The Dance Hall 12: Boston Tea Dance Party

[litenkyckling]

Well, I'm not sure their current situation is working out all that great with the material Carol Lane's given them this season. Perhaps training via Zoom with a European coaching team in a closer time zone is something they should consider.

I would imagine it not working out more likely due to lack of available ice in Ireland. As far as I’m aware the only year round rink is in Dundonald. Not sure how the citizenship question works out when you’re based in Northern Ireland but I’m fairly certain you can apply for Irish citizenship while living there.

Not sure when they began considering the Irish option, but they’ll be annoyed they didn’t get married sooner I’m sure!

 

[Colonel Green]

I would imagine it not working out more likely due to lack of available ice in Ireland. As far as I’m aware the only year round rink is in Dundonald.

Yeah, I was going to say, from what I understand rink availability is pretty limited in Ireland.

This is one of those things that is just so alien to, say, a Canadian like myself, where basically every town has a year-round rink.

 

[Karen-W]

Sooooo, going over the GP scores, this is what we're looking at for a potential Worlds ranking...

FYI - I'm taking the highest score from each team, and once a country hits the max # of entries it has, any other teams from that country are excluded (with the exception of GreenP & ZingKol and Les Gacs & FabAyer - both sets of team scores are very close and consecutive with each other in the rankings).

1 - 215.95 - Chock/Bates USA (NHK)
2 - 214.84 - Gilles/Poirier CAN (SCI)
3 - 209.13 - Guignard/Fabbri ITA (CoC)
4 - 206.38 - Fear/Gibson GBR (SkAm)
5 - 205.16 - Lajoie/Lagha CAN (CoC)
6 - 198.97 - Carreira/Ponomarenko USA (NHK)
7 - 196.60 - Turkkila/Versluis FIN (Fin)
8 - 196.52 - Smart/Dieck ESP (CoC)
9 - 195.52 - Reed/Ambrulevicius LTU (NHK)
10- 195.27 - Lopareva/Brissaud FRA (GPdF)
11 - 190.43 - Taschlerova/Taschler CZE (Fin)
12 - 189.86 - Green/Parsons USA (CoC) OR 189.48 - Zingas/Kolesnik USA (Fin)
13 - 187.05 - Davis/Smolkin GEO (SkAm)
14 - 185.23 - Demougeot/Le Mercier FRA (CoC)
15 - 183.64 - Orihara/Pirinen FIN (Fin)
16 - 183.05 - Mrazkova/Mrazek CZE (NHK)
17 - 177.09 - Lim/Quan KOR (SCI)
18 - 175.85 - Lauriault/Le Gac CAN (GPdF) OR 174.45 - Fabbri/Ayer CAN (SCI)
19 - 173.36 - Janse van Rensburg/Steffan GER (NHK)

There are some interesting gaps here with ChoBat & GilPoir having a distinct advantage over GuigFab - which is probably due to the fact that those first two teams have one decent program each while both of GuigFab's programs miss the mark. FearGib may have the most points to qualify for the GPF, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for them to lose to LajLag by the end of the season. Then there's a big gap between them and CarPon, who have a slight edge over the teams bunched 7th through 10th, but not so much of an edge that an error wouldn't drop them below any of those other teams.

Below the Top 10, there will be a battle for 11th & 12th - and there's also going to be a battle for 15th & 16th - could go either way between those teams.

And then, there's another wide gap with 17th-19th. I didn't even bother with any of the teams below that as their GP scores were all below 170 - there are too many other teams not on the GP who will be at Worlds, battling for the last spot in the FD - but that last spot in the FD would nab the 19th & last Olympic spot awarded at Worlds (Bekker/Hernandez, Harris/Chan, Tkachenko/Kiliakov all may be in the mix).

 

[Andrea82]

With the Senior GP Final line-up sets, the composition of the panel of judges for the Grand Prix Final is also almost set:

1) Great Britain
2) USA
3) Canada
4) Italy
5) France
6) Ukraine
7) Germany
8) and 9) two among Finland, China and Japan

First priority is those with an entry in Senior GPF
Second priority is those with an entry in Junior GPF
Third priority is organizers of Senior GP stages. The first two sets of priorities cover 7 spots, with 3 countries from the third priority list available for the last two spots. Up to the ISU to sort them in the next few days.

 

[Karen-W]

With the Senior GP Final line-up sets, the composition of the panel of judges for the Grand Prix Final is also almost set:

1) Great Britain
2) USA
3) Canada
4) Italy
5) France
6) Ukraine
7) Germany
8) and 9) two among Finland, China and Japan

First priority is those with an entry in Senior GPF
Second priority is those with an entry in Junior GPF
Third priority is organizers of Senior GP stages. The first two set of priorities cover 7 spots, with 3 countries from the third priority list available for the last two spots. Up to the ISU to sort them in the next few days.

Crossing my fingers that Finland gets one of those last two spots since they have the GPF 2nd Alternate!

 

[Bigbird]

The judges don't like innovation or diversity much unless its accompanied by very long edges and speed. Loved the top 5 today. It is what it is.

 

[Taso]

The ice dance event at Euros really is going to be a nail biter for Bronze, wow...

 

[On My Own]

A comeback nobody wants but we might end up having anyway:

In even more bad news, apparently Wang/Liu are preparing for Asian Winter Games later this season?! (I desperately hope this is false)

ETA: God. Just searched for Liu's name on weibo, and there are indeed physical training clips (nothing on ice that I could see), and they were at CoC in the audience (...his fans took autographs from him...)

 

[Karen-W]

The ice dance event at Euros really is going to be a nail biter for Bronze, wow...

Seriously. It's kind of insane just how tight these four teams are -

196.60 - Turkkila/Versluis FIN (Fin)
196.52 - Smart/Dieck ESP (CoC)
195.52 - Reed/Ambrulevicius LTU (NHK)
195.27 - Lopareva/Brissaud FRA (GPdF)

LopBri have already beaten ReedAmbru in a head-to-head, and SmaDie just beat TurkVers in a head-to-head, so it really could go any which way between these four teams, I think.

 

[PRlady]

Seriously. It's kind of insane just how tight these four teams are -

196.60 - Turkkila/Versluis FIN (Fin)
196.52 - Smart/Dieck ESP (CoC)
195.52 - Reed/Ambrulevicius LTU (NHK)
195.27 - Lopareva/Brissaud FRA (GPdF)

LopBri have already beaten ReedAmbru in a head-to-head, and SmaDie just beat TurkVers in a head-to-head, so it really could go any which way between these four teams, I think.

Let’s be cynical and mentally subtract a point or two from the Finns and French skating at home. I vote for Smart/Dieck as bronzers, although I’m also a big Lop/Bri fans.

 

[Karen-W]

Let’s be cynical and mentally subtract a point or two from the Finns and French skating at home. I vote for Smart/Dieck as bronzers, although I’m also a big Lop/Bri fans.

I think that's fair. LopBri's SCI score was 194.25 - so, they seem to be right in that 194-195 range. TurkVers are a bit harder to handicap because of the errors they had today in their FS, so their score was a bit lower than we would have seen otherwise.

SmaDie have some serious momentum right now. Their RD score had a HUGE 5 point boost between SkAm and CoC. Their FD is already vastly ahead of the other three, but their RD still could use another 1-2 point boost to firm up their chances at bronze.

Thing is, Tallinn is really easy traveling distance for any Finnish or Lithuanian fans who want to give TurkVers or ReedAmbru an extra boost.

Right now, considering the location, the likely panel and both the RD & FD scores over both events, my best guess at their ranking would be -

Smart/Dieck
Turkkila/Versluis
Reed/Ambrulevicius
Lopareva/Brissaud

The panel is the extra factor that tips it in SmaDie's favor - M-F won't want to leave Tallinn without at least two medalists, lol.

 

[PRlady]

I think that's fair. LopBri's SCI score was 194.25 - so, they seem to be right in that 194-195 range. TurkVers are a bit harder to handicap because of the errors they had today in their FS, so their score was a bit lower than we would have seen otherwise.

SmaDie have some serious momentum right now. Their RD score had a HUGE 5 point boost between SkAm and CoC. Their FD is already vastly ahead of the other three, but their RD still could use another 1-2 point boost to firm up their chances at bronze.

Thing is, Tallinn is really easy traveling distance for any Finnish or Lithuanian fans who want to give TurkVers or ReedAmbru an extra boost.

Right now, considering the location, the likely panel and both the RD & FD scores over both events, my best guess at their ranking would be -

Smart/Dieck
Turkkila/Versluis
Reed/Ambrulevicius
Lopareva/Brissaud

The panel is the extra factor that tips it in SmaDie's favor - M-F won't want to leave Tallinn without at least two medalists, lol.

But there’s also the silly, irrelevant fact that Lop/Bri are actually the best skaters of the bunch.

 

[Karen-W]

But there’s also the silly, irrelevant fact that Lop/Bri are actually the best skaters of the bunch.

Ehhhhhh... At this level, the material matters. They and ReedAmbru suffer from the same problem that GuigFab and FearGib suffer from at the top tier - two mediocre programs going up against teams that each have at least one superior program. Both TurkVers and SmaDie have much better FDs, similar to how ChoBat have a better FD and GilPoir have a better RD.

 

[Debbie S]

I feel like making the GPF probably counts for something, so L/B would appear to be the favorites, but I hope it's S/D.

 

[PRlady]

I think Lop/Bri’s FD is wonderful (mixed feelings about Rasputin but might go over very well with a Euro audience.) Dune is special and the Finns’ tango is good but Lop on any given day is just a better team.

 

[Karen-W]

I feel like making the GPF probably counts for something, so L/B would appear to be the favorites, but I hope it's S/D.

If they had made it with an overall score that also put them in 6th, then yes, but it's clear from the GP scores that CarPon are a little bit ahead of them, and they're actually pretty even with the rest of the teams they're bunched with for Euros bronze.

 

[Andrea82]

I think that's fair. LopBri's SCI score was 194.25 - so, they seem to be right in that 194-195 range. TurkVers are a bit harder to handicap because of the errors they had today in their FS, so their score was a bit lower than we would have seen otherwise.

SmaDie have some serious momentum right now. Their RD score had a HUGE 5 point boost between SkAm and CoC. Their FD is already vastly ahead of the other three, but their RD still could use another 1-2 point boost to firm up their chances at bronze.

Thing is, Tallinn is really easy traveling distance for any Finnish or Lithuanian fans who want to give TurkVers or ReedAmbru an extra boost.

Right now, considering the location, the likely panel and both the RD & FD scores over both events, my best guess at their ranking would be -

Smart/Dieck
Turkkila/Versluis
Reed/Ambrulevicius
Lopareva/Brissaud

The panel is the extra factor that tips it in SmaDie's favor - M-F won't want to leave Tallinn without at least two medalists, lol.

Are we expecting the panel to be more pro-Marie France than otherwise?
The draw for European Ice Dance panel of judges was

Azerbaijan (Yuri Kliushnikov)
Czechia
Spain
Estonia (Larissa Shuljatjeva)
Finland
France
Great Britain
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands (Jeroen Prins)
Poland
Switzerland

 

[BlueRidge]

I think Lop/Bri’s FD is wonderful (mixed feelings about Rasputin but might go over very well with a Euro audience.) Dune is special and the Finns’ tango is good but Lop on any given day is just a better team.

It didn't even occur to me that Lop/Bri as bronze (barring mistakes from the top two) was even in question. Dune is fantastic but Lop/Bri are that much better and their FD is a really cooool program.

 

[Marta24]

Sooooo, going over the GP scores, this is what we're looking at for a potential Worlds ranking...

FYI - I'm taking the highest score from each team, and once a country hits the max # of entries it has, any other teams from that country are excluded (with the exception of GreenP & ZingKol and Les Gacs & FabAyer - both sets of team scores are very close and consecutive with each other in the rankings).

1 - 215.95 - Chock/Bates USA (NHK)
2 - 214.84 - Gilles/Poirier CAN (SCI)
3 - 209.13 - Guignard/Fabbri ITA (CoC)
4 - 206.38 - Fear/Gibson GBR (SkAm)
5 - 205.16 - Lajoie/Lagha CAN (CoC)
6 - 198.97 - Carreira/Ponomarenko USA (NHK)
7 - 196.60 - Turkkila/Versluis FIN (Fin)
8 - 196.52 - Smart/Dieck ESP (CoC)
9 - 195.52 - Reed/Ambrulevicius LTU (NHK)
10- 195.27 - Lopareva/Brissaud FRA (GPdF)
11 - 190.43 - Taschlerova/Taschler CZE (Fin)
12 - 189.86 - Green/Parsons USA (CoC) OR 189.48 - Zingas/Kolesnik USA (Fin)
13 - 187.05 - Davis/Smolkin GEO (SkAm)
14 - 185.23 - Demougeot/Le Mercier FRA (CoC)
15 - 183.64 - Orihara/Pirinen FIN (Fin)
16 - 183.05 - Mrazkova/Mrazek CZE (NHK)
17 - 177.09 - Lim/Quan KOR (SCI)
18 - 175.85 - Lauriault/Le Gac CAN (GPdF) OR 174.45 - Fabbri/Ayer CAN (SCI)
19 - 173.36 - Janse van Rensburg/Steffan GER (NHK)

There are some interesting gaps here with ChoBat & GilPoir having a distinct advantage over GuigFab - which is probably due to the fact that those first two teams have one decent program each while both of GuigFab's programs miss the mark. FearGib may have the most points to qualify for the GPF, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for them to lose to LajLag by the end of the season. Then there's a big gap between them and CarPon, who have a slight edge over the teams bunched 7th through 10th, but not so much of an edge that an error wouldn't drop them below any of those other teams.

Below the Top 10, there will be a battle for 11th & 12th - and there's also going to be a battle for 15th & 16th - could go either way between those teams.

And then, there's another wide gap with 17th-19th. I didn't even bother with any of the teams below that as their GP scores were all below 170 - there are too many other teams not on the GP who will be at Worlds, battling for the last spot in the FD - but that last spot in the FD would nab the 19th & last Olympic spot awarded at Worlds (Bekker/Hernandez, Harris/Chan, Tkachenko/Kiliakov all may be in the mix).

I hope both Czech teams can improve significantly their scores until Worlds. This is cutting it very close to keep their two spots. It would be awful to not only lose the 2nd Oly spot, but also the 2nd spot for Prague Worlds.

 

[Sylvia]

Nov. 16 (when Ashlie first shared the news of her and Atl Ongay-Perez's split):

Ashlie's Instagram post/reel today : https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCcYwXFt02Y/

From the British skating news thread in GSD on Nov. 23:

Atl has posted that he is now training at Lee Valley, and has explained more about the situation that caused the break up.

Link to his Instagram post

 

[Dobre]

Allison Reed has just been granted Lithuanian citizenship at last. Congratulations to her and good luck to R/A for the coming Olympic season!

Oh, excellent. Talk about a career of perseverance.

 

[Dobre]

Yes, it could be interesting. (We'll see how the GPF goes for L&B and whether it can launch them onto a higher plain). My random thoughts on these particular four European teams:

I think the Finns--both Finnish teams, actually--have two good programs this season. Not common any season, and likewise true for this one. It says something for T/V because they had a challenging year last year, and this is the way you want to come back.

Reed & Ambrulevicius have quite a bit of experience now, and Tallinn should be a good place for them to compete.

Lopareva & Brissaud have learned the most important lesson--which is that they are not like everyone else and should embrace being different.

I think the Dune is being overscored. (That's all I have to say on that, though obviously S/D are a better team than during a debut season).

 

[litenkyckling]

I’m not sure S/D will quite get the bronze at Euros this year but next year in Sheffield aka Olivia’s hometown is maybe a different story…

 

[Theatregirl1122]

Seriously. It's kind of insane just how tight these four teams are -

196.60 - Turkkila/Versluis FIN (Fin)
196.52 - Smart/Dieck ESP (CoC)
195.52 - Reed/Ambrulevicius LTU (NHK)
195.27 - Lopareva/Brissaud FRA (GPdF)

LopBri have already beaten ReedAmbru in a head-to-head, and SmaDie just beat TurkVers in a head-to-head, so it really could go any which way between these four teams, I think.

I vote that we drop R/A and the remaining three make up the podium.

 

[zebobes]

I find it a little silly that so many Euros Bronze medals in Ice Dance seem to be decided by the location of the event... but the location also plays a huge role psychologically into preparation as well.

 

[Andrea82]

Time is running out to get Europeans' minimum TES.
Other than Golden Spin, the other events before the entry deadline are
Santa Claus Cup (this week)
Bosphorus Cup (this week)
EduSport (10-15 December) also feature Ice Dance this year

Santa Claus have the following team with realistic chance to achieve it and with realistic chances to be in contention to be selected by their own Fed:
Samantha RITTER / Daniel BRYKALOV, currently off by 3.94 points (thanks SkatingScores)
Maxine WEATHERBY / Oleksandr KOLOSOVSKYI, off by 8.54 points
Olivia Josephine SHILLING / Leo BAETEN, off by 0.44 points
Angelina KUDRYAVTSEVA / Ilia KARANKEVICH, off by 0.91 points

Bosphorus Cup have:
Kristina DOBROSERDOVA / Alessandro PELLEGRINI, off by 0.89 points
Katarina DELCAMP / Berk AKALIN, off by 2.12 points

 

[Ka3sha]

Since it's now a small break between the GP events and (J)GPF and I was writing a long post on Russian skating in Russian thread, here is a free dance from Mironova/Ustenko from the last Russian Cup event

Екатерина Миронова — Евгений Устенко. Танцы на льду. Произвольный танец. Санкт-Петербург

Екатерина Миронова и Евгений Устенко на домашнем льду вошли в топ-3 финального этапа Гран-при. Их суммарная оценка за два дня превысила 200 баллов.

rutube.ru

I absolutely loved the choreo/approach, so want to share it here. They are ice dancers in St Petersburg, so they have big issues with ice and training time in general. Yet I very like their coaches approach to training and finding opportunities for her students - like, this summer they went to work with Shpilband/Camerlengo for a month and a half. She is also quite snarly and honest about why other Russian coaches do not want to collaborate or work with international specialits.
Here is her long interview with Vaitsekhovskaya

 

[Andrea82]

Time is running out to get Europeans' minimum TES.
Other than Golden Spin, the other events before the entry deadline are
Santa Claus Cup (this week)
Bosphorus Cup (this week)
EduSport (10-15 December) also feature Ice Dance this year

Santa Claus have the following team with realistic chance to achieve it and with realistic chances to be in contention to be selected by their own Fed:
Samantha RITTER / Daniel BRYKALOV, currently off by 3.94 points (thanks SkatingScores)
Maxine WEATHERBY / Oleksandr KOLOSOVSKYI, off by 8.54 points
Olivia Josephine SHILLING / Leo BAETEN, off by 0.44 points
Angelina KUDRYAVTSEVA / Ilia KARANKEVICH, off by 0.91 points

Bosphorus Cup have:
Kristina DOBROSERDOVA / Alessandro PELLEGRINI, off by 0.89 points
Katarina DELCAMP / Berk AKALIN, off by 2.12 points

Panels for this week

Santa Claus Cup
Tech Controller: Kathaleen Cutone (USA)
Tech specialists: Jana Vanova (Slovakia) and Francesca Fermi (Italy)
Judges are from Hungary, France, Ukraine, Cyprus (former France) and Azerbaijan
(Juniors have Zanni instead of Fermi. And Czechia and Slovakia instead of Cyprus and France among the judges)

Bosphorus Cup
Tech Controller: Slavka Grinkova (Slovakia)
Tech specialists: Alper Ucar (Turkey) and Aliki Stergiadu (Sweden)
Judges are from Poland, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Turkey and Netherlands.
(Juniors have Anna Krytskaya of Poland, former Belarus, instead of Stergiadu. And Estonia instead of Armenia among the judges).

 

[nuge]

I absolutely loved the choreo/approach, so want to share it here. l

Love her don't like his messy hair! Some interesting choreo there!

 

[Andrea82]

Time is running out to get Europeans' minimum TES.
Other than Golden Spin, the other events before the entry deadline are
Santa Claus Cup (this week)
Bosphorus Cup (this week)
EduSport (10-15 December) also feature Ice Dance this year

Santa Claus have the following team with realistic chance to achieve it and with realistic chances to be in contention to be selected by their own Fed:
Samantha RITTER / Daniel BRYKALOV, currently off by 3.94 points (thanks SkatingScores)
Maxine WEATHERBY / Oleksandr KOLOSOVSKYI, off by 8.54 points
Olivia Josephine SHILLING / Leo BAETEN, off by 0.44 points
Angelina KUDRYAVTSEVA / Ilia KARANKEVICH, off by 0.91 points

Bosphorus Cup have:
Kristina DOBROSERDOVA / Alessandro PELLEGRINI, off by 0.89 points
Katarina DELCAMP / Berk AKALIN, off by 2.12 points

Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan (Ritter/Bryakalov) and Cyprus got the Euro minimums.