2003 U.S. Nationals

Senior Dance

by Maggie Doyle

The compulsory dances kicked off the championship level events tonight in American Airlines Center and the audience attendance at this competition phase was abysmal. The first dance was the Quickstep followed by the Tango Romantica. These two dances combined count for 20% of the total score. With a twelve-team field, twenty-four compulsories were performed and judged. The Quickstep is skated in Kilian position throughout with both partners skating the same steps for four sequences and was first skated in the 1930's. The Tango Romantica requires deep edges with deliberate and precise movements for two sequences and was created in the 1970's by Russians Ludmilla Pakhomova, Alexander Gorshkov and Elena Tchaikovskaya.

The Original Dance, which counts for 30% of the score, takes place on Wednesday, January 15 at 3:10 PM. Nearly all the males chose black for costumes in both dances. For the Tango, the ladies primarily chose shades of red or black for their skating dresses.

Naomi Lang & Peter Tchernyshev, the four-time national champions who train with Nicholai Morosov in Connecticut, had only been training again for the past five weeks to get ready for competition. They missed this season due to Lang's ankle problems with a cyst on her left Achilles' tendon. She iced her foot down after this competition phase. "I was feeling it some tonight for the first time in five weeks but it isn't hurting my skating," she said. Tchernyshev feels that they are skating at 75% of where they were at the 2002 World championships while Lang rates them at 80%. "We are hoping to peak for the 2003 World Championships," he said. Tchernyshev brought back the "Staying Alive" disco look with his white suit for the Quickstep tonight which was performed with crispness and good speed.

Tanith Belbin and Bejamin Agosto under the tutelage of Igor Shpilband had a very strong quick step with excellent speed and smoothness of execution but this duo only took two ordinals from the champions at this stage of competition. They were less dominant in the Tango Romantica and only took one first place ordinal for that dance. They are solidly in second place at this point but could present a stronger challenge to the leaders in the original dance and free dance competition phases. "Every year there is someone challenging. You have to look behind you and keep running ahead. We skated two solid dances today," said Lang.

Melissa Gregory and her husband, Denis Petukhov who train in Chicago with Oleg Epstein, were solidly in third place in both dances, receiving 18 third place ordinals. Petukhov appears recovered from the knee injury that plagued him at Skate Canada earlier this season. This duo skated close together with strong turns and match well together. This is only their second season and they continue improving.

Newcomers to the senior level, Loren Galler-Rabinowitz and David Mitchell who were last year's junior champions, earned fourth place. This duo had six fourth place ordinals for the Quickstep and six fourth place ordinals for the Tango Romantica. "It hasn't hit me yet about our results at this point; I am elated," she said. Galler-Rabinowitz was also selected as a member of the USFSA's 2003 Scholastic team.

Christie Moxley and Aleksandre Kirsanov train in Delaware with Karen Ludington and placed in fifth in both compulsories. They placed third at 2003 Eastern Sectionals and he was born in Moscow, Russia. Their costumes for the Quickstep did not mesh well as he wore a Spanish costume and hers would have gone well with a Charleston. He used his costume again for the Tango Romantica and she wore a costume where the black and red sleeves did not blend effectively with the silvery green bodice but at least they went with her black skirt. They were a little slower than the top teams for their quickstep.

Kendra Goodwin and Chris Obzansky who also train in Delaware moved up from seventh place in the Quickstep to sixth place in the Tango Romantica and overall. They are coached by Jerry Santoferrara and Yovanny Durango and had a true Spanish flavor to their Tango, with strong angular movements and their Quickstep had good speed, unison and close together feet.

Emilie Nussear and Mathew Gates also train with Nicolai Morosov but appeared very disappointed by problems in their second dance. These 2003 Eastern Sectional champions were sixth in the Quickstep but then fell to ninth place in the Tango Romantica, after a big tumble near the end of their second compulsory. He went down first, then Nussear, she then glared at her partner as they quickly recovered and continued. At program's end, they left the ice without bowing and skipped the kiss and cry area. Is there trouble in paradise with this partnership? They skated a strong Quickstep but just didn't seem to interact well for their Tango, which lacked passion today. They finished in a tie for seventh place overall.

Tied for seventh place are newcomers as partners, Hillary Gibbons and Justin Pekarek who train in Maryland with Genrich Sretenski and Elizabeth Coates. This duo skated a nice Quickstep in attractive blue costumes but their Tango lacked passion despite that their romantic relationship off the ice.

U.S. ice dance continues to be increasing as a melting pot of nationalities. Eight of the twelve teams in this event have a partner who was born outside the United States. Three hailed originally from Russia (Peter Tchernyshev - St. Petersburg), (Denis Petukhov - Kirov), and (Aleksander Kirkanov - Moscow). Vitaly Shalin was born in Odessa, Ukraine, Kendra Goodwin was born in Java, Indonesia and Tanith Belbin's birth certificate shows Kingston, Ontario. Eleanor Langhans claims Valencia, Spain while Mathew Gates originally called Hitchin, England home. Tchernyshev now has American citizenship. Gates and Petukhov expect to have their U.S. citizenship prior to the 2006 Olympic Games but Belbin would need Congressional help to compete at the 2006 Olympic games although she now has green card approval.

The Championship dance event was not "all shook up" in Dallas but instead Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev defended their four-time national title and are now five-time national dance champions. They skated to "Still Lovin' You" by the Scorpions, skating first in the last group of five skating teams. They made a mistake in their footwork section, a small slip causing a pause in the action before starting again. "It was a real fight today. Neither of us skated a flawless performance but I know Naomi and I gave it our all," he said. "When I saw the results I was so excited. This was a stressful week and a stressful season for us. We were happy we could go out and put out all these strong performances," she added.

Christie Moxley and Aleksander Kirsanov had a techno number to "Orbitals & Kiko and the Lavender Moon" and he seemed the more comfortable of the two with this type of dance. They lost a place, finishing seventh in the Freedance and sixth overall. Kimberly Navarro and Robert Shmalo moved up to fifth in the Freedance with their latin music selections by Anjelipse Kijo but they had earlier buried themselves in the compulsories by finishing tenth in both compulsories. They placed seventh overall.

Compulsory Dance 1

Compulsory Dance 2

Original Dance

Free Dance