Sunday, March 23 - Ice Dance Original Dance / Free Dance Practice
The Fast and the Furious
So, I rolled up into the Convention Center, and after getting frisked, I was in. As far as why it is Original Dance slash Free Dance practice, each couple has a choice of practicing either their original dance or free dance during the session. I arrived for the beginning of Group 1.
About five minutes after I sat down in an empty row about three rows back from the front, a woman with a British accent came and sat in the chair right next to me. She turned to me and said, 'You must be an official.' My response was, 'What? No, not at all.' She explained that she had thought that from the booklets I was holding, the notes I was writing and the small pair of binoculars whose string I was fixing when she came up. She also thought my camera was an interesting contraption, and I actually needed far better. I shared the practice schedule I had with her, and she took down the web address where I printed them, so she could print a copy later. She explained to me she was a local D.C. person and had just come into the Convention Center to watch the practices. After watching the first dance group on the ice, she decided to try the happenings at the MCI Center. I think the Convention Center was her first stop.
Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon chose their original dance for practice. He was dressed in a maroon colored jumpsuit with white puffy sleeved shirt. She was in a dress with a red top, including red and white flowers lining the tank sleeves, and white billowy skirt. They skated almost everything during their program except a small section at the beginning of the polka. They started at the opening pose and following where he adjusts her white gloves, and they take off across the ice. They did the sequence near the beginning where he holds onto her ankle while they face each other and turn. They executed both of the two lifts in the original dance. They did the straight line step sequence, and the energy into the ending pose.
Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe of Canada selected their John Lennon free dance medley. They wore the orange and hot pink costumes seen in competition.
Jessica Huot and Juhu Valkama of Finland wore red and pink costumes, and I believe they skated the original dance.
This was my first live glimpse at Nozomi Watanabe and Akiyuki Kido of Japan. I'm really glad Japan sent a dance team. I confess that I would have loved to see their countrymen Rie Arikawa and Kenji Miyamoto and their Conan, the Barbarian free dance as they are also a team I find interesting. But, Nozomi and Akiyuki are a good choice and were skating well throughout the week. For this session, they had chosen their original dance. They are coached by Natalia Linichuk, which is a good choice for them. They had good speed and energy. In the straight line step sequence, it appeared that Kido was touching down slightly on the twizzle turns.
Group 2 was the final dance group of the afternoon.
Natalie Buck and Trent Nelson-Bond of Australia are another team I was looking forward to seeing. She was in a white sleeveless dress with long white gloves. He wore a military suit with a red coat and black pants. They did only the first four seconds of their original dance and then paused in the run-through. They executed a straight line step sequence where they weave back and forth across the ice in mirror skating. They did pirouettes in face to face dance holds. The speed was a little slow, and the pirouettes deliberate. They did a ballerina lift where her body was curved around him, and she was holding a hand above her head. The hand above her head was curved in a way similar to the hand position in a layback spin. They concluded with Natalie draped backward over Trent's knee. Overall, they looked to be improving.
Galit Chait and Sergei Sahknovski of Israel practiced the free dance. The music played on the sound system confirmed that they have returned to the Variations on the Theme of Paganini free dance of the 2000-2001 season. They were dressed in the red and black costumes that they wore in competition during that season. They opened with a lift. They did a circular step sequence that was fast and furious along the diagonal of the ice. They did a flying lift into the section where she does toe steps to the notes of the music from the position of laying back across his lap. Then, he madly turned her by the arm in about ten pirouettes in a row. The last straight line step sequence had maddening speed. They did a final lift into the closing pose. This is a team of sheer speed. Even the rotations of the lifts were so fast that it made me dizzy to watch.
Natalia Gudina and Alexei Beletski, also of Israel, rehearsed their free dance. She wore a red dress with design prints and a black belt. He wore black with sparkles on the shirt portion. They executed a nice lift where she went from having her knee on his shoulder to hanging upside while he held her by the knees. The circular step sequence matches the dramatic climax of the music. He gave good expression in the face and arms. The dance ends with her dipped back over his knee.
Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azrojan of Armenia selected their free dance. They wore gold costumes. Their music sounded like the strumming of a drum and had a low melody. It gave a bit of a jungle sound. A folkish female voice started singing. They did a dance spin with him holding her ankle.
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