The Dance Hall 7: Tripping the Light Fantastic 2019-2020

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firstflight

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*Smart & Diaz have been up & down versus last year's competition this season. They've defeated Zagorski & Guerreiro and lost to Soucisse & Firus depending upon the competition and performance. S&D's SB is up substantially from last season. It is not as high as Hurtado & Khaliavin's.

Yes, the rest of your post was apt in that I didn’t include the current lowest tier of the Gadbois teams, instead focusing on the middle and highest group. L/L didn’t used to belong in the lowest grouping but they joined the others with downright poor performances this season. S/F is just a shoulder shrug team with consistently being inconsistent in scoring.

On a related note in terms of S/D vs. H/K, I’ve been meaning to ask about your impression of H/K live. Was it obvious to you in the audience at Skate Canada that they were about to be slammed in the FD score as they finished the performance?
 
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puglover

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I suspect dance teams and their coaches look at and discuss lots of ideas and settle on two they hope will each be a home run. Maybe some years they know right away that it is going to be one of their best. Maybe more often they have great hopes for a concept and music and they really don't know until they are out there competing with it what the reaction will be. Sometimes the reaction is not what they wanted. Really tough situation to be in. Money, time - huge investment has been put out and they have a really short season so they can tinker with it and try to fix perceived weaknesses - or scrap it and start again or go back to an old program. In the last few seasons we have seen dance teams do all of the above.
 

Dobre

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Have we heard anything about Tweedale & Buckland? Per the K&C, they are not on the entry list for British Nationals. I was trying to recall if we had heard of an injury, but I don't remember. T&B were at Lombardia. Then they were signed up for Nebelhorn & withdrew.

Was it obvious to you in the audience at Skate Canada that they were about to be slammed in the FD score as they finished the performance?

No.

As I said in one of my previous posts, let's see how far H&K's scores swing this week, shall we?
 
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Dobre

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Crossposting this from the Team Trainwreck thread so that I can continue the conversation here:

Thank you for the information. Do you mind if I ask where Ushakova & Nekrasov are on your list? Has missing the JGP totally sunk their chances of a top 24 WS even if they were to win Junior Worlds? Last year, I was thinking they would likely just do this season; but with their having missed much of it, I'm wondering how much more likely another year is now. And/or how much it may depend on their SB score this season.

Currently 40th, although the bottom of my list is less accurate because I've only included the top 40-45 from the list at the beginning of the season.

Winning JW is 500 points right? That would put them 23rd on my current list, between Lajoie/Lagha and Koch/Nuctern. So pretty unlikely to be top 24 by the end of the season. Since most of the junior dance teams don't do senior Bs/CS events, the JGP points are pretty important.

Though, if they win JW, Russia would probably give them the host spot at least and the SB would probably be at least close-ish to top 24, so 2 GP spots would still be a possibility at least.

Stepanova & Bukin didn't get a host spot in 2013-14.

Yes, JW is 500 points. Thank you.
 

RoseRed

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Crossposting this from the Team Trainwreck thread so that I can continue the conversation here:

Stepanova & Bukin didn't get a host spot in 2013-14.

Yes, JW is 500 points. Thank you.
Then yeah, they'd need to get a good SB at JW and hope for a host spot if necessary if they wanted to move up and get senior GP events. Otherwise staying junior might be better.
 

laviemn

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Barbara did quite well by Koch & Nuchtern last season. I don't know how far down they were in her priority list, but she pretty clearly helped get them the levels, get them to the top of the German dance field, and into the FD at Worlds. Which is ground they appear to have lost this season moving away with Caruso.

As far as I can tell, Carol's 2nd team this season appears to be Bashynska & Beaumont. They were 10th at Junior Nationals last year and now appear to be fighting for a shot at the National podium and making the Junior World Team. Hovering closer to 4th than 3rd at the moment, I would say; but still quite good improvement from last season & clinched a medal this year at JGP Russia.

I mean, these teams are nowhere near the World podium; but they improved a lot under their coaches. Which implies time and investment. (Also, watching Barbara watch one of her teams have a great day? How can one even question whether she is invested? LOL).

I didn't say say those coaches put no time and investment in their lower ranked teams, or that those teams never improved. I said those lower ranked teams are not going get the same time and investment of those coaches' flagship teams with whom they have long relationships and are the standard bearers of their camps and whose results impact their reputations as coaches the most. I don't see anything that disproves that. And in light of that, I'm not sure that Gadbois' lower and mid-ranked teams would fare better off elsewhere despite how crowded it is there, because Gadbois seems to strive for an egalitarian system that benefits those teams more than their top teams (the quality of Gadbois' output being the subject of the post to which I was replying).
 

Dobre

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I understand, @laviemn. I just took the conversation in a different direction.

I am a very big fan of the expansion of diversity in both ice dance & art. I appreciate that Montreal is working harder to diversify their material. But, even more, I appreciate the expansion of the sport via a wider variety of dance coaches throughout the world. And throughout various countries. I'd prefer it not remain a sport only dominated by a few voices, regions, or powerhouse countries. The more locations and the more coaches, the more athletes will find their way into the discipline and be able to afford a career in the sport.

The more athletes these coaches can reach, the more talent they will find. The longevity and richness of the discipline depends upon it.

It disturbs me when posters & television commentators talk about the discipline as if there is only one quality training center in the World (not bothering to highlight any of the other coaches for all the other teams at Skate America this season, for example). And it disturbs me when interclub rivalries lead to constant negativity toward whatever club is less popular within a particular country or region at the moment. It's a pretty natural part of sport, but I've seen a number of promising dance coaches disappear over the years. And I prefer not to see it happen.

Last year I was tracking all of the teams earning level 4 on the tango, and a high percentage of Barbara's teams made that list. It impressed me as I wouldn't have predicted it.

I appreciate Wing & Low's work with their young teams in B.C. I greatly respect Wheaton's ability to break into the U.S. dance circuit. I am glad Barbara is doing well by her teams in Western Europe as we have lost a couple of the most influential dance coaches within the region over the last several years (or have seen them cut back toward retirement). I am glad to see Russia rebuilding and having more than one camp present teams that can compete for the podium. I would love to see some independent development happen in China and Japan. To see their coaches able to develop young athletes at a high enough level that they are not always playing catch up.
 
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VGThuy

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From @rosewood's post in the Shibs Thread:

Shibs are visiting Japan. Today they appeared in a skating lesson & a talk show in Yokohama. And they revealed that they aim at Beijing Olys!

ETA: (my rough translation)
Alex: "We haven't announced that we've retired, and we're planning to come back (to competitions). Olympics are special to us. As the Beijing winter Olympics comes closer, we want to prepare in the span of one year or so."

ETA: rosewood in the Shibs thread posted a direct link to their interview, and they sound a lot vaguer than the article's quote and I think I hear some stringing along speak, but who knows.
 
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chantilly

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^Hmm. Not sure if they’ll experience the same success as V and M, but given the somewhat inconsistency of the American teams this season who knows.
I like them and think they were often underscored, but who knows.

I could see a bronze. But I can’t see them overtaking the French or the Russian team.
 

VGThuy

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I for one was never convinced that the Shibs ever reached close to their potential, and I was excited at the prospect of them continuing just so they could untap more of what they were capable of even if their results were the same or less than the last Olympic cycle, but it would take a lot of work on their part. If they are serious, they have to be training like now. Since they're still being openly non-committal despite the original quote making it sound like they were committed, then I don't see it happening for them. Like, I don't think V/M just started training when they made their announcement at 2017 4CC. I think they were training for a while beforehand, but I could be wrong about that. And let's face it, V/M are simply better and didn't need as much time as I suspect the Shibs do if they were to mount a real come back.
 
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chameleonster

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As I recall, V/M made their announcement when they did because they had already been training for awhile and couldn't keep the lid on it for much longer. If the Shibs don't start training seriously fairly soon I'd have a hard time imagining that comeback going well. I also think they're not likely to attempt a comeback if they aren't extremely serious about at the very least making it back to the podium.
 

Bigbird

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Well at least they didn't put the grand Canyon between S/K and G/P. In my humble opinion G/P have the finesse and interpretation while S/K are grand and fast, it should be closer, but at least it's not the five point deficit they gave C/B. Onwards and upwards to the FD.
 

mollymgr

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I just looked at the Rostelecom RD results. The Russian Federation really wants a dance team on the podium this season. :EVILLE:
 

Colonel Green

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Because why not, I made a chart of Grand Prix Final appearances for dance teams, investigating the question of whether Piper & Paul's four seasons' absence was the longest on record (it was!).

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I've penciled in P/C and S/B for this season, even though technically NHK hasn't happened yet.
 
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casken

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Why the hell did Zhulin change the end of S&K's FD so they finish awkwardly after the music now? I thought maybe it was a mistake in China, but they did it again here. It was so much better at the test skates.

Sometimes he makes the most :confused: decisions.
 

Bigbird

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Why the hell did Zhulin change the end of S&K's FD so they finish awkwardly after the music now? I thought maybe it was a mistake in China, but they did it again here. It was so much better at the test skates.

Sometimes he makes the most :confused: decisions.
But yet they score higher here even though the straight line lift was also a dudd and there were these other shaky moments. The one good thing they could only put one point between them and G/P. This competition was joke.
 

Ka3sha

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Well, in comparison with last year’s event this dance event at Rostelecom was way more interesting :)

I think that both SinKats and Piper/Paul free dances are growing on me, maybe because I was watching live and from different perspective. Enjoyed both teams here and thought that the scores and places were reasonable and deserved.
My fav dance of both nights was definitely Sara/Kirill ‘s FD. Very intriguing and stylish. I was sitting on the judges sides, so can’t say if it was heavily choreographed towards the judges or not (re @Dobre ’s notes from Skate Canada).
Also liked the Lithuanians in the free dance, original and well-choreographed.
 

Peepsquick

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A lot of the entries from Rostel. and Warsaw are on this you-tube channel. Todays are not up yet.

Thank you @barbarafan! I've been scrounging around for whatever is posted and hasn't disappeared yet. It is still a very frustrating experience. I will have to buy a pass of some sort in the end but some posters have been unhappy with the quality of the streaming ...
 
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