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| World Championships 2005 Compulsory Dance - Midnight Blues |
| Before you read, a disclaimer:
I am not infallible, I cannot guarantee not to have made any mistakes and since it’s impossible to mention everything, there are bound to be some omissions. If you have any comments, disagreements or corrections, feel free to contact me, I’ll appreciate any input. Since these reports are based on Eurosport TV broadcast, I can never be sure about the issues like speed or ice coverage. I have to admit I haven’t done my homework on the Midnight Blues so I am looking at the steps breakdown sheet as we go along. As a result, this will be a very uninformed set of impressions. I’m not an ice dance expert by any means. And also the main problem is not my lack of knowledge, but my lack of concentration, the impossibility of holding a wide awareness for a sustained period of time. The reviews are arranged according to the starting order. Full results can be found by clicking on one of the links below: Compulsory Dance – Official Results Ice Dance - Final Results 1. Daniela Keller/Fabian Keller /SUI/ Scratchy, heavy skating, skating far apart. Timing seemed completely off and no there was no blues feel whatsoever. They were just too stiff, to be carried through the dance smoothly. The wonderful camera man was making a lot of shots just up to the waist. I really hope it won’t continue like this all morning/afternoon. 2. Anastasia Grebenkina/Vazgen Azrojan /ARM/ They started very well but got scratchier and slightly sloppy later on. Just going through the motions, not really selling as much as they could. Shame that they couldn’t skate the whole dance like they started. Thinking about this dance later on, after I have seen more performances and have some standard to compare to, this seemed much better. They maybe didn’t sell it well but the lines were quite clean and technically very strong, although maybe slightly weaker towards the end. The great camera people were making shots up to the waist again, so I probably won’t see a lot this morning 3. Sinead Kerr/John Kerr /GBR/ That is better then their usual cd selves, light on their feet, biggest pattern so far said Chris (sadly this is what you don’t see on tv). She three-turned the counter-clockwise twizzle in the corner and it looked shaky. Chris also said edges were shallower in the second sequence. Skated the whole dance with enjoyment, had good kneebend and carried the bluesy feeling across well. 4. Julia Golovina/Oleg Voiko /UKR/ Nice extensions and lines. No special qualities to mention but it seemed to have been a competently skated, nicely presented routine. Chris saying seemed out on the second sequence and he had to push with the toe. I should have done my homework and be more awake and maybe I would notice things then or maybe its Mr Howarth just seeing things. Now that I got other opinions about them having skating poor, it was probably me. :P 5. Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov /UKR/ This is a different class than all who came before. Much lighter on their feet, faster, with beautiful extensions and Elena is selling it very well. The scratching noise was still to be heard throughout but even their basic skating looked better than usual. This gave them their personal best and rightly so. 6. Christina Beier/Wiliam Beier /GER/ First sequence is surprisingly good. Their kneebend is great, soft and they carry that suave feel across. Poorer second sequence and quite weak finish, though. Looked like they just didn’t have enough stamina, lost speed and their extensions got poorer, and edges shallower. Why were they wearing flamenco type black and red costumes? 7. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski /BUL/ Quite a subdued performance and straight from the start I have a gut feeling that this will be behind Grushgons. They’re just not attacking it that well, the extensions are not that good and while it seemed to be a perfectly competent performance, nothing really stood out. While many fans would like to see the Bulgarians’ correct, consistent technique rewarded, the judges went with the attack and larger than life presentation of the Ukrainians. Recycling the costumes, I’m sure I have seen many times before. Black for him and mango dress for her (it just seems to be asking for a costume deduction). 8. Anna Galcheniuk/Oleg Krupen /BLR/ They are very far apart, and very slow. All the difficult bits for her were insecure. The pattern must have been tiny, since they struggled to get any kind of speed at all. 9. Judith Haunstetter/Arne Hönlein /GER/ Compared to Belarussans, this is perfect. It’s very hard to compare to any reasonable standard now. Struggling with speed and having to refer to toe-pushing. They seemed to be losing speed after every more difficult point. 10. Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov /RUS/ Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the best lines and extensions of them all? (A rhetorical question obviously). And Navka is selling it like there’s no tomorrow! But does it look slower and scratchier than usual or is it just me? Maybe the ice is quite hard since everyone looked rather scratchy. But since now I’ve seen some snow spraying, they probably were. I found that performance, quite disappointing and worse than their usual. This wasn’t as smooth as Bulgarians or as fast as the Ukrainians. 11. Svetlana Kulikova/Vitali Novikov /RUS/ Ok, I got completely distracted here. From my “half-watching”, I noticed no mistakes and it looked less ragged and messy than usual. Chris said his extensions and lines were poor in places and that they didn’t skate too well. From what Monika posted on FSU it seemed that their performance was not very good indeed. Just like at Europeans they finished below Kerrs (TES much lower, PCS slightly higher) and I will have to watch this one again. Chris is saying that there will be a lot of politics behind the scenes to push them up the rankings. You’re not supposed to tell this general audience unless you want to put everyone off the sport, you silly man! ;) His sailor blue costume is as disgusting as disgusting goes. And now the tv people get the program interrupted to show us Tarasova’s face. Sigh. 12. Megan Wing/Aaron Lowe /CAN/ And now for the pair many people think you can stick a fork in. Seem slow but boy is their kneebend soft and gorgeous. And she’s selling it better than Navka! Drop the fork, this is something quite special, when you least expect it! Probably the best bluesy feel so far. Fourth place so far and rightly deserved. 13. Alessia Aureli/Andrea Vaturi /ITA/ I’m sure Barbara-Fusar Poli is standing there wishing she could come out and skate it for them. Alessia’s massive dress is spoiling any lines they might have (but probably don’t anyway) and his tail suit is doing the same. What a brilliant costume choice. Now coming back to the dance (although it’s difficult to actually see the footwork through all that fabric), it seemed scratchy, quite slow and lines and extensions were probably quite poor (but again, difficult to see a lot). Chris adds that they skated too far apart and were over the toe. Actually Babs wasn’t with them in the kiss and cry. 14. Nozomi Watanabe/Akiyuki Kido /JPN/ She should get a senior citizen gold medal for sticking out with it for so long. Oldest competitor of the championships. Edges weren’t particularly deep but they seemed to have a lot of speed and went for it with a lot of attack. Chris saying he struggled with his crossrolls and we can see him pushing with his toes on the slo-mo. I am quite shocked this has beaten Grebenkina/Azrojan who are in a completely different league. What were they wearing?!! Reminded me of the: “It was an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie yellow polka dot bikini” song. Not that she was wearing a bikini, it’s just that the design was as sophisticated as the mentioned number. 15. Olga Akimova/Alexander Shakalov /UZB/ I was expecting a Belarussan standard of performance but this was actually very impressive. They look like classically trained Russian School skaters with very nice lines and extensions and decent basic skating. No noticeable technical glitches either. This looked like it should slot above Aureli/Vaturi, interesting what the judges will do (And the judges do just that!). Simon saying they didn’t make it to Europeans. Well yes, if you looked at the ISU Bio, which you get, being a journalist, at every major event, and looked in an atlas, you would see that Uzbekistan lies in Asia and that they competed at Four Continents, you moron. 16. Natalia Gudina/Alexei Beletski /ISR/ Striving to maintain their most held up ice dancers title. Too stiff for blues this dance and very fast footwork, as if they couldn’t hold to an edge for long. This is not quickstep my dears, it’s supposed to be blues. Edges quite shallow. Overall, I wouldn’t have it higher than around tenth so far. Chris confirms that they were “snatching the edges” and criticises their lines. They were very fast but, well, is speed worth sacrificing everything else for? The judges place them above Beiers and although I would have them one or two spots lower, this is pretty good judging, considering what I was expected. Thank god for CoP. A usual wardrobe disaster. Neon orange dress and t-shirt and a black suit over it, with a lovely silver brocade on the lapels. And she’s got all those lovely hair clips in, looking like a six year old girl and her eye make-up is one suited for “The Cats”. Maybe she thought it was Friday today? You can’t look much worse than that. A – 2.00 fashion police deduction it should be. 17. Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin /RUS/ Not as good as expected. Seemed quite scratchy, slow, not skated well at all and this really shouldn’t have beaten Wing/Lowe. I have to watch it again. 18. Melissa Gregory/Denis Petukhov /USA/ They are skating too far apart. And the difference between them is still visible. Funny because while I thought that they skated one of the best Midnight Blueses last year, in terms of interpreting the mood, this time I didn’t have that impression at all. They seemed quite “heavy”. 19. Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder /FRA/ Theoretically, the best skating skills in the world; the cleanest, deepest edges. I’ve seen snow spray in one corner, though. Gorgeous extensions, very smooth, fantastic quality. Quite clumsy attitude position on second sequence. They may not have “the x-factor” and be not as “cool” as other couples but they are the strongest ice dancers in the world technically and I really hope they will start to get the recognition they deserve. Chris said it was the best dance so far and I wholeheartedly agree. Obviously they did not get that recognition and they are fourth so far. I wasn’t expecting them to beat Navka/Kostomarov but I was naively hoping that this could give them the second place. Why is she wearing a black&silver tango dress with a red rose? And why is he wearing a line spoiling loose jacket?!! 20. Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto /USA/ Nice quality and extensions. Sadly Tanith’s perkiness was taking my gaze away from their blades. It seemed proficient technically and come to think of it, unlike with most other top couples, there wasn’t really anything you could find fault with. And the judges seem to have completely loved it. He is wearing another potato sack line spoiling costume. 21. Marie-France Dubreil/Patrice Lauzon /CAN/ I am starting to go crazy by now. I have seen the same steps and heard the same dull music too many times. My mind is refusing to work. Poor judges, this must be so taxing. They have skated well, were very elegant with nice lines and extensions and no noticeable technical errors. And we are told both Chris and Henryk (British and German Eurosport commentators) think that Del/Sch should be second so far. Go on, create the buzz in the skating community! And as I write that, Dub/Lau place one spot above the French. 22. Nora Hoffmann/Atilla Elek /HUN/ Hoffmann/Elek are usually excellent in the compulsories but here they seem to be skating a little too far apart and lacking their usual beautiful quality. I’m sure they skated that compulsory much better last year. Costume disaster! Horribly cut frog green dress with long gloves. 23. Fang Yang/Chongbo Gao /CHN/ They looked extremely promising last year but haven’t made the move at all this season, if anything regressed in the standings. But that’s what you get if you trained with Dubova, the kiss of death in ice dance. Lines were slightly messy, they need to extend better, and they were drifting apart in places. But decent skating quality and performed well for their standard. Compared to usually reserved Chinese skaters, they project very well and keep smiling and selling it throughout. 24. Nathalie Pechalat/Fabien Bourzat /FRA/ Muriel School skating quality. Unfortunately got too distracted to be able to say much more. So maybe I should expand on how gorgeous and deep their edges were. ;) I’ll just quote Chris saying they skated very well, then. Grey and black funeral costumes. 25. Aleksandra Kauc/Michal Zych /POL/ They need more attack and power. They have their usual smooth and lovely edges but seem not to be very fast. Extensions could be better and the legs are a bit to stiff, you really need to get down in the knees for that dance. Attitude position not really low enough. Finished behind music. Well at least they weren’t all over the place and didn’t fall, for once! I actually think it’s probably better for them to be more conservative but avoid mistakes. Chris says that the second halves of both patterns were weaker with more shallow patterns. Overall I think it’s a very decent performance for them. And if they don’t fall or mess everything, as they are very well able to do, they might improve on that placement in the original and free dance. Wearing recycled horrible lavender/green/black costumes. They had massive problems with ice time just before this event, due to the lack of funding for their figure skating club, and their training sessions were cut in half, from 90 to 45 minutes so I can’t imagine that they could prepare properly. 26. Natalie Buck/Trent Nelson-Bond /AUS/ Getting very far apart in places. Obviously nowhere near the quality of top teams but I think they have been working very hard and improved a lot. Sadly she isn’t a very good skater and most of her difficult footwork was very messy. But they kept selling it throughout and tried going for deep edges in places. On a side note, Dubova is the only Russian coach who doesn’t wrap herself in thick furs or wear large caps so she looks like an elegant lady instead of Cruella de Ville. 27. Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski /ISR/ They could be skating closer together and the edges were quite shallow. Quite fast but this dance is completely unsuitable to them. Can’t carry the blues feeling across at all. In my book this would be behind the top 6 teams, as well as Wing/Lowe. Her hair is red and this is quite a shock. Matches the ugly neon orange dress. 28. Laura Munana/Luke Munana /MEX/ Rather slow, messy footwork and quite shallow edges. Trying to find something positive to write but my mind was way too all over the place to notice something of that nature. So how about: It was probably good for their standard. :P 29. Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali /ITA/ As Monika pointed out after Europeans, they have been snatched by Aliens and dance cyborgs V01 were put in their place. Amazing how a team which always skated appalling compulsories looks so strong this year. They sold it like only they can and sustained smooth, flowing, if not very deep edges throughout. 30. Kristin Fraser/Igor Lukanin /AZE/ They have been improving steadily for the last two years and shame that the only things people seem to notice is her supposedly being a carthorse. This could have been skated closer together and was slightly too quick to and not going down in the knees enough to carry the blues feeling through. And yes, she could have been more in control of her hips. |