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(Paso Doble)
Place | Couple | Country |
1 | Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz | CAN |
2 | Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas | LIT |
3 | Sylwia Nowak & Sebastian Kolasinski | POL |
4 | Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov | UKR |
5 | Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski | BUL |
6 | Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Scoenfelder | FRA |
7 | Olga Sharutenko & Dmitri Naumkin | RUS |
8 | Debbie Koegel & Oleg Fediukov | USA |
9 | Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe | CAN |
10 | Charlotte Clements & Gary Shortland | GBR |
11 | Kornelia Barany & Andras Rosnik | HUN |
12 | Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido | JPN |
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(The Waltz)
Place | Couple | Country |
1 | Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz | CAN |
2 | Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas | LIT |
3 | Sylwia Nowak & Sebastian Kolasinski | POL |
4 | Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov | UKR |
5 | Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski | BUL |
6 | Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Scoenfelder | FRA |
7 | Olga Sharutenko & Dmitri Naumkin | RUS |
8 | Debbie Koegel & Oleg Fediukov | USA |
9 | Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe | CAN |
10 | Charlotte Clements & Gary Shortland | GBR |
11 | Kornelia Barany & Andras Rosnik | HUN |
12 | Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido | JPN |
Notes:
We begin with a philosophical question. Is a dance skated to music in waltz time a waltz regardless of what the dance actually looks like?
In the OD the answer apparently is yes, for very few of the dances presented here in the OD (or at Skate America as well) look like waltzes. If you were to watch most of the ODs without the music being played you would be hard pressed to identify what dance they were at all. Most of them were two minute free dances skated to waltz music.
Bourne & Kraatz placed well ahead of their nearest rivals with a routine skated to a haunting song called Seachran by the Irish group Clannad, sung in Gaelic. The skaters could not tell us what the song is about since it is sung in a dialect that is rarely spoken. Their routine is a continuation of the Celtic style that is now widespread in Canadian skating. The dance was very well done, but was hardly waltz-like with mostly side-by-side skating and step-dancing type footwork, though less rapid and more flowing than their Riverdance routine.
Drobiazko & Vanagas skated more of a waltz to Sibelius' "Valse Triste". The presentation created a nice mood with good flow and edges.
The Polish team of Nowak & Kolasinski was one of two teams skating to Brian Adams' "Have You Really Ever Loved a Woman". Also more of a Waltz than many of the others, it had a bit of a Latin flavor to it.
Below the top three teams the technical quality of the couples dropped precipitously. One of the more enjoyable routines, however, came from the second Canadian couple of Wing & Lowe. Skating to music from the ballet suite "Coppellia", they captured the spirit of the piece which involves a doll maker who falls in love with one of his creations and tries to animate her. The routine got a tremendous crowd response, but the couple remained in ninth place after the OD. Afterwards, Lowe was extremely disappointed and frustrated that they had gained no ground in the OD, feeling they had at least beaten the eighth place US team for sure. He unloaded on the Canadian judge who did not have them ahead of the US team either, and basically said it was a sorry day that the third ranked couple in Canada couldn't even beat the sixth ranked US couple.
The US team held eighth place skating to the same piece of music as the Polish team, with nice flow and more of a Waltz expression than most, but simpler steps.
Once again we got to here the Masquerade Waltz (three teams used it at Skate America). Expect to hear this piece at lest 6 times at Worlds. Skaters are such sheep when it comes to music.
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Place | Couple | Country | C1 | OD | FD |
1 | Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz | CAN | 1 | 1 | 1 |
2 | Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas | LIT | 2 | 2 | 2 |
3 | Sylwia Nowak & Sebastian Kolasinski | POL | 3 | 3 | 3 |
4 | Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov | UKR | 4 | 4 | 4 |
5 | Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski | BUL | 5 | 5 | 5 |
6 | Olga Sharutenko & Dmitri Naumkin | RUS | 7 | 7 | 6 |
7 | Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Scoenfelder | FRA | 6 | 6 | 7 |
8 | Debbie Koegel & Oleg Fediukov | USA | 8 | 8 | 8 |
9 | Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe | CAN | 9 | 9 | 9 |
10 | Kornelia Barany & Andras Rosnik | HUN | 11 | 11 | 10 |
11 | Charlotte Clements & Gary Shortland | GBR | 10 | 10 | 11 |
12 | Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido | JPN | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Notes:
Bourne & Kraatz captured their fifth consecutive Skate Canada dance title with a new techno-rhythmic free dance nicknamed "Heart Attack" by Christopher Dean. The received marks of 5.6-5.8 in the first mark and 5.8-5.9 in the second mark. Dressed in simple athletic looking black and blue costumes, about the only part of their number that was understandable was one stumble by Kraatz's about three-quarters though the program. The judges unanimously placed them ahead of Drobiazko & Vanagas who also skated a new-age techo-number which was as equally unintelligible as Bourne & Kraatz's, if not more so. The Polish team of Kowak & Kolasinski skated a more traditional number to classical music to hold third place.
In addition to the techno trend, several of the teams presented dances of a middle eastern / Arabian Nights flavor. Two of the more interesting, and also understandable, routines came from the French couple and the Russian. Skating to "Night on Bald Mountain" their choreography is a little wild but grows on you. The Russian couple team skated to "Tango" and was a bit of a rip-off of Rakamo and Kokko, but still interesting.
The second Canadian team presented a fun but simple number, while the US team skating to "Fiddler on the Roof" presented a fairly standard routine which added nothing new to that overworked piece of music.