U.S. Ice Dance 2019-20 season news & updates

[shan]

U.S. Figure Skating Announces Grand Prix Series Withdrawals - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

U.S. Figure Skating announced today that Ting Cui has withdrawn from Internationaux de France and NHK Trophy, while the ice dance duo of Lorraine McNamara and Quinn

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

M/C are out of their first GP. Hopefully they'll be recovered by NHK, or at least Nationals.

I hope they have a quick recovery.

 

[aftershocks]

A year old announcement video about Shpilband renewing his contract with Novi Ice Arena:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR53VH9Y_ow

 

[Blossom on Ice]

Madison Chock/Evan Bates after their free dance at Finlandia Trophy:"We're happy to put on a good skate and head to the Grand Prix"

Madison Chock/Evan Bates: “We’re happy to put on a good skate and head to the Grand Prix” - Blossom on Ice

U.S. ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are two-time World medalists (silver in 2015, bronze in 2016), two-time Grand Prix Final silver medalists (2014–15, 2015–16), the 2019 Four Continents champions, and the 2015 U.S. national champions. At Finlandia Trophy, which took place in Espoo...

www.blossomonice.com

 

[aftershocks]

Settled at the Senior Level, Carreira and Ponomarenko Elevate Their Skating and Aspirations - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

When comparing last summer to this summer, ice dancers Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko say it's like night and day.

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

Those cute 'Pick Three' and 'Food Phrase' videos on the right bottom side of the above fanzone page must have been filmed at Champs Camp in August. Caroline and Michael were good, but Haven and Brandon were even better. Camden was so funny. Ting was sweet.

... Gropman & Somerville upset Lewis & Bye in one JGP and people proclaim L&B to be going nowhere and G&S to be breaking through. The following year the Browns upset G&S in the RD at U.S. Nationals (which still makes no sense to me based on the protocols), and people proclaim G&S to be in trouble and the Browns to be the future. This season the Browns are defeated by two brand new teams composed of various pieces of teams that weren't content with the narrative from last season and one team that didn't have any political pull at last year's Junior Nationals because he was ineligible last season. Relax.

It's a sport. Everyone has pressure headed their way. Ignore the narrative, stick together, & learn how to compete.

Thanks. You didn't directly mention, but it's obviously implied that both G/S and L/B are no longer because both teams split. Somerville is now sumptuously partnered with Katarina DelCamp (formerly with Maxwell Gart who's now beautifully teamed with Anya Lavrova). And as recently announced, Logan Bye has fortuitously joined with Eva Pate to continue his promising ice dance career after splitting with Chloe Lewis. Oh, and I recently learned that Gart also previously competed with Avonley Nguyen before she eventually met her Ukrainian-born dream partner, Vadym Kolesnik!

So maybe it's more like, Find your magical, meant-to-be partner, and dance!

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Gosh, these athletes just keep getting younger, which means...

 

[Dobre]

Dmitry Tsarevski (2nd in intermediates at Nationals) is on IPS. It says he wants to compete in Juniors. His previous partner, Leah Nesset, has been listed for a while.

Anthony Haddad (7th in novices) is also listed.

 

[reut]

My talk with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker about last season, their programs and more (loved their bumper sticker ideas ):

Hawayek and Baker Aim to Showcase the Character of Their Dances | Two for the Ice

TFTI correspondent Reut Golinsky sat down with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker after the rhythm dance at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy. Reut: I wanted to start our talk from two photos you, Kaitlin, posted on your Instagram: the two of you five years ago and now on the same spot in Oberstdorf. A lot...

www.twofortheice.com

 

[Blossom on Ice]

Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko: “Look forward to Skate America. When they announce us and everyone is yelling, it’s so great”

Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko: “Look forward to Skate America. When they announce us and everyone is yelling, it’s so great” - Blossom on Ice

2019 Skate America is the first event in the 2019 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series. This year, the competition will mark the first Skate America event to be held in Las Vegas. Two-time World Junior medalists (silver in 2018, bronze in 2017), the 2017 JGP Final silver medalists, and the...

www.blossomonice.com

 

[layman]

My talk with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker about last season, their programs and more (loved their bumper sticker ideas ):

Hawayek and Baker Aim to Showcase the Character of Their Dances | Two for the Ice

TFTI correspondent Reut Golinsky sat down with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker after the rhythm dance at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy. Reut: I wanted to start our talk from two photos you, Kaitlin, posted on your Instagram: the two of you five years ago and now on the same spot in Oberstdorf. A lot...

www.twofortheice.com

I loved that interview. Thank you so much for sharing it.

 

[layman]

I really like Hubbell/Donahue's programs this year and I think they skated with a lot of passion and speed at Skate America. I do not agree with the judges putting them in second in the Free.

 

[gkelly]

I do not agree with the judges putting them in second in the Free.

With a difference of 0.42 in Stepanova/Bukin's favor in TES (all GOEs since both teams had identical base values) and 0.34 in Hubbell/Donahue's favor in PCS, for a total of 0.08 for the FD overall , I doubt that the judges were aware while marking of which team their individual scores would place on top or that they agreed with each other (or their own factored marks) on which team they preferred/thought was holistically better, if they had mental energy to spare for thinking about rankings at all.

 

[wickedwitch]

H/D's RD is uncomfortable and inappropriate at best, but I really liked their FD. I think it's better than either of their programs from last season. And with a few relatively minor changes (get rid of the voiceovers!), it could be excellent. Plus, it's very diferent from what we see from all their competitors.

But what's the point of Champs Camp if that RD or the voiceovers didn't get nixed?

 

[Karen-W]

H/D's RD is uncomfortable and inappropriate at best, but I really liked their FD. I think it's better than either of their programs from last season. And with a few relatively minor changes (get rid of the voiceovers!), it could be excellent. Plus, it's very diferent from what we see from all their competitors.

But what's the point of Champs Camp if that RD or the voiceovers didn't get nixed?

Agreed. The "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" part was just awful. I don't understand why they didn't just stick with the "Smash" soundtrack entirely - "National Pasttime" has all the innuendo one needs for that first section and the 1st verse of "They Just Keep Moving the Line" would have been a much better choice for the slow section.

 

[I❤️Marina&Sergai]

Agreed. The "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" part was just awful. I don't understand why they didn't just stick with the "Smash" soundtrack entirely - "National Pasttime" has all the innuendo one needs for that first section and the 1st verse of "They Just Keep Moving the Line" would have been a much better choice for the slow section.

I usually really like their style but I don’t feel that “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is a good choice for them.

 

[laviemn]

I usually really like their style but I don’t feel that “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is a good choice for them.

I don't feel that "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is a good choice for anyone. My one small comfort is that at least it was the most grown woman in the competition interpreting it and not one of the sixteen year olds, who already had cringey enough music for sixteen year olds.

 

[I❤️Marina&Sergai]

Hi

I don't feel that "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is a good choice for anyone. My one small comfort is that at least it was the most grown woman in the competition interpreting it and not one of the sixteen year olds, who already had cringey enough music for sixteen year olds.

Yeah I do question the appropriateness of the choice. It does make you wonder what the feed back from Champs Camp was like. In her IG stories and interviews Madison seemed genuinely excited to be adopting a Marilyn Monroe persona for the performance so perhaps regardless of any feedback they had from the specialists at Champs Camp they wanted to perform the dance in front of an audience.

 

[laviemn]

Yeah I do question the appropriateness of the choice. It does make you wonder what the feed back from Champs Camp was like. In her IG stories and interviews Madison seemed genuinely excited to be adopting a Marilyn Monroe persona for the performance so perhaps regardless of any feedback they had from the specialists at Champs Camp they wanted to perform the dance in front of an audience.

I'm actually fascinated that the song survived vetting both from their own coaches and Champs Camp. I find it hard to believe that no one said "Rethink this!" but this article said H/D wanted to do this song 5 years ago. So they chose it themselves and maybe the thinking was as veterans they should be able to do whatever they believe in.

Recap: 2019 Skate America – Ice-dance.com

www.ice-dance.com

 

[aftershocks]

With a difference of 0.42 in Stepanova/Bukin's favor in TES (all GOEs since both teams had identical base values) and 0.34 in Hubbell/Donahue's favor in PCS, for a total of 0.08 for the FD overall , I doubt that the judges were aware while marking of which team their individual scores would place on top or that they agreed with each other (or their own factored marks) on which team they preferred/thought was holistically better, if they had mental energy to spare for thinking about rankings at all.

Ya think? Maybe so. We can't be exactly sure how to definitively pinpoint the overriding thing that influences the judges in their point-by-point decisionmaking. Politics is always a factor. I think Hubbell/Donahue are better quality skaters in terms of speed, technique and ice coverage, as well as better physically matched than S/B. However, S/B have improved, in addition to trying to emulate Madi and Zach in certain program themes, style, and music selection.

Both teams have excellent FD programs that need more tweaking and should grow in power over the course of the season. The Ice Desk commentators at SA enjoyed Madi/Zach's FD, but felt they need to tweak the ending to build more relationship drama for a more powerful ending that complements the music. The ID commentators loved S/B's music selection and performance because they felt it was unexpected. However, they also felt that S/B's FD started out extremely well, and then lost a bit of momentum and excitement toward the end. All constructive commentary.

This is figure skating, so the judges cannot help but be influenced by political conflicts of interest in addition to personal and subjective biases. The programs are fairly even, and S/B are much improved, but despite being entertaining, S/B still are not as good overall technically and impactfully as Madi/Zach. Let's be honest.

 

[Spiralgraph]

H/D's RD is uncomfortable and inappropriate at best, but I really liked their FD. I think it's better than either of their programs from last season. And with a few relatively minor changes (get rid of the voiceovers!), it could be excellent. Plus, it's very diferent from what we see from all their competitors.

But what's the point of Champs Camp if that RD or the voiceovers didn't get nixed?

I do agree with you about H/D's RD as the lyrics are definitely passe and a bit cringe worthy. However, the advice from Champs Camp isn't all correct all the time. Remember TPTB wanted Jason Brown to forget about Riverdance and get a new LP for 2014.

 

[layman]

I did not know that Marilyn recorded a number of albums: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Marilyn+Monroe&i=popular&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Reminds me of Elvis or Lady Gaga...being a crossover artist.

"My Heart Belongs to Daddy" may be campy but at least it's not the overused "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"or "I Wanna be Loved by You." Marilyn left behind many lesser known songs. I am glad H/D went with one of them. I think the program is cheeky and fun.

 

[Dobre]

I'm not sure H&D would change a program based on Champs Camp advice. They had a really tough season following Camp feedback on The Great Gatsby. Anyway, compared to the five-or-six-different hip-hop/blues pieces RD, the current program is well composed. The other was a no brainer--the kind of thing you do expect to get let's-simplify-a-bit feedback on. My Heart Belongs To Daddy has more of a time-period culture clash issue with a modern audience. (I thought Laurine's program was actually quite charming when she performed it at SC, and unfortunately, it looks like team Gadbois did too. Because of course she did get flack (at least online), and you can understand why she may have felt compelled to change it mid-season. Anyway, we'll see. Setting aside my personal dislike for all things Marilyn, as a first impression I thought the choreo for the RD was pretty good. I don't know if they'll change it or not as the scores were good and they have at least polishing work to do on the free. You do have to prioritize. I appreciate Karen's comment in post #222, though, as it's an educated one. And I really think the girl in Smash sings better than Marilyn even when pretending to be her.

My mom listened to the suggested pieces in that post today. She's generally opposed to anything more than two pieces in an RD (even though we both automatically remembered the National Pastime number from the show), but she liked the Just Keep Moving the Line number for H&D as it's sultry & could work well with their style.

 

[laviemn]

I actually really like H/D's RD aside from a visceral reaction to that one song. It's fun, the Smash selections are very danceable, I'm impressed at how Madison blends flirtatiousness and notes of humor in her performance. One thing is that the power of her skating works against the delicate, vulnerable image I have of Marilyn, especially when she sweeps across the ice like a force of nature while I hear Marilyn's wispy voice. It's less of an issue for me when Megan Hilty sings.

People were wondering why they shoehorned My Heart Belongs to Daddy onto Smash, but it turns out they chose it first (5 years ago!!!) and fit the Smash selections around it. So very likely it ain't going anywhere. And note they had bigger PCS gap over S/B in the RD than the FD, so maybe this is an audience issue that the judges don't share.

 

[Spiralgraph]

Funny but when I think of My Heart Belongs to Daddy, I think of it being sung by Mary Martin, not Marilyn Monroe. Either way, if H/D have their hearts set on it (pun intended) let them stay with it. It's their choice.

 

[Sylvia]

Shilling/Petrov won a close contest, scoring 144.41 (55.95 in RD, 88.46 in FD) over Pate/Bye 143.03 (58.58 in RD, 84.45 in FD). Both attained well over the minimum TES combined score of 65 for 2020 Nationals:
S/P 88.86 (34.85+54.01)
P/B 88.07 (36.98+51.09)
I believe both teams made USFS' ISP score as well... to be confirmed later.

Both of these new senior teams, along with the new junior team of Layla Karnes & Kenan Slevira (won the Mids Dance Challenge with a score of 130.19), have been added to the ISP: https://www.usfsa.org/story.aspx?id=84156&menu=TeamUSA

 

[clairecloutier]

Another article about Hawayek/Baker.

Hawayek and Baker Embrace New Season with “Winning Mentality” - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

Last season, U.S. ice dancers Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker posted the best results of their senior career. They won their first gold medal at a Grand Prix

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

 

[Sylvia]

So I discovered that the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy (WISA) has a new website:

https://new.wisa.us/

The Wheaton Ice Arena in Maryland is organizing a fundraising event at Rockville (Maryland) Ice Arena on Saturday, November 2, 2019 from 12:30 to 2 pm with all proceeds given to the Shalin family. WISA skaters & guests will perform to support Nick’s Fight. You can buy tickets online or at door (poster PDF): https://new.wisa.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Skate-For-Nicka-Fight-2019_web.pdf

FB event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1573928706083765/

 

[Gusmom]

Will be interesting to see H/D later in season. I was looking forward to the FD but it seems disjointed. The voiceovers. And highlights in movement don’t naturally fall where I’d expect with highlights in music. There are a lot of missed opportunities. I’m glad they didn’t stick to straight “Shallow” but it was disappointing and hard to follow for me. (I know I’m in the minority).
I hate Marilyn Monroe so I can’t objectively comment on the RD.

 

[Jammers]

H/D made a big mistake not competing before the GP. If they had they perhaps would have known before SA and certainly SC what tweaks needed to be done with their programs. They aren't as accomplished as P/C that they could just wait until the GP season to start competing they needed some miles on their programs.

 

[laviemn]

H/D are getting so much flack for not doing a warm up event but this isn't an unprecedented choice for a non-P/C team. Shibs didn't for their last 2 seasons, and it didn't turn out to be a problem. Now if the Shibs had skipped the previous season, they might have been in a lot trouble because they lost to both Gilles/Poirier and Coomes/Buckland at Nepala and then revamped their FD. But even after that they still decided to skip the warm ups the following seasons.

It sounds like H/D felt confident about their programs coming into this season, and they chose the schedule they felt would be best for them. They probably feel blindsided by the negative reception of their programs.

 

[Jayar]

I think what is missing from the H/D free dance is two things-- and this is my opinion based on the fact that they are telling the story of the film (based on the narrations throughout). First, the costumes are gorgeous, but they are too glamorous for who the characters were. And second, they need to finish with 'I'll Never Love Again'. Telling the story without finishing it is anticlimactic. This would not only bring the audience closer to the dance, but it would also complete the story. Just my humble opinion. I would be willing to be that they change both come GPF.

 

[clairecloutier]

I think what is missing from the H/D free dance is two things-- and this is my opinion based on the fact that they are telling the story of the film (based on the narrations throughout). First, the costumes are gorgeous, but they are too glamorous for who the characters were. And second, they need to finish with 'I'll Never Love Again'. Telling the story without finishing it is anticlimactic. This would not only bring the audience closer to the dance, but it would also complete the story. Just my humble opinion. I would be willing to be that they change both come GPF.

That's interesting, @Jayar. I had a similar thought about the costumes at Skate America. I haven't yet seen the movie, but just based on the trailer, the costumes did seem more glamorous than what I remembered from the trailer. (Clearly I need to just watch the movie, so I'll understand more of the whole thing.)