News and updates à la Française, part quatre

Cross-posting from Pairs thread:

New pair representing France ??: Megan Wessenberg and Denys Strekalin.

www.instagram.com

@wessenberg_strekalin on Instagram: "Hi everyone! We are very excited to announce the start of our partnership representing France⛸️🇫🇷 We will be training in France @asgapatinageartistique with @bruno_massot and in the US @foxvalleyicearena with @iam

1,314 likes, 67 comments - wessenberg_strekalin on June 18, 2025: "Hi everyone! We are very excited to announce the start of our partnership representing France⛸️🇫🇷 We will be training in France @asgapatinageartistique with @bruno_massot and in the US @foxvalleyicearena with @iamstefaniaberton...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
ice coverage said:
Cross-posting from Pairs thread:

New pair representing France ??: Megan Wessenberg and Denys Strekalin.​
​
www.instagram.com

@wessenberg_strekalin on Instagram: "Hi everyone! We are very excited to announce the start of our partnership representing France⛸️🇫🇷 We will be training in France @asgapatinageartistique with @bruno_massot and in the US @foxvalleyicearena with @iam

1,314 likes, 67 comments - wessenberg_strekalin on June 18, 2025: "Hi everyone! We are very excited to announce the start of our partnership representing France⛸️🇫🇷 We will be training in France @asgapatinageartistique with @bruno_massot and in the US @foxvalleyicearena with @iamstefaniaberton...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
Click to expand...

Was she briefly in a US Pairs team last season?
 
Sounds like the FFSG held their JGP selection test event this weekend. There doesn't appear to be any competition results that I can find, so I'm thinking the skaters just showed their programs & were informally judged. I've seen posts from both Ehrhard/Pellegris and Telemaque/Coulon about it, and Jean Medard mentioned traveling to it on Friday.
 
The French senior ice dance field is very crowded and deep these days. Isabella and Linus are both firecrackers and should be a lot of fun to watch even if the opportunities will be limited.
 
Here is a little work of mine I've been doing for some time (imperfect but I'll never be satisfied with it anyway).

Maps of 20 years of Arribert's programs (mostly by obskure young dancers) : themes, music (music repeats can be counted on the fingers of 1 hand across 150 programs) & costumes (low quality screenshots from Youtube but they are zoomable enough to see cuts and patterns, which were one of the reasons I did that map) as she picks, draws or control them all.
Around 75 FDs and 75 ODs/SDs/RDs.

Reinventing the developmental curriculum and thematic structure of ice-dance with a bunch of obskure youngsters is an achievement. Everyone has been studying and copying bits of her work, from young Hurtado/Diaz taking Blanc/Bouquet's signature lifts as theirs, to Zhulin's surprising taste in music around and after 2010 to Shpilband/Zoueva's Bollywood to Péchalat/Bourzat to Haguenauer, to WADA (Ramalama by McNamara/Carpenter in 2012-2013 and Hugues Le Bars by Tkachenko/Kiliakov in 2018-2019 for zombie programs ? Déjà vu ?), to the whole junior competition, to costume design, especially the dresses last season.
Even Benoit Richaud choreographing on Mona Ki Ngi Xica for Yihan Wang had me checking those maps.
 
I'm watching the first informations available for the new season in France. So far, not much from the figure skating committee. The ice dance committee has more and is more readable about who will enter this season's Tournois de France (TDF).

And I'm having a big shock with the solo ice dancers. The Benjamin year 1 solo has gone from 78 entries last season to 98 (so +20%). Solo Benjamin year 2 go from 26 to 55. More than +100%.
Minime years 1 +2 globally stays the same, Novice, Junior and Senior years too.

Question is : how the heck are they going all to fit in the TDF ? The TDF has 5 "days" (more like week-ends) with 2 competitions by "day", all the clubs going to either one or the other location.

That makes every competition gathering :
  • nearly 50 benjamins year 1
  • around 25 benjamin year 2
  • around 20 minimes year 1
  • around 10 minimes year 2
  • around 15 novices year 1
  • around 10 novices year 2
  • around 20 juniors
  • around 12 seniors
Plus the ice dance couples whose number is fortunatly stable.
That's gonna be crazy.
:yikes::yikes::yikes:


There are 2 new couples in junior that have drawn my attention :
One is training in Villard : that's Maissane Chine / Morgan Laliberté-Laurent. He's from Québec, she's from Bordeaux (she's Lucas Chataignoux's ex-partner).
The other is Kira Litskova / Tahory Taddei-Dugue (probably still with Stanislas Etzol, Arribert's ex-student). His ex-partner Louise Duprat has joined Villard after their split at the end of last season. Like Eva Bernard, Louise will do solo ice dance this season.
 
cholla said:
Just for the record, they no longer train under Roxanne Pétetin. But they were still with her when you met them. They parted way with Roxanne in good terms.
Click to expand...
Someone needs to spread the word, because she was listed as their coach in the chyron at French Masters this weekend.
 
Thanks @cholla. I have updated. Are they working with someone else in France now? Or are they full-time at I.AM? ETA: Their ISU bio lists only the I.AM coaches, but Bordeaux is still listed as a training location.
 
Last edited:
clairecloutier said:
Thanks @cholla. I have updated. Are they working with someone else in France now? Or are they full-time at I.AM? ETA: Their ISU bio lists only the I.AM coaches, but Bordeaux is still listed as a training location.
Click to expand...
They are coached fulltime in Montréal. Bordeaux is the club where they have their membership card. In France, as almost everywhere else I guess, being affiliated to a club is mandatory when you are into competitive skating. They may benefit from ice time in Bordeaux when they're in Europe like they did before but that will be without Roxanne behind the board. Hope to see you in Prague or even earlier if you plan to come to Angers 😉
 
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