Saturday, March 22 - Pairs Free Program Practice
Perseverance
I recovered from my idiosyncrasies and got my butt to the MCI Center without missing much from the first group of pairs practicing for the free skate. It was Group 2 with the Chinese pairs and German pair. I returned to my seat in the area of the night before: front row near the Kiss & Cry area.
Xue Shen had a bad fall in practice after a throw jump. Hongbo had to go over and help her up, and even then she was holding onto Hongbo to partially stand for several moments. He eventually guided her over to the boards where Bin Yao and Team China sat. She peeled up her pant leg to reveal a red knee. They pulled out an aerosol can and started spraying her knee. She never left the ice and later skated gingerly in the corner near their coach's location for the remainder of the practice session. What a tough cookie!
The Russian pairs were still no shows for Group 3. However, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov's music was played during their time slot, and what do you know it was Chess. So, that is when I realized that they had dropped this season's Symphonic Dances to return to last year's Chess program.
Those in attendance included Maria Guerassimenko and Vladimir Futas of Slovak Republic. Their coach seemed to be in only a slightly better mood today. Someone from their camp came and sat two chairs down from me when they went through their run-through, then she left to go backstage again after it was over.
Where I was sitting, you just reach over the boards and you can literally touch the boards; there was no gate or barricade or anything. I waved to Marina Aganina and Artem Knyazev of Uzbekistan after they took their bow at the end of practice. They were being coached from the area just to the left of Kiss & Cry. Artem stopped by the boards in front of my seat on the way back to his coaching area to collect his things. He looked at me almost hesitantly at first. Then, I asked for an autograph, and he smiled shyly and complied with me.
Group 4 consisted totally of the two Canadian teams tonight. Jacinthe Lariviere and Lenny Faustino singled the opening jumps of their run-through. Then, they did side by side double jumps. They doubled more side by side jumps. They set up for a throw jump, but omitted it. They did a press lift that went to a one arm lift. Then, they did a throw double jump. They executed a hand to hip star lift. They did a death spiral. The closing pose has him holding onto her head with both hands. Anabelle Langlois clapped at the end of Jacinthe and Lenny's run-through. I was impressed with Jacinthe's presence on the ice, which I really hadn't picked up from television. She has a light and soft style.
During the general warm-up, Anabelle was having trouble with a triple jump. She did the jump takeoff each time at the exact same spot on the ice, about 10 feet in front of where her coach was located behind the boards and to the left of the Kiss & Cry area. She tried the jump about three times and kept singling it. 'I'm consistent with my mistake,' she called out right after she had just singled it again. She kept doing the jump throughout the practice session in that same spot with little success. Anabelle was another skater who liked to dance to other people's music backstage and on the ice. Lenny caught her jiggling to one of the pop music selections when they were both on the ice warming up, and he looked at her and laughed. She laughed with him.
So, for Anabelle and Patrice Archetto's run-through: They did opening steps where he is pushing her forward. They did a hand to hip lift that begins with her in an upright position into a star position. They did a pair spin with her leg extended and resting over his knee. They did another lift. Then side by side double jumps. Another lift where he holds her up high, drops her and catches her under the arms right above the ice. They did flying camels into sit spins: it was out of sync at the beginning but got back on track. They did a combo spin. Another hand to hip lift. Then the death spiral, which was off because her feet were not together when the pivot first started. After the run-through and back into the general warm-up, Lenny landed a jump right in front of Anabelle, and she clapped for him.
When these two pairs were exiting practice, I managed to get Lariviere to come over. 'Jazz!' I called. And, she turned toward the call, startled a bit. That is a name I had heard some of the commentators call her, and it got her attention. Actually, I said Jazz because I didn't know how to pronounce her first name, and I've heard it said different ways. So, as she was signing an autograph, I thought why not clear up the mystery since I'm a bit enthralled with French names, but I have no idea of the pronunciation of different letters or syllables because it was Spanish that I took in school. So, I asked her if she would say her name. It is said like JUH-SAINTH. The last syllable sounds like the word 'saint' with a 'TH' sound on the end. I told her I had wanted to get it right and thanked her for the autograph. She was a good sport for what was probably a rather strange request.
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