Papadakis & Cizeron Take Gold, Have Sights Next  on Making the Final at NHK Where They Will Be Challenged by Virtue & Moir

The ice dance competition at the French Trophy in Paris had a good, but no outstanding level. Like at the two North American Grand Prix, there was much applause for all teams in the short dance because Blues, Swing, Disco and Hip Hop are attractive rhythms.  Outstanding were only the big favorites, two-time World Champions and winners Gabriella Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron from France who opened their international season in Paris.

The couple had only done a national competition in October, called Master’s, to unveil their new programs. Since then, the flow of their programs and the quality oft the elements, which is always stellar anyway, has clearly improved. To the delight of the home crowd, they therefore gained 193.50 overall points, only one points less than at the World championships in Boston and four more points than Virtue and Moir at Skate Canada.

In the short dance, they skated in a very soft way which requires a lot of flexibility of their bodies, and with deep and extremely long edges. They used the Blues "Bittersweet" by Lene Riebau and Maxim Illion, performed by the German-based "Club des Belugas" and without visible or hearable interruption the Swing "Diga Diga Doo" by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. The Twizzle sequence, the Midnight Blues section and the excellent stationary lift - very low over the ice - gained a level 4, the partial step sequence and the midline non-touch step sequence a level 3. Half of the GOEs were +3, the other half +2, but not a single one lower.

 Their components had an average of 9.5, with many 9.75 as highest ones and no component lower than 9.0. Papadakis said: "We did a very good performance, especially for the beginning of the season. There are still little things to work on, but overall we are really pleased.” Cizeron added: "It's cool to have these two pieces set the way they are, so that the swing and the party come at the end."

After the World Championships in Boston, their main coach Romain Haguenauer had said that they would skate to a free dance music of a totally different style this season. But their style is so superior to all other ice dance couples in the world that they decided to continue as before and take no risks.

After looking for music for a long time, especially with their choreographer Marie-France Dubrueil, they finally found three very unknown pieces of music: "Stillness" by the Finnish group "Nest", the jazzy, romantic and modern piano piece "Oddudua" by the Cuban composer Aldo Lopez Gavilan and "Happiness Does not Wait" by the Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds.

They skated with the same perfection as in the last two years. The elements flow into each other without being visible. The footwork was very intricate, the lifts looked very easy. Even before they come on the ice, they create a special atmopshere around them and time seems to stand still while they are skating. Again, all elements except the step sequences (two times level 3) gained a level 4. If there were a GOE of +4, they would merit it because many elements are even better than those of other couples who also get a +3.

The first element was a superb straight line lift (seven GOEs of +3), followed by the extraordinarily harmonic twizzle sequence (seven times GOEs of +3). Everything else was brilliant as well, the interpretation of the difficult music outstanding. The components had an average of 9.6 with three perfect 10.0 by the judges from the USA (John Miller) and Canada (Jodi Abbott) for performance and interpretation, which were absolutely justified. It was also a nice birthday present for Cizeron who turned 22 the day of the free program and is a stellar performer with a special body flexibility. It was perfect ballet on the ice.

"It was a hard summer, because the program took long to make, it was hard to make a decision about the program, but we’re happy the program is what it is today and we’re very happy about the performance”, Papadakis commented. Cizeron added: "I didn't realize it was my birthday until the crowd started singing, as focused as I was on the program. When we ended the program, we felt the energy and it was a great feeling for us, as we were quite anxious to see how the crowd reacted." At their second Grand Prix in Japan they will compete against Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and the ice dance world will see who is the number one in the world then.

Compared to the winners all other dance teams looked a bit ordinary, but some were very good as well. The silver medal winners Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue, who train on the same Montreal ice with Papadakis & Cizeron every day, won 174.58 points. They began their sensual and sexy short dance to the Blues "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone and to a Hip Hop Medley with the Blues pattern and hit all three key points (Level 4). The partial step sequence and the twizzles (with a little wobble by Hubbell) only had a level 2 because of this mistake, the excellent Straight Line Lift a level 4 and the not-touching step sequence a level 3. The components were around 8.6.

Hubbell commented: "Zach and I put in a lot of work in the last few weeks, especially on our short dance, which was our weaker program at Skate America. I was a bit shaky today, I made mistakes on two of our elements, but overall I felt our performance was better. Blues and Hip Hop was an easy choice for us, as we both like to dance. But, Hip Hop is a hard dance to put on the ice We really have to give all our energy to make it what it should be."

In their free dance, they moved up from third to second place and interpreted the three songs "I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Bootstrap, "Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Ingrid Michaelson and "Earned It” again by Bootstrap. They had the same levels as the winners, but mainly GOEs of +2, and danced with great harmony, and gave an excellent feeling of loving each other. Hubbell commented: "We really feel the momentum and we hope we can we’ve done now to make the Final for the second year in a row which is a huge accomplishment. This was our goal for the Grand Prix season. I think we’re just excited to go home and just continue this progress. The beginning of the season was a bit rough, but we worked together." They will reach this Final almost certainly after the second place at Skate America and silver in Paris.

Hubbell & Donohue beat Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier from Canada who had also hoped for a silver medal, but ended up third with 170.78 points. In the short dance to the Blues "Oh What a Night for Dancing" by Barry White and the "Disco Inferno" by Leroy Green and Ron Kersey, they remembered the age of disco music in the 80ies and underlined this by their outfit, hair style and playful skating style.

Their rotational lift had a level 4, but the other four elements only one time a 3 and three time a level 2. Gilles stumbled on the twizzle sequence which cost them two levels and some GOEs. Therefore they were only fourth in this part in spite of high components of 8.5. She commented about her mistake: "Those things happen; that's the sport. We feel we're at our best. I just simply realized that I was not over my foot and that was it."

With a very fine classical Argentine Tango medley in their free dance ("Con Buena Onda" by Daniel Lomuto, Ernesto Baffa and Hector M. Arce) they could move up to third place. The same five elements as for the winners gained a level 4, the step sequences a level 2 and a level 3. Gilles said: "We’re very proud of what we did today. We didn’t let the big mistake that I did yesterday defeat us. We know that we have two solid programs this season. Unfortunately, we didn’t do both solid this week. We know we have things to work on. The music naturally led us into that direction. We wanted our twizzles to be visible, as they are one of our strong points, and the music placed them there." Poirier added: "Tango involves a lot of interplay where you are perpendicular to your partner. Our challenge there was to find how we could create this." With two third places they have to wait if they reach the final, but it not very probable.

Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin from Russia were stronger and quicker on the ice than at Grand Prix at Skate America three weeks before Paris when they were fifth. In Paris, they finished fourth, earning 167,40 points. In the short dance, they were even second. Their Blues "Big Bad Love” by Ray Charles and their too often played, but very energetic Swing "Sing Sing Sing” by Louis Prima had an excellent curve lift which got five GOEs of +3, but only level 3. The other elements also had only level 2 and 3, but high GOEs and components of around 8.8.

"We skated very well today and I think we improved compared to Skate America, at least our coaches said it was better than the first Grand Prix”, Ilinykh mentioned. "I think we just feel each other. He slows me down a little bit, and when I feel I need to go, then he follows. He makes me a lot quieter, and I really need that."

Their Bollywood free dance to the soundtrack of "Slumdog Millionaire" was quite authentic. But they did not gain very high levels and therefore left points on the table, which cost them a medal in spite of high GOEs. Ilinykh fell on a linking step but this did not influence the program much. With a fifth and a fourth place, they have almost no chance of reaching the Final.

Isabella Tobias & Ilia Tkachenko, who skate for Israel, but have an American and a Russian background, train with Igor Shpilband in Novi. They finished fifth with 158.86 points. In the short dance, the twizzles were a highlight, but they did not get one of the three key points in the Blues sequence. In free dance they interpreted a classical version of Tchaikovski’s Nutcracker, with ease and good speed, but their step sequences had only level 1 and 2.

 The second French couple Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain Le Gac finished on sixth position, winning 150.07 points.  Like the world champions they train in the Montreal dance school of Patrice Lauzon, Marie-France Dubrueil and Romain Haguenauer. Lauriault is from Quebec and is still waiting for her French passport which she needs in order to be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games of 2018. The couple got married to each other last December, which might help the procedure. Their senior Grand Prix debut was quite successful. Their combination lift in the free dance to an Elton John medley even gained two GOEs of +3.

The young Ukrainian couple of Alexandra Nazarova & Maxim Nikitin, also students of Igor Shpilband and his team, finished on seventh place, winning 145.39 points. The Canadian Cortney Mansour & Michal Ceska from the Czech Republic also are students of Igor Shpilband since last November when they left Carol Lane in Toronto. They placed eighth place with 140.92 points. Ninth were Lorenza Alessandrini & Pierre Souquet with 130.12 points, tenth the Belorussian couple Viktoria Kavaliova & Yurii Bieliaiev (115.04 points), who astonishingly enough were assigned two Grand Prix.