The Dance Hall 8: Join the Maskerade 2020-2021

[sap5]

I think Camerlengo worked better for them as a choreographer. The connection in their Liebestraum FD seemed to me much more natural compared to what Montreal gave them the last few seasons.

H/B choreographed this season’s FD themselves.

 

[Marta24]

H/B choreographed this season’s FD themselves.

Oh, I didn't know that. Well, I'm curious to see how their Olympic programs will look like. Hopefully, they can qualify for the team.

 

[Bigbird]

H/B choreographed this season’s FD themselves.

I love how they have progressed. But how many classical programs about euro centric sensibilities can you really watch? Isn't dance about diversity? Nope, so there needs to be alternative pathways.

 

[her grace]

So fun to watch the world compete against each other again.

Congrats to S/K on their world title. I prefer the RD to the FD, but both were skated well. Some of her lift positions look a bit like a ragdoll so I hope they can improve those for next season. Would also like to see them branch out beyond a generic classical-ish theme in the FD.

H/D: Their lifts look visibly better and smoother, ironically while the steps weren't as sharp. They've really got to work on hitting their levels. No excuse for getting Lv2s at Worlds. Also ready for new programs, would like to see something dramatic and Tron-like.

Gilles/Poirer: They overperformed and were actually rewarded! One thing I appreciate is how close they skate together. Thought the FD was visually interesting the way they weaved in and out connecting the elements.

Chock/Bates: RD felt fresher to me than the FD. Either way, they need new programs for Os. Don't know if there's much that can be done about his twizzles at this point as a 3-time Olympian, but

Stepanova/Bukin: Would like to see her develop her edge depth. And could we not with the weird music mismatch FDs. Thanks.

Guignard/Fabri: eternally wuzrobbed. Great skating quality.

Fear/Gibson: holy overscore always. I get that they're entertaining; if only they could skate.

Hawayek/Baker: Always seem to tighten up at the Championship events. She is so serious when she competes that the lighter RD doesn't really work. But their FD was a bit better, though also tighter than the way they performed it at Nationals. Time to embrace the darkness for programs, I think.

Z/G: always nice to see them skate well. They've really come into their own since the surprise Olympic trip in 2018.

Hurtado/Khalivan: so close. for Spain

 

[her grace]

GBR putting H/D in 7th place? What on earth??

I'd be happy to drop Fear/Gibson 5 places, too.

 

[Bigbird]

I missed the Italians why were they so low?

 

[Colonel Green]

I missed the Italians why were they so low?

Because Babs has less power than her fearsome glare would suggest.

Also, if we're trying to "fairly" judge, I think their rhythm dance is a total misfire for them, even if technically they're obviously excellent.

 

[Judy]

Really enjoyed the fd and yay for G&P as well as the others .

 

[Bigbird]

Because Babs has less power than her fearsome glare would suggest.

Also, if we're trying to "fairly" judge, I think their rhythm dance is a total misfire for them, even if technically they're obviously excellent.

But that didn't stop S/K with their overly syrupy FD and RD?

Poor Babs.

 

[Karen-W]

But that didn't stop S/K with their overly syrupy FD and RD?

Poor Babs.

Politically - RusFed > Italian Fed

 

[Bigbird]

Politically - RusFed > Italian Fed

How do they remain motivated? Ouch...dance is hard.

 

[nuge]

Perhaps Babs could give them her FD from 2006 was it Prince of Egypt? see what they can do with it.

 

[Colonel Green]

Looking ahead to next season and the all-important race for the Olympic final RD group, P/C have dug a pretty deep hole for themselves by my preliminary calculations they’re going to be something like tenth in the world standings at the start, but more importantly they’re almost 600 points behind the team that will be in fifth place at that point (Guignard/Fabbri).

Ironically, after their disappointing Worlds, Chock/Bates will move into the lead in the world standings once the 2018/19 season gets dropped.

 

[taz'smum]

Looking ahead to next season and the all-important race for the Olympic final RD group, P/C have dug a pretty deep hole for themselves by my preliminary calculations they’re going to be something like tenth in the world standings at the start, but more importantly they’re almost 600 points behind the team that will be in fifth place at that point (Guignard/Fabbri).

Ironically, after their disappointing Worlds, Chock/Bates will move into the lead in the world standings once the 2018/19 season gets dropped.

By my calculations, in July the ranking will be this

1​	Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES​	2639​
2​	Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV​	2608​
3​	Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER​	2358​
4​	Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE​	2289​
5​	Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI​	2011​
6​	Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN​	1923​
7​	Lilah FEAR / Lewis GIBSON​	1797​
8​	Sara HURTADO / Kirill KHALIAVIN​	1539​
9​	Shiyue WANG / Xinyu LIU​	1501​
10​	Kaitlin HAWAYEK / Jean-Luc BAKER​	1441​
11​	Laurence FOURNIER BEAUDRY / Nikolaj SORENSEN​	1426​
12​	Gabriella PAPADAKIS / Guillaume CIZERON​	1369​
13​	Tiffani ZAGORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO​	1179​
14​	Natalia KALISZEK / Maksym SPODYRIEV​	1110​
15​	Maria KAZAKOVA / Georgy REVIYA​	1062​
16​	Olivia SMART / Adrian DIAZ​	1018​
17​	Allison REED / Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS​	977​
18​	Carolane SOUCISSE / Shane FIRUS​	903​
19​	Adelina GALYAVIEVA / Louis THAURON​	865​
20​	Alexandra NAZAROVA / Maxim NIKITIN​	734​
21​	Christina CARREIRA / Anthony PONOMARENKO​	729​
22​	Katharina MUELLER / Tim DIECK​	668​
23​	Elizaveta SHANAEVA / Devid NARYZHNYY​	657​
24​	Marie-Jade LAURIAULT / Romain LE GAC​	647​
25​	Marjorie LAJOIE / Zachary LAGHA​	548​

 

[Miloune]

I wonder : was there ever a time when P/C ranked 1st?? Each time I saw this ranking, they didn't lol.

 

[MsZem]

I wonder : was there ever a time when P/C ranked 1st?? Each time I saw this ranking, they didn't lol.

Looks like there was.

 

[Colonel Green]

Of course, one of the things P/C have in their favour is Euros, since the North American teams don’t typically go to Four Continents in an Olympic year — but one of them may have to consider it this year, depending on how things play out.

 

[Peepsquick]

I wonder : was there ever a time when P/C ranked 1st?? Each time I saw this ranking, they didn't lol.

yeah... no. I don't think they were ever ranked first because with the exception of 2014-15 and maybe the pre-olympic season, they didn't participate in enough competitions to get there. At least, that's how I remember it .... Am I wrong?

 

[chantilly]

Looking ahead to next season and the all-important race for the Olympic final RD group, P/C have dug a pretty deep hole for themselves by my preliminary calculations they’re going to be something like tenth in the world standings at the start, but more importantly they’re almost 600 points behind the team that will be in fifth place at that point (Guignard/Fabbri).

Ironically, after their disappointing Worlds, Chock/Bates will move into the lead in the world standings once the 2018/19 season gets dropped.

It didn’t seem to hurt V and M the year before 2018.
I know it’s an OLY year, but I really don’t think it’ll be an issue for P and C if they skate clean.

But then winning isn’t necessarily a forgone conclusion anymore either.

 

[Colonel Green]

So, in terms of qualification at Nebelhorn next season, who do we all think is most likely to qualify?

I feel like Turkkila & Versluis, Min & Eaton and Kazakova & Reviya are the most obvious contenders.

Both Fear & Waddell (or maybe Tweeddale & Buckland, though has anyone even heard from them lately?) and Moscheni & Fabbri have been given openings to earn second berths for their country, but they're at or slightly below the level of several other teams also jockeying for position.

The strangest case would be the possibility that Harris & Chan could qualify a spot for Australia that they themselves may not actually be able to take, clearing the way for one of the Aussie teams that otherwise wouldn't have a prayer of qualifying a place to attend.

 

[shuilee]

The CZE (Taschlerova/Taschler) and HUN team (Yanovskaya/Lukacs) will be very competitive. They were 22nd and 23rd at Worlds (just behind FIN team that was 21st).

The ARM team (Garabedian/Proulx Senecal) withdrew, but they certainly would be competitive also. So I'd add these 3 teams to the 6 that you already mentioned. Could be 9 teams fighting for 4 spots.

I'm not sure if Eaton has KOR citizenship, so it may be strange if KOR qualifies but they won't be able to compete. I suppose Chan has same citizenship issue for AUS? They could qualify, but Harris/Chan wouldn't be able to go to Olympics?

 

[taz'smum]

The strangest case would be the possibility that Harris & Chan could qualify a spot for Australia that they themselves may not actually be able to take, clearing the way for one of the Aussie teams that otherwise wouldn't have a prayer of qualifying a place to attend.

That would probably defeat the object of the new Olympic qualifying rules as that would almost certainly mean a team that would not normally be good enough to qualify being send instead of them!

 

[emilieh]

I'm not sure if Eaton has KOR citizenship, so it may be strange if KOR qualifies but they won't be able to compete. I suppose Chan has same citizenship issue for AUS? They could qualify, but Harris/Chan wouldn't be able to go to Olympics?

I would guess that Eaton could potentially get citizenship, since Min's former partner Gamelin was able to for Pyeongchang, and IIRC, South Korea has granted citizenship to athletes in other Olympic sports as well.

I do wonder if Chan is angling for AUS citizenship, since it seems that (according to instagram) Harris & Chan spent a fair amount of time in Australia this season, away from their coaching team. Maybe it had to do with checking some boxes for residency?

 

[Colonel Green]

I do wonder if Chan is angling for AUS citizenship, since it seems that (according to instagram) Harris & Chan spent a fair amount of time in Australia this season, away from their coaching team. Maybe it had to do with checking some boxes for residency?

He’s definitely trying for Australian citizenship, it’s more a question of whether he could manage it in time for 2022 or if they’d have to wait for Italy.

 

[Belsornia]

Both Fear & Waddell (or maybe Tweeddale & Buckland, though has anyone even heard from them lately?) and Moscheni & Fabbri have been given openings to earn second berths for their country, but they're at or slightly below the level of several other teams also jockeying for position.

Nothing official, but I think Tweedale & Buckland may have retired - per social media she seems to have been working with Stefano Caruso's group in Berlin lately.

 

[allezfred]

That is why Ice dance is on its way out as an Olympic sport.

People have been saying this as long as I have been on FSU and as long as ice dance is an ISU sport it will be in the Olympics.....

 

[Colonel Green]

Obviously we didn't have a ton of real ice dance competitions this season outside of Russia, but summarizing my thoughts on various national hierarchies, etc. this season:

Russia
Between the scoring for S/B at Russian nationals and the developments at the World Championships, it looks like, as far as the judges are concerned, the battle between Sinitsina/Katsalapov and Stepanova/Bukin is decisively over. It's all about pushing the former to Olympic gold now. And it must be said that, after a cascade of health problems this season, S/K looked as good as they ever have at Worlds, while S/B looked noticeably off their game in places.

Zahorski & Guerreiro seem solidly in third, with a whole bunch of teams queued up behind them jockeying for fourth on any given day. None seems particularly poised to make a move for the third Olympic spot.

United States
The most dramatic development of the season, arguably, in that Chock/Bates (through a combination of circumstances) have had their comeback momentum from the 2019/20 season fizzle out, and Hubbell/Donohue are back on top. for the time being.

Hawayek/Baker, in third, seem to have solidified their position going into the Olympic year. It doesn't feel like they're in any special danger of being caught, let alone by a team that could take their third ticket to the Olympics.

Carreira/Ponomarenko ended the season with a bold move for the future that will be interesting to track in the years ahead.

Canada
A season almost wholly defined by things not happening ended with a pretty big thing happening. People periodically queried whether Gilles/Poirier could be challenged for the #1 spot, but that's clearly not happening at this point. With their shiny new World medals, they're unquestionably the brightest star in Skate Canada's firmament.

Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen are firmly in second place.

The most potentially interesting matchup is one we didn't get at any point this season, namely, whether Soucisse/Firus can mount a challenge for the #3 spot. With the relatively conservative scoring at Worlds, S/F could easily end up with a higher season's best if they skate well at WTT, but that obviously doesn't say much of anything.

Japan
Yes, Japan has an ice dance field worth talking about now!

The much-discussed debut of Muramoto/Takahashi ended up being very much a work in progress. The lifts are clearly going to be the main challenge for the new team. Komatsubara/Koleto remain in front for now.

Yoshida/Nishiyama

Italy
Beneath Guignard/Fabbri's unchallenged reign as #1, this was a wild season of teams breaking up and recombining.

I've said many times previously that Italian ice dance desperately needs one of the younger teams to find another gear, and clearly they're working in that, even if it'll be a while before any results are evident.

France
Papadakis/Cizeron ended up sitting the season out, while Lauriault/Le Gac's descent continues. But France lost its second spot for both the Olympics and a home Worlds, so that sucks for everybody who is not P/C.

Miscellaneous
Fear/Gibson are rising like a rocket. The judging at Worlds firmly grouped them with F-B/S in a second tier of teams separted from both the top seven (counting the absent P/C) and several other teams who were also thought of as being in the second tier.

 

[happycamper2554]

Spain

No second spot. So the war continues. No expert but seems like S/D lost ground loosing that competition even with Sarah recovering shoulder surgery. This will probably come down to the end. (Golden Skate Part 2?)

 

[Wyliefan]

I'm obviously very interested in the S/F-L/L jockeying for third. I'm probably the only one who is, but oh well, we all have our quirks.

What struck me about L/L's 1st Worlds is that they placed exactly where S/F placed in THEIR 1st Worlds, in 14th. (Obviously scores were higher this year.) And what's really interesting is that I see some other similarities between the teams. L/L have a lot of speed, like S/F. And like S/F, their levels were all over the place. It was especially interesting to notice how their Finnstep rose rather abruptly from L1 to L4 last season -- and here it was right back to L1. One could argue that this was due to a lack of competition this year -- but by the same token, one could point out that they had a lot of time to practice it, even with shutdowns.

S/F came out the gate strong in seniors, and then faltered because they kept making mistakes and struggling to find an identity. I don't know whether L/L will start to make mistakes -- I would guess not -- but I see signs of the same struggle in them. They (especially Marjorie) present themselves very confidently, which is a strength, but as I've complained before, they had no connection at all to their RD music. They did better with the FD, but a lot of people were commenting that it was a program that would have looked great on a different team, which again doesn't say much for their ability to interpret and inhabit a program. I know it was just viewer comments in the moment and you can't always go by those, but the general drift of the remarks was telling.

Despite the JWC title and all the hopes that were pinned on them, I suspect that if they don't work on their connection to their music and each other -- and on their levels -- L/L might fall victim to Lower Ranked Team at Montreal Syndrome. I think S/F did themselves a huge favor by going to Carol Lane, and while it may not have paid off yet -- L/L did beat them in the monitoring sessions -- it should prove to be a good move in the long run. Carol strikes me as the kind of coach who can help them with their particular weaknesses, plus they can get more attention there than they could in the Montreal factory. It may not be enough to get them to Beijing, but it very well may help them start rising through the ranks in the years afterward.

 

[Wyliefan]

As for the Brits, I'm eager to see their program choices for next season. They've very effectively used crowd-pleasers two seasons in a row to elevate themselves, but now it gets tricky. If they don't do something similar next season, people might not like it. But if they do, it might get stale. (Apologies for double posting.)