Sunday, October 9, 2011
Finlandia Free Dances
A splendid effort from Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. It may be one of their more white bread programs, but it is who they are. It is a great program and they will be extremely competitive all season should they be healthy. They've decided to use white costumes to remind the judges of their Olympic moment. Subconscious warfare at its best.
Free Dance Protocol (First 10 of the year for Voir for this program.)
Results (Looks like the dance of old by the placements in each segment.)
The Shibutanis. They're great, but their programs aren't exciting me yet this season. It becomes clearer every day that Mrs. Shibutani wants her children to be just like Tessa and Scott. It wouldn't hurt them to stand out a bit more like Marlie. There is just something copycat/second rate about their programs this season. The programs lack the freshness Maia and Alex exuded a year ago.
Chock and Bates have a fresh quality. They need time together, but their training environment should force them to improve rapidly. Madison is really letting her inner ice dance diva out with her new partner.
Guignard and Fabbri
Gorshkova and Butikov
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It should be very clear that no one is going to catch either Voir or Marlie by Sochi just based on the scoring. Voir already got 100+, and even though they missed some levels, their GOE were through the roof, even on elements that clearly didn't merit it, e.g. the last lift where Tessa had an obvious balance check. A lot of reputation inflation here, but at least they clearly deserve their first placement.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we are all lucky to witness the great Marlie and Voir rivalry. That rink must be intense. I don't buy the feel good bs between these teams anymore
ReplyDeleteI want to like Voir's program. I just wish that every lift didn't end or include Tessa's leg around Scott's neck.
ReplyDeleteI loved their program (V/M) because I love Broadway and that's what it reminded me of.
ReplyDeleteVoir are great skaters, no question, but actually when I was watching that routine I was thinking that the Shibs could have breathed more life into it. Since Astaire's voice is heard, I hope Scott injects more Astire-like moves as the year progresses.
ReplyDeleteThe Shibs FS is certainly better than their other routine but like I said when you posted their rehearsal, my expectation of swing dancing is that there be an element of reckless abandon to it, and I'm getting very little of that here (except for the twizzles).
Of the FS's I've seen thus far Hubbell/Donohue's is my favorite (hopefully their pair skills will sharpen up as the year progresses).
voir's lifts are all awkward and kind of redundant with that whole over the shoulder technique + tessa in some form of a split.......
ReplyDeleteYea no clue why Shibs got a 2nd hand version of Voir's FD, or why the Shibs aren't venturing out of their comfort zone and Voir outShib-ing-the-Shibs.
ReplyDeleteThat said, too bad Chock isn't with Keiffer instead and we dont get to see Bates/Samuelsons' An American in Paris =(.
D/W, followed by Hubbell/Donohue are my top two picks this season for the yanks.
Very clever and rather tongue in check of the Shibutanis to select Glenn Miller's In the Mood, considering America and Europe's worsening economic woes. It's like they're nudging fans to smile broadly, even as the existential shiite hits the Western fan. Worse case scenario, they can be repatrioted back to Japan, and so can a majority of elite Asian skaters who make up more than half of America's top ladies, just like Melissa Bulanhagui did by switching navigational sides by competing for The Philippines, instead. The trend will continue, if Heifers in America and Europe don't pay their fucking debts.
ReplyDeleteChock & Bates is over on kwantifiable. Thanks so much for pulling all these vids together. I use them as little rewards for getting work done!
ReplyDeleteNot a huge fan of these fds (yet?)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for Marlie's turn.
Bland, bland, bland. I feel bad for the Shibutanis. They're never going to get to the top if all their coaches give them are weak ripoffs of Voir at their most milquetoasty.
ReplyDeleteWait - have V/M done a famous swing dance routine in the past, cause I see very little in common between the Funny Face and the Swing routines other than they both feature older types of American popular music.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, the Funny Face program seems more in the spirit of (or derivative, if you will) the Shibs foxtrot program last year.
I think Voir's program has much more potential than the Shibs foxtrot...which was just about being cute and flowy.
ReplyDeleteI think the Shibs are wonderful at being cute and flowy, and being that the Funny Face program is cute and flowy - it would have been perfect for them.
ReplyDeleteFor me, skating is most edifying to watch when skaters play into their strengths - although I can appreciate that its good to force people out of their comfort zones sometimes in order to grow. This year the Shibs programs seem to me to be exposing their weaknesses - hope they get something out of it.