said/has been saying, but, in general, I think she was right to do that. Coaches have to defend their skaters, as long as they don't bring it to Plushenko's level of ridiculousness. Not doing so always looks worse.

Also, she would be right to mention their scoring potential, which, I think is indeed higher than M/K's, as would be their chances of getting into the FD at the Olympics.
No idea who are M/K, but sour grapes are never a good look.
 
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