Wow, Bristol Palin made it to the final week of Dancing With The Stars. If you're bummed about the end of DWTS this season, you can rejoice in the start of Skating With The Stars which kicks off next week!

Well, let's not get our hopes too high. The show will most likely be quite dorky with wobbly celebrities on ice.

The pro skaters have been announced:

• Denis Petukhov
• Keauna McLaughlin
• Ethan Burgess
• Jennifer Wester
• Fred Palascak
• Brooke Castile

All of the pros have strong partnering experience and have competed at Nationals within the past few years. I think that will help the wobbly celebrities. I had thought with it being a post-Olympic season we would see more of the just retired Olympians, but they might have overshadowed the D-List stars. Tanith Belbin will apparently be appearing in the Samantha Harris/Brooke Burke role as co-hostess. She'll be one of two Torino and Vancouver Olympians on the show.

Johnny Weir will be one of the judges after two Olympic appearances. Dick Button will be along side him in the judges booth because honestly, there has to be number of televised skating events with Dick Button. I think it's an FCC rule for broadcasts. Laurieann Gibson is the final judge. She is a choreographer, but I'm not familiar with her.

Should be fun for at least a viewing or two.

Notes on 2011 Sectionals

Midwesterns - Ann Arbor, Michigan

Alissa Czisny, the 2009 ladies national championship, finished 10th at last year's championship. Due to this finish she had to qualify for nationals despite winning a Grand Prix event two weeks earlier. She won Midwesterns by over 30 points. According to her scores, the short program was good, but the long program had some issues including two falls. The other skaters rounding out the top four and earning a trip to Nationals hail from Colorado - Morgan Bell, Katy Jo West and Tatyana Khazova.

The senior mens event was much more competitive between a veteran of senior nationals (Pennington), junior grand prix competitors (Brown and Johnson) and a skater moving into the senior ranks after success as a junior competitor (Hochstein). Jason Brown edged out Grant Hochstein. Parker Pennington finished 3rd and Alexander Johnson rounds out the top four that advanced to nationals.

Only three couples competed in the senior pairs event. Molly Aaron and Daniyel Cohen won the event. The new team of Becky Bereswill and Trevor Young finished 2nd and advanced to Nationals.

There were also only three couples competing in the dance event. Shannon Wingle and Timothy McKernan won by nearly 20 points.

Easterns - Aston, Pennsylvania

Samantha Cesario won senior ladies. Melissa Bulanhagui, Kelsey Traunero and Joelle Forte also  advanced. Forte is an older skater, mid-twenties so it's always fun to see a slightly older skater without major sponsors advance.


There were four couples in both the dance and pairs events, but I didn't recognize any of the competitors. It appears it will be a first nationals for those skaters and possible Grand Prix events in the future.

Pacific Coasts - Culver City, CA

Vanessa Lam conquered the senior ladies event by 18 points. She sure is having a great year also having won her only Junior Grand Prix event. Danielle Kahle finished 2nd. She had competed at nationals a few years ago and thought she moved on as she got older, so it's nice to see her name near the top of the sectionals competitors. There was another oldie but goodie at this event, Laura Lipetski finished 11th. She competed at senior nationals back in the late 90s. So she actually competed against Michelle Kwan, Nicole Bobek, Tara Lipinski and Tonia Kwiatkowski. How cool is that? That's gonna inspire me in tomorrow practice working on those junior moves thinking I need to switch to the adult moves track.

Rockne Brubaker and his new partner Mary Beth Marley were the only senior pair there. They only skated their short and scored something like 52 pts for it. Mary Beth also competed in Jr. ladies and qualified for Nationals by finishing 4th.

Jonathan Cassar won the senior mens event and will be gracing us with his awe-inspiring spread eagles at nationals.

When Art Worlds Collide

It's an embarrassment of riches for skating fans this weekend with sectionals occuring coast to coast and competitors arriving in Portland to skate.... in America!

While you're planning your viewing schedule between IceNetwork, Universal Sports and Skate Buzz on top of checking blogs, take a few minutes to watch this gem from the mid-90s. My "Today In History" iPad app says today was the day sculptor Auguste Rodin was born back in 1840. Why do I bring this up? Gordeeva and Grinkov skated a program in the year after their 2nd Olympic win that was inspired by Rodin's sculpture, The Kiss. Art inspiring art. The program was choreographed by Marina Zoueva, who is one of the coaches for ice dancers Davis & White who you can see tangoing away at Skate America this weekend.

 Enjoy!

Sectionals - Good Luck!

Good luck to all of the competitors participating at either the Eastern, Midwestern or Pacific sectionals this weekend. If you're in Michigan, head to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube to see Alissa Czisny and Grant Hochstein skate to qualify for Nationals. Alissa Czisny just won a Grand Prix event two weeks ago but has to qualify at Midwestern Sectionals!

It's Too Early To Dig A Hole to China

In just a few hours competitors will take to the ice in the 3rd event of the senior Grand Prix, Cup of China in Beijing.  I need to sleep tonight, so I won't be up at 2:45 a.m. Eastern to watch on IceNetwork. I will be slowly and begrudgingly rolling out of bed to a 5:50 a.m. practice to work on outside rockers.

I'm starting to remember what to do so I don't come out of the turn on a flat for an ungodly number of feet before I can control being on the appropriate back outside edge. I've been trying to pull my free hip back immediately after the rocker to go into a back pivot. Thinking of a back pivot position seems to get my hip in the appropriate position but I'm still getting this scratchy flat, particularly when I'm actually working on power skating in the move. I was told by a dance coach to think not of pulling my free hip back, but to think that my skating leg and skating hip keeps pushing forward. After trying that, something seemed to click and I could remember my movement in the Rocker Foxtrot, a compulsory dance with a move similar to the junior MITF rocker pattern.

While I'll be seeing if I can recreate that action again and improve my outside rockers, skaters far better than I will be putting their short programs out there for judges and the rest of the skating world in Beijing.

My favorite skating blog has a good preview of the competitors at Cup of China: http://loopaxles.blogspot.com/2010/11/beijing-bound.html
If you find yourself with insomnia, check out Aaron's predictions about the event and tune into IceNetwork or Univerals Sports. See if you can spot rocker turns in footwork sequences and if it looks like the free hip is back or the skating hip is forward....

Imagine It With Knives On Their Feet

I checked out the promo for Skating With The Stars again, I recognized a few more of the pros:

Definitely Denis Petukhov, plus Keana McLaughlin and Brooke Castile. Anyone else recognize the others?

I've heard some buzz all along that Johnny Weir will be one of the judges. If so, that seems like an appropriate spot for him. I hope he can get some "vodka shot and a snort of coke" comments in. That will be fabulous.

So the D-list celebs get five weeks of practice prior to the show, but a requirement for participation was an ability to skate forward and backward according to the show's senior producer, Deena Katz.

Skating backgrounds uncovered:
Vince Neil - Skated when he was twelve. Here's hoping we see pre-metal spandex on a pre-teen in pictures.
Rebecca Budig - Brought her own skates to the first practice and took lessons as a kid. Is she an SP-Teri gal? Riedell? Harlicks maybe?
Brandon Mychal Smith - Calls himself "Black Kwan," a.k.a. Michelle Kwan's black brother

It still may be a train wreck even with Michelle's black brother making his public debut, but I'll watch a few times. I like what Jimmy Kimmel says, "If you like Dancing With The Stars, imagine it with knives on their feet."

Skating With The Stars Cast

OK, here's the official list of D-list celebrities doing ABC's Skating With The Stars:

• Rebecca Budig
• Bethenny Frankel
• Johnny Moseley
• Vince Neil
• Brandon Mychal Smith
• Sean Young

Know who those people are? I don't really know either. I do recognize Johnny Moseley from Olympic moguls and Vince Neil from Motley Crue. Kinda of heard of Bethenny Frankel and Sean Young. My wish for celebs with skating backgrounds was not heard.

As for the pros, they didn't really show them in the clips. I did recognize Denis Petukhov so I'm assuming his wife Melissa Gregory is also involved. It doesn't appear to be ISU-sanctioned so perhaps there are some Disney On Ice veterans.

Hope the show is entertaining and if so than more people than me like to watch it so it comes back.

Skating With The Stars Guesses

In between the election coverage, Dancing With The Stars will have their 200th results episode. Big whoop. I'm finding the election on ABC with Facebook's stats more interesting. However, while America votes on their leadership and celebrity dancers, the cast of Skating With The Stars will be announced.

Supposedly, Vince Neill of Motley Crue is one of the stars. Bethenny Frankel of one of the Real Housewives shows is also supposedly a star (gag me with a spoon on that one).

Who knows if either are true, but neither have a skating background to my knowledge. I'm still holding out for some entertainers with some skating chops. Obviously, not near-Olympic level skating backgrounds, but something skating related like hockey, speedskating or a distant competitive figure skating past. My wishlist is still Vera Wang, Keanu Reeves and Condoleeza Rice. I still think there may be a possibility of Levi Johnston popping in there as a bookend to Bristol Palin on DWTS. He was a high school hockey player too.

On the professional end, I'm curious if participating would mean a definite end to being Olympic-eligible. I'm not sure if the show is going to be ISU-sanctioned. If it's not that may limit some participation for skaters who are "taking a year off" and are not sure if they are coming back to Olympic-eligible competition. If it is ISU-sanctioned, I suspect Tanith Belbin, Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek will be involved. I'm also guessing Kristi Yamaguchi will be in there somewhere, maybe as a judge. Other possible pros could be Sasha Cohen, Ryan Bradley, Dorothy Hamill, Josef Sabocik, or David Pelletier.

Who has your vote tonight?