2008 Skate Canada

Dance Event

The compulsory dance for Skate Canada was the Paso Doble. No team needed to go out and purchase a costume for this dance because they have all been competing this dance since the novice level. You would think with that much preparation, knowledge and experience that we would have seen 8 of the most fabulous Paso Doble’s on the planet…but it was not to be. The results of this dance further exacerbates the argument for keeping compulsory dances as part of the dance event. If you have been skating this dance for years and you still don’t get it, your placement should be obvious.

The Paso Doble is the dance of the bull fighter. Everyone knows this, including the would be skaters. Both the man and woman should have a strong, steady upper body and the man should lead with aggression (think Christopher Dean for those who remember that far back). All of the teams should fly across the ice and have a large pattern with snappy edge work.

The first American team to compete was Jennifer Wester & Danil Barastev. This team has been waiting for years to get their shot on the big international stage. Having waited through a delayed release from the Russian Federation, injuries, surgeries and a marriage to each other, one would think that they would have been more than ready after so many years of preparation. Wester, wearing a sufficiently porny gold lame’ costume cut down to her navel, and Barenstev unfortunately looked tentative and weak with little aggression and ended up sixth in this dance.

Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier of Canada skated next and bringing back the ghosts of Torvill & Dean, Paul started the dance with the Matador’s prance. Though they were fast and crisp in their movements, they were too far apart and lost some of their aggression in the second pattern. It was a good skate overall and they ended up fourth.

Russians Ekaterina Bobrova & Dimitri Soloviev had a small pattern and he kept rolling his shoulders forward before the cross rolls. Though she was dressed appropriately, his outfit was inexplicable. Were those really fringe epilates??

Kim Navarro & Brent Bommentre the U.S. second guns, and National Bronze Medalists, came out after the second warm up and skated a nice clean dance. They seemed to glide across the ice and had a snap and sureness to their patterns. They ended up in third place or the dance.

Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat, France’s National Silver Medalists, were next to skate and they did a superior Paso Doble. They never look like anyone else nor do they try. They were fast and sure and ended up in second place after this round.

Meryl Davis & Charlie White were next to skate and they performed the Paso Doble one expected to see from each team. Davis & White skated with speed, correctness of edges, timing and pattern, and their expression and costuming was superior. They clearly won the compulsory dance round.

The Russian team of Kristina Gorshkova & Vitali Butikov were the last skaters of the compulsory round and they skated nicely. Unfortunately for them it was after Davis & White. They could not generate any excitement or true aggression in their dance and ended up fifth.

Next came the Russians Bobrova & Soloviev. They skated to "Mack the Knife" from The Threepenny Opera, which doesn’t explain their costumes. Perhaps she was someone "Mack" hacked up and that’s why her dress is red and shredded looking? The dress was indicative of the program, messy and sloppy. Her upper body was out of position so many times it looked like her shoulder would be yanked out of her socket from Soloviev yanking her back in to position. Des;pite these poblems they got 5^th for this segment.

Third to skate were the Americans Wester & Barentstev. They skated to "It’s Too Darn Hot," except it wasn’t. For a married couple, their repartee was as cold as the ice they skated on. Their initial twizzles were out of sequence with each other, they had sloppy connections, and the jacket Barantsev was wearing made him look like he was flailing around. They looked panicked and uncomfortable with each other. They ended up seventh.

The final skaters in the first warm up group were the Russian team of Gorshkova & Butikov. Gorshkova looked beautiful in a tuxedo dress and hat, they skated to "Too Many Tears," and once again the Russian idea of costuming was perplexing. They were slightly off on their twizzles and their dance spin got progressively slower to where it almost came to a stop at the end. Overall it was an adequate performance, enough to place second in this segment.

First to skate in the second warm up were the Canadians Crone & Poirier who did a lovely program to music from the movie "The Sting." Their costuming was wonderful and fresh and it fit the music without duplicating anything from the movie. They completely understood the style and sense of fun that was present in the "Roaring Twenties" and did a great job of presenting it to the audience.  The performance was so seamless it was one lost the sense of actually seeing any elements. They each flowed nicely together throughout the program. If they can pick up speed and attack, that would help their points in the OD next time they skate it.

The USA’s sophomore international team Navarro & Bommentre were next to take to the ice. Navarro wore a grey dress with HOT PINK gloves. It is said that if you are going to call attention to something on yourself, it should be your best feature, so perhaps she should have worn grey gloves. She seemed a beat behind Brent for almost the whole dance. At one point she lost a flower accessory from her dress and it appeared to distracted her enough that she just never sold the dance. They ended up in fourth in the "it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad enough to hammer" position.  Afterwards it was said by some that there should have been a costume deduction for the piece of costume falling on the ice.  But other conflicting views were also heard.  In any event, it was not called.

Pechalat & Bourzat from France came next.  The French seem to be awfully naughty this year. Isabel Delobel is the "naughty nurse" and Nathalie was dressed like a naughty schoolgirl. What is in the water in France these days? Nathalie and Fabian have wonderful chemistry with each other and this "Andrews Sisters-esq program started wonderfully, but then they bumped into each other on the second set of twizzles, -1 GOE’s almost across the board on that. Not to worry, they kept on swinging until she caught a toe pick on the step sequence and went down. Major splat. Even though she got back up and into the program quickly, it killed them. -2 GOE’s everywhere you looked and they slipped to an unfortunate 6^th place in the OD.

Last to skate were the Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White. They had "Happy Feet" and it showed. Screaming fast twizzles, no pushing or pulling of each other and the supreme confidence in each other that skating together since childhood brings to the ice. White at one point tripped coming out of a twizzle but got back in to place so quickly that when Davis jumped over his leg right afterwards there was no possibility of a trip or fall on her part. It can be argued that their dance spin looks too much like a pair spin, but it is fast and clean, called at level 4, with GoEs of zero through two. It was no surprise to see them end up first in this dance which they won by nearly seven points.

Before getting to the actual skating, a few general thoughts come to mind after watching the Free Dance. First of all, flailing around does not constitute either expression or choreography. It clearly says in the rule book that movements should be not only intentional but also be developed. In other words, every movement of your body should have a purpose and you should understand what that purpose is or just don’t do it! The women especially are spending so much time excessively bending at the waist and then throwing their heads back. What is going on? Are they in pain? Is their throat constricted? What happened to the precision and beauty of a held position with a strong line? Why is that nothing but abdominal cramps get extra points? Second, out of eight couples, six of them got deductions, one for a fall and 5 others for extended lifts. Maybe it is a good time to re-evaluate the lifts and make some changes.

There, I feel a little better now.

Meryl Davis & Charlie White won the Free Dance segment with their Samson and Delilah program. It was nicely performed, with a well developed relationship and expression of the characters. Their marks were unambiguously the best herewith GoEs of mostly ones and two.  Their marks were also close to those of Belbin & Agosto at Skate America, and that with one level two lift and another at level one.  Their performance here says that Davis & White have the opportunity this year to dethrone the current U.S. Dance Champions.

The second significant aspect of Davis & White's performance was their nearly 20 point margin of victory over Pechelat & Bourzat who self-destructed twice in this competition.  At 2008 Worlds, the Americans placed ahead of the French couple by less than 1 point.

Dance spins under IJS now are about as useful in developing a dance's theme as having a third leg. Rarely are they done well, and they are hard to put in to the body of a program in a choreographically effective way. As an exception, Canadians Crone & Poirier did a particularly nice dance spin that was as light and delicate as the rest of their program, but they really were the exception. Most couples start out okay with the first two positions fairly well held, but then they stop to change positions and direction. Removing the requirement that dance spins should be done in a dance hold has made spins less about telling their story through dance, and more about how many awkward positions they can get into and still keep moving. Crone & Poirier probably did the best job of presenting effortless skating throughout their program, but their strength was in the element scores, where they barely trailed Davis  & White.  In the Program Components they were farther back, with marks in the low sixes versus marks in the low to mid sevens for the Americans.

The other performance that was hindered by rules was that of Pechalat & Bourzat from France. Their clown program set to the music La Notte di Favda was really fresh and original. They worked at making all of their movements fun and artificial like a clown at the circus. At one point Bourzat lost his balance but covered it up quickly with a somersault that a clown would do in a similar circumstance. While a fun program, it was skated a little slow for the music, and ended up with Program Component marks near seven.  Between a fall, and no points in their straight line lift, they handed Crone & Poirier the silver medal on a plate. Had they skated clean in both the Original Dance and the Free Dance it might have been a dog fight with Davis and White for first.  But they didn't and it wasn't.

I would love to hear what Eric Cartman might say about Gorshkova & Butikou, who skated to music from The Godfather. Are their no Italian mafia types in Russia? Did they not see the movie? They skated to one of the most recognizable pieces of modern music with a story as equally well known and who knows what the heck they were doing out there. Actually I do know, they were skating to "nice music" and she dies at the end. Good enough for 4^th place.

Navarro & Bommentre skated a routine without a discernable story line but at least they chose music that was not supposed to have one. Part of their music selection was called Weapon of Choice, though I did wonder what that weapon might be on occasion. Perhaps they were trying to kill us with the music itself, which was just too painful to listen to.  The main weakness in the program, however, was that in picking "brave" music to skate to, they did not also choose appropriately brave choreography.  The choreography was too slow, too restrained and too fluid for the music.  The Mod Squad outfits were fun and fit the program and it appears we are into gloves this year.  Maybe Kim needs to get her nails done -- but then I don't look at her hands while she is skating anyway.  They ended up 5^th.

For the final three teams we had a Romeo and Juliet from Bobrova & Soloviev (hint, they both die at the end), an emotionless skate to Requiem for a Tower by the Americans Wester & Barantsev. Not sure why anyone cares if a tower goes suddenly missing, but okay…and bringing up the rear the Canadians Chong & Gfeller skated to Les Feuilles Mort. If I remember my French correctly, it means they skated to music for dead leaves.

2008 Skate Canada Dance Medalists