Favorite free dance of the Olympic Season ?

What is your favorite free dance of this Olympic Season ?

  • Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (Tango de Roxane)

  • Gabriella Papadakis / Guillaume Cizeron (Moonlight Sonata)

  • Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani (Paradise)

  • Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje (Je suis malade-Lara Fabian)

  • Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev (Tango-Oblivion)

  • Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte (La Vita e Bella)

  • Madison Chock / Evan Bates (Imagine)

  • Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier (Stolen Hearts -Perry Mason Theme)

  • Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue (Across the Sky - Man Caught Out in the Rain)

  • Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin (Love Story- Liebestraum)

Results are only viewable after voting.
At the moment, I like Bobrova & Soloviev and Cappellini & Lanotte's FDs the best. They tell a story and reach out to yank on my heartstrings. I care about the stories they're telling. The Shibs have my favorite SD. It pushes the technical limits, uses the music really well, and has loads of fun highlights within the program. Still early in the season for many of these top teams. Often, you see teams have one really strong debut program and one that is less polished & ready. Expect to see many of the programs grow and gain confidence.

Great to see the diversity of different styles among the free dances this season. Lots of potential for teams to show off their different strengths. For me, it's going to be so much more fun to watch all these top FDs back to back than last season's. Programs that show off the strengths of so many great, experienced, and diverse teams.
 
They are all kinda boring but P&C for me win the best FD. Close second V&M.
I haven't seen Chock&Bates yet though. So, I don't about their programs.

briancoogaert said:
The opening lift is hideous.
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I agree. It felt also uncomfortable to me. Anyway, that lift is the last of their problems. Their SD is ridiculous. The FD looks the same program they've been skating for the last 4 years. Their SS are mediocre, at best.
 
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VIETgrlTerifa said:
That's an example of skaters doing moves that look impressive (at least the upside down part before the exit) and obviously done for levels and GOE but you're just left wondering what does that have to do with the program and theme? That problem existed before IJS though.
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Seems to me that criticism could be leveled at about 90% of skating program choreography in every discipline. (I pulled that number out of my hat but the problem is endemic.)

I love the upside down part of that lift but after that it’s a little too crotchety for me. (Autocorrect just changed my word but you’ll know what I meant.)
 
Lot's of great programs this season. I adore Tessa and Scott's Moulin Rouge, which I'm sure shocks no one, given my avatar.

After that, my favourites would be H/D and W/P. I also love Lajoie/Lagha from junior's FD to Dream.
Others I really like are M/R and FB/S.
 
Oh, there are so many. :D Papadakis&Cizeron, Virtue&Moir, Hubbell&Donohue, Chock&Bates (I'd change the music version in some parts though), Cappellini&Lanotte (except for that 'opening lift', something softer would suit the part better in my opinion), also Hawayek&Baker (Skate Canada version, haven't seen it anywhere else).
 
Amantide said:
They are all kinda boring but P&C for me win the best FD. Close second V&M.
I haven't seen Chock&Bates yet though. So, I don't about their programs.



I agree. It felt also uncomfortable to me. Anyway, that lift is the last of their problems. Their SD is ridiculous. The FD looks the same program they've been skating for the last 4 years. Their SS are mediocre, at best.
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I have a feeling they've lost a lot of time over the summer, either that or they need to go back to Igor. He did wonders for their technique, Anna is reverting to her hunched back, shallow edges game.
 
Wow! My favorite is V/M's, it's absolutely fantastic and emotional!

But love C/L's and B/S's because they are nice and touching.
 
I'm in love with the Shibs' second half of their FD and at Skate America it provided me with the most impact out of all the dances I've seen...maybe because I wasn't expecting it to after seeing it at Rostelecom Cup and plus my own love for the Shibs probably getting in the way of my judgment. I think their first half can still use some work, but they addressed a lot of the issues I had after Rostelecom that I think if they fill out the first half more with more memorable links in-between the elements, this will be a real winner for me.

Hubbell/Donohue's FD is so sophisticated, well choreographed (no empty spots for me), and mature. I adore it. What gets me is that dance spin (not repeating past spins for them at all) in that it's so musical and beautiful to watch, and those last choreographic twizzles are just extraordinary.

It took me a while, but when I saw Papadakis/Cizeron's FD at IdF, I couldn't help but be like everyone else and simply blown away. There's such attention to detail with their movement that I don't think any of the other competitors have. They're showing a real depth and sensitivity to the music that's rare in this sport.

I have to give proper credit to Virtue/Moir's FD technically-speaking. It's so intricate, full of content, and both Tessa and Scott do all these difficult moves and get into these difficult positions throughout the entire dance that I think people really should watch it multiple times and really pay attention to catch all of it. There's a lot going on, but never feels busy or over-choreographed. I'm not the biggest fan of the tone change or the actual choreography, but I do appreciate what they're going for and know how difficult and ambitious their content is. I also appreciate that they do things with the utmost punch and have a quality that only the best teams who work seriously over-the-top hard at their craft and have done it for years can accomplish.

I was loving Muramoto/Reed's FD early on, and I still love the choreography itself (except for that final acrobatic choreographic lift which seems so Marina and tacked on). I just wish they could skate it at a quality of V/M and P/C or the Shibs.

Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen's FD would be near top notch for me if they figure out how to sell the slow section as much as they do the fast section.

I know Hawayek/Baker's FD is a repeat, but I loved it last season and I love it now. It has not lost any of its impact which says a lot about their abilities.

I grew to love Bobrova/Soloviev's Anna Karenina FD by Euros, and their current one is one that I actually liked from the get-go. It's still character-driven and is pretty similar to last year's program in terms of music construction, and it may suffer from some excesses that if they took out it'd be a classier program, but I appreciate that Bobrova/Soloviev are so committed. I still think they chose Beethoven's Five Secrets after hearing it like 3-4 times last season when they competed against Agafonova/Ucar who used that music.

Vocals aside, and the fact that some criticize them for rushing through their music, I really do like Stepanova/Bukin's FD. At Rostelecom Cup, I really got them and their skating despite her overall messiness and their youth (weird to cite their youth as he's older than and she's around the same age as P/C and Maia Shibutani) probably preventing a more mature interpretation of Liebestraum. However, that youth provides freshness.

I think Chock/Bates actually have their best FD in a very long time. I do see shades of Maia Shibutani with the way Igor is having Madison Chock move in her step sequences though and I do think this program was really inspired by the Shibs' Fix You in its construction.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
I think Chock/Bates actually have their best FD in a very long time. I do see shades of Maia Shibutani with the way Igor is having Madison Chock move in her step sequences though and I do think this program was really inspired by the Shibs' Fix You in its construction.
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Funnt that you say that... because there is some kind of similarity, between her moves and Maia's usual type of arm movements. The way Maddie moves her arms around him and their changes of holds remind me a lot of the Shibs. :confused:
Also, they have one lift position + their spin exit that are the same as P/C. Even the British Eurosport commentator noticed it at the end of their FD.
I'm not saying they did a copycat of any of those teams, but I would be lying if I say that I didn't see all the similarities.
However, they have one of my least favourite FD of this season :(
 
casken said:
None. Ice dance is a creative wasteland.
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Seriously? Ice dance is the most interesting discipline to watch to me, because it's the most creative for lifts, spins, etc...

There is quite a bit of variety with music choices as well... vs most of the programs in ladies.
 
Hubbell and Donohue. Love the avant-garde first section, love the blues and Beth Hart, program composition is just :kickass:. This one hits it out of the park for me. V/M--like the dancers, hate the music, program is meh for me. P/C--like the dancers, like the music, the program feels like a Been There/Done That. Shibs--like the dancers, music is OK, program feels like a Been There/Done That.

IMO, 3 of these 4 teams will be on the Olympic podium in some order, barring execution mistakes. The fourth I will be :fragile: crying over because there are only 3 medals to give.

Everybody else in the poll makes up the 5th-10th places.
 
Wish we had more than 1 choice. Hubbell/Donohue and the Shibs are tied for me. I love both of their FDs, they're far and away my favorites.

V/M's FD is good and I enjoy it, but it's a little too stagey and melodramatic to get my top vote. Papadakis/Cizeron's FD is beautifully skated, but just doesn't resonate for me. It's my least favorite of their recent FDs. :blocjudge
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
Hubbell/Donohue's FD is so sophisticated, well choreographed (no empty spots for me), and mature. I adore it. What gets me is that dance spin (not repeating past spins for them at all) in that it's so musical and beautiful to watch, and those last choreographic twizzles are just extraordinary.
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Yes! That spin is one of the best examples of an element that looks like it was instead an organic part of the choreography.
 
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