U.S. Ice Dance 2018-19 season news & updates

I'd say that given that this not an Olympic year, most excellent teams will not be able to compete in the GPF, 4C's, or Worlds. From 2015-2017 4C's, only one spot, Hawayek/Baker's in 2015, wasn't taken by the US Top 3 in Dance. H/B were also the only US #4 in that period to score close to US #3 at US Nats.
 
For the JGP, the Greens have been replaced by Gropman/Somerville (now listed for back to back in Bratislava and Austria) for the first JGP in Bratislava. Hopefully it's nothing serious and the Greens can compete in two of the later events.

ETA this is per the entries on the ISU site
 
Crossposting from The Dance Hall . . .

Trends:

After watching all the dance programs in Lake Placid, I just wanted to share thoughts on some of the trends I noticed overall. Since these were mostly young North American teams it's hard to know if the same trends will be true everywhere; but they are definitely things I saw from multiple teams and more than one country.

For the good.
-We seem to be getting a lot more teams shooting for different variations on the twizzles. (Lots of Guignard & Fabbri leg positions, teams going back and forth, changing arms positions, other leg-feature positions, etc. Essentially, lots of teams shooting for GOE, which results in a wider variety of unique and/or difficult twizzle sequences. Nice to see.

-We're also getting some very low difficult-looking and interesting combination spin positions. Not from as many teams as the ones experimenting with the twizzles, but at least 4 or 5 teams bringing that difficulty to the table. And--again--reaching for that extra GOE. I hope they get the credit for them because I think we could really use an infusion of more creativity in the dance spins.

-I do like seeing some of the lift entrances coming out of twizzles or difficult footwork.

On the negative side.
-The lift exits are driving me nuts. Everyone seems to need to hop up for one or two or three more mini lifts or flips after the main lift is done, and I feel like these "exit features" are spoiling the impact of what is often a more spectacular central position. (Note: My mother thinks I'm wrong and that all the hoppy exits are coming at the end of dance spins so it's possible we might be in for a plethora of those too).

-Some of the spins seems to go on forever. More positions, without any of them being gorgeous or unique or intriguingly difficult, is not so fun.

So that's what I see thus far. Probably more good than bad. It's always fun to see teams experimenting.
 
USFS has published the assignments for the first two JGPs on their website:

Bratislava SVK:
Eliana GROPMAN / Ian SOMERVILLE
Katarina DELCAMP / Maxwell GART (JGP debut)

Linz AUT:
Sophia ELDER / Christopher ELDER
Jocelyn HAINES / James KOSZUTA (JGP debut)

Listed on the ISU website today for #3 in Kaunas LTU (to be confirmed by USFS):
Avonley NGUYEN / Vadym KOLESNIK
Oona BROWN / Gage BROWN (JGP debut)
 
Last edited:
Congratulations to DelCamp & Gart, Haines & Koszuta, and probably the Browns as well for earning their first spots on the JGP!

(Amoia & Becker have also been added to the sub list for the third JGP).
 
With Dance-Pairs Chicago over, the JGP kicking off later this month, and my having time today, I thought this would be a good time to put together a list of summer dance scores just to see before the bulk of ISU international scores start pouring in. I stuck with scores under the new system because the old scores really don’t compare.

(I often had to do the math to combine RD and FD scores, and there are probably mistakes so feel free to let me know if you see a score I should edit).


U.S. Ice Dance Top 20 Summer Scores:
*=international
**=international Challenger

185.12 McNamara & Carpenter* (Lake Placid International)
175.23 Carreira & Ponomarenko (Dance-Pairs Chicago)
164.75 Parsons* (Lake Placid International)
157.13 Parsons** (Asian Open)
153.54 Nguyen & Kolesnik (Cannon Texas Open-Jr.)
149.06 Gropman & Somerville (Lake Placid IDC-Jr.)
148.89 Nguyen & Kolesnik (Dance-Pairs Chicago)
141.45 Brown & Brown (Lake Placid IDC-Jr.)
141.08 Manta & Johnson (Dance-Pairs Chicago)
136.31 Cesanek & Yehorov (Lake Placid IDC-Jr.)-see note 1 below
135.74 Haines & Koszuta (Lake Placid IDC-Jr.)
135.35 Gunter & Wein* (Lake Placid International-Jr.)
135.12 Elder & Elder (Dance-Pairs Chicago-Jr.)
131.67 Cesanek & Yehorov (Dance-Pairs Chicago-Jr.)
129.80 Wolfkostin & Zhao (Dance-Pairs Chicago-Jr.)
127.18 Efimova & Petrov (Dance-Pairs Chicago-Jr.)
125.78 Efimova & Petrov (Cannon Texas Open-Jr.)
124.72 DelCamp & Gart (Cannon Texas Open-Jr.)
122.94 Elder & Elder (Skate Detroit-Jr.)
122.69 Amoia & Becker* (Lake Placid International-Jr.)


Note 1: I went ahead & included Cesanek & Yehorov’s scores, though we aren’t sure yet which country they are skating for. (They aren’t listed as substitutes on the JGP for Ukraine and I didn’t spot them in a couple group photos I checked from U.S. dance camp. So just waiting to hear whatever they’ve decided).

Note 2: The Greens did compete a full set of programs at the Chesapeake Open and had the highest combined junior total there, but I have not included any of the Chesapeake Open scores because they were with the old scoring system.

Note 3: I used scores for dance teams that competed both the RD and the FD from Lake Placid, Dance-Pairs Chicago, Skate Detroit, and Texas Cannon Open. I know there have probably been a few other small events with dance participants using the new scoring system. If you think I’m missing a combined score higher than the lowest one listed here, let me know & I’ll update the list.

Note 4: I decided to go with the top twenty so I could leave in multiple scores from top teams and still let people see a broader range of teams.
 
Last edited:
Thanks to @YukiNieve for finding the list of U.S. entries for the U.S. International Classic and posting them in the "2018 ISU Challengers announced" thread -- the 3 U.S. dance teams are:

Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue
Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko
Karina Manta/Joseph Johnson

ETA that Jordan Cowan currently is filming in Montreal and shared this short (silent) clip focusing on Madi Hubbell's face: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bme43qbFCRo/?taken-by=oniceperspectives
 
Last edited:
So Hubbell & Donohue may skate their entire season up until Worlds in North America?

U.S. Classic
SA
SC
GPF
Nationals
4CCs

When does that ever happen? (It really is extraordinary that both the GPF and 4CCs are being held in North America this season).

I'm glad to see H&D signed up for a Challenger. I know they usually do the Classic, but I wasn't sure if they would be ready; and I do think it's a good idea for them to get that feedback as there will be no time to make adjustments between SA and SC.
 
Sylvia said:
Thanks to @YukiNieve for finding the list of U.S. entries for the U.S. International Classic and posting them in the "2018 ISU Challengers announced" thread -- the 3 U.S. dance teams are:

Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue
Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko
Karina Manta/Joseph Johnson

ETA that Jordan Cowan currently is filming in Montreal and shared this short (silent) clip focusing on Madi Hubbell's face: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bme43qbFCRo/?taken-by=oniceperspectives
Click to expand...
Where is the list of entries published?
 
Gropman/Somerville win bronze at the JGP in Slovakia today! :cheer2: DelCamp/Gart finish 10th.

Next up is the Austria JGP. The U.S. is sending two of the less strong teams Elder/Elder and Haines/Koszuta. This is good strategy because two of the top 3 returning teams are scheduled to be here: Canada's Lajoie/Lagha (2018 JW4, 2017 JGPF6) and Russia's Shevchenko/Eremenko (2018 JW5, 2017 JGPF4).

It occurs to me that this could be the first JGP season in forever where the U.S. does not qualify any team to the Final. Ngyuen/Kolesnik probably have the best (only) shot, and they will face inter alios top-returning team Ushakova/Nekrosov (2018 JW3, 2017 JGPF5) at their event in Lithuania. Gropman/Somerville would need to win their 2nd event to make the final, and they are facing Lajoie/Lagha at home in Canada. The Greens would be the other possibility, but they were replaced at their only assignment thus far, which makes me think they have an injury. It is unclear if they will be recovered in time to skate at two of the last three events, and if they can skate, if they will be at the standard necessary to medal.
 
Emerald66 said:
Finally G\S get a jgp medal. Good for them. Are they getting a second assignment?
Click to expand...

Yes. They'll certainly get a second one, though it's not uncommon for the U.S. dance assignments to get moved around for the second half of the JGP so we'll have to wait and see if G&S really go to Canada, which is where they are currently written in. It's not a bad assignment for them. Lajoie & Lagha will be there skating at home, but it's very unlikely Russia will send any of its top three there.
 
Dobre said:
we'll have to wait and see if G&S really go to Canada, which is where they are currently written in. It's not a bad assignment for them. Lajoie & Lagha will be there skating at home, but it's very unlikely Russia will send any of its top three there.
Click to expand...

Agreed that it's a good assignment for them. Even if they were moved, they'd likely compete against at least one team that on paper is unquestionably better than them, e.g., Ushakova/Nekrosov, Shevchenko/Eremenko, or Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov. Gropman/Somerville are very good, but not quite at the very top level of junior dance.
 
her grace said:
Gropman/Somerville are very good, but not quite at the very top level of junior dance.
Click to expand...

They've made very good progress. Started off their JGP career with level 1 footwork sequences and a 9th & 10th in their first two JGP seasons. Then last year two 4th place finishes and now a 3rd here. They had higher levels than all but the top team in Bratislava in both the RD and the FD. Really a good example for all those young teams coming up behind them, I think.

I agree not at the top yet, but they have grown and gained a lot of power over the past two seasons. Hard to see on TV because they still have the same height ratio to each other. They were so small when they first moved up to juniors, and they fit right in with the rest of the field now. They've definitely worked on the RD expression since this summer, though I hope they'll keep at it. And I appreciate how light they make all the lift dismounts look (something a lot of teams were struggling with). I'd like to see G&S upgrade the one lift--if not this season, then next--as we've seen a rendition of it for a long time. Mostly here, though, I was impressed by how calmly they competed. Feels like experience is paying off.
 
And Wolfkostin & Zhao are on the list, which is interesting. Assuming the Greens and Nguyen & Kolesnik are both signed up for two events, that leaves two openings and two teams on the sub list. Looks like maybe the plan is to assign every team on the sub list this year an assignment up front? Would make as much sense as anything since these mid-tier teams have been all over the place this summer, though of course, any plan could be subject to change based on how the early performances go. And of course, I could be wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Similar threads

Karen-W
US Ice Dance 2024-25 News & Updates
22 23 24
Replies
691
Views
143K
Wyliefan
Wyliefan
Sylvia
  • Locked
U.S. Ice Dance 2023-24 news & updates
37 38 39
Replies
1K
Views
278K
Wyliefan
Wyliefan
F
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE ICE-DANCE TEAMS?
Replies
2
Views
1K
nuge
nuge
A
ISU Communication No. 2663 - Officials for 2024/25 season
Replies
5
Views
4K
Andrea82
A
Sylvia
U.S. Men 2024-25 news & updates
45 46 47
Replies
1K
Views
202K
YukiNieve
YukiNieve
Back
Top
Do Not Sell My Personal Information