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

[Sylvia]

Starting the new season's news thread with the U.S. dance teams' Grand Prix assignments, published today:

Hubbell/Donohue: Skate America (#1) & Skate Canada (#2)
Chock/Bates: Finland (#3) & Russia (#5)
Hawayek/Baker: Japan (#4) & France (#6)
Parsons/Parsons: Japan & France
McNamara/Carpenter: Skate America & Finland
Carreira/Ponomarenko: Finland & Russia - their GP debut
3rd spot at Skate America is TBD.

ETA: Thanks for the fact check, @Dobre (RUS added for C/P above)... too much typing/posting for me today.

 

[Dobre]

Starting the new season's news thread with the U.S. dance teams' Grand Prix assignments, published today:

Hubbell/Donohue: Skate America (#1) & Skate Canada (#2)
Chock/Bates: Finland (#3) & Russia (#5)
Hawayek/Baker: Japan (#4) & France (#6)
Parsons/Parsons: Japan & France
McNamara/Carpenter: Skate America & Finland
Carreira/Ponomarenko: Finland - their GP debut
3rd spot at Skate America is TBD.

Carreira & Ponomarenko have a 2nd berth at Rostelecom. Two spots for everyone in the top 24 World Standings. And still a host spot left for Aldridge & Eaton or anyone who can defeat them or make an argument for themselves over the summer.

 

[kwanfan1818]

The Shibs are taking the season off:
https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/1013059581310914560

 

[Sylvia]

Photos from USFS' National Dance camp (held June 22-24 in Laurel, MD): https://photos.ice-dance.com/2018-19/18USFSDanceCamp/

I did a count of how many U.S. Junior teams have competed/are scheduled to compete through Skate Detroit and came up with as many as 20!

JUNIOR DANCE (* = currently listed in ISP & eligible for JGP selection); 2018 U.S. Nationals (& Sectionals dance) placements are added [in brackets] below.

8 teams competed both programs at last month's Chesapeake Open (a 9th team has since split):
*Caroline Green / Gordon Green M/E [J2] - 1st in SD (56.40), 3rd in FD (72.04)
*Eliana Gropman / Ian Somerville M/E [J4] - 2nd in SD (52.08); 2nd in FD (72.19)
*Emma Gunter / Caleb Wein E/E [J6]
*Jocelyn Haines / Jimmy Koszuta E/P [J7]
*Alina Efimova / Alexander Petrov P/E [J8]
*Sophia Elder / Christopher Elder M/M [J11]
*Katarina Wolfkostin / Howard Zhao P/M [N1]
Oona Brown / Gage Brown E/E [N5]

Competed 1 program at Chesapeake (9 U.S. teams):
*Avonley Nguyen / Vadym Kolesnik, SC of Novi E/M [J5] - 1st in FD (73.64)
*Katarina DelCamp / Maxwell Gart M/P [J9]
Allie Rose / J.T. Michel E/M [J13] - FD only
Paulina Brykalova / Daniel Brykalov M/M [N11] - FD only
Cherri Chen / [Yuanshi Jin E/P [E-J6] - SD only
Claire Purnell / Luke Purnell M/M [Mids-J wd] - SD only
Leah Krauskopf / Evan Walter M/M (NEW) - SD only
Bailey Melton / Ryan O'Donnell M/M (NEW) - SD only
Sara Zhao / Caleb Niva M/P (NEW) - SD only

SPLIT after Chesapeake: Maxine Weatherby / Dmitriy Bogomol P/E [N7] - he is now listed on IPS and has UKR citizenship

Anna Pettersson / T.J. Carey [N9] - they competed FD at Chesapeake; will represent Sweden according to this Swedish article from April.

7 teams that competed at the Chesapeake Open are scheduled to compete at the Cannon Texas Open later this week:
Nguyen/Kolesnik, Efimov/Petrov, DelCamp/Gart, Rose/Michel, Wolfkostin/Zhao, Purnell/Purnell, Melton/O'Donnell;
plus 2 new teams based in Wheaton (WISA) formed from the split team of Cesanek/Usanov [J12]:
Emily Bratti / Nikolay Usanov E/P
Molly Cesanek / Yehor Yehorov E/P (Yegor Yegorov UKR, I assume? His ISU bio last season: http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00103292.htm ) ETA: His club is listed as Peninsula SC in the Pacific Coast section so they could compete in the U.S. qualifying system if he passes the required USFS tests by the deadline.

Skate Detroit JR Dance (July 19-20) - 4 U.S. teams are entered:
Nguyen/Kolesnik, Wolfkostin/H. Zhao, S. Zhao/Niva (SD only) and 1 new team:
Chloe Tsoi / Jim Wang - he skated with Emily Bratti (now partnered with Usanov) in Novice last season (B/W placed 6th in Novice at Midwestern Sectionals).

Re-posting from the Kiss & Cry section:

They aren't on the most recent entry list (no senior ice dance teams are listed) but accorded to Christina's instagram, Carreira/Ponomarenko will be competing at Skate Detroit.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlBvv4iDfaD/

She mentioned they would debut their FD (Tokio Myers medley) there.

Lake Placid (July 24-27) is the week after Detroit; entries for the domestic/international comps are not available online at this time.

 

[Dobre]

Thank you for the link to the photos, Sylvia. My favorite is this one of Ben with the munchkins:
https://photos.ice-dance.com/2018-19/18USFSDanceCamp/STP/18USDC-STP-9050.jpg.php

I did a count of how many U.S. Junior teams have competed/are scheduled to compete through Skate Detroit and came up with as many as 20!

Amoia & Becker are in the dance camp photos as well. They were signed up for the Chesapeake Open but didn't compete.

Does Cameron Collucci have a new partner? Daria Popova is on ice partner search, but he is in the photos from dance camp.
https://photos.ice-dance.com/2018-19/18USFSDanceCamp/Ballet/18USDC-Ballet-9454.jpg.php

 

[mysticchic]

Thank you!

 

[emilieh]

Does Cameron Collucci have a new partner? Daria Popova is on ice partner search, but he is in the photos from dance camp.
https://photos.ice-dance.com/2018-19/18USFSDanceCamp/Ballet/18USDC-Ballet-9454.jpg.php

Hard to tell without competition dress & makeup, but is that Gianna Buckley?

 

[Dobre]

Hard to tell without competition dress & makeup, but is that Gianna Buckley?

Ah, maybe. I wondered if she would turn up somewhere. If so, she's in several photos from dance camp, but the link above is the only one I noticed with Colluci so I'm not sure if they are partners. (There are a bunch of people in the ballet photos that I don't recognize).

plus 2 new teams based in Wheaton (WISA) formed from the split team of Cesanek/Usanov [J12]:
Emily Bratti / Nikolay Usanov
Molly Cesanek / Yehor Yehorov

Well, that's one mystery solved. Here is a youtube video of Emily Bratti, labeled as being from the 2017 U.S. Solo Ice Dance Championships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKSQN0MKzh0

 

[aftershocks]

So U.S. ice dance seems quite vigorous and healthy with all of these teams. Thanks @Sylia for the info and links...

 

[rinkside]

Ah, maybe. I wondered if she would turn up somewhere. If so, she's in several photos from dance camp, but the link above is the only one I noticed with Colluci so I'm not sure if they are partners. (There are a bunch of people in the ballet photos that I don't recognize).



Well, that's one mystery solved. Here is a youtube video of Emily Bratti, labeled as being from the 2017 U.S. Solo Ice Dance Championships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKSQN0MKzh0

Yes I believe it is Gianna but from what I've heard they have already broken up.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

Copying my post from the K&C:

Cannon Open Junior FD notes from my sister:

Nguyen/Kolesnik won and had awesome presentation to "Demons" cover with instrumental piece at the end
Efimova/Petrov were also impressive with "Who Wants to Live Forever" (I think they were third)
DelCamp/Gart were second I believe. Also skated well to Italian medley
Wolfkostin/Zhao were fourth. Skated to Dr. Zhivago
Rose/Michel skated to the Birdie song "Not About Angels." Messed up the twizzles.
Cesanek/Yehorov skated to a flamenco medley
Bratti/Usanov skated to Don Quixote
Purnells had some bobbles and skated to possibly Gypsy Kings
Melton/O'Donnell skated to cover of "California Dreaming."

Vadym Kolesnik posted their protocols on Instagram and they scored 93 in the FD. At first I was like "Whoa!" and then I remembered the new +5 GOE lol.

 

[Dobre]

Thank you for all the program info!

Vadym Kolesnik posted their protocols on Instagram and they scored 93 in the FD. At first I was like "Whoa!" and then I remembered the new +5 GOE lol.

That's 20 points more than they earned for it a month ago so we'll see where the scores wash out eventually. Scores are typically lower at that first event anyway but 20 points is still a huge difference. Probably take us a while to get a sense for the numbers.

 

[chameleonster]

Thank you for all the program info!



That's 20 points more than they earned for it a month ago so we'll see where the scores wash out eventually. Scores are typically lower at that first event anyway but 20 points is still a huge difference. Probably take us a while to get a sense for the numbers.

It's worth noting that I don't think they were using the new system at Chesapeake. On the protocols a month ago every team only had one step sequence counted, and the other was marked invalid, and the BV of elements was lower than its supposed to be now. N/K were also judged as having an invalid choreo element. Their PCS was only a little over a point higher but their BV was nine and a half points higher. Its a little hard to gauge because we don't seem to have anyone else's scores from Texas Cannon at the moment, but right now it seems to be in line with what you might expect.

 

[Debbie S]

They did not use the +5/-5 scale at Chesapeake. The rule change was effective July 1.

 

[levineismine]

Cross posting from the Madi&Zach thread

Here's the in depth interview with Madi and Zach that I did for ice-dance.com:
Link
We discussed the Olympic season, the upcoming season, their off ice projects and a lot more.
Enjoy!

 

[Sylvia]

Hubbell & Donohue performed to "The Blower's Daughter" and "Make Me Feel" in the Saturday Night Ice Show in Lake Placid, New York this past weekend - article by Christie Sausa, published today: http://www.lakeplacidnews.com/page/...ating-stars-stop-in-Lake-Placid.html?nav=5074
Excerpt:

"We're 27. If we're going to keep skating, it's because we love it and we enjoy it," Hubbell said. "Yes it's our business, but sometimes as an athlete you become so involved in exact goals that you take the fun out of it and put more pressure on yourself than really what serves you. So if we can keep that hard-working mentality and professionalism and allow ourselves to have fun training every day, that's a nice way to spend the next four years of our career."
"I love that contrast because I feel the exact opposite," Donohue said. "I spent so many years enjoying it and not really dedicating myself as much as I should have and not understanding what it took to drive and push forward, whereas Maddie spent her time with Kiefer (Hubbell, Madison's brother and former partner) being driven and motivated, and I've learned that from her and kind of taken that on board. So now she's kind of balancing out my very job/goal-oriented attitude, keeping things light. It's a nice flipped contrast that we have with each other. It's added another depth and layer to the partnership."

 

[Vinyame]

Carreira/Ponomarenko's FD Skate Detroit:
Part I https://twitter.com/Sukana_Z/status/1020384437828284418?s=19
Part II https://twitter.com/Sukana_Z/status/1020387009846808577?s=19
They won their first senior competition.

 

[Debbie S]

Thanks for posting! Beautiful skating, but odd combo of music and I found the music edits to be a bit jarring.

 

[Rukia]

That last vocal part didn't belong at all. Carreira is a good skater, but I basically just want to watch Ponomarenko skate all day err day. Anyway, I'm excited to see how this develops through the season, and I hope they make a senior splash!

 

[breathesgelatin]

It's interesting to me Carreira/Ponomarenko are opting to go senior. I feel like a lot of teams would have stayed junior one more year and tried to win junior worlds. I mean, that's what we've seen in recent years with US junior teams. Overall I think it's pretty exciting and brave they're going for it.

 

[mysticchic]

that fd score is close to HB PB. 107. something.

 

[OlieRow]

that fd score is close to HB PB. 107. something.

That might be because of the new -5 to +5 judging?

 

[rinkside]

There is no way you can compare past scores with the new scoring system.

 

[thvu]

That might be because of the new -5 to +5 judging?

The max score for the FD has increased by around 6 14 points, mostly due to adding a 3rd choreographic element, and the massive increase in the max GOE for the choreographic elements.

*edited, forgot about the dance spin!

 

[rinkside]

Just a little perspective. Nguyen/Kolenski a second year team scored 92 something at Cannon I believe. Their first competition of the season. Best free skate score for C/P 94.15, M/C 97.98 and Parsons 97.54.

 

[chameleonster]

https://twitter.com/_David_Molina/status/1019514822256414722?s=19

Molina did the calculations for the max scores for this season. Scores will be going up a lot just from the BV increases alone.

 

[Dobre]

And as I mentioned earlier, that score in the FD for N&K was 20 points higher than their score from the Chesapeake Open, which was for the same program only a month earlier with apparently the old scoring system. (While we do sometimes see around a 10 point improvement between a debut & a follow up skate, that's still a big difference).

We'll get a feel for the new scores eventually. Lake Placid is coming up this week.

Hopefully with enough teams that we will see a range of senior scores. And also with an international judging panel.

I'm going! So excited to see new programs.

 

[thvu]

https://twitter.com/_David_Molina/status/1019514822256414722?s=19

I totally forgot about the Dance Spin .

 

[her grace]

Anyone have the entries for Lake Placid? The junior picture should be much more clear after that event. Nguyen/Kolesnik, Green/Green, and Gropman/Somerville have all had successful beginnings to the season. To me, Elder/Elder have been the surprise so far with strong showings at Chesapeake and Skate Detroit. It will be interesting to see what happens to the middling teams at Lake Placid; so many good skaters and not that many JGP spots up for grabs.

 

[rinkside]

Anyone have the entries for Lake Placid? The junior picture should be much more clear after that event. Nguyen/Kolesnik, Green/Green, and Gropman/Somerville have all had successful beginnings to the season. To me, Elder/Elder have been the surprise so far with strong showings at Chesapeake and Skate Detroit. It will be interesting to see what happens to the middling teams at Lake Placid; so many good skaters and not that many JGP spots up for grabs.

Don't they have 14 spots. Don't believe L/B will be going to Placid.