The Dance Hall 13: When You Dance on the Ice and Your Feet Twizzle Twice, That's Amore

[Kateri]

I didn't mean to offend anyone, just to point out that this conversation was starting to take a weird direction.

In our defence, the weirder comments were posted in the immediate aftermath of the men's free skate. Please excuse a certain heightened atmosphere of mania.

 

[ostile17]

Me too. I'm still getting emotional about it.

Same here. And I keep on crying at every Instagram post they make.

 

[Vagabond]

Oh, let's face it. This thread jumped Lara Naki Guttman's shark after the publicationof Papadakis' book, and thank goodness for that. The timorous can lurk at Golden Skate if they prefer.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

I don’t think anyone should be telling people not to have fun, especially silly and obviously not serious fun. Especially not as their second whole post on this board.

 

[Andrea82]

Can we talk about Smolkin's Italian pasta-gate?

Diana Davis on Instagram: "🇮🇹 🍝 🍕"

1,563 likes, 41 comments - di__davis on February 14, 2026: "🇮🇹 🍝 🍕".

www.instagram.com

 

[Kateri]

Can we talk about Smolkin's Italian pasta-gate?

Diana Davis on Instagram: "🇮🇹 🍝 🍕"

1,563 likes, 41 comments - di__davis on February 14, 2026: "🇮🇹 🍝 🍕".

www.instagram.com

What were people claiming they'd said?

Related to D/S, clicking through to their instagram showed me this post by Diana describing the exact situation with her hearing, which was interesting. Explains how it doesn't affect her ability to hear music as a dancer, but affects her ability to comprehend speech, making it understandable that she avoids interviews, and is certainly not something just exaggerated for attention, as some people have implied.

 

[skategal]

Lajoie/Lagha have Romain Haguenauer listed as a former coach in their ISU bio. I found that interesting. He has been with them in the KnC since their junior days. Maybe it means they won't be working with him anymore in the future, even though they are staying with IAM?

I could see them moving into the space C/B now hold (Patrice primary coach) when C/B retire.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

What were people claiming they'd said?

Related to D/S, clicking through to their instagram showed me this post by Diana describing the exact situation with her hearing, which was interesting. Explains how it doesn't affect her ability to hear music as a dancer, but affects her ability to comprehend speech, making it understandable that she avoids interviews, and is certainly not something just exaggerated for attention, as some people have implied.

It seems like it was the opposite. She downplayed it for a long time to avoid attention.

 

[VGThuy]

I for one made my comment because there was some truth to it, and I ain’t gonna stop for a tone police officer minimizing Papadakis’ experiences by equating a few light roasting comments to something that caused her actual psychological damage that motivated her to end the near lifelong partnership on bad bad terms and write a whole book discussing her trauma.

 

[Karen-W]

Mildly joking about Cizeron's narcissism has been a thing for many years, even when he was winning everything under the sun with Papadakis. I see no problem with the jokes this week in that regard as they're just continuing in the same, lighthearted vein, even if the tentacle of truth contained in it upsets some.

 

[VGThuy]

In more fun news, Jean-Luc Baker proposed to Olivia Smart on Valentine’s Day in Milan.

Olivia Sophie Smart on Instagram: "14.02.26 ❤️"

oliviasmartx on February 15, 2026: "14.02.26 ❤️".

www.instagram.com

 

[Andrea82]

What were people claiming they'd said?

That there is too much pasta and it is turning his stomach.
Seemingly criticizing pasta is a crime in Italy. It got more headlines than Cizeron and Chock/Bates not winning.

 

[Katha]

 

[MsZem]

Seemingly criticizing pasta is a crime in Italy. It got more headlines than Cizeron and Chock/Bates not winning.

That's because it's much more scandalous.

(for the record, people are allowed to dislike pasta!)

 

[Tinycities]

I did not listen to it, but Emilea Zingas said on a live this morning that they might be bringing back the pattern next season. They’re starting to work on their programs already

 

[Katha]

That's a great development IMO. And I do think giving the BS choreo elements so much weight actually helped produce the result here tbh. I know it was done to boost entertaining teams with comparably weaker skating skills like F/G, Smart/Dieck, Chock/Bates etc., but in practical terms it created a situation where the more hardcore technical elements and at least smaller mistakes in more technical elements could be overcome with maxing out GOE on the choreo stuff. Chock/Bates arguably profited from this structure a number of times and FB/C also overcame the wobble in the twizzles with massive GOE in these elements, as I understand. Live by the BS choreo element, die by the BS choreo element.

At the moment, the system has these vague vibes elements making up an IMO disproportionate amount of the technical score.

 

[Allskate]

I just wanted to say that jokes are never really “just jokes.” They add to the psychological pressure athletes are already dealing with all the time...

I'd be shocked if Cizeron was reading this thread. Truly shocked.

 

[Marta24]

I really hope the pattern is back next season. If it's not then the Choreo Step needs to be at least taken out. It has no place in the RD.

 

[Vagabond]

Looking back after the Olympics, I still wonder what on earth Skate Canada was thinking when it granted Fournier-Beaudry a release.

Olympic Winter Games 2026 - Ice Dance

results.isu.org

Team Event

results.isu.org

On the bare results, Skate Canada did itself out of a silver medal in Ice Dancing and possibly fourth place in the Team Event. There also seems to have been some blowback on the prospects of Lajoie & Lagha, who finished seventh at Worlds last year.