North Americans 1-2-4

I can't say it's a New World Order yet, but it feels like the fall of the wall for a longtime skating fan. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir didn't let the home crowd down. Aren't they fun? That was a sharp flamenco on ice.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White completed their best Bollywood boogie of the year. They skated with such speed and precision. Excellent twizzles with Indian-inspired arm movements. They were ahead until Tessa and Scott skated to a 2 point lead.

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto closed out the evening with their Moldavian themed dance. New costumes and lots of energy, but after Tessa and Scott the audience took a break. They didn't seem as into it unfortunately. Still, Tanith and Ben are in a close fourth place right behind the Russians, Domnina and Shabalin.

That makes three North American teams in the top five. I can not say that has ever happened in my 30 year existence. What amazing days we live in!

The Global Dance Party Is Under Way

Alright, NBC showed the originaly dance of American's Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates. They look thrilled to be skating at the Olympics. After 23 tangos Friday, here's a reminder of the theme for the original dance if you missed my earlier post:

Any type of folk/country dance music or typical dance of the country can be used. For the chosen type, there are no restrictions on
the number of musical selections. Although the dance may consist of different musical selections – fast and/or slow- there must be a
consistent theme based on a specific country or region.
The arrangement of the chosen music should give a genuine feel for folk/country dance. It should be very distant from the feeling of
the Grand Ballroom.
Same examples: Village, Square, Street, Barn dance, Hoedown, Mazurka, Polka, Tarantella, Hula, Hora, Csardas, Kalinka, Gapak,
Syrtaky, Scottish, Irish, Jig, Reel, Guajira, Cumbia, Jarabe, Fandango, Aborigines Dance, Chinese dances, Lesginka, Country
Waltz, Flamenco, etc.

Here's what to look for tonight:

Delobel & Schoenfelder will be representing France with a Can Can. From practice notes, it looks to be fun. I'm not sure how they'll end up on the podium, but this a team I'm rooting for. After skating together 18 years, they received their first ever world medal and it was gold! They put together the most lovely free skate to music from The Piano soundtrack and integrated sign language into their arm movements as well as the patterns on the ice. Last season, they started strong winning everything but then Isabelle injured her shoulder and got a bun in the oven during her recovery. They are my sentimental favorites for skating together for 20 years and skating four months after giving birth to a son. The NY Times has a great article on them and the pregnancy.

The Kerrs - The brother and sister team skate to Johnny Cash tonight. Too bad they didn't bring back their Scottish OD from the first time the ISU had the folk theme two seasons back. John looks great in a kilt!

Domnina & Shabalin - skate to an aboriginal theme, representing aboriginal people of the world. Rumor has it they have new outfits for this evening. They've been practicing in black all week and a blogger with IceNetwork said the dance actually looks like a great, modern dance in the black. We'll see what they're wearing tonight.

Davis & White - Bollywood comes to Vancouver as they take the ice. They've had huge scores and a bigger reception with this OD, be sure to watch.

The Zaretskys - the other brother and sister team of the evening skate to a traditional Jewish song. I heard the Israeli federation actually chose the music for them. This is a team that has done well over the season and they may make a move in the standings.

Virtue & Moir - I hope they checked the bolts on the roof and BC Place. I expect when this team takes the home ice, the roof will be near blowing off. They skate to a flamenco and have received high scores for the program all season. Risk factor - Tessa skates in this crazy long dress. It looks pretty and flamenco-y but there are times that it looks like it's getting caught between her legs or too much in Scott's face.

Belbin & Agosto - Tanith and Ben close out the evening with their Moldavian dance. I have not enjoyed this dance to much which is too bad as I really like Tanith and Ben. I want them to leave this Olympics with the best souvenir possible, an Olympic medal. I just don't think this program will help them unless one of the top three has a major booboo tonight.

I've got to travel for work this week so I've got to get up early Monday - Thursday. I can't stay up too late, so I'll be catching the blogs and watching the snippets of performances. I'm also missing my skating practice again. I'm going to have to work hard in March to take my Junior MITF test in April. I'm so inspired watching the skaters, there's choreography I'm dying to imitate. I'll have to wait until the weekend and weave through the crowd.

Dancing Around the World

The Original Dance
The second phase of the ice dance competition is an original dance. The ISU traditionally selects a rhythm for the season. The skaters then create their own dance to this set rhythm.

This season the ISU selected more of a theme of folk or country dance as opposed to a set rhythm of music style. This selection was intended for skaters to skate to music representing their country for the Olympics. Great idea, however, the ISU used folk music for the 2007-2008 season and most skaters used music from their country. Instead of rehashing the same music and creating a similar program, the teams have created some distinct dances for the season from around the world. This season has included some dance creations from regions that do not have a rich skating tradition such as Brasil, India and Australia.

The latter two have brought attention to the sport from those areas not as familiar with or competitive in ice dance.

Bollywood On Ice

Meryl Davis & Charlie White have won throughout the season with their Indian-themed dance. They also scored a viral hit with over 2,100,000 views of their OD on YouTube. One of their coaches, Marina Zoueva was inspired to create the program after coming across beautiful Indian scarves shopping in the spring. Davis & White loved the idea and went about consulting with an area Indian dancer and researching Indian dance moves. They modified original Indian clothes for their competitive outfits. Their research shows in this fun and authentic dance. It's like Bollywood on ice.



Aborigines Dances

While Davis & White have been praised for their Indian dance, Domnina & Shabalin of Russia have been questioned for choosing to portray an Aboriginal Dance. Their coach, Natalia Linichuk, has said the dance is not Australian and simply follows the ISU guidelines for "Aborigines Dances." However, Australian Aboriginal groups have decried the dance as offensive to the Aboriginal people of Australia.

Domnina & Shabalin have skated this program twice this season at Russian Nationals and Europeans. They skate in dark nude unitards with white designs similar to Australian Aboriginal art and eucalyptus leaves. (Is it the missing koala bear that makes this NOT Australian, Natalia?)

The controversy has ranged from their portrayal of a ceremonial dance to the dark tone of the nude in their outfits. Maxim was originally wearing dark makeup on this face at Russian Nationals as well. Others have remarked that the controversy stems from skating politics and trying to knock down Domnina & Shabalin before the Olympic event begins.

I think overall the program is not well skated, and they are clomping around the ice. They are both tall skaters and the tango theme last night really exhibited their strengths. They are crouched down in several moves in the program and it just doesn't fit them. In contrast to Davis & White, they weave Indian moves into pure skating and stroking on the ice. They glide in and out of every move and complete quick turns on their blades.

Either way, both dances have brought some attention to this event and it should be fascinating to compare these two dances. It's back to comparing apples to oranges, pears and bananas for the rest of the ice dancing event.

Compulsory Dance Roundup

The teams that garnered the top 3 Tango Romantica scores season, set new scoring heights last night.

• Domnina & Shabalin - 43.76
• Virtue & Moir - 42.74
• Davis & White - 41.47

Belbin & Agosto are sitting in 4th with 40.83 points. While they are probably disappointed being in 4th, those are great scores for them. Too bad they don't award points for tassels. She had like four on her outfit. I think she's been rooming with Johnny too long... he only had one.

How about Delobel & Schoenfelder competing after a year away? Pretty nice. They looked a bit stiff, but good for them to come back after injuries and Isabelle giving birth just 3 months ago!

Complete results here.

Tango Romantica

Triple Skates, Not Triple Jumps

The ice dancing event consists of three events. The first event is called the compulsory dance, where each team skates the same dance pattern to similar music. To the casual spectator, the compulsory dance can seem monotonous as each couple repeats the same dance. It's not broadcast often other than showing the top three placements aftterwards. If it's shown live, it's generally just to show the favorites. If anything is broadcast, the compulsory dance is a good event to watch because both the casual and fanatic spectator gets to compare apples to apples in this event. When everyone skates the same steps with the same required dance holds, you can distinguish who skates with more speed, who has better edge quality, and who can "dance" the dance the best. I also enjoy it as every summer I would work towards passing a dance test. Dance tests are nothing but compulsory dances, so I also enjoy watching this part of the event. It takes me back to those summers in Aspen and Lexington and skating all day.



Luck of the Draw

The ISU selects 2 - 3 CDs for each season. This year's compulsories are the Golden Waltz and Tango Romantica. One of those dances will be used as the CD during competition and it is generally announced a couple of weeks prior to each competition which CD has been drawn. For the Olympics, the dance is supposed to be selected one week prior to the first official practice at the Olympics. The compulsory dance drawn for the Olympics is the Tango Romantica. 

While it's supposed to be the luck of the draw, there has been buzz all season long that the Tango Romantica would most likely be the CD. It's shorter than the Golden Waltz. Perhaps NBC and the other broadcasters will squeeze in a few more performances.

Tango Romantica

This dance was invented by Ludmilla Pakhomova, Alexander Gorshkov and Elena Tchaikovskaya and first performend in Moscow in 1974. The ISU guidelines say:

This is a romantic sinuous dance which expresses the soft, lyrical interpretive characteristics of the Tango. It must be skated with deep edges. Foot and body movements must be deliberate and convey a sense of dignity approaching arrogance. Very erect carriage, precise timing, and continuous flow must be maintained. The difficulty of the steps should not be revealed in awkward or stressed upper body positions. Finally, coordination of free leg movements is essential to avoid a tangled, confused effect.

Music - Tango 4/4
Temp - 28 measures of 4 beats per minute; 112 beats per minute
Pattern - Optional
Duration - The time required to skate 2 sequences is 1:43 min

Ladies Pattern
Man's Pattern

This was the CD at a few events this season:

• Nebelhorn Trophy
• Rostelecom Cup
• NHK Trophy
• Skate Canada
• Europeans

Skater Advantages

The top three scoring teams over the season have been:

• Domnina & Shabalin 42.78 - Europeans
• Virtue & Moir 40.69 - Skate Canada
• Davis & White 38.09 - NHK Trophy

Domnina & Shabalin's only international event was the European Championships. The big score from the CD kept them ahead throughout the competition. Davis & White have faced Virtue & Moir this year at the Grand Prix Final and won. However, the compulsory is nixed during the final! I'm looking forward to comparing the "apples" between all the teams.

Domnina & Shabalin's CD at Europeans:


Take a gander at Virtue & Moir at Skate Canada:



Dark Horses in the CD
Belbin & Agosto have skated the Golden Waltz at all of their events this season. They train with Domnina & Shabalin and their CDs have dramatically improved since switching coaches two seasons ago. I expect they will earn a score in the 38-42 range as well.

Delobel & Schoenfelder have been out all season. They skated the Tango Romantica the last season it was used at the 2006 European Championships. Their edges were deep and expression smooth, but Olivier fell. Questionable how rusty they will be Friday.

Around the World of Figure Skating - European Championships

The Canadian Championship has wrapped up and the US Nationals are at the half way point. Over in Tallinn, Estonia the European Championships are beginning.

The compulsory dance took place today with Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin winning that portion of the event. I'll be watching if they keep the lead and checking in our their scores. This is the first international competition for the reigning world champs due to Maxim's knee troubles. North American teams have dominated this season, but I keep hearing skating fans chatter that podium predictions for ice dance can not be made until the Russians have skated. Russians skating are the equivalent to a fat lady singing in the world of figure skating.

Articles and Blogs on European Ice Dancing Championship:
Domnina-Shabalin Open Strong in Dance


Required Elements by Laura

Beyond ice dancing, the most anticipated event gets under way tomorrow with the men's short program. It's billed as a match up between several past European winners who are either coming back from retirement or from an injury. Tomorrow we'll see if the hype is justified as Evgeny Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, and Brian Joubert take the ice.

The much hyped trio of former champs have had various injuries whether retired or not. Plushenko has been working on a quad-triple combo, seven revolutions in a second, wow! However, I heard some rumors the training has been rough on his knees and his Lutz was doubled at both Rostelecom Cup and the Russian Champs. Lambiel only competed at Nebelhorn in early fall and Joubert is coming off a foot injury that kept him out of the Grand Prix Final and the French Nationals. He was said today that his foot feels better skating than walking because it's locked in his skating boot.

I suspect there will be some surprises from Samuel Contesti, Tomas Verner and Michael Brezina if any of the hyped trio falters.

Articles on European Men's Championship:
Plushenko, Lambiel, both on comeback trail, feature at European Championships

Plushenko, Lambiel in focus at European Championships