Real time reaction.
Lopareva/Brissaud: Gosh… Bjork is making my ears hurt. I know I’m supposed to like her and she’s a connoisseur’s artist, but I don’t care. I don’t like the sound of her voice and her style of singing/screaming (I know, I know, it’s her emotion and power coming out), and there’s only so much tedious industrial beats I can take. Nice to see Lopareva continuing Marina Anissina’s dye job. It makes me nostalgic.
Reed/Ambrulevicius: “this is my church, this is where I heal my hurt.” Oh lord…
. One-foot sequence looked a bit weak compared to the last few teams. I’m digging the beat, hells yeah! Time for me to go confessing on the dance floor. I think I’m enjoying the music more than their skating. They’re not bad, but this seems okay. I get what they’re going for, but it’s not enough to match the music.
Canada, France, Lithuania… I miss late 90s-early 2000s ice dance.
Zingas/Kolesnik: I still remember him with Avonley Nguyen. Oooh, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Johnny has a crush on him. Zingas has Tanith Belbin coloring, Madison Chock’s facial expressions, and Meryl Davis’ hair. He has a costume Scott Moir would wear. They really are an Igor team and in ice dance today he’s as refreshing as he was after the dirge years with shredded skirts and men with long hair before 2004. I get the praise, Kolesnik is amazing. I don’t get much of a connection between them though, so I don’t see Romeo and Juliet. They do look like they’re members of the same gang and are about to bash some Capulets’ heads. The beginning of an 8-year plan? I’ll check back in 8 years when fans complain about them and wish there was new blood.
Guignard/Fabbri: From the opening pose with the camera showing her from the torso, she looks like Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 LP. Twizzle error. I’m always so impressed with their lifts… maybe it’s because of how close they are in height. The music was better before the singing started… much better. I don’t get that choreographic step, especially the “ta da” moves on their knees. Did Babs choreograph this? She never had much taste in programs. The audacity of them complaining about the scores all season when they had that FD, but I get the sentiment.
Fear/Gibson: her dress reminds me of when Charlotte York created a plaid dress for the MacDougal clan soirée. Of course, the Proclaimers. Good opening. Ooop… bad mistake on twizzle. “500 Miles” is fun and all, but it doesn’t really add to the spirit of this dance or their choreo or their faces. I guess lyrics don’t matter. “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond”… this FD is probably the Scottish version of those Hollywood movies about how magical Ireland is that allezfred loves so much. All I can think about is how much better the Kerrs’ OD was. Tracy keeps saying how engaging teams are for the audience, but it’s hard to tell from the tv. Well, that was pastiche.
Gilles/Poirier: “Vincent” reboot. The costumes seem too costumey and on-the-nose for me. Great spin. I liked it the first time too. I’m sorry, it’s not fair to them, but this redux version is only showing how less musical these new ice dance elements make routines despite the fact that there are a ton of more “choreographic” elements on the TES list now. The twizzle part mostly ignored the variation on the guitar strumming section. Ok, this second half is good. I don’t like the side by side lying down on the choreo sequence. Oh man, that final pose. I’m feeling it. What a reaction! I’m so glad they medaled. They deserve it for all their years trying to move the sport to a different direction from the grain and refusing to conform. Original Vincent didn’t give them a world medal that it should have won, but new Vincent got them an Olympic medal. The world is funny sometimes.
Chock/Bates: oh, they skating for gold. That opening was serious. Those twizzles were done… nothing special about them though. The choreographic step in the beginning-to-middle part of the program rather than toward the end refreshing, but it’s kind of basic with “flamenco” flourishes with no flamenco. Madison’s face is doing all the work in this dance. Finally, a one-foot sequence that went with the music that wasn’t just melody, well at least the second half of it did. Do rotational lifts not travel anymore? I feel like every team’s rotational lifts could be confused for traveling stationary ones. You know, she doesn’t actually use the cape all that much. I know he can’t, but Evan really needed to bring the heat and temper to play a bull; he just doesn’t have it in him. The choreography in the steps seem kind of… like rehearsed and careful. This doesn’t feel like an organic dance, but it’s them following choreography as told. I need more emotion and heat between matador and bull. Oh man, the KnC is sad. It looks like they believed they did enough to win.
Ok, I think that costume and concept lost it for them, even if they almost won. It’s too pedestrian, it’s not Madison’s best look, and it doesn’t fit Evan at all. I feel like they’ve only had two good FDs in their long career: Snake Charmer and Daft Punk alien. I actually liked their Elvis one a lot too when they first went to I.AM.
Fournier-Beaudry/Cizeron: not a fan of this teal. That twizzle error was both exaggerated and underplayed by the fans in this thread. It was an obvious error and should be deducted but it wasn’t like a stumble that ruined the element totally. He’s lucky it happened at the end and he could do the planned choreography out of it. This theme works for them because if Papadakis/Cizeron were air, FB/Cizeron are water. I can’t wait to see who he picks to be earth and fire at the next two Olympics. The dance elements actually flow into one another. He’s still doing that tired curve lift as an actual leveled element? Ok, this choreo sequence actually works because it’s not stop, pose, start, pose, continue, stop, move on. I’ll admit one thing about Laurence… I think she makes better body shapes than Gabi. I still think Gabi had star power though.
Okay… FB/C deserved gold. I’m sorry.
and wondering what alien has possessed my husband's body.
. I win!
