Well the skinny lady has skated, so it is all over. But still I
figured I would type up the notes I made at the Free Dance and Ladies
Free.
We will have pictures up on the Net probably this weekend.
First of all I must say that the lift that both American Dance teams
did in which the lady is in the split position while the man twirls her
around with her crotch toward the audience is disgusting and I wish
every dance team in the world would stop doing it!
Lang and Tchernyshev – USA
The program starts with a gorgeous lift
and goes downhill from there. It is all pretzel lifts and posing. I
never liked Alexander Zhulin’s choreography, and here is a great example
of why.
Fusar-Poli & Margaglio – Italy
Tripped at one point. They were
much slower than usual, not as good as they were last year. The program
left the audience cold. If they skate like this at World’s Anisinna and
Peizerat have nothing to worry about.
Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz – Canada
Skated to some soprano
screeching a song I did not recognize. Though I didn’t care for the
music at first the program definitely builds and draws the crowd in.
Great footwork. They had a lot of skating apart, longer than I thought
was allowed. I thought that would hurt them, but then all the other
teams had a lot of time apart as well, so maybe I don’t’ know what the
new rules about that are.
Chait & Sakhnovski – Israel
It looked to me like they were
trying to do some sort of Sorcerer program with him casting a spell on
her. It was very mad Russian to my way of thinking. Great content, lots
of difficult steps. Lots of twizzles. I can really see why they made
such a big advance in the standings last season.
Drobiazko & Vanagas – Lithuania
Did a tango. Lots of great
footwork, intertwining steps, dance holds, they were very crisp and
sharp. They also had a lot of time skating apart. They visibly slowed
down as the program went along and the best stuff was clearly at the
beginning. Nevertheless I would have put them first on the difficulty of
their footwork.
I have no problem with the judges putting D & V ahead of Canada,
and I am a big Bourne and Kraatz fan. I just think the Italians had the
worst free dance and should have been fourth at least this portion of
the event.
Ladies Free
Ladies Free
Angela Nikodinov – USA
Well she singled the opening axel and I thought
"oh, no". But then she hit the triple lutz and triple flip and
I thought "yes she is going to skate well." But no! She
doubled all the other jumps. It is a lovely program and she has fixed a
lot of her presentation problems. But what good does it do to gaineth a
gorgeous spiral sequence and loseth the jumps.
Sabina Wojtala – Poland
She did triple lutz/doubletoe, another
triple/double, a double axel, triple sal, she doubled the loop. Pretty
spin positions. For a while she was ahead of Angela in the free skate
results, deservedly so. But the ordinals got all mixed up as the evening
went on and I have no idea where she ended up.
Sarah Hughes – USA
Okay Cohen and Nam can eat her dust. I have been
saying for months that it is Sarah that will be the next big thing in US
skating, and she is determined to prove me right. She landed triple
lutz, flip, loop, toe, and a triple sal, triple loop combo and two
double axels. A wonderful program with much improved presentation,
footwork, and musicality. You go girl!
Siyun Sun – China
Well I loved her in the short and in practices
but she did not skate well in the free.
Sokolova – Russia
My notes on her our jumbled up and I seem to have
gotten some elements wrong. I have her popping the loop, doubling the
salchow, landing a triple lutz/double toe, a double axel, a triple toe
or flip, and popping another triple and 2 footing yet another triple.
But others say she landed four clean triples so my notes are just
confused.
Michelle Kwan – USA
When she stepped out of the loop and then doubled the
flip I thought, oh my God, Sarah has won. When Michelle landed that
second triple lutz, I thought wait a minute not so fast. She landed
triple lutz/double toe, triple toe/double toe, another triple toe,
triple sal, another triple lutz and a double axel. All in all she had
more technical difficulty than Sarah, despite Sarah’s triple/triple.
Michelle had two triple lutzes, a reverse camel, two combos, more
complex choreography and footwork. Her jump technique is also much
better than Sarah’s. Sarah may have jumped more but Michelle jumped
better. Michelle’s program is not as exciting or fun as Sarah’s, but the
music is very difficult to skate to. In fact it is the kind of thing
that ONLY Michelle can skate to. Also she just has better speed,
stroking, quality of edges and overall skating than Sarah. I just wish
the judges would take these qualities in mind when she skates against
Slutskaia. Her skating is light year’s better than Slutie’s as well, but
against a Russian it doesn’t matter. Or to put it another way if she
deserves to win against Hughes without a triple/triple, she also
deserves to win against Slutie without a triple/triple.
Victoria Volchkova – Russia
Though in practice I liked Sokolova
better, in the free skate I thought Vochokova was better, but as I said
my notes on Sokolova got all mixed up. Victoria landed I thought four
triples and two footed another one.
Michelle Currie – Canada
She did not skate well. She fell apart and I
will spare you the details.
