The Dance Hall 10: The Saitama Samba 2022-2023

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Rhumba d’Amour said:
Here’s another question for next year. How many Leonard Cohen FDs will we see? How many of them will be something other than Hallelujah? :)
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Did I miss something? Why will we see a bunch of Leonard Cohen FDs next year? Is there a new biopic of him or something?
 
Former Lurve Goddess said:
There's actually a travelling exhibition about Leonard Cohen. It's currently at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. And Leonard Cohen once smiled at me :smokin: on Montreal's famed "The Main" – St. Laurent Street
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He is one of my all time faves :swoon: From the time in the 80's I was rushing to get ready for work with MuchMusic on in the background when I heard a voice I'd never heard before pull me in and the screen told me his name was Leonard Cohen and the song "Take this Waltz". I was hooked (and missed my bus). To May 2009 when I was telling my optometrist I was off to Ottawa as I was not going to miss my chance to finally see this man live and he scoffed at me. Turns out he grew up with Cohen and knew him well and was decidedly unimpressed with my taste. :lol: Adored him, he was a funny little man, and adored Leonard. Both great men from their little neighbourhood in Montreal.
 
I think Lopareva & Brissaud's RD this season was awful. There was nothing original in it. Neither one of them had the Latin feel. And then they mucked it up. It was my least favorite Latin RD of any of the top 12. (Though the Latin Love Story portion of C&P's program did give it a run for its money). L&B were one of the teams that I was the most excited about watching this season, and I was very disappointed with their material this year because this program had nothing of what makes them special. It wasn't at all about the potential or ability of the team. It was poor packaging. On top of which, they faced a tough pressure-packed scenario. The pressure was on them to earn the second berth. It was only their second worlds, and there wasn't even a real audience for the first one. The top ten was a long-shot from the start, and they needed everything going for them; but they didn't have the material. Even so, they were well set up to pass Muramoto & Takahashi after the RD because M&T had struggled to get that FD skated well for most of the season. It was just a big learning experience for L&B. My hope is that they & their team will have learned something about L&B's own strengths. I do believe they've been working on their technique this season, which is great. But this was like watching Smart & Diaz show up with the Montreal Mush program for their second season. It didn't work, and you have to figure out what works for you.

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Muramoto & Takahashi could have been top 10 here. I thought it was possible all season, and they skated as well as I could possibly have hoped for them. I also thought it was a longshot all season. They did what they could do, and they were scored fairly here, IMO. (Whereas, I don't think that was true at SA). Maybe even generously in the free, but not enough to change the placements. L&B's placement was not about M&T.

Carreira & Ponomarenko were newbies & nervous like L&B also. One set of fizzled twizzles would probably have cost them that top ten placement. But they seemed to get through the nerves early in their skate, and Anthony held together those twizzles! Major accomplishment.

A mistake or two from Taschlerova & Taschler here, also, could have cost them as the judges weren't giving them the GOE and PCS early in the season. They had the higher base value in the RD at the Finland GP & could easily have been above both the Finns & Carreira/Ponomarenko in that portion of the event there, but the judges weren't prepared for that then. But T&T built all year, and the judges were ready to give those marks for this event. The team delivered. They've had more experience at Worlds. That said, they had pressure too, with people wanting them to earn the second berth for the junior team.

Really, it was a great battle. Could easily have gone a different way. (The Finns and Lopareva & Brissaud could certainly have skated better. Carreira & Ponomarenko too. They could also have skated worse). I was so glad to see the great performances on the days/nights in question rewarded in this particular battle for 6-12.
 
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I can't picture Gilles & Poirier getting out before Montreal. If they were going to do so, I think this would have been the year. By all accounts, they took their time making the decision. And they had a great season, really. I can imagine Piper in particular may choose to get out for personal reasons after this next year, even though athletically they seem to have had fewer health issues than most teams at this stage of their career. But I'd think they probably made their choice looking two years out. Skate Canada would certainly want them to stay in because even if the Russians do not return, Fear & Gibson are in line to make the podium ahead of Fournier-Beaudry & Sorensen. (Score at 4CCs not having contradicted that possibility at all;)).
 
This is about dance in general: there has always been little movement between competition segments. Now that the rhythm dance is simply free dance abbreviated version it’s as bad as ever. I don’t understand why the ISU has diluted factors that differentiate teams even more. If it’s solely about getting a bigger audience I have to wonder what the point is of dance being a discipline at all. End of vent. Would be interested to hear from FSUers who have an in depth knowledge of dance requirements.
 
Icetalavista said:
This is about dance in general: there has always been little movement between competition segments. Now that the rhythm dance is simply free dance abbreviated version it’s as bad as ever. I don’t understand why the ISU has diluted factors that differentiate teams even more.
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They'll never do this but what if the RD was changed to an extended CD? The skaters choose their own music to the prescribed CD and then add in their own choreography with a choreo lift, a character step sequence and a twizzle sequence?
 
Icetalavista said:
This is about dance in general: there has always been little movement between competition segments. Now that the rhythm dance is simply free dance abbreviated version it’s as bad as ever. I don’t understand why the ISU has diluted factors that differentiate teams even more. If it’s solely about getting a bigger audience I have to wonder what the point is of dance being a discipline at all. End of vent. Would be interested to hear from FSUers who have an in depth knowledge of dance requirements.
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How is skating to get a bigger audience if it's so difficult to access??
 
Former Lurve Goddess said:
They'll never do this but what if the RD was changed to an extended CD? The skaters choose their own music to the prescribed CD and then add in their own choreography with a choreo lift, a character step sequence and a twizzle sequence?
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That sounds good to me, but I think they’d see that as a step backwards to similar to what it was when the OD first became the RD, with the pattern plus more elements.

I’m one of those few people who miss the CD but I would want it back with all the old music :D
 
The battle for bronze at next year’s Euros will be interesting to track. Next year is Budapest, so there’s no contending team with home ice advantage like the Finns had this year. I feel like the Taschlerovi could make a big move next season at their rate of improvement, unless the Mrazkovi muddy the perceptions around who’s Czech #1 too much when they move up.
 
Colonel Green said:
I feel like the Taschlerovi could make a big move next season at their rate of improvement, unless the Mrazkovi muddy the perceptions around who’s Czech #1 too much when they move up.
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I really like both Czech teams, but I think it will be more obvious that the Mrazeks are fresh out of juniors and the hierarchy between those two teams will be clear-cut for at least a few years. I can easily see the Taschlers making a move up - IMO their progress this season was super impressive and they seem to have a lot of admirers within the skating community. Plus, there’s a lot of buzz around Matteo Zanni’s teams in general, so being the top team from that school right now is probably a bonus.
 
I can't wait for next season :) I'm so excited about the 80s RD. With the added spots for GB, FIN and CZE + the Korean team, the RD at Worlds is going to be super intense. It's probable that teams who you would normally not expect it from, not making the cut for the FD, because of the great depth we have right now in Dance.
 
another option would be for the rules to not require the same elements in the short/rhythm/whatever dance and the FREE (emphasis mine) dance. FDs so often look similar because the choreo has to be squeezed between required elements. Skaters could skate to their strengths and there might actually be movement.
 
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