Skate Canada 2000

Dance

Starting Order - Compulsory Dance

Results for the Compulsory Dance

(Rhumba)

Notes after the CD:

The Reigning World Champions, Marina Anisssina & Gwendal Piezerat, are without competition at this event.  Their CD was head-and-shoulders above the rest and we expect that will be the case for the remaingint two sections of the event.   They skated with good control, speed and expression of the dance.  The Israeli team of Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski were a distant second, with total marks that averged five tenths below the leaders.  Though well below the leaders, they were clearly superior to the remaining teams who, as a group, were mediocre at best.   Among the also-rans were the U.S. team of Beata Handra & Charles Sinek who skated like a junior level team and received junior level marks, placing seventh behind all three Canadian teams here.

Starting Order - Original Dance

Results for the Original Dance

Notes after the OD:

The French team of  Marina Anisssina & Gwendal Piezerat won the OD in a close and controversial decision.  Anissina & Piezerat looked in firm control of the dance until the last sequence of the dance, a side-by-side straight line footwork sequence.  Anissina stumbled at the start of the sequence and then could not get back on pattern.  It was not just that she was behind her partner;  for much of the sequence she wasn't even doing the same steps.  Still, four of the seven judges placed them first.  Two judges had the Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski team first while one had Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon.

Chait & Sakhnovski skated a lively, energetic quickstep with flare and without obvious error but only the Israeli judge had them ahead of the French team in both marks. The U.S. judge gave them the top two teams equal in the first mark and had the Israelis one tenth up in the second mark.  To some this result was a scandal, to others just ice dancing as usual.

The Canadian team of Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon placed third and received one first place mark ordinal from the Polish judge.  Their dance lacked the theatricality of the first two teams and was done in more a the traditional ballroom dancing style.  It was very nicely done, very smooth with secure edges.   The reigning Canadian champions, and tenth at 2000 Worlds, they are coming along nicely; and by beating the Ukrainian team (should the standings hold up in the free dance) it is an indication they have a good chance to move up in the standings at Worlds this season.

Americans Handra & Sinek skated a cutesy dance of middling difficulty.   It was tolerably execute with one small error - a wobbly spin mid-way through the routine.

Starting Order - Free Dance

Final Results

	Marina Anisssina & Gwendal Piezerat
	Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski
	Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon

Notes after the free dance:

Except for the withdrawal of Marika Humphreys & Vitaly Baranov due to illness, standings in the dance event did not change in the free dance.

Marina Anisssina & Gwendal Piezerat received unanimous first place marks and were scored one to three tenths above Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski.  Anisssina & Piezerat's program, called "Beethoven's Last Night", is skated to a mixture of classical and modern music.  The program included several swirling circular step sequences and their signature lifts, but lacked speed in placed, especially during the last third where things started to lag.  A consequence of this was they ended five seconds over the maximum allowed time.  The program currently lacks the complexity typical of their past programs but Peizerat said that its theatricality was being worked still and would be improved by the end of the season.

The silver medal was won by Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski and their "Paganini" program in which he is an over-the-top Paganini and she is his violin.  The program if full of toe steps, crotch lifts, and twizzles (too many of each) as was skated about as well as it was at Skate America.  Six judges placed them second, while the U.S. judge placed them third.

Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon, who passed the Ukrainian couple in the OD, maintained their third place position.  They skated to intense, Carmina Burana-style music with some challenging lifts and interesting positions.  The performance was skated with fair speed and power but the skating was not quite up to the intensity of the music.  The couple has come along well since last season, having placed tenth at 2000 Worlds, and look to be on track to move up in the world standings this year.

The Ukrainian couple of Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov placed fourth skating to music from the movie "Gladiator" (expect to hear that music a lot this season).   The dance is way over the top, full of crotch lifts, twizzles, slithering and thrashing about each other.  It is interesting and entertaining, and a throw back to dances of several years past when every free dance seemed to weird to comprehend.

Honorable mention goes to Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe who placed fifth.  Their dance was a swirling, flowing creation that was dramatically presented and very smoothly skated.  It was different and entertaining without being bizarre.  The judges rewarded it in the second mark, but in the first mark it was marked several tenths below the top teams for technique.

Beata Handra & Charles Sinek skated their free dance, with its abundance of crotch lifts, entertainingly and with decent speed.  Handra stumbled a few times in the program, but nonetheless they were able to hold their seventh place position.

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