Skate America 2024 Free Dance - Texas Chainsaw Mascara

[Spikefan]

From a distance it looks like the bat signal on the medals.

 

[Rukia]

No Ted, they don't take home Texas gold, they get some embarassing tacky plastic medals.

Maybe the real texas gold is the fugly medals we sort of earned along the way

 

[Karen-W]

So, any lipreaders around to confirm whether Lilah's singing the lyrics to "God Save the King" or "My Country 'Tis of Thee"?

 

[Amy L]

So, any lipreaders around to confirm whether Lilah's singing the lyrics to "God Save the King" or "My Country 'Tis of Thee"?

Lilah is another triple citizenship girlie, she can throw O Canada into the remix.

 

[peibeck]

So, any lipreaders around to confirm whether Lilah's singing the lyrics to "God Save the King" or "My Country 'Tis of Thee"?

Is one of her parents British? I don't know anything of her back story.

 

[Karen-W]

Is one of her parents British? I don't know anything of her back story.

At least one is British - her sister Sasha spent most of the summer in London.

 

[Amy L]

Is one of her parents British? I don't know anything of her back story.

From her Wiki page:

Fear was born on 11 June 1999 in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States to Canadian parents. She was raised in London, England

 

[Simone411]

I'm happy for Fear & Gibson. They were awesome, but so was Chock & Bates. I loved Chock & Bate's program. It was smooth as polished brass. I could watch that program over and over again.

 

[dupa]

C&B's programs since the Olympics are making me feel like Montreal is trying to sabotage them and, for some reason, the judges are refusing to allow it.

Maybe she should go back to "Shipbalm" now that she knows how it feels. Or am I remembering that wrong. I am kinda old.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

From her Wiki page:

Interesting I just happened to be on the East Coast and in Greenwich Connecticut last week. I was at their Starbucks, and a Bakery.

 

[Sally1214]

And, that's a wrap for me. I don't usually watch galas. Skate America was a GREAT beginning to the Sr. GP season. Getting VERY excited about being at Skate Canada live in Halifax next weekend.
Have a great week, everyone.

 

[Private Citizen]

Do Fabbri and Ayer get the dubious distinctions of:

• being the first ice dance team to ever finish last despite skating in the final group after the RD, and/or
• largest drop in placements from SD to final standings in a GP (or perhaps even outside of a GP?)

Not sure I've ever seen a team go from fourth to dead last before. Granted, they were a lucky fourth and an unlucky last, with scores very tightly together, but the movement is unusual for ice dance.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Unless the last name is Poirier, I have no horse in the race. I don’t understand how the Czech team did not take the gold here… And I barely know them, but that dance and skate with sensational.

 

[Sylvia]

Free Dance presser in progress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fCi6_K6cT4

 

[her grace]

@AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)

I feel that the Czechs’ rise should be inevitable, such difficulty performed consistently well. I’d like to see what a different choreographer would do with them as something seems lacking to me in the composition (and somewhat repetitive from last season). And she can continue to work on her posture as they pay their dues.

 

[Rukia]

For the medal ceremony Olivia and Tim did not have a Spanish flag so they just kind of shrugged it off, but an audience member called out to them and threw a balled up Spanish flag down to Jean-Luc, who was standing by to take pictures of Smart/Dieck. It was very cute.

 

[Citlali]

For the medal ceremony Olivia and Tim did not have a Spanish flag so they just kind of shrugged it off, but an audience member called out to them and threw a balled up Spanish flag down to Jean-Luc, who was standing by to take pictures of Smart/Dieck. It was very cute.

Fans always come prepared, last year in Angers a lady in the stands right in front of me had minimum 8 flags, maybe more. My (non skating fan sister) didn't get it, but what choice do we have as skating fans with multiple favorites?

 

[Rukia]

Fans always come prepared, last year in Angers a lady in the stands right in front of me had minimum 8 flags, maybe more. My (non skating fan sister) didn't get it, but what choice do we have as skating fans with multiple favorites?

my daughter had us make 4 signs at the sign making station for the men's event (Donovan, Lucas, and 2 for Kevin who is her favorite) but she's pondering if we need flags for worlds

 

[Karen-W]

my daughter had us make 4 signs at the sign making station for the men's event (Donovan, Lucas, and 2 for Kevin who is her favorite) but she's pondering if we need flags for worlds

Good Lord, you are raising that child well!

 

[MacMadame]

I'm pretty sure I'd hate it too - sand worms eating characters sounds disgusting and not my cuppa at all,

They don't really eat them. Not like when a mountain lion eats a deer with chomping and tearing into flesh. They are enormous and the person just disappears into them like a cartoon version of Jonah being swallowed by that whale.

Not that you have to watch it if you don't think you'd like it but I didn't want you to have nightmares about worms chomping on people.

my daughter had us make 4 signs at the sign making station for the men's event (Donovan, Lucas, and 2 for Kevin who is her favorite) but she's pondering if we need flags for worlds

Um, yes. Why is this a question??

 

[Karen-W]

They don't really eat them. Not like when a mountain lion eats a deer with chomping and tearing into flesh. They are enormous and the person just disappears into them like a cartoon version of Jonah being swallowed by that whale.

Not that you have to watch it if you don't think you'd like it but I didn't want you to have nightmares about worms chomping on people.

Good to know!

On a different note - @Sylvia mentioned that Ted said Chris Howarth will be commentating on the ISU feed for Skate Canada next week. Do we need to bring back Skating Commentary Bingo for the Grand Prix season?

 

[Karen-W]

Just re-watched the E! broadcast of the FD because I was only half paying attention during the first group to make sure I got the FDs from Trophee Metropole Nice recorded in case that stream disappeared and, of course, the second group was crazy too. I appreciated having Ben's commentary since we all know Ted's pretty useless when it comes to ice dance, lol. So, second-watch impressions...

Chock/Bates - the FD is a good vehicle for them. I noticed the closed dance holds during the first watch and forgot to mention them, so I was happy that Ben also singled them out. I commented during the live pbp how they've upped their lift game and I stand by that - they had at least one new lift and all of them are real highlights, especially the one at the end. Their score here was not much lower than what they got for their FD at SkAm last season, so the judges seem fine with it too.

Her dress, though... I stand by my original comments and have more thoughts. During the practice cam on Thursday, a couple of us commented on the high point of the neckline in front being too much - and it is - though that's hardly the only problem with it. The placement of the skirt is all wrong. Never-ever-ever in my life would I have thought I'd see Madison wearing a dress that makes her look like she has love handles, but, by golly, take a look at her in the medal ceremony and then re-watch the FD - you won't be able to unsee it. And the thing is, I'm sure that she doesn't have an ounce of fat on her and that this is an optical illusion created by the placement of the faux oxidized copper panels that make up up the skirt and the use of the weirdly not-nude-but-not-bronze-enough side panels. This combined with the apex of the faux oxidized copper panels climbing up her torso from her armpits to near her chin, make her look boxy and stocky. It's bizarre because we all know she's got a beautiful figure and her dresses usually show it off perfectly (see her RD dress, which is a fabulous concoction). And then there's the back of the dress, which you can't really get the full effect of because she's wearing her hair down. There's a silvery medallion on the small of her back that you barely notice because half the time it's hidden by her hair. And the curvy, flowing hair is really kind of fighting with the very architectural structure of the rest of the dress. But, the more I studied the dress as the program went on, the more I thought that it would be vastly improved if she turned the dress around and had the back as the front. Which wouldn't quite work because I think the front needs more of the outer fan panels than the back has, but the dress would be tremendously improved if long rectangular panel that forms the center of the dress front from neck to skirt hem was removed and you had the outer fan panels coming together in a V at her navel to form the skirt front. That won't fix the issue with the side panels and the optical illusion of the love handles, so I'd actually probably just have fan panels around the entire torso and do away with the not-nude-but-not-bronze-enough side panels completely.

Fix the dress and most of my issues with the FD will be resolved - and there you have my very long dissertation on how to do it, lol. I don't even hate the color - I get what she's trying to go for here and I'm fine with it.

Fear/Gibson - I still think the FD is not great, but I do think it's improved since Nebelhorn. I'm not OTT enough to go watch Nebelhorn again, but I'm fairly certain they've tinkered with the last section to give it more oomph. It's not quite there yet - it doesn't start soon enough and it needs a bigger POW with the music edit itself, but I think they'll get there by Boston. Ben was NOT convinced that the choice they made to do their step sequence as their first major element to show off the improvements they've made on it was the correct choice. I'm not sure it matters, lol. Also, their FD score here is 4 pts lower than their FD last season scored at SCI and 8 pts lower than what they got at NHK last year. I don't think the judges view it as a home run anymore than the rest of us do despite their win here.

Smart/Dieck - yeah, I still love love love this FD for them. No notes except maybe smooth out the choreo steps and closing pose a bit more. Also, Madison did a masterful job in designing this new costume for Olivia. LOVE it. The Spanish fed, thankfully, has clear selections procedures for both Euros and Worlds, but that's a program that could easily see them finish Top 5 in Tallinn.

Davis/Smolkin - Their lifts are a highlight, as is Gleb's posture. Both of their twizzles got knocked down a level on review from what the TES tracker showed during the program - ouch. They have some work to do before CoC and it will be interesting to see how they match up against Turkkila/Versluis, Demougeot/LeMercier and Green/Parsons. Right now, they're clearly behind both Carreria/Ponomarenko and Smart/Dieck.

Neset/Markelov - like @Aaron MB Fan, it's hard to not view this team differently after the WASA Ice Dance news broke this week. I don't necessarily love this team quite yet - though I do love that first lift of theirs. If I wasn't so appalled by IAM these days, I'd want them to go there simply to get away from WASA (a program I think should be shut down entirely at this point).

Mrazkovi - well, round 1 of the "Most Recent Jr World Champs Showdown on the GP" goes to NesMark by way of an extended dance lift deduction. Also, anyone note that they had 1 judge flag them for "violation of choreo restrictions" on the protocol? I'm guessing that judge also takes exception to her board acrobatics. But I hope they keep it in until she, just once, goes into that move with too much momentum and tumbles onto the judges' table. I really need to see that trainwreck happen and them get punished for it before they and YGA realize just how far beyond OTT it is and take it out.

Lauriault/Le Gac - this program is trash - and not in a good, campy way like their Pink Panther FD was. Several people commented during the live pbp that they're just sloppy and none of their movements are finished - that really jumped out at me watching again with my full attention on it. I do think there may be some sort of injury issue they're dealing with because they debuted at LPIDI and looked fine for late July but then disappeared and didn't have any early Challengers to get ready for SkAm. Either way, the program is still trash and they're now in a dogfight to become Canada #3. And I honestly can't tell you how I think that will turn out because both Fabbri/Ayer and Bashynska/Beaumont have terrible material in either the RD (BashBeau) or the FD (both).

Tkachenko/Kiliakov - meh. Just up from juniors and looking like it - a lot. Out of their depth and lucky to finish 8th because of an extended lift deduction that Morozov/Chen received. They do look better packaged than most Kiliakov teams. We'll have to see if they can be the team out of that school to break through on the senior level.

Morozov/Chen - boy, they are a new team and it definitely shows. I still maintain she's the best partner match he's had - maybe not technically quite as good, but she matches his charisma and energy. She has a confidence and strength to her that balances him and I really like this pairing. Certainly not in the mix for 2026, but they're the team I'm keeping an eye on to move up the ranks in the next Olympic quad. I really could see a 2030 US Olympic team consisting of CarPon, MorChen and either ZingKol or NesMark.

Fabbri/Ayer - what's to say that hasn't been already said between today and Denis Ten Memorial? This FD is bad. The fall on the twizzle was devastating but this FD already lost to both the Taschlerovi and the Browns at DTM. Agree they need to scrap it, but they probably won't. This team is just the latest version of Soucisse/Firus and Sales/Wamsteeker - vanilla Canadian ice dance teams that may wind up as Canada #3 or 4 for a time but aren't likely to go higher - though in their case, they may get to #2 if they stick around past 2026 simply because the Canadian junior ranks are in rough shape too.

 

[kwanfan1818]

They are enormous and the person just disappears into them like a cartoon version of Jonah being swallowed by that whale.

I feel better now.

 

[Miezekatze]

Great improvement from Smart and Dieck since Nebelhorn!

 

[alj5]

Fear & Gibson - Fun program with a great music cuts, definitely easy for an American audience to get behind.

Chock & Bates - I love the music, so this program is a win for me. This program looks pretty polished and ready for the end of the season. I don't mind the costume.

Smart & Dieck - Very cool first half of the program. The music change jarred me a little, I guess I was expecting more Dune and not another pretty famous piece of skating music that took me out of their story. But definitely worthy of a medal and that first half was excellent.

Davis & Smolkin - Complicated lifts done really well. Fun program that wasn't terribly memorable to me except for the "crab lift".

Neset & Markelov - I really liked this program. It doesn't really feel like a "first year senior" program.

Mrazkova & Mrazek - I really liked this program, and would've had them 2 places higher in the free dance. I also don't love the handstands on the boards.

Lauriault/Le Gac - yikes. After last year's very cool free dance, this is what we get?

Tkachenko & Kiliakov - Serviceable first year senior free dance, which is a shame because their FD last year was so good.

Morozov & Chen - I liked their free dance more than I expected to. They seemed very well matched.

Fabbri & Ayer - The opening lift is cool. Her dress is pretty. She really seemed to like their music.

 

[peibeck]

my daughter had us make 4 signs at the sign making station for the men's event (Donovan, Lucas, and 2 for Kevin who is her favorite) but she's pondering if we need flags for worlds

Okay, I may have to smuggle in some of my famous chocolate chip cookies for this kid. First Worlds and she's prepping like a long time pro.