From Russia with love [#23]: Spring/Summer 2016

Hour long, super interesting interview with Ilya Averbukh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTg4mrWt0nA

Talks about skating shows businness (with numbers!), competitive choreography financing (with numbers!), Russian/world dance situation, his career, fs politics, coaches outflow/financing/working conditions, judging and reception of Russian ladies in Boston, age limit, Lipnitskaya, skaters in politics and more.
Very candid and inquisitive interview - four journalists (Zhurankov) made a great job imo. (y)

Definitely translation worthy stuff. ;)
 
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papa_pl said:
Hour long, super interesting interview with Ilya Averbukh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTg4mrWt0nA

Talks about skating shows businness (with numbers!), competitive choreography financing (with numbers!), Russian/world dance situation, his career, fs politics, coaches outflow/financing/working conditions, judging and reception of Russian ladies in Boston, age limit, Lipnitskaya, skaters in politics and more.
Very candid and inquisitive interview - four journalists (Zhirankov) made a great job imo. (y)

Definitely translation worthy stuff. ;)
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Zhurankov :)
 
Vash01 said:
My gut feeling is that Elena and Ruslan are not going to make it very far as a team. If they win the world championship at some point, I will eat my words.
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Both remade teams do not work.
Vika has zero charisma. She's beautifull, blue eyes and all. But she's not on his level and she doesn't challenge him. She's in love, that's about all I can say that is nice about her or her skating. She's stiff as hell, and when you're tall, it shows. She doesn't know how to use her knees. BAD basics.
Ruslan has exactly the same problem. He's sweet but meh. He does have good basics thought.
Nikita and Elena have everything, but they don't skate together. Worse, since they're separated, all their previous problems have resurfaced, worse.
Nikita still can't do control well on steps and twizzles and lifts are still scary as hell with him.
Elena well she has a problem either with work, either with preparation for seasons. I really don't know if she wants it or not. And she has tried to impose herself on Ruslan, not putting efforts in making it as a TEAM yet.

Those new teams do not work at all at the moment. They lack the IT, they lack the gelling factor. It'll take them at least two seasons before we can state something about them.
 
MarieM said:
Both remade teams do not work.
Vika has zero charisma. She's beautifull, blue eyes and all. But she's not on his level and she doesn't challenge him. She's in love, that's about all I can say that is nice about her or her skating. She's stiff as hell, and when you're tall, it shows. She doesn't know how to use her knees. BAD basics.
Ruslan has exactly the same problem. He's sweet but meh. He does have good basics thought.
Nikita and Elena have everything, but they don't skate together. Worse, since they're separated, all their previous problems have resurfaced, worse.
Nikita still can't do control well on steps and twizzles and lifts are still scary as hell with him.
Elena well she has a problem either with work, either with preparation for seasons. I really don't know if she wants it or not. And she has tried to impose herself on Ruslan, not putting efforts in making it as a TEAM yet.

Those new teams do not work at all at the moment. They lack the IT, they lack the gelling factor. It'll take them at least two seasons before we can state something about them.
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"I actually kinda sorta agree with MarieM on ice dance" SHOCKER. :D:eek: I wouldn't state it in such negative terms and I like stuff about both couples and think they have potential, but yeah there are issues with both. And also agree that you can't make any definitive statements about either of them yet. They both want to go on until 2022, and I think both will need that time.
 
MarieM said:
Both remade teams do not work.
Vika has zero charisma. She's beautifull, blue eyes and all. But she's not on his level and she doesn't challenge him. She's in love, that's about all I can say that is nice about her or her skating. She's stiff as hell, and when you're tall, it shows. She doesn't know how to use her knees. BAD basics.
Ruslan has exactly the same problem. He's sweet but meh. He does have good basics thought.
Nikita and Elena have everything, but they don't skate together. Worse, since they're separated, all their previous problems have resurfaced, worse.
Nikita still can't do control well on steps and twizzles and lifts are still scary as hell with him.
Elena well she has a problem either with work, either with preparation for seasons. I really don't know if she wants it or not. And she has tried to impose herself on Ruslan, not putting efforts in making it as a TEAM yet.

Those new teams do not work at all at the moment. They lack the IT, they lack the gelling factor. It'll take them at least two seasons before we can state something about them.
Click to expand...
Wow, you said something nice about Ruslan? I'm shocked!:eek:
I think after Worlds the spot as Russian #1 is still wide open. I was actually surprised that S/K didn't get a bigger push in the scores. Their FD was good to reestablish them after their awful first season, but it just seemed to fizzle out in the second part of the season.
Regarding I/Z I will just wait until next season to judge if they will be able to compete with the Top 5 in the World.
I really like Z/G. IMO Tiffany is after Elena the only one with star quality and my dream World team for next year would be them with Ruslena.
 
Marta24 said:
Their FD was good to reestablish them after their awful first season, but it just seemed to fizzle out in the second part of the season.
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Yeah, I'm a fan and IMO their season as a whole was a success. I also think they needed that sort of program to stabilize them and get a foot in the door. A second year that ended at Nationals would have probably been a career killer. But it was kinda predictable that the FD in particular would lose its shine the more they skated it. It's generic, pleasant "back to basics" stuff, it's done its job now and they need to do something more challenging. If they're up for it and how they progress remains to be seen.
 
Marta24 said:
Wow, you said something nice about Ruslan? I'm shocked!:eek:
I think after Worlds the spot as Russian #1 is still wide open. I was actually surprised that S/K didn't get a bigger push in the scores. Their FD was good to reestablish them after their awful first season, but it just seemed to fizzle out in the second part of the season.
Regarding I/Z I will just wait until next season to judge if they will be able to compete with the Top 5 in the World.
I really like Z/G. IMO Tiffany is after Elena the only one with star quality and my dream World team for next year would be them with Ruslena.
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Well Ruslan DOES have good basics. I don't think his style and Elena's style are perfect for each other while Nikita and Viktoria do have an advantage there. He does have problem lifting her, but his work with acrobats will pay off at one point or another. He's a lot more stable anyway.
I'll give them 4 years. Until then I do reserve my judgment. I sure hope Elena will find back the fire she had last season after the split. Because IMO, she showed up pretty much unfit and unprepared before Russian Nationals and playing catch up never works.

As for Z&G I also hope Zhulin puts his soul into them. He has already packaged them well in the SD, reminding me a tad of what Maia and him were doing ;) I think he does believe in them. Last season was pretty harsh, without the release information, and they truly started to train when they were not in limbo. Now they've all their papers set, I think they are so much hungrier than the others. 2 years in limbo is like hell ;)
 
Dobre said:
But if Ksenia is really out, I am dusting off my hopes for a Betina Popova & Kirill Khaliavin partnership.
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I think it would be better to pair him with Ilynikh. They're closer age-wise, and she is definitely worthy of a better partner.
 
Xela M said:
I don't like Sin&Kan at all(!!!!!!) but I have to disagree with you. I think they have a chance to at least stay together because Vika appears to be completely devoted to Nikita and tries to please all his moods whilst not having a voice or personality of her own. I think that's just the kind of partner Nikita was looking for
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Yes, but how long is their personal relationship going to last? He seems to be quite arrogant and I don't think that what she is happy to let go now, she will be happy to let go in a year or two. The honeymoon phase in any relationship can't last forever, and sooner or later she will want to have her way at least sometimes.
 
Tak said:
I think it would be better to pair him with Ilynikh. They're closer age-wise, and she is definitely worthy of a better partner.
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I am not sure if Khaliavin is better partner than Ruslan. I think she should stick with Ruslan and put the work in. Their first season together showed that the judges are willing to give them the scores. This last season I think it was the programs and the package that didn't work, and I am not sure if even skaters like Pap/Ciz would be able to make those programs work. So I am not blaming I/Z as much as their team who gave them this. I think someone should have told Elena that the idea of the SP is inretesting, but it is unlikely to work because the judges are conservative and let's face it, even if the rhythm was correct, it was no waltz. If judges want waltz, give them waltz! And the FS was far too much 'different' from what the judges like at the moment. Sometimes it is good to be different, but it doesn't always pay off and it was too big risk. I think at this stage they have to play safe like SinKat did with their SP. I think if Spilband does the packaging and chooses the programs for the next season, I/Z have much bigger chance to get the results. It is possible that the very close relationship Elena has with Kustarova was actually causing harm to their results, because Kustarova should put her foot down and decide that the programs are not working and change them.
 
As a huge Ruslena fan, I want them to stay together :). I agree with hanca that the packaging was a huge problem and they should have changed the SD. From the various articles it sounds like they will choreograph their programs in Novi.
 
MarieM said:
Both remade teams do not work.
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And neither did I&K other than at one competition in Sochi. Whatever happens with the new partnerships I'm so glad I don't have to watch them trip over each other for four years and wonder about their wasted potential.

I was very mentally ready to give up on ice dance after they split and P&B and V&M retired. Unfortunately P&C and I&Z had to go and drag me back...
 
casken said:
I'd rather them get an actual choreographer than someone who is just going to rearrange the same old moves to new music.
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casken said:
Maybe his other work is better, I'm basing my opinion on the Shibs FD.
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Well, you can't really base an opinion on only one program. Others may be right that how the specific FD looks is more a result of Shibutani's current abilities/limitations and also of Zoueva's input than an indication on Tchernyshev's abilities as a choreographer. Even if you don't take into consideration his work for Kavaguti/Smirnov and others (which you should, because, after all, the talk was about choreography for pairs skaters), and only look at ice dance, the thing is, he also choreographed Weaver/Poje's FD. Even though both FDs have similarities -(both are contemporary in style), they are also opposites in the sense that Shibutani's FD was appealing to a larger public and highly sucessful, but at the same time it was quite empty, while many did not really get Weaver/Poje's FD and/or did not find it appealing, although it was quite complex and full of transitions. I think in case with W/P people not liking their FD had more to do with it's theme and general mood, as well as the perceived luck of chemistry between them in this program, not so much with the choreography/movement itself. Although seems that many found the difficulty (mostly in elements, but also in transitions) a bit forced. At the same time, I think, in the same way as the comparative simplicity of Shibutani's choreography, transitions and elements had more to do with Zoueva than with Tchernyshev, the overall difficulty of W/P's FD had also more to do with their usual team of Camerlengo, Krilova and Bourne than with Tchernyshev. So it's difficult to really judge his work as an ice dance choreographer after just this one season, as well as to blame or praise him for anything. His exhibition piece for Shibutanis was amazing (truly more so than their competive FD), but he had such freedom in creating it as he did not have with their FD
 
lauravvv said:
Well, you can't really base an opinion on only one program. Others may be right that how the specific FD looks is more a result of Shibutani's current abilities/limitations and also of Zoueva's input than an indication on Tchernyshev's abilities as a choreographer.
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Who was responsible for the tweaking after Nepela Trophy? Was it him or Zoueva? Before they added the part from The Scientist it did not work at all. After that change I still found it quite empty & sterile, but I think that has more to do with the Shibs' inability to let go & skate with abandon.
 
NAOTMAA said:
I agree. I only said their win leaves a bad after taste simply because I can't stand their skating. I think their bringing pairs down the wrong path :shuffle: I would have preferred the Chinese if it couldn't be one of the Russians but with the way everybody skated they deserved it ;)
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Nice to know there is someone other than me who doesn't like their skating. I have to differ with you about their medal though. They were over scored (they are not yet a developed pair and his posture is poor) and they had one very big mistake (throw) and one relatively small mistake (sbs jumps). The judges ignored all of that, and they were too harsh on S&K for their mistake. It was a purely political medal.
 
Dobre said:
I hate the idea of any athlete being forced to terminate his or her career before he or she chooses.

But if Ksenia is really out, I am dusting off my hopes for a Betina Popova & Kirill Khaliavin partnership.
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I don't think Popova is going anywhere in seniors to be honest, she was really sloppy at JW and finished 3rd of all the Russian teams. Alla Lobova may be an option, I think she is a really nice dancer, and actually, her partner is good too, but they just don't seem to be a good match stylistically or in terms of how they skate.

With the state of Russian ice dance now in flux, there's room for a new team to step into the limelight and get some attention. Y/M didn't do well this season, but they have the goods to be successful in the future if they can gain some momentum and consistency. I also like Nastia Shpilevaya a lot, she impressed me at YOG and JW, great posture, very expressive and she seems to have a lot of ballet training. Her partner isn't as strong as her but has potential to get better. They'll likely stay in juniors a couple more seasons but they could make a splash after 2018 I think. She has star quality for sure.
 
caseyedwards said:
Sad then than he's totally inconsistent and she's a mediocrity. She's not even half the skater of papadakis.
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Agree, but in defense of Papadakis, she's actually a very strong skater. I feel like people often feel otherwise because she skates with Cizeron, but people need to keep in mind that Cizeron is like god on skates, he is ridiculously good and would skate circles around most ladies, so the fact that Gabby can even keep up with him and they can skate so well as a pair speaks to her level of skill. Just saying.
 
pinky166 said:
Agree, but in defense of Papadakis, she's actually a very strong skater. I feel like people often feel otherwise because she skates with Cizeron, but people need to keep in mind that Cizeron is like god on skates, he is ridiculously good and would skate circles around most ladies, so the fact that Gabby can even keep up with him and they can skate so well as a pair speaks to her level of skill. Just saying.
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Now I see how my comment could be an insult to papadakis. Obviously she is three or four times the skater sinitsina is.
 
Does it mean that three (or four) papadakises equal one sinitsina? How many fits a pasha grishuk? Is this scale unisex or gender specific, and if it's the latter, how far apart on the foodchain are cizeron, moir, and dean? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
Vash01 said:
Poor guy. When it rains, it pours. He is already struggling mightily.
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Old injury. It's already healed, according to Kovtun himself in an instagram post. He just didn't find out about it until the medical examination that he's been undergoing the past 2 days.
 
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