The Dance Hall 12: Boston Tea Dance Party

Further to the above - apparently at least some of us are getting this message when trying to access the full Free Dance replay from the ISU link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E13mHaJfY0c

Video unavailable
This video contains content from SME, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds
If you go to the ISU YouTube Videos page here and scroll down you can find individual videos of all 10 teams - https://www.youtube.com/@SkatingISU/videos

or the Playlists page here where you can either just click on the Free Dance icon to start playback of all the individual performances in their original order - https://www.youtube.com/@SkatingISU/playlists

or click on View Full Playlist under the icon and go to a separate page here where you can see the complete Free Dance list and chose how you want to watch - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuiPiC1Hk8eIwZw2E_Y8-JnY5-EQi3qBo

I don't know if any of these videos are muted, or contain muted portions or if the copyright issue was caused by background music. I'm personally not going to view them all to try and figure it out. If anybody else does, let us know what it was.
 
So, I realize we have another full season to go, but looking at the teams that are likely to remain around for the 2026-2030 Olympic cycle, I think the top 3 are:

Lajoie/Lagha
Carreira/Ponomarenko
Lopareva/Brissaud

Yes, Fear/Gibson are likely to continue to be elevated beyond their true skill level if they stick around, but I think they're going to easily be overtaken by LopBri as we head into a home Olympics for France. I expect MF will be more than happy to drop them below the other three teams following Milano-Cortina.

Right now, Reed/Ambrulevicius are sort of in the same position as FearGib, whereas they're probably just a bit ahead of the next 5-6 teams jockeying for position, but I'd be surprised if they stick around another Olympic cycle.

Smart/Dieck
Davis/Smolkin
Taschlers
Zingas/Kolesnik
Green/Parsons
Turkkila/Versluis*

*I'm not sure I think they're at the same level as the five above - I see them more at just a notch below, along with Bratti/Somerville and the Mrazeks.

I also think it's entirely possible that teams like SmaDie, DavSmo, ZingKol and GreenP get elevated to contend with the top 3 - especially against LopBri. I'm sure MF won't care which of her 3 Euros teams wins as long as they sweep the Euros podium, lol.

Thoughts?
 
Mrazeks will overtake the Taschlers and Nes/Mar may contend for the top in the U.S. in a couple of years. Koreans, Grimsky, Dem/Mer, others could be top ten. Baby French and now the baby Americans (Abo/Ver) are lurking ready to take it all but not til after 2030 I’d guess.
 
Mrazeks will overtake the Taschlers and Nes/Mar may contend for the top in the U.S. in a couple of years. Koreans, Grimsky, Dem/Mer, others could be top ten. Baby French and now the baby Americans (Abo/Ver) are lurking ready to take it all but not til after 2030 I’d guess.
I think it's entirely possible that some of those teams could surpass others but as glacially as things have moved in ice dance this cycle and the last one, I tend to think those teams are, more realistically, looking at 2034 to contend (and don't forget the Baby French in that next group along with AboVes).
 
I think it's entirely possible that some of those teams could surpass others but as glacially as things have moved in ice dance this cycle and the last one, I tend to think those teams are, more realistically, looking at 2034 to contend (and don't forget the Baby French in that next group along with AboVes).
Read my last sentence!
 
I think Fear/Gibson are the obvious heir-apparents for Chock/Bates. Similar style of skating with audience-friendly programs.

If the ISU wants to take the sport in a different direction, then F/G could get lost in that shuffle. But I don’t see evidence of that with the ISU choosing vague dance party themes three years in a row. :blah:
 
Many B events last week. They are always difficult to read because some of them are a world on their own.
However, some take aways
  • Pucherova/Lysak are emerging as the lead Slovak couple in this early season compared to Simova/Aksenov
  • Soucisse/Firus bot buried by a problematic RD: Base Level for the Pattern Step and Choreographic Sequence with negative GOEs. Still in the FD they were ranked lower (also in PCS) than Pucherova/Lysak and Manni/Rothilsberger.
  • Jakucs/Galli won the Dutch head-to-head vs Verhaegh/Van Geffen.
  • Cui/Rogers beat Pham/Spiridonov quite easily. The 9.0 by the Bosnian judge was a bit too much.
 
I just took a look at the scoring breakdown from the B events on Skating Scores and some of the judging this weekend was wild.

Zehnder/Sieber seemed particularly perplexing to the panel at the Pavel Roman Memorial. In the RD their individual judge tallies ranged from 54.78 to 74.50, and in the FD from 90.83 to 114.45. :rollin:
 
I think Fear/Gibson are the obvious heir-apparents for Chock/Bates. Similar style of skating with audience-friendly programs.

If the ISU wants to take the sport in a different direction, then F/G could get lost in that shuffle. But I don’t see evidence of that with the ISU choosing vague dance party themes three years in a row. :blah:
I could see Fear/Gibson on a Cappellini/Lanotte trajectory, e.g., gold at an under-attended post-olympic worlds and then passed by a bunch of more talented younger teams.
 
I just took a look at the scoring breakdown from the B events on Skating Scores and some of the judging this weekend was wild.

Zehnder/Sieber seemed particularly perplexing to the panel at the Pavel Roman Memorial. In the RD their individual judge tallies ranged from 54.78 to 74.50, and in the FD from 90.83 to 114.45. :rollin:
The FD Presentation went from 5.75 (10th place) by Stefan Grampelhuber (Austria) to 8.25 (1st place) by Yan Lukouski (Slovakia, former Belarus, former Ukraine as competitor).
 
Speaking of dance halls and 80's music....

 
Dana Sabatini-Speciale and Daniel Kaye have teamed up. She used to skate with Nicholas Buelow for Canada. He's a former solo ice dancer for Britain (and NOT the star of Hans Christian Andersen and The Court Jester, for my fellow film buffs!). They tagged the Cricket Club and Barbara Fusar-Poli in their post.

He’s also an Irish citizen so potentially another team for Ireland. Though they’re not short of options!
And it turned out to be not Canada, not the UK, not Ireland and not Italy! Sabatini-Speciale/Kaye will be representing South Africa:
 
  • Pucherova/Lysak are emerging as the lead Slovak couple in this early season compared to Simova/Aksenov
You think, really? I haven't seen the former this season, but that's interesting as S&A have pretty blatantly better material this year than they did last, IMO. (They botched the RD at Nebelhorn, but the vampires served them pretty well there in the FD).
 
The music this year has been pretty fun, although I’ve also been grateful for the teams who give us a break from the 70s!

I’ve caught myself humming “In the Navy” since the JGP. :rofl:
 
Tech panels this week

GP Finland: Shawn Rettstatt with Stefano Caruso and Nakako Tsuzuki
Rettstatt did JGP Bangkok this season; Caruso was in Mezzaluna Cup panel, for Tsuzki it is the seasonal debut.
In the judging panel, no judge from Korea (even if their judge in Men and Women panel also have the Ice Dance qualification. But probably didn't want to use the same person in 3 panels). So it is one judge for the other 6 countries with an entry + Norway, Monaco and Australia.

Tallinn Trophy: Ingrid Charlotte Wolter (Germany) as TC with Candice Towler-Green (Great Britain) and Pia-Maria Gustafsson (Finland) as Technical Specialists
Wolter (who is a member of ISU Technical Committee) has been very active this season. She has been the Technical Controller at JGP Riga, Nebelhorn Trophy, Budapest Trophy, Skate Canada and Ice Challenge.
Towler-Green did Skate America, Gustafson debuts here this season.

NRW Trophy: Christine Hurth (France) as TC with Helen Prior (Great Britain) and Christian Nuchtern (Germany) Technical Specialists.
Prior was at JGP Wuxi. For Nucthern it is the international debut as he passed the exam this summer.
 
You think, really? I haven't seen the former this season, but that's interesting as S&A have pretty blatantly better material this year than they did last, IMO. (They botched the RD at Nebelhorn, but the vampires served them pretty well there in the FD).

Pucherova/Lysak materials are here:

They have been scored
169.18 Budapest Trophy
170.89 Nepela Trophy (winning the head to head)
178.70 Denkova-Staviski Cup

Simova/Aksenov's scores have been
160.66 Nebelhorn Trophy
156.87 Nepela Trophy
164.51 Pavel Roman Memorial

Anyway, I wouldn't be shocked if by Nationals everything change.
 

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