Jan. 4
Novice Compulsory Dances
The judges started to file into their seats about ten minutes before the first compulsory dance was to begin. The sound system was still being tested. When it first came on, the music was scary loud. Then, they tested the announcer's speaker. The judges were announced by their name and the city and state of their origin. Yes, this is U.S. Nationals, but I still required help with the saying and pronunciation of the competitor's name as per the announcer.
The audience was starting to fill in a little better. There were a lot of families who brought their kids. Seating was still pretty much whatever section you wanted as the Arena had availability in each section.
This was not the standard competition like I had seen at Worlds. There was no Kiss & Cry area: there is no structure set up, and no one sits anywhere or pauses anywhere after leaving the ice. There is no reading of any marks after a skater or team's program, so you are in the dark until the end of the competition when the results are posted near the door of the Arena. There was some throwing of stuffed animals and flowers to the ice by the loud cheering sections each skater had of family and friends. There were flower girls that would come collect the items. There was the cutest flower girl who looked to be no more than 7 years old that had the motion down - of what direction she was to skate on the ice to go out and pick up the item, and how to hold her hands out at her sides while they do a particular skating glide. Some people in the audience would clap after she would come out and pick up some items.
Compulsory Dance 1
The first compulsory dance was announced as the European Waltz. In fact, I had not realized they were going to hold two compulsory dances for the novice skaters. I had never seen this particular waltz before, so I looked forward to seeing what it would be like. I had seen the Austrian Waltz live, and the Ravensburger Waltz and Golden Waltz on TV.
Group 1 in the order they skated:
I'll describe the costumes of those for which I don't have illustrative pictures.
Isabel Elliman/Dmitry Serebrenik
She wore a lime green dress, and he wore a tuxedo.
Annie Maguire/Charlie Hill
Madeline Masten/Jared Ramsdell
She wore a pale blue dress while he wore a tux. She smiled big for the audience. They had good flow in their knees.
Jane Summersett/Elliott Pennington
They possessed great extension of the free leg, which has quite a bit of movement in this waltz dance. They made eye contact with each other almost totally throughout the performance. This included the shifts of position from the woman skating forward while the man skated backward to the man skating forward while the woman skated backward. Still, Summersett and Pennington managed to lay down confident steps. The European Waltz dance is made up almost entirely of closed position holds and face to face skating.
Kaitlyn Weaver/Charles Clavey
She wore a red V-neck dress, and he wore a tux.
This team also was locked into eye contact with each other throughout the performance.
Megan Calhoun/Kevin Miller
Megan had on a gray-blue dress while he had on a tux without the jacket. They appeared to have close knees in the face to face steps. Their facial expressions were like the dance was a walk in the park.
Group 2:
Blake Rosenthal/Calvin Taylor
They wore lime green. The leg line of their free legs was not always in unison. They did have a nice body lean through the turns.
Elizabeth Palmer/Ryland Stucke
His name is pronounced like 'STEW-KEY' per the announcer. She wore a pink dress and he a white shirt, gray vest and black pants. The first half was good, and the second part may have had some mismatched steps. She had some nice fluid arm movements and still showed ice dancing personality in this waltz.
Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates
She wore a peach dress. He wore a matching peach shirt and gray pants and vest. These dancers appeared very young. They projected great speed.
Lauren Capehart/Stephen Chasman
She looked at him the whole time. He watched their spacing and checked for the boards. Their leg line and timing did not always appear to match. They executed a nice horizontal lift at the end after the prescribed steps of the dance.
Adrienne Koob-Doddy/Robert Antonelli
The free leg and timing was off unison in places. They are both entertainers. They held their heads up while skating and projected well to the audience.
Suzanne Lazarowitz/Nathan Jarmuth
She had on a two toned blue dress. He had on black pants and a white tuxedo jacket. An ever so helpful and descriptive note: it appeared like she was talking to him during the dance.
Compulsory Dance 2
Oh, wow! I would have gone to the Novice dance event if only just to see this compulsory. The Paso Doble is not done very often at the senior level Grand Prix and competitive events, so this was a real treat. It is an aggressive and captivating dance, and it brings out the best in the skaters. You don't want to miss one moment of the steps. And, even after twelve teams skated, it didn't seem repetitive or blasé at all. And, yes, I am an ice dance freak, but there are worse freaks to be.
Lauren Capehart and Stephen Chasman almost collided with Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates during the warm up.
Blake Rosenthal/Calvin Taylor
They were wearing purple, black and gold costumes. Their steps looked good, and they looked confident.
Elizabeth Palmer/Ryland Stucke
This was definitely their dance over the waltz. There was a cross rules section toward the top of the pattern where the dancers place one foot directly in front of the other and continue this motion by going from inside to outside to inside edges and repeat the action. All of the dancers did this section in the same spot of ice, opposite the judges, per the pattern. The correct execution of this section, without hesitation and with depth of each edge, appeared to be the difficulty of the Paso Doble dance. Palmer and Stucke had this nice rolling knee motion when they executed the cross rules and were confident in the timing and attack of the steps.
Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates
They wore all black. They demonstrated appropriate head movement and sassiness as they jolted their heads to the side in unison. They could have been a little closer in the knees. The first stuffed animals were thrown out to the ice after they skated. A group had a trash bag full, and they were unloading its contents of gifts onto the ice bit by bit.
Lauren Capehart/Stephen Chasman
They narrowly avoided the boards near the judges' area on the finish of the first pattern, but it didn't affect them. They had a nice highlight at the end, during their own choreographed moves, with her gliding while holding her arms around his waist. They had a little trouble sustaining the balance of their final pose.
Adrienne Koob-Doddy/Robert Antonelli
The actual stomps on the ice with their blades could be heard in this Paso Doble expression. They had about three places of this stomping. This was the stronger dance for them, and it fit their lively style.
Suzanne Lazarowitz/Nathan Jarmuth
They had on maroon and gold costumes. They had nice expression and flow. The inside to outside edge cross rules were not as effective.
Isabel Elliman/Dmitriy Serebrenik
They began the dance only about five feet away from the judges seating. They were fast and aggressive. They liked to skate the pattern very close to the boards. A little ice skidded up during the middle of their dance, but it did not affect their flow.
Annie Maguire/Charlie Hill
They were not as aggressive and the pattern not as big. It seemed they favored the softer waltz style a little more.
Madeline Masten/Jared Ramsdell
She wore a maroon dress. They are technicians and showed sure feet. They executed nice knee slides at the end of the dance after the set pattern steps.
Jane Summersett/Elliott Pennington
They had the best leg extension of the free leg of all. They had brisk feet and exhibited power. They gave good inside edge to outside edge to inside edge transition steps. They also created audible stomps on the ice in the expression.
Kaitlyn Weaver/Charles Clavey
She wore a red, silver and black dress. They possessed soft knees and demonstrated good speed.
Megan Calhoun/Kevin Miller
She transitioned nicely from the skating backward to skating forward positions in his arms. They had decent speed.
So, when I went to look at the results after all the competitions had finished for the day, I wondered how well I could peg the placements for skaters that I don't often see results and marks for on TV. Some of the placements were a little puzzling as us spectators read all of the day's results out in the hallway. There was quite an ordinal spread of the judges. I had no faith in being able to pick well in ice dance as I know I am no technical expert, just an admirer of the sport and have my own preferences. As early as the free dance practice the previous day, I had picked Jane Summersett and Elliott Pennington to win it all. They were in first place after both compulsories and later finished second overall, after the free dance. But, that was as close as I came to my predictions for the whole day really. I still saw no explanation for Elizabeth Palmer and Ryland Stucke being lower than second in the Paso Doble as they really sold the dance in presentation and had arguably the best technique on what I called the 'cross rules'. They were third in the Paso Doble and fourth overall after the compulsories. Also at the free dance practice, I guessed that Lauren Capehart and Stephen Chasman would be close to being a top five team, but I was not sure. They placed second overall after the compulsories and won it all after the free dance the next day. I saw more in Madeline Masten and Jared Ramsdell than the judges did because I thought they would be higher than ninth place after the compulsories. I also thought Megan Calhoun and Kevin Miller would finish higher, must be the ice dancer hair and costumes, but they wound up finishing in twelfth place.
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