Duchesnays

[Sasha is DIVINE]

Can we talk about how the Duchesnays went from receiving 5.0s for Artistic Impression (which were not undeserved IMO) to 6.0s in the span of two years?? In ice dance in the late 80s/early 90s? Surely this was not common? Are there other teams this happened with?

I do love their Missing FD, but every other FD I've seen of theirs has ranged from not good to so bad it's funny. This team is truly fascinating to me.

 

[Private Citizen]

I was not a fan at the time and thought their programs were gimmicky and their skating skills weak.

BUT I will say that their programs are quite memorable and have (in my mind at least) stood the test of time. Their Josephine Baker OD, their tribal free dance, the two Missings, even West Side Story all had some great moments.

 

[SkateGuard]

Can we talk about how the Duchesnays went from receiving 5.0s for Artistic Impression (which were not undeserved IMO) to 6.0s in the span of two years?? In ice dance in the late 80s/early 90s? Surely this was not common? Are there other teams this happened with?

Torvill and Dean come to mind. They got a 5.1 for artistic impression at Worlds in 1979. By 1982, they received a slew of 6.0's. In those days, it was very much 'wait your turn' in ice dance and there wasn't a lot of movement in the standings but there were teams like Torvill & Dean and the Duchesnays who managed to move up quickly. Another team that had a pretty fast climb were the West Germans Petra Born and Rainer Schönborn, who trained with the same coach as the Duchesnays. They went from 16th to 3rd at the European Championships in 5 years.

Not going to get into my opinions other than say I was a huge fan - we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

So much of their material broke the mold and stood out from the crowd (Argentine Tango, Jungle Dance, Missing, etc). It wasn't until years after they retired that I realized how many issues there were with their skating. I think D&D probably deserved lots of 5.9/6.0s for presentation but much lower marks for technical merit.

 

[~tapdancer~]

They were just so different during that time period in ice dance. I remember their Jungle Dance just being so entertaining.

 

[canbelto]

They were considered the avante-garde couple (as opposed to Klimova and Ponomarenko who were very classical with superior skating skills).

 

[Judy]

They were definitely an exciting team.

 

[manhn]

Beyond the presentation, they had good speed and their lifts were memorable.

 

[overedge]

Another team that had a fast climb (and a fast descent) was Moniotte/Lavanchy, who went from 6th in the world to 2nd in two years. And then won a bronze the following year and were 4th two years later.

 

[canbelto]

P&C too. 13th --> 1st in one year.

 

[briancoogaert]

Their Mirror FD at 1991 Euros was very interesting to me.

Duchesnay & Duchesnay (FRA) - 1991 European Figure Skating Championships, Free Dance

Sofia, BULGARIA - 1991 European Figure Skating Championships, Ice Dancing, Free Dance - Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay of France placed 2nd in the Free Dance an...

www.youtube.com

 

[honey]

Looking back with adult eyes, the deficiencies in their skating are very clear (mostly with her, he was a strong skater). However, I cannot help but find myself wanting to rewatch a lot of their programs. Missing at the 1990 worlds is one of my all time favorite dance programs. It’s one I would show someone who didn’t know anything about skating to get them hooked. It’s exciting, it’s fast, it’s a fantastic piece of choreography.

This might be a bold thing to say , but Fear/Gibson are cut from the same cloth. There are weaknesses in one partners skating skills, but they consistently bring interesting material with crowd appeal (I’m sure some disagree ). And it wouldn’t surprise me if F/G end up being just as successful as the Duchesnay’s were.

 

[Icetalavista]

Looking back with adult eyes, the deficiencies in their skating are very clear (mostly with her, he was a strong skater). However, I cannot help but find myself wanting to rewatch a lot of their programs. Missing at the 1990 worlds is one of my all time favorite dance programs. It’s one I would show someone who didn’t know anything about skating to get them hooked. It’s exciting, it’s fast, it’s a fantastic piece of choreography.

This might be a bold thing to say , but Fear/Gibson are cut from the same cloth. There are weaknesses in one partners skating skills, but they consistently bring interesting material with crowd appeal (I’m sure some disagree ). And it wouldn’t surprise me if F/G end up being just as successful as the Duchesnay’s were.

Yes FearGib do in a way fit the same role as the duschenays did…except other couples are also doing “entertaining” programs. At the Olys however Klimova and Ponamarenko took the modern abstract route in their FD and soundly/rightfully beat the Duschenays. You could see the deficiencies in D&D’s technique in comparison. This dance is innovative but needs more complexity and less repetition and fewer crossovers. Dean did love to repeat things LOL

 

[Tesla]

West Side Story didn’t help. I loved the Duchesnays but K/P were the clear winners and had the better Olympic program.

 

[manhn]

I don’t see how a free dance about missing women in Argentina is supposed to be more crowd-pleasing than, say, My Fair Lady.

I rewatched their maligned WSS FD after a long time. Unpolished for sure, but still captivating. Their ice coverage is fantastic. Klimova and Ponomarenko really did not cover the ice that season for whatever reason, especially in their OD.

They provided an avenue for sibling teams to still show passion and intensity without it being romantic. Also, Paul really looks like Timothee Chalamet.

The top 3 teams of that era are legends in their own ways.

 

[barbk]

Their WSS is one of the few that ever captured the sharpness and angularity of Bernstein's score.

 

[Aussie Willy]

They had something that kind of transcended what the other teams were doing. Whilst skating skills were not as strong as other teams, they had a lot of difficulty in their moves.

I think it is worth watching Missing as done by T&D in their shows and then the Ds. T&D were really good, but for the Ds it totally worked and was the perfect program for them.

Also Christopher Dean probably found the perfect vessel in the Ds for his creativity. Not sure if they would have had the same success if they weren't coached by T&D.

I agree with others about WSS. Looking back it was a really good program and they captured the music very well. For me whilst I appreciated K&P's FD, I feel it wasn't their strongest FD. I enjoyed U&Z more at that Olympics.

 

[overedge]

I have to admit that the Duchesnays usually left me cold. They had excellent technique but their programs never really connected for me. They weren't as expressive as some of the other teams, but as others have pointed out, they may have been constrained by being brother and sister, and the ick factor that would have resulted if they'd done more traditional boy-girl programs.

 

[orbitz]

I don't think the Duchesnays was a top quality team. Without Chris Dean's choreography we would not remember the Duchesdays much at all. Did Dean choreographed all of their amateur numbers up to the Olympics ? The WSS had some unique elements but they did not have the skills to pull the program off effortlessly.

 

[gkelly]

Did Dean choreographed all of their amateur numbers up to the Olympics ?

Starting with the 1988 season, when they first made a splash.

 

[SkateGuard]

Did Dean choreographed all of their amateur numbers up to the Olympics ? The WSS had some unique elements but they did not have the skills to pull the program off effortlessly.

Christopher Dean started working with them during the 1987/88 season. "West Side Story" really wasn't in their wheelhouse at all and it was likely chosen to play it safe and appease the judges during the Olympic season. Susanna Rakhamo and Petri Kokko worked with the same coach as the Duchesnays and went with the same strategy with their Beatles FD in 1995. The safer choice didn't pay off for them either unfortunately.

 

[Judy]

One of my clearest memories was my adult brother asking me when the Duchesnays were skating (something like that) and I was kind of shocked he watched (ok his wife I guess did but I was stilled shocked ?.

I remember a small group of us met him at Canadian Nationals and he was very talkative and nice (I was definitely more shy) and he was saying how Marie-France Dubreuil Patrice Lauzon were the future of Cdn ice dance. That was soooo long ago.

 

[nuge]

I really liked one of their first FDs Eleanor's dream!