Especially since, IMO, she was a better stylist and interpreter of the social dances underlying the rhythm dance themes. Not that he wasn't great, but she was, as people way younger than I would call it, the "chef's kiss."
Well, but Nik S and Zac L are taking lots of flak these days, for mistakes and affect. Morozov’s ex-partner got bad reviews. So it can go the other way, but thinking of the “weaker link” accusations on Kaitlin and Lilah and Somerville’s current partner, ?
I think for now, yes. She's tended to be the more reliable one in recent seasons. I think they will equal out over the next year or so though. I also think her performance ability has come a long way - in saying that though, personally, I found them to be pretty great junior perfomers. His performance ability at like 15 was one of the reasons why I liked them as juniors. That is one of his biggest areas to work on now, imo.
That made me think back to Lombardia Trophy's live-streaming when they were commenting on Fusar Poli being technically stronger than Maraglia, Valter Rizzo came up with "but Maurizio was a great porteur!"
He also brought the porny/sexy to that team, and you can never underestimate how far sex can take you on the road to success.
Controversially (?) I think Gabi was better than Gui in the last quad
It sounds interesting but I am not sure I get what you are saying. Could you elaborate with an example maybe ?
yes absolutely. i enjoy the variety of performances we get from the various teams(Snip & bold mine) Agreed - not to mention how many of us older than 35 who have strong female dancers more in mind than those newer to the sport. Everyone is compared to the 1994 Olympic podium for me.
Another reason for the current disparity we see currently could be due to lifts becoming such integral elements compared to 2002 or even 2006. If you're Lewis Gibson and the judging system is similar to 2002, depending on your options, you possibly choose a different partner.
Luckily things have played out differently. While I can recognize Ms. Fear's skating issues, I'd rather ice dance WITH Fear & Gibson than without.
She's certainly highlighted better this year. I have no idea if Christina was truly that far behind Anthony in the first place. They strike me as a team (like many) with different strengths who will even out together.
Hard to say for me being in no-teknik (thank you @Wyliefan for reminding me of the term), but I found Gabi's biggest improvement last quad was in how she commanded the ice WITH Guillaume. Their Wacking RD wouldn't have been as intense/impressive if she was the same skater as she was in 2018-- and she was obviously quite exceptional then. Big reason I think P&C were sooooo amazing: they didn't create programs that hid their deficiencies, I feel like they leaned into them instead. (I'm not explaining that very well...)
Oh yeah, Bestemianova/Bukin had great compulsories that were more about sustaining fast and deep run-of-edges. However, who would have won the yet-to-be adapted and then turned into a CD "Golden Waltz"?
I loved their 2016 FD, but I also thought it was too close to their previous Mozart program the year before in tone. This overly romanticized sense of "Gabi is a haunted but graceful gamine that needs protection". Considering how good the IAM team is at playing to their teams strengths, they could have stayed on that spectrum and Guillaume could carry Gabi to every win. But that's not what they did. It started with their less-popular 2017 "Stillness" FD that had a bit more mirrored movement, less hiding one partner behind the other. When they were criticized for lack of "traditional male/female romance," they came back with a supremely passionate Tango and almost saccharine romance with Ms. Yamagata. They addressed it head on, imho. I always thought the criticisms of Christina were overblown. Yes she wasn't as advanced as he was when they were in juniors, but Anthony is one of those exceptional prodigies, just about anyone would look inferior. She's always been solid and steady, but the way people talked about them sometimes you'd think Christina could barely do a three turn without his help. And their performance quality was very good and well matched in juniors. The increasing struggles with his injury and less than stellar packaging and inconsistency weakened his skating and performance quality, but given the progress they've already made I expect them to get all of that back and more.
purely me speculating but I feel like Christina herself thinks she's improved, or at least has people around her now reminding her of how good she actually is. I'll never forget that interview after Skate America 2020 when she said that she knew Anthony was so much better than her and she might never match him. I get the impression that their new coaches would absolutely discourage that kind of comparison.
She's also mentioned how much having Madison Hubbell as a coach has helped. She also thanked Madison for being her glam squad all week at Espoo, so I feel like you're right. Christina is building confidence by getting it from her coaches, both on and off the ice. And I'll be honest, having Scott Moir to partner you can be kind of huge. I had an amazing dance coach, and skating with him made me worlds better individually. I trusted him implicitly and then learned I could do so much more than I thought. I think it's just a perfect set of conditions for Christina in particular to excel.
)I couldn't love this post more.
True.That would be ideal - but not everyone is capable of that specificity. Ideally that would mean people would just not comment instead of leaning on blanket statements, but then this is FSU. (And this thread would be really quiet
I do agree and also think it’s difficult during the required elements, especially in the old pattern dances where skaters would get a level 2 and you weren’t sure why when the edge looked deep enough and clean enough to non-expert eyes. But I do think if you look “outside” of the elements and just watch how the skaters are getting across the rink and if one partner is constantly being pulled or “handled”, then it’s easier to see.True.
But then people shouldn't be commenting on a skater's skating skills.
Having said that, I don't think VGThuy's examples were that difficult for long time fans to notice and point out. Except for maybe skating on flats. That's a pretty tough one for even expert fans to see accurately in real time. Slow-Mo helps of course.
Especially with some of the slow mo camera work while waiting for marks in the kiss and cry.
It's so drastically unfair. The worst they get is they're considered too short-- and even then, it's relative to their partner, and often enough someone suggests they should find someone smaller. How different the entire rest of the quad probably would have been if K&D won 1 more judge and won the 86 worlds. Given the way ice dance worked back then, I honestly can't imagine them losing to B&B even a single time ever again. Instead they would never beat them a single time as amateurs again, and never even came that close ever again.Oh yeah, Bestemianova/Bukin had great compulsories that were more about sustaining fast and deep run-of-edges. However, who would have won the yet-to-be adapted and then turned into a CD "Golden Waltz"?
I think you do have a point about whether Klimova/Ponomarenko could have overtaken B/B if it was just the OD/FD format of today since they did win the OSP over B/B at both 1986 and 1987 Worlds and they lost 1986 Worlds FD in a 5/4 split.
during the last olys, someone on tiktok posted some footage from evan bates' ig live where the i.am teams were practicing a rumba pattern with mixed partners (diaz & hubbell & papadakis together, chock with either cizeron or donahue i think, etc.). they're all goofing around with each other during the gala practice.
