Madison Chock & Evan Bates

Maia & Alex Shibutani

Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue

All Photos © 2015 George Rossano

(25 January 2015)  Madison Chock & Evan Bates, silver medalists at the 2014-2015 Grand Prix Final, narrowly lead their long time rivals, Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani, heading into the free dance phase of the Senior Ice Dance competition at the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, by a score of 73.95 to 73.84 points. The team, who are expected to contend for the podium at the 2015 World Championships, took a great risk to improve their short dance to "Don Quixote," by Léon Minkus, after the Grand Prix Final in December 2014. The couple and their coach and choreographer, Igor Shpilband, made substantial changes to large sections of their short dance, and entirely reworked their Paso Doble Partial Step Sequence.

As Chock stated at the press conference, following their first competition with this new choreography, " Well, we had planned to make some changes prior to the Final, but we didn't have time," The choice had its pitfalls. Chock commented further, "You have to really repeat the choreography and the new steps as much as you can before the next event so that you're really comfortable with it, and it's in your body." She added, " I think we really did that, and it really felt good."

The judges seemed to appreciate the creative changes to the partial step sequence, which is now hard to detect as containing compulsory dance steps: they scored it higher than the Shibutanis' corresponding element. However, the team missed a key point in each of the paso sequences, perhaps due to lack of practice time for the revised program.

Chock, aged 22, and Bates, aged 25, completed a level 4 sequential twizzle sequence, their best of the season, and the best dance lift of the competition, which was perfectly executed to the phrasing of their music. The pair earned level threes for both paso doble sequences, and for their midline step, which they executed with arm movements in appropriate Spanish character.

As Bates explained, commenting on their personal best ever score for a short dance, "Maddy and I are really pleased with our performance tonight. A substantial portion of this short dance has been rechoreographed since the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, so it was really nice to be finally able to perform it, so we'll see what the feedback was, but for tonight we're really happy with it, and it's a good start.."

Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani, aged 20 and 23 respectively, took a different road to obtaining a personal best score for a short dance from that taken by Chock & Bates. The brother and sister duo, who are coached by Marina. Zoueva, Massimo Scali, Johnny Johns, and Oleg Epstein, performed essentially the same routine they have used with great success in five previous competitions this year. Their short dance which combines a flamenco to "Asturias Variations" with a paso doble to "The Last Corrida" was choreographed by Zoueva and Scali, with assistance from well-known ballroom dancer Corky Ballas.

The team had the highest technical base score of the night, due to hitting all but one of the six key points for the two paso doble sequences. However, their PCS and overall Grades of Exection for the lift and the partial paso doble step sequence were somewhat lower than those of Chock & Bates. Unfortunately, the Shibutanis' two weakest elements were placed at the end of their short dance, ending the performance on a slightly lower note that did not help improve their Program Component Scores.

However, as Alex Shibutani commented, the final goal is a good performance at the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships, "Really, tomorrow is just another opportunity to put out a strong skate. Maia and I have been building very successfully this season. This is our sixth event of this competitive season. Tomorrow's goal is to skate there for each other and for the audience, and we're building for the end of our season. We want to be peaking at the world Championships, but tomorrow is just a step in that direction."

Third place finishers, Madison Hubbell & Zack Donohue, earned a score of 65.43 points, far behind the two top couples. Hubbell, who seems to have fully recovered from surgery to repair a torn hip labrum, and her partner skated to "Fiesta Flamenca" and "Espana Cani" by 101 Strings to the interesting choreography of Pasquale Camerlengo. Madison Hubbell has asserted, " We feel like one of our strengths is the way that we can move and perform for the audience and for each other and our connection," and the pair certainly displayed their connection, Spanish flair and Flamenco fire on the ice, but were not as technically proficient as the top two teams.

Three of their five elements earned only a level two: the two paso doble sequences and their curved lift was called a level 2, due to the failure of the difficult pose to be stably maintained for a full three seconds.

The 2014 Junior World Champions, Kaitlyn Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker, are currently in fourth place, close behind Hubbell & Donohue with a score of 63.95. The eighteen-year-old Hawayek and the twenty-one year old Baker are competing at their first U.S. Senior Ice Dance Championship. Their solid debut, dancing to "Malaguena" by Ernesto Lecuona, included earning all positive grades of execution and a tie with the fifth place team, Stasia Cannuscio & Colin McManus, for the third highest base value elements of the event. The pair's score would have been two points higher if they had not received timing error calls for the last key point of both paso sequences, the most tricky portion of the required steps.

Fifth place finishers, Stasia Cannuscio & Colin McManus Improved their personal best score for the short dance in U.S. competitions by over five points, earning 61.95 for their short dance. The team has made massive improvements and changes this year, striving to move up into the space created by the absence from the U.S. ice dance scene of Olympic gold medalists, Meryl Davis & Charlie White. The duo, aged 22 and 24, started the season by dancing to a bronze medal at the 2014 U.S. International Classic this fall, and with their excellent performance in the short dance to "Hora Zero" by Rodrigo y Gabriela and "Ameska" by the Taalbi Brothers, has qualified to skate in the last flight in the free dance.at the 2015 U.S. Senior Ice Dance event. The highlight of their routine was their energetic, spirited diagonal step sequence at the end of their program.

2013 U.S. Junior Ice Dance champions, Alexandra Aldridge & Daniel Eaton, who finished in fifth place at the 2014 U.S. Senior Ice Dance Championships, could only manage sixth place this year in the short dance, with a score of 57.74. The dancers are now coached by Marina Zoueva, Massimo Scali, J. Johns, and Oleg Epstein. Their routine earned lower PCS scores than their nearest competitors. Their Spanish short dance started promisingly with their best element, a level four sequential twizzle sequence, but ended less happily with their Level 2 partial paso doble step sequence, their weakest element, which included a timing error in the second key point. On balance, the team failed to match their performance to the fiery nature of "Carmen."

In seventh place are the twins Danielle Gamelin & Alexander Gamelin, of the Skating Club of New York with a score of 52.53 points. The team only received level 1 for their midline step sequence, as Alexander Gamelin made a visible error early in the sequence. The opening lift and level 4 twizzles were the highlights of their routine.

Anastasia Olson & Ian Lorello, with 51.94 points, are in eighth place. Although the team managed level 4 twizzles, the quality of the element was suspect, and it earned negative GOEs.

In ninth place are Charlotte Maxwell & Ryan Devereaux, who have 50.94 points. Maxwell last appeared at U.S. Nationals in 2009. The team lost a level in the twizzles and in the rotational lift.

The tenth place couple, Ginna Hoptman & Pavel Filchenkov, from the IIceWorks SC have 47.87 points. Their midline step earned level two, but they only hit one key point in their two paso doble sequences

Elicia Reynolds & Stephen Reynolds, the brother and sister team from IceWorks SC lie in eleventh place with a score of 40.02 points. The highlight of their program was a fast rotational lift.

Kseniya Ponomaryova & Oleg Altukhov are currently in twelfth place with a score of 37.64. The team achieved level 4 twizzles, but only hit one key point in the two paso sequences, and earned only level one for their midline step sequence. Their program to "Asturia" by Diego Solis and "Farucca" by Manilo Carassco received a one point deduction for using music of the wrong tempo for the paso doble, which requires 2 beats per minute in 2/4 time.

Kristen Nardozzi, & Nick Traxler, Stars FSC of Texas, enter the free dance with a score of 37.05. The duo did not manage to check off a single key point in the paso doble steps.. No element in the dance received an overal positive grade of execution, but the team did earn level 4 for both their curve lift and their sequential twizzles.

The fourteenth place team, Ashlyn Gaughan & Cody Lithco, did not manage to check off a single key point in the two paso doble sequences. . The pair had difficulties throughout the dance. No element received an overal positive grade of execution. Their best achievement was getting level 4 for straight line lift. The dancers earned 32.82 in the short dance.

Tory Patsis & Nathaniel Fast, the fifteenth place finishers, earned a score of 32.81. The pair had severe problem with the sequential twizzles, only earning a level one for the skill. They struggled throughout the routine, earning level one for each of the midline step sequence and both paso doble sequences.

Pauline Bynum & Jason Deveikis in sixteenth place, with 26.18 points, opened with a good level 4 straight line lift, but had a severe problem in the second twizzle set, for a net level 2 for the element. All three step sequences were level 1.

In seventeenth and last place are Gabriela Morrell Zucker & Andrejs Sitiks, with 23.78 points. The team suffered a fall during the first paso doble sequence, which caused an excess interruption in the program, for a net two point deduction. The team also received zero points for the element, and were behind their music throughout the remainder of the program. They regrouped at the end to perform a level 4 straight linel lift.