Canadian #1 dance team from 2019 to 2022

[ohashibiles]

We know Virtue & Moir are retiring again (and highly unlikely there will be yet another comeback, regardless if they win in Korea or not). However who will be Canadian #1 over the next quad. Will Weaver & Poje continue, for 2020 in Montreal, or even for 2022, or retire right after this season. And if they continue will they stay ahead of the others. Will Gilles & Poirier be able to stay ahead of a team like Soucisse & Firus, and others, and if so, for how long.

 

[levineismine]

My feeling is Lajoie/Lagha by 2022.

 

[butyrskafanatic]

My feeling is Lajoie/Lagha by 2022.

I think it will be Soucisse & Firus. Although if Weaver & Poje stay for 2022 it could be them, but even then I could see Sourisse & Firus overtaking them.

Lajoie/Lagha are a real possability too, but I am high on Soucisse & Firus. I think and hope Gilles & Poirier never become Canadian #1. IMO they are just not good enough.

 

[ohashibiles]

My feeling is Lajoie/Lagha by 2022.

I need to watch some videos of them. Do not know a lot about them, but a friend told me they have a ton of potential too.

 

[Anyasnake]

Soucisse/Firus, because they are already excellent technically.
Well, I could see them being CAN champs sooner than expected. Maybe.

 

[ohashibiles]

Soucisse/Firus, because they are already excellent technically.
Well, I could see them being CAN champs sooner than expected. Maybe.

I think it depends a lot if Weaver & Poje continue. I could not see them overtaking W&P atleast for another 2+ seasons. I could see them possibly overtaking Gilles & Poirier as early as next season though, unless Skate Canada politics comes heavily into play.

 

[Anyasnake]

I think it depends a lot if Weaver & Poje continue. I could not see them overtaking W&P atleast for another 2+ seasons. I could see them possibly overtaking Gilles & Poirier as early as next season though, unless Skate Canada politics comes heavily into play.

Agree if WeaPo stays, but I really was impressed with them I don't want them to be held back, let's say at Nationals for the sake of being CAN#2 or 3... But I hope they'll rise to the occasion ! V/M have nothing to fear, CAN Ice Dance is on the right track

 

[levineismine]

I need to watch some videos of them. Do not know a lot about them, but a friend told me they have a ton of potential too.

Re. Lajoie/Lagha, I see a lot of potential, but obviously we have to see how they handle the transition from Jr. to Sr (I guess next season).
I think besides the good basics, they also have already a well developed performance quality.
With the dance field opening up now in Canada at the top, they will have the chance to climb quite fast - and I'm interested to see what happens with both them and Soucisse/Firus training in Gadbois.

If you want to watch a couple of vids, their highest scoring FD is from last year's Jr worlds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkxtzblQ0ZA

Lots of spunk in last year's SD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b3uCd748U8

One of my favorite free dances from this year across jr and sr belongs to them:
(I see lots of V/M and W/P in them here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epTJvBk9xCs

 

[kittysk8ts]

Soucisse/Firus, because they are already excellent technically.
Well, I could see them being CAN champs sooner than expected. Maybe.

Soucisse is like a mini Marie-France! I think they will be Canadian champs some day. Still a newish partnership and showing real promise

 

[blue_idealist]

I think W&P will stay for a couple more years and hold onto Canada #1, but not by a landslide, then it'll be G&P until S&F take over, maybe at the end of this coming quad but maybe not until the next. G&P will have at least one year as Canada #1, I believe.

 

[Anyasnake]

Soucisse is like a mini Marie-France! I think they will be Canadian champs some day. Still a newish partnership and showing real promise

She really is, this is Marie-France but younger, a true lookalike !

 

[barbarafan]

I need to watch some videos of them. Do not know a lot about them, but a friend told me they have a ton of potential too.

L/L are quite amazing ...but there was something about their free dance that I did not like...I will see what their programs are next yr.

 

[starrynight]

Skimming back through threads and found this one.

The biggest developments since this thread was started:

- Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen switching to Canada and then coming out ahead of Soucisse/Firus by a whisker at their first comp.

- Weaver/Poje staying in for at least another season

It's hard to predict. I think that if I were to have made predictions for the last quad in August 2014, I would have got nothing right at all. Remember the big gutting of all the Canadian teams in 2016? So when it rolled around to 2017 Nationals, Weaver/Poje and Gilles Poirier were the only two returning skaters out of the 14 teams who competed the previous year.

 

[blue_idealist]

I don't think FB/S will pass W/P or G/P for at least two years, if they ever do at all. Nor do I think G/P will pass W/P. They'll have to wait for W/P to retire.

 

[Moustaffask8r]

L/L are quite amazing ...but there was something about their free dance that I did not like...I will see what their programs are next yr.

They have no connection, just two good skaters skating beside each other! She's trying hard but he's doing his own show

 

[Andora]

I wouldn't be surprised if W/P & G/P are passed by FB/S & S/F soon, actually, especially if the younger teams keep racking up solid international scores and appearances. With W/P taking the grand prix off, it's not hard to see it happening.

Canadian judges could have done more to keep W/P ahead of S/F in the SD at Canadians this past year, and they didn't. That spoke volumes, imho.

 

[Lara111]

There is no charisma in any of the teams listed here other then W/P. G/P are good when they find really good material for their dances.

 

[Moustaffask8r]

There is no charisma in any of the teams listed here other then W/P. G/P are good when they find really good material for their dances.

Totally agree! No one but W/P can come close to V/M... So I hope W/P will stay until 2022

 

[Dobre]

I nominate Weaver & Poje. I think the odds are not good that they will stay in; but if they decide to stay in, they have my full support on the matter.

 

[coppertop1]

I wouldn't be surprised if W/P & G/P are passed by FB/S & S/F soon, actually, especially if the younger teams keep racking up solid international scores and appearances. With W/P taking the grand prix off, it's not hard to see it happening.

Canadian judges could have done more to keep W/P ahead of S/F in the SD at Canadians this past year, and they didn't. That spoke volumes, imho.

W/P had a major error in the SD and lost all the value on their twizzles. That's no judging that's the skaters' own doing (and I'm a fan). Tracy Wilson even said as my

 

[barbarafan]

W/P had a major error in the SD and lost all the value on their twizzles. That's no judging that's the skaters' own doing (and I'm a fan). Tracy Wilson even said as my

Their pcs should have been marked down for performance because of the mistake but the rest of their performance was far superior to GP but their pcs were marked down.

 

[screech]

And based on the FD at Canadians, I personally would have had W/P win that segment. Moulin Rouge was lacking the oomph it had at the O's, and W/P just plain delivered the hell out of it!

But then again, I've found W/P severely undermarked for years.

 

[SamuraiK]

It's an open race

W&P have now the clear advantage but I dont seem them as unbeatable in the long run. They would likely just stay till Montreal 2020.
G&P are staying for the whole quad but they are even more surpassable than W&P.
FB&S and S&F have great potential and are smelling the blood. My bet is one of these 2 teams will be CAN #1 in Beijing.

And there's Lajoie&Laja who are the future. If they stay together they could be spoiler for a place on the olympic team.

 

[savchenkoboss]

Regardless if there is an argument for that or not it would be stupid politically for the judges to have W&P win a segment over a relatively clean V&M in any segment at their own Nationals. That happens and I am almost certain they now lose the OGM to P&C, even with P&C messing up their OD.

 

[chantilly]

^
Not even close for me. I like W and P but in no way were they better then V and M.
Even though I agree that V and M skated better at the O’s.

Honestly I thought that was a step backward watching that programme years later.

I think it didn’t have close to the emotional impact it had originally and I also thought there was some awkward lines and struggles with some of the lifts.

However I do believe that W and P have been undermarked internationally.

And I also don’t agree that W and P out skated G and P in PCS.

G and P were pretty on point at Nationals.

I had little issue with W and P winning the free, but thought it could have gone either way.

Seeing it live made a huge difference.

Without the error in the SD, though I do think W and P deserved to be ahead of G and P.

 

[starrynight]

Well Weaver/Poje will go head to head with Soucisse/Firus at Autumn Classic International in September. So that will be our second Canadian show down after FB/S and S/F recently competed the RD against each other.

I think that at this stage, Soucisse/Firus and Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen are very evenly matched. I think these teams probably need a year where they go head to head on the Grand Prix circuit to fully shake out who ranks where.

Gilles Poirier will be Canada's top team on the GP circuit and I would expect they have a good shot at making the Grand Prix final this season.

Weaver/Poje of course are the most stable bet internationally, having placed top 5 for the last eight successive World championships.

At this stage, Skate Canada needs Gilles/Poirier and Weaver/Poje to place well at 2019 Worlds to get some spots for 2020 Worlds in Montreal. Dance may well be Canada's deepest discipline at present. So I doubt Skate Canada will be in a hurry to chop either G/P or W/P off at the knees in the near future.

I would expect any major movement to happen post 2020, after WP most likely retire (unless they try to Aljona it to a team medal in 2022).

 

[savchenkoboss]

I think V&M's unexpected return cutting into their expected 4 year run at Canadian #1 make it a very decent possability they will push for 2022. Particularly since IMO Gilles & Poirier are never good enough to pass them. It would have to be someone younger behind them eventually doing it, if someone does.

 

[starrynight]

I think it's more that Andrew will be (just) 35 and Kaitlyn will be 32 turning 33 at the next Olympics. Perfectly doable if they don't suffer injuries. But the question would be more if they have other life plans.

 

[dramagrrl]

And based on the FD at Canadians, I personally would have had W/P win that segment. Moulin Rouge was lacking the oomph it had at the O's, and W/P just plain delivered the hell out of it!

But then again, I've found W/P severely undermarked for years.

Completely disagree. I like W/P a lot, but they are not even close to V/M's league on their best day. I was at Canadians live and there was no contest. I actually think if anything, W/P were overmarked because of the crowd reaction and because the judges were basically doing everything in their power to keep W/P as close to G/P as possible.

When W/P first paired up, I would never have thought they would get this far together and improve their skating enough to be competitive for world medals. I have followed Andrew Poje's career with various partners since he was pre-novice and I always thought he was an amazing male dance talent, but I didn't think Kaitlyn would be able to match his skills. They have proven me wrong, but I think they have basically hit a ceiling in terms of how far they can go technically, and their choreo/overall presentation style is also getting a bit repetitive.

I also disagree with the poster above who said that none of the currently competing Canadian dance teams have charisma aside from W/P. I think S/F are very charming and are developing great on-ice connection (obviously they already have off-ice connection since they are an off-ice couple!), and I think L/L have very interesting chemistry together even if they need to continue developing their connection as a team. I'm looking forward to seeing S/F and W/P live at the Autumn Classic in the fall.

 

[chantilly]

^ I completely agree with all the above.
S and F have an infectious charm. They just need to have more confidence and attack

I think L and L have enormous potential.

And I sadly agree about W and P. They peaked with Maria and have IMO regressed since in programs and a lot of times execution. As before mentioned lifts and those twizzles.

They have had great short dances though

Have no issue with those except yeah execution.