2003

Skate Canada

Dance Event

By Lynn Rutherford

All photos Copyright 2003 by George S. Roosano

Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov

2003 MasterCard Skate Canada International, held at the Hershey Arena in Mississauga, Ontario, opened in sedate fashion when 11 couples took to the ice for the Ravensburger Waltz compulsory dance.

The Ravensburger, invented by the West German brother-and-sister team of Angelika and Erich Buck, along with British coach Betty Callaway (future coach of Torvill & Dean), was introduced at the 1973 West German Championships. Constructed in two sequences of three identical step patterns, it should be skated in the fashion of the elegant Viennese waltzes, with close holds and good speed. While challenging, it is not considered as difficult as the Austrian Waltz, the compulsory dance selection for last week's Skate America competition.

The performance of the evening came from Russian champions Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov, who placed fourth at the 2003 World championships. The tall, handsome couple made good use of their well-matched lines, and their exceptionally elegant and lyrical waltz earned a total of 40.04 points, giving them a 1.76 point lead going into the original dance.

"We did pretty well for ourselves tonight," said Navka. "It's unusual for us to be in first place, so it feels great."

Like most of the skaters, the 28 year-old Navka expressed confusion with the new Code of Points judging system.

"It is very difficult to understand how the new system works. If we have a mark of 40, and Maxim (Staviyski) has 38 - is that a big difference? A little difference? No one knows yet. It will take time. Maybe some other people understand it, but it's all above me."

What an ISU spokesperson called "a minor software glitch" caused Navka & Kostomarov to wait several minutes after their warm-up to skate. At the completion of the competition, it became apparent that the marks of the five couples who skated in the first warm-up group were understated on the scoreboard and to the audience in the arena. For example, immediately after their performance, Israelis Chait & Sakhnovsky were announced as receiving 30.90 total points; by the end of the competition, their point total stood at 37.70. An announcement in the arena attributed this discrepancy to a malfunction of "the connecting line from the central system to the scoreboard," and as of press time, no other explanation was offered.

Fortunately, Navka & Kostamorov were not affected by the delay.

"It was right after our warm-up, anyway, so it didn't matter," said Kostamorov with a shrug.

While they lacked the elegance, line and polish of the Russians, 2003 World bronze medalists Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski of Bulgaria skated a smooth, error-free dance to finish second, with a total of 38.28 points.

"This judging system is a new experience for all of us," said Denkova. "Right now, we are just enjoying our skating. After the competition is over, we will study the results and see how the judges marked us, and look at the differences between level one and level three elements."

Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski of Israel, who placed sixth at the 2003 Worlds, skated the waltz with seemingly effortless speed and placed third, just .58 of a point behind the Bulgarians.

"Of course, the marks are difficult to understand," said Chait. "But I think the new system is going in the right direction. For example, when we were planning our programs, we had to really push ourselves to get our footwork and lifts to a level three. Before, we might have left them at a level two."

After the top three couples, the CoP "grade of execution" scores dropped off considerably. Fourth-place finishers Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon of Canada had difficulties with the final third of the waltz pattern in both sequences. Their timing was noticeably off, causing several near stumbles. They enter the original dance with 34.87 points, followed by Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe of Canada (30.30); Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin of Azerbaijan (29.53); Oksana Domina & Maxim Shabalin of Russia (29.24); Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido (28.44); Josee Piche & Pascal Denis of Canada (27.49); Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & 
David Mitchell of U.S. (25.98); and Christina Beier & William Beier of Germany 
(25.23).

Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov

Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski

Skating to a medley of tunes from "The Pink Panther" and "Austin Powers," Russian champions Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov placed second in the free dance to Bulgarians Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski, but hung on to win Skate Canada with a total score of 207.45 points -- 4.63 points less than Americans Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto, who triumphed at Skate America last week.

The tall, elegant Russians turned in a smooth, sexy performance that was marred only slightly by Kostomarov's stumble on a simple transition move. While entertaining, their program lacked the difficulty of the two teams that finished immediately below them. Navka & Kostomarov's free dance earned 37.80 points for technical content, and 106.31 points overall.

"We are happy with the result. I did a little mistake, and I hope the next competition is better," said Kostomarov.

Asked her feelings about the new judging system, Navka replied, "There have been many changes in the rules, and we had to change our program a few times. Next year, I hope all of the changes are made before July, so we can prepare better."

Denkova & Staviyski, the 2003 World bronze medalists, performed an exceptionally difficult dance to the classical strains of Handel, in refreshingly restrained lavender costumes. Their low-to-the-ice lifts and spins were smoothly 
done, and they maintained their speed and fluidity throughout while skating extremely close together. Although the couple won the free dance portion of the competition with 107.12 points, their second-place totals in the compulsory and original dances relegated them to second place.

"We are happy to be on the podium, but of course we wanted to win," said Staviyski.

"We are a little disappointed. Under the old system, if we had won the free dance, we would have won the competition," added Denkova.

Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon overcame an unfortunate fall at the start of their straight-line footwork sequence to turn in an outstanding performance and overtake Israelis Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovsky for third place. Their Argentine tango is chock full of difficult lifts, steps and stunning highlights. The dance received 39.30 points for technical content - over five points more than the Israelis' technical score. The Canadians' overall score was 103.22, less than three points behind the winners. 

"We're very surprised," said Dubreuil. "When I fell, I just said to myself, 'keep going, keep going.' Under the old system, if you fell, you also fell down the ranks. But with "Code of Points" our level of difficulty helped make up for the fall."

"We knew with this new judging system that our levels of difficulty would be our strength," added Lauzon. "Obviously, we have a lot more work to do on the program, but this is very encouraging."

Interestingly, both the Bulgarians and the Canadians executed seven lifts in their programs, but only the first six lifts were factored into their point totals. In essence, the final lift did not count.

Chait & Sakhnovski's "Clowns" program, skated to the soundtrack of the Fellini movie of the same name, was fast and furious, but was not adjudged as difficult as the top teams' efforts. Their garish, outrageous costumes caused much (negative) comment. In what must be a major disappointment, they ended Skate Canada in fourth place, with 190.89 points - nearly 17 points less than the winning team.

Canadians Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe, who train in the Michigan area with Igor Shpilband's group, skated a fun, energetic number to soundtracks from Fellini films (different from "Clowns"). The number was fast-paced, with a several nice changes of pace, but the couple lost speed in a diagonal footwork sequence and never seemed to quite catch up. They finished fifth, with 164.85 points overall.

Russians Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin have a tall, elegant presence on the ice, and performed their "Four Seasons" tango with good speed and flow. Some unison problems and awkward transitions on lifts held them down in sixth place. Creative lifts and spins, often in angular positions, highlighted Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin's free dance to the rather fast-paced "Innocent Love under the Rain." The couple, who compete for Azerbaijan, finished seventh. The Japanese couple, Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido, performed a rather choppy routine to the "Nutcracker," choreographed by coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, and ended in eighth place. 

Americans Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell's free dance, entitled "Obsession," was choreographed to tango music. While the young couple did not quite embody the passion and attitude of the fiery rhythm, they incorporated many difficult steps and lifts into the dance - so much so that they appeared to lose speed in parts. They earned 69.81 points for their free, and finished the competition in ninth place with 134.19 points overall. 

"I think we learned this week that we really belong out there in these competitions. We feel much more confident now," said Galler-Rabinowitz. "It took a while, but now we know we have a good platform on which to improve. We plan on being around for a long, long time to come."

"The program was abstract for them, and gave them new boundaries to push. I think it really works well for them," added the couple's coach, Barrett Brown.

Josee Piche & Pascal Denis of Canada finished 10th, and Germans Christina Beier & William Beier were 11th.

2003 Skate Canada Dance Medalists