2001

Grand Prix Final

Dance Event

Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz started off with a decent skate of their eccentric "Chicago" routine.  It was one of the two clean skates from the top teams.

The Canadians were followed by Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat.  The French couple skated a dance of uncharacteristic reserve with an emphasis on technique and not style.  It was an unusual departure from their typical artistic approach, and also from the general tradition of ice dancers going way over the top when interpreting Latin music.  It was well skated and earned unanimous first place marks.

The Israeli team of Galit Chait & Segei Sakhnovski had a lackluster skate with Chait stumbling in the middle of the required straight line footwork sequence.   They ended up with fourth through sixth place marks to end up fifth.

Next to skater were Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon.   It was a decent performance, but about the best you can say is they didn't embarrass themselves.  Thanks to the Israeli's error they received two fifth place marks but were placed sixth by the remainder of the panel.

Reigning World Champions Barbara Fusar Poli & Maurizio Margaglio started off strongly but started to fade in the second half, and at the end of their required diagonal footwork sequence Margaglio fell and went into the wall.  Despite the error, they benefited from reputation judging and a nasty fall by the Lithuanian couple, receiving three second place marks, two thirds and two fourths to be placed third for the original dance.

The Lithuanian couple of Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas skated last and were looking strong until their second footwork sequence, in the middle of which Drobiazko fell hard.   It was a far more serious error than that made by the Italians and it cost them a place.  Had they skated clean they no doubt would have ended up third in the dance.  As it was they still received two third place marks, though one of these was from the Lithuanian judge and thus has little significance (other than being a fine example of national bias).

If things turned out oddly in the original dance it only got more so in the first free dance.

Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski skated first, presenting their slightly demented Paganini routine with speed and flair.  They placed ahead of the second Canadian couple on another 5-2 decision, the victor among the two also-ran couples of this event.  Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon presented their gladiator themed routine, "Victorious Titans", which remains as much a collection of ugly and awkward moves as it was when they first used it.

Among the top couples, Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas skated their free dance first.  They reprised their shrieking soprano routine, "Spente le Stelle", that won them the bronze medal in Nice and skated it commandingly.  They received marks of second through fourth to move up into third place.

Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz who had placed a surprising second in the original dance skated next and proved their result from earlier in the day was not a fluke.  Their dramatic, if somewhat over the top, march number "March with Me" was skated with strength, though the over all impression was also one of some wildness and lack of control and mid-way through the routine Bourne stumbled in a diagonal footwork sequence.  The couple received four third place marks and three second place marks but still ended up in second place for the dance because the remaining four second place marks were split between the Lithuanian couple and the Italians.

After a mediocre performance in the original dance, Barbara Fusar Poli & Maurizio Margaglio needed a strong performance in the free dance, but did not deliver one.  They looked weak and unprepared in their urban "Romeo and Juliet" routine.  A particular weakness was the lifts in which Margaglio looked tentative and insecure.  Only two judges, the Italian and the Israeli, saw any merit in the performance, placing them second.  The remaining five judges placed them fourth in a stunning upset for reigning World Dance Champions.

Last to skate the first free dance were Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat who performed their dramatic "Carmina Burana" number.  It was a powerful performance that was well skated and received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the audience and unanimous first place marks from the judges.  Thus, at the end of the first day to great surprise, Anissina & Peizerat were in unanimous control of first place, the Italian couple appeared to be at risk of not medaling at all, and the Canadian couple was on track to best pre-competition expectations by at least one place.

Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon started off the second free dance performing a dance based on  music from "Madame Butterfly" but orchestrated for more of an oriental sound.  The dance was competently skated for the most part, but with two minor glitches.  As in their previous free dance, the program is full of hideous looking lifts that are executed, it seems, only because they can be, and for the entire routine they skate to this tragic music with the usual idiotic ice-dancer's smile plastered all over their faces.

Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski gave a decent rendition of their Jewish folk medley routine, though the performance looked a bit flat compared to earlier in the season.  They received fourth through sixth place marks to finish fifth in the free dance and fifth overall.

After digging a hole for themselves in the original dance and the first free dance Barbara Fusar Poli & Maurizio Margaglio needed a strong performance in the second free dance to pull up into the medals and salvage at least something from this competition.  Their routine, skated to "I Will Survive", didn't.   It was a pleasing enough number, kind of fun for the most part, but not of world champion difficulty.  Margaglio in particular didn't contribute all that much to the dance and the lifts were weak and mundane.  They remained mired in fourth place with five fourth place marks, a third, and a ludicrous first place mark from the Italian judge.

Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas, on the other hand, did survive.  Their routine, skated to "Quelques Cris",  was a very powerful and dramatic dance that was well skated, and received an enthusiastic standing ovation.  Their well deserved third place marks from five of the judges gave them a third place finish in the dance and a third place result overall.  They also received fifth place marks from two judges in what appears to be two unambiguous examples of national bias.

Next to skater were Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz.   Their Michael Jackson medley was very well skated and enthusiastically received by the audience.  They received very high marks for their effort,including a 6.0 in the second mark from the U.S. judge.  Their performance gave Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat a tough act to follow.

Anissina & Peizerat made a brave effort of it but their new free dance was  not quite up to the challenge.  On a 4-3 split of the panel they were placed second behind the Canadians, and due to the odd weighting of the three dances used in the Final, they placed second overall even though they had won one of the two free dances and the original dance.

After a string of artistically interesting, innovative and dynamic free dances over the past few years,  one cannot help but ask what were Anissina & Peizerat thinking when they came up with this one?  Their liberty/civil-rights theme dance, titled "Liberta", badly misses the mark from an artistic point of view.  Yes, the dance is of reasonable difficulty and they skate it well, but the routine is ponderous and uninteresting, and not at all what one was expecting from this couple in an Olympic year.

Original Dance

First Free Dance

Second Free Dance