A couple of weekends ago, I got up early and let the dog out. Then I plopped in front of my laptop to watch bits of the men's and pairs' competition at Cup of China. Crazy time differences, I was seeing their evening performances in my slippers over the live feed.
Cup of China was a "comeback" comp for Shen & Zhao and comeback they did. I enjoyed the free program, it was easy to watch. The side-by-side jumps were probably a bit too far apart, but overall an excellent skate.
Cup of China was the debut of some of North America's Olympic medal contenders. Belbin & Agosto won the ice dance event, Evan Lysacek medaled in the men's event, and Mirai Nagasu & Rachel Flatt had nice outings in the front of the judges and their international competition. Joannie Rochette of Canada had a disappointing short but bounced back with her superior freeskate to Saint-Saens "Sampson & Delilah."
I must say I was a tad disappointed in the Americans. Evan Lysacek skated well, he was downgraded on a jump in each program, but the programs looked good. While the music was new, his programs have come to have a predictable pattern. I was slightly distracted from that pattern watching the short. He's skating to "Firebird" and has a black outfit, with long black feathers at the end of the sleeves. It kept giving me an image of Edward Scissorhands... all in black with these big, dangling, useless hands... except with feathers. Lose the feathers Evan!
I caught the ladies short and was thrilled that Mirai Nagasu had a good skate. She managed first which was a big improvement over everything last season. I expected more from Rachel Flatt with her "Sing, Sing, Sing" short. The YouTube clip of her performance at a summer competition gave me hope that she added some pizzazz to her consistency. However, the program just didn't seem to fill the big arena their in Beijing. She somehow appeared to be skating on ice twice as big as her competitors.
Belbin & Agosto chose a Moldovian theme for their original folk dance. Then they skated to a version of Ava Maria. The Ava Maria program is beautiful and features interesting lifts, however, I thought it was an odd choice for them. Since changing coaches prior to last season, I feel they have become more confident in their technical skill which especially has helped them in the compulsory portion of the competition. However, I their programs seem like they are coming straight out the Soviet School of Ice Dancing. I don't feel they are really offering anything new to the sport. Of course, skating passionately to Ava Maria is rite of passage in skating and Soviet/Russian ice dancers have demonstrated a winning formula of angst-ridden performances. I just Belbin & Agosto could be legendary with their talent by creating something entirely new. They're playing it conservative to win, while I think if they went outside of the box, not only would they win, they would blow everyone away.
I really think Meryl Davis and Charlie White are skating outside of the box this year with their Bollywood-inspired original dance. Watching Belbin & Agosto and then Davis & White in back to back competitions proves really brings that home to me. Davis and White have excellent technique and speed and I think their originality in their programs demonstrates those skills.
Davis and White completely left their competitors in the dust at the NHK Trophy. I was in Chicago over the weekend. I got to enjoy the weather for a weekend holiday shopping spree but the hotel didn't have free wifi so I missed my morning ritual of watching the live feed from Asia.
So glad to catch up on the NHK Trophy mid-week after work. Brian Joubert is back! He looked Yagudin-like out there. There was such command of the ice and energy in his performances. I haven't really seen that from him for awhile.
Johnny Weir actually put together two solid skates in the same competition. He earned a silver souvenir for that accomplishment. Jeremy Abbott debuted his programs for the season. Love the short, "Day in a Life" awesomeness. Jeremy, note to self, ice shavings are very apparent on black outfits so don't fall on every jump in the long! Daisuke Takahashi was back after injury last season. Wow, I missed him, he's programs fill the arena. Hope those jumps make a complete recovery after injury too.
Enjoyed the Kerrs free dance to Krwling too.
I've been getting the hang of choctaws and my rockers are back to what I could do well 10 years ago. I think I may pass my junior MITF by February!
