McNamara & Carpenter Fan Thread: Desde el Alma

Dobre

Well-Known Member
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16,967
OK, I think it’s time. If I don’t start this thread, I’ll probably start driving people elsewhere nuts with in-depth analysis of Lorraine & Quinn’s programs. So . . . here is one all their own. (I know we had one to discuss them back in 2016 but it wasn’t exactly a fan thread so here goes).

Lorraine McNamara & Quinn Carpenter

Lorraine & Quinn just won their first Grand Prix medal in Finland today! They finished 4th at Skate America, 2nd at Ondrej Nepela, and 1st at Lake Placid International. Last year they finished fourth at the 2018 Four Continents Championships in their debut senior year, 6th at the U.S. Championships, 5th at Cup of China, 2nd at the Warsaw Challenger, 4th at the Autumn Classic, 8th at Finlandia Trophy, and 1st at Lake Placid International.

They are the 2016 Junior World Champions, 2015 JGPF Champions, 2015 & 2016 U.S. Junior Champions, and won gold in five different regular JGP events. As well as bronze at the 2013 & 2016 JGPF and 2013 & 2017 U.S. Junior Nationals. And a silver at the 2015 Junior World Championships and 2014 U.S. Junior Nationals. Etc.

They have been together 12 years. As far as I can tell, all at Wheaton Academy under Elena Novak and Alexei Kiliakov.

If you want to see Lorraine & Quinn when they were quite small, they have a few cameo moments in this local news story about their rink: https://vimeo.com/614003.


Their programs include the following:

2018-19 FD Porz Goret:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8D-JFhDiLE&t=374s

2018-19 RD Desde de Alma/Quejumbrosa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOlCJCQgy0U&t=247s

2017-18 FD Anime Contro Vendo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctIKPmlcvIg

2017-18 RD: Mambo Italiano/El Perdedor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpJWDmelJ_s

2017-18 Exhibition-Can’t Stop the Rain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdd24sZ0Q8s

2016-17 FD Thunder Struck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI-bxK3UF3A

2016-17 RD Vanguardian/The Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36QzcHWjvWc

2016-17 Exhibition-Disco Inferno (w/the Parsons)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0P90EAG5LY

2015-16 FD Carmen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sPGreN4XKE

2015-16 RD Peer Gynt (aka The Mountain Troll Waltz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84-mG9vg3TA

2015-16 Exhibition-I Want It That Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH0DbmxhebE

2014-15 FD Phantom of the Opera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIyPDvAwbG8

2014-15 RD Heart of Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDgyptxEXM&t=210s

2014-15 Exhibition-Beneath Your Beautiful
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2izcvf

2014-15 Exhibition-Get Smart (w/the Parsons)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bqNxyYYEAM

2013-14 FD Discombobulate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r1_jEnQemQ

2013-14 RD Bublitchki/Chiribim Chiribom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djdL9Ch2DPI

2012-13 FD Romeo et Juliette, de la Haine a l’Amour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N99rtq0jlSQ

2012-13 RD Ramalama Bang Bang/Zombie Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82qtei69fLg

2012 Exhibition with RD music Kaboom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZy4Q_eraZ8

Obviously, they've had more so feel free to post any other or earlier videos if you find them.


Let’s talk.
 
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Cayuse

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366
Congratulations to Lorraine and Quinn for their GP medal! Little steps by little steps they are progressing each year. Good they are doing the requisite smooth, lyrical, mesmerizing program this year to prove they can do this style. Just wait until next year when they can turn Lorraine loose again!
 

Emerald66

Active Member
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65
I've loved them since 2013 when they did the zombie hip hop sd. Lorraine was so tiny then. Happy they won a bronze medal at the Finland grand prix. Well deserved and I'm so interested how they'll place at US nats with all the other talented couples!
 

TanithandBenFan

Author of the Ice and Edge Series
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I've really grown to love this team over the past year. I think they've had amazing growth since they moved up to the senior ranks. As juniors I thought they were interesting and different but needed to work a lot on posture and connecting with each other. They've obviously done SO much work, and their FD this year shows how much progress they've made in smoothing out their skating and emoting with each other. It's a stunning program!
 

Dobre

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16,967
I've loved them since 2013 when they did the zombie hip hop sd.

For me since their Mountain Troll waltz at the Colorado Springs JGP. I remember that I liked them the most, though, of the junior teams at 2014 U.S. Nationals. Their Chiribim Chiribom SD stood out to me as a program that most U.S. dance teams wouldn't perform but had international appeal. (Also they skated well). I liked their Latin SD the following year also. Again a little different & also fun.

Does anyone know why they did not participate in the gala yesterday?

No idea. Maybe one of them caught the same nasty cold that I caught at Skate America? They both looked fine during the press conference. It was fun to see them there with the more experienced teams.
 

lmarie086

missing my cat :(
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4,089
I've really enjoyed them over the last couple of seasons and I think tonight was definitely the best we've seen from them so far. So glad they came 4th tonight! I think that's a huge achievement and can't wait to see them build off of it.
 

shan

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Messages
21,598
Congrats to Lorraine and Quinn on their impressive results!! I was worried that they might be tight tonight due to nerves, but they skated with such confidence!!! They looked thrilled on the podium. :cheer2: :cheer2:

Dobre, thanks for opening this thread. And thanks for the great links. It's a walk down memory lane! I remember them from way back in Novice (or below) where they skated some crazy dramatic FD. It stood out to me in the field. That Chiribim Chiribom SD was also a standout. It's wonderful to see their progress and growth over the years! I can't wait to see what they do next!
 

Emerald66

Active Member
Messages
65
This free dance is gorgeous but I think they should've scored higher in the components! It is what it is I guess. Also Quinn looks hot with facial hair...
 

Sylvia

TBD
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79,993
Article in the May 2019 issue of Dance Magazine: This Contemporary Choreographer Also Makes Winning Ice Dance Routines
Contemporary dance world darling Jonah Bokaer takes his work very seriously, and it shows. Highly focused on craft and unconstrained by the traditional definition of a choreographer, the former Cunningham dancer has developed dance apps, pioneered new relationships between visual art and dance, and worked with collaborators as illustrious as Pharrell Williams.
But fans of his heady, intellectual work may be surprised by a recent project that he calls one of the most rewarding of his life: Choreographing for Team USA ice dance pair Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter. Bokaer was introduced to the pair by the mother of one of his company's supporters, who just happens to be an Olympic ice skating judge.
We talked to Bokaer—who, true to form, takes his work for the ice incredibly seriously, too—about what it was like to go back to basics as a non-skater, and why he thinks skating is even more technical than ballet
 

aftershocks

Banned Member
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17,317

This observation by Jonah Bokaer (Lorraine/Quinn's choreographer from the dance world) is one of the interesting things about the sport, and it's likely more important these days than in the past:

"Bokaer says one of the most fascinating parts of the [ice dance choreography] experience is that the routine is expected to change throughout the competition season. 'It's a process of constantly adapting it in response to studying competition and the technical elements that need to take place' ..."

That is such a lovely program by Lorraine/Quinn which demonstrates so well how much they've grown. It's cool hearing about someone new from the dance world assisting ice dancers (albeit it's not a new situation). Back in 1987-88, Debi Thomas worked with a dancer from ABT I believe, on her Carmen fp.
 

Dobre

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Too cute! How many other currently competing couples were together in 2008 to do this pattern?

Herb Brooks Arena. So Lake Placid during the 08-09 season. I tried to google it; and all I could find was a thread on the Lake Placid event from Golden Skate. Apparently there was a Finnstep Competition that year? Maxwell & Traxler won it but the other teams competing were juveniles and intermediates. (The speculation on the thread is that Maxwell & Traxler were asked to demonstrate). M&C would have been intermediates. All the links in the thread were to the Lake Placid results page from that season, which is--not surprisingly--now defunct. So I can't get a list of competitors, and I'm not sure if the Finnstep was actually competed as a regular pattern among the U.S. intermediates and/or juveniles throughout the rest of the season.

It is possible to find the list of intermediate competitors from U.S. "Junior" Nationals. (I had not realized that more teams were invited when the U.S. had a separate Junior Nationals event for the juveniles & intermediates rather than inviting them to Nationals; but they were. Of course, there aren't any currently competing teams left from it except M&C; but there are a few other recently and/or currently competing names. Michael Parsons was skating with a partner from before Rachel. Alexander Gamelin and his sister were competing. In juveniles, Rachel Parsons, Yura Min, Logan Bye, and Damian Dodge were competing with early partners. So it's possible those athletes did the Finnstep either during the season or just in this Lake Placid event; but I can't be sure.

Of course, we know about the Finnstep being used in 2014, and we know it was based on Rahkomo & Kokko's OD. I remember hearing about it at the time as being "new;" but I hadn't thought about younger teams competing it before that Olympic season. It would be fun to know if any of the other currently competing international teams used it as kids. (Nazarova & Nikitin, for example, have been together since 07-08. Papadakis & Cizeron would have been novices in 08-09). Does anyone know if it was used in Juniors? And if yes, then what season?
 
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Dobre

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The finnstep was also the pattern in 2014 so a majority of the competing couples have done it

I count only 6 remaining senior couples from the 2014 World Championships (3 of whom competed at the Olympics). There were some other currently competing senior teams that didn't attend either that season--Hubbell & Donohue and Stepanova & Bukin, at least--but I doubt a majority of today's senior teams have competed it as seniors. We have a lot of turnover over the course of two separate post-Olympic turnover seasons.
 

RoseRed

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I count only 6 remaining senior couples from the 2014 World Championships (3 of whom competed at the Olympics). There were some other currently competing senior teams that didn't attend either that season--Hubbell & Donohue and Stepanova & Bukin, at least--but I doubt a majority of today's senior teams have competed it as seniors. We have a lot of turnover over the course of two separate post-Olympic turnover seasons.
There are a fair number of teams left that would have competed the pattern in 2014, and several others where one partner at least did (and a few where they both did it with different partners).

Teams who did senior in 2014 (still around):
- Weaver/Poje
- Gilles/Poirier
- Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen
- Chock/Bates
- Hubbell/Donohue
- Guignard/Fabbri
- Papadakis/Cizeron
- Stepanova/Bukin
- Wang/Liu
- Koch/Nuchtern

And skaters with other partners now:
- Nikita Katsalapov
- Viktoria Sinitsina
- Daniel Eaton
- Yura Min
- Kirill Khaliavin
- Sara Hurtado
- Adria Diaz
- Allison Reed
- Justyna Plutowska
- Tim Koleto
- Jonathan Guerreiro

So 10 teams who I know competed the Finnstep internationally together, 3 (S/K, H/K, Min/Eaton) who did it with previous partners, and 5 others where at least one partner did. Not the majority maybe, but a decent number. Hawayek/Baker are the only top ten team from Worlds this year who didn't compete as seniors in 2013-14.
 

Dobre

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16,967
Just realized this Lorraine McNamara Q&A feature was not posted in this thread when it was published back on April 8: https://www.edgesofglory.com/post/meet-lorraine-mcnamara

Thank you.

My favorite quote from the interview:
"Quinn and I are so lucky to have started skating together so young and developed to where we are today. We truly know each other better than we know ourselves and have an incredible sense of trust in each other. He is my best friend, and I am so happy that I get to pursue my dream with him by my side."

Best friends, I think, make very good ice dance partners.


A couple other quotes:

-On moving up & their first senior season:
"Everyone always says that moving to senior is so different and a totally different ball game, but you can never really understand that until you experience it yourself. Of course it was intimidating to make that big jump up, but it was more exciting than anything. We had spent so many years in junior that we knew that we were so ready and prepared. We had the amazing opportunity of being on the ice with World and Olympic champions, and that gave us so much to learn from. The entire season was chock-full of learning experiences and unforgettable memories."

I think this is so important. Just sharing the ice in warm-up groups with the best dance teams in the world: I think it's a huge part of that transition up into the senior ranks.


"Guilty pleasure?
Cheesecake!"

My best friend would agree.
 

Dobre

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Wishing Quinn & Lorraine the very best in their return to competition at NHK Trophy this week! There are a couple posts about it on their Facebook page so I'll take that as confirmation that they will be there!
 

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