2008 Skate America

Dance Event

Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder floated to a slim lead in the Viennese Waltz, besting Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto by 0.86 points.  Costumed in a white dress with a shocking pink cross design in front, and he in traditional tuxedo, the couple added a bit of whimsy to the opening and closing posturing that the couples add to the dance. The remaining couples all stuck with the standard approach of elegant refinement in interpreting the dance, except for the second French couple.  More on them later.  The World Champions skated with moderate speed, good edges, and secure flow. though perhaps getting a little flat towards the end of the dance.  And with a sensationally sexy back, Schoenfelder led Delobel around the ice and in a gloriously deep pattern that made us all feel like we were in a ballroom.

Belbin & Agosto skated fast with fair extension, but with Belbin tending towards choppy steps in the middle of the pattern.  Both their and their coaches' reputations seemingly hinge on delivering the promised new and improved skills and style which will be showcased in the OD and Free Dance section of the competition.

In the Viennese, Belbin worked on a toe point and she kept her free leg knee straight improving their line and silhouette. Her sheer peek-a-boo silver-white dress dazzled; but Agosto disappeared into the ice in a white tux.  It appeared to us the Americans skated with greater overall strength while the French couple were superior in cleanness of skating and flow.

Among the nine judges, it was a 6-3 split in favor of the French couple.  For those keeping score, the two discard judges where number 4 and number 6 on the protocols, one of these favoring the French couple and the other the American.  So after the discard, it was a 5-2 split in favor of the French and the luck of this draw gave the French couple a bigger lead than should otherwise be the case.  [Is this a great system or what, where the random decision of a computer gets to decide the point standings!]

The British couple Sinead Kerr & John Kerr placed third in the dance, 4.12 points behind the leaders and 2.11 points ahead of the second French couple Pernelle Carron & Mathieu Jost.

The Kerrs skated the dance well, but with less speed than the leaders, and less extension than several other couples; while  Carron & Jost, showed nice flowing edges and also skated with moderate speed.  Wearing a dress of black lace on nude fabric, with a hint of bondage, Carron delightfully pinned the slut-o-meter for this dance.   Overall, their's was a skate that oozed conviction and maturity.

Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates placed 0.45 points behind Carron & Jost in this dance.  They had outstanding extension and long flowing edges, and were fourth in Program Components, but lower GoEs for the step segments pulled them down to fifth in the current standings.

The third American couple here, Jane Summersett & Todd Gilles placed eighth in the dance.  They skated tolerably well in the first pattern, but it was down hill from there for the next two, and they ended up with marks typical of a competent junior couple.

It was an energetic afternoon in Everett, Washington as the Ice Dancers broke out their new Original Dance routines. Swing dances, Foxtrot’s, Lindy Hop’s, Quicksteps and Charleston’s took center stage as the dancers flailed away on the ice. All of these dances require exaggerated upper body movement. Doing it with grace and style is difficult and there is a fine line between precision and looking like you are trying to hail a cab at rush hour in New York. Each team is required to do 2 lifts, a dance spin, twizzles, a midline non-touching step sequence and another step sequence. How they put it together and sold it told the story tonight.

Americans Summersett & Gilles stayed in character through their Charelston and Foxtrot and once again artfully displayed their unique choreography. They had nice, fast, matching twizzles and nice edges throughout the program. Their efforts got them sixth place in the OD segment, but they remain in 8^th overall.

The second American team Samuelson & Bates are charging full steam ahead into their first Senior Grand Prix season. They put together a snappy little routine that played to their strengths; speed, precision and unison. Their choreography (think Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers) was age appropriate but her garters had a distracting peek-a-boo affect that doesn’t quite go along with the package they are selling. They blasted almost 2 points ahead of the French couple Pernelle Carron & Mathieu Jost to 4^th place overall after the OD, thanks largely to superior elements which gave them a TES 2.4 points ahead of Carron & Jost.  These two couple were pretty much even up in Program Components.

The Carron & Jost started out with a wonderful maturity of movement in their slow swing. They were finishing moves and extensions and really putting themselves into the era of the dance. Unfortunately they got overwhelmed in the second half of their program, the fast swing. It just seemed like they were chasing the music and their choreography sort of slipped though their fingers.

The Kerr’s skated well in spite of Sinead’s distractingly unattractive dress. It was unfortunate that she chose to wear a house coat to a Grand Prix event. The choreography was charming and they sold it with a sense of fun that embodied the era. Their lifts were interesting and the difficulty and variety of steps, solid edges and attack gave them the highest technical score of the group.  They were third though in Program Components, for a second place finish in the OD, and remain in third place overall.  

The many the tough part of the afternoon was getting through 7 other teams to see how Belbin & Agosto were going to fair. Would the coaching change pay off? Will the changes show?

Belbin came out in a pink dress reminiscent of the dress she burst on to the senior scene with in Boston. She wore a Gloria Swanson headdress without the accompanying makeup. It’s too bad she wasn’t brave enough to go for the makeup too, it is almost indicative of the change…not quite enough. They did not look happy in the kiss and cry area even though they skated clean and had a nice dance spin and twizzles…something just seemed disconnected. The joy of the program stopped at the boards and did not reach up to the audience, like a smile that doesn’t reach someone’s eyes. They maintained their hold on second by just 0.27 over the Kerr’s. So far, the jury is still out on the move.

Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder have finally come to a complete understanding of themselves as dancers and performers. It shows in their complete confidence in their performance. In the past, they were always interesting and innovative, the difference is, they now know how to sell it, and people in the stands are lining up to buy it. Tonight Delobel was every WWII GI’s dream. No wonder grandpa Schoenfelder wants to get in her pants. They skated with speed and their edge’s, lifts and footwork had the snappiness that a boogie calls for. Their GOE’s tell the story of their skill, experience and the longevity of their partnership.  The only significant defect in their performance was Delobel's error in synchronized twizzles which put the element at level 1 and cost them 0.70 point die to negative GoEs.  Without that error  no doubt they would have beaten the Kerrs in TES.

French Couple Hold on For the Gold

The Free Dance must have been a nasty pill to swallow for Igor Shpilband. For the first time in years, Shpilband showed up at Skate America with a car payment team and watched other Russian coaches have their skaters at the top of the leader board; and to further confound him, Belbin & Agosto actually had improved skating skills!

The Free Dance portion of the competition started off inauspiciously, and then came Summerset & Gilles. You might almost think that Summerset & Gilles were Russian the way they are always so horribly costumed, and this time was no exception.

Why is the costuming an issue? Because everything else is so good. Once again they put out an interesting program that had beautiful, albeit slow, edges and footwork and incredibly innovative lifts. This team understands where their story is going and they don’t flail around aimlessly to get there. You want to see what they are going to do next. They reminded one of a young Delobel & Schoenfelder. I would interesting to see that program again in five years with speed and personal/performance confidence added to it.

Nevertheless, they were beaten by the Russians Ekaterina Rubleva & Ivan Shefer who did a slow, lackluster Flamenco.  To our eye, Rubleva had control issues in several element, but the judges did not see it that way, with all of their elements ending up scored positive for GoEs

The French team of Pernelle Carron & Mathieu Jost skated to "Butterfly and Hurricanes" by the group Muse. It was incomprehensible and lethargic, with rushed and unfinished movements.  On the plus side, Carron won the hat-trick for the dance event for being three for three on delightfully slutty dresses.  The camera loved her.

Americans Samuelson & Bates came next skating to "Amazonic" by Huljic. This team does the work and gets the job done. Every hand, arm, foot and head movement is well choreographed and executed at the highest level. Their performance is practiced and polished and nothing is left to chance. Emily appeared to have one small bauble, but the judges did not see it that way, with all their GoEs being zero or positive.  In fact, the judges had this couple first in element scores  This pulled the couple up to third place in the Free Dance but it was not enough to bring them up out of fourth place overall.

The siblings Kerr skated next performing to "Ruled by Secrecy" by Muse. Sinead fell out of, or put her foot down on almost every twizzle in element five. The judges responded with GoEs of -1 and -2, except for one judge who gave the twizzles a zero.  This judge also gave them plus twos for every other element in the dance and the highest Program Component scores of the panel.  Turns out there was a British judge on the panel, but of course that probably had nothing to do with it.

Like a phoenix, out of the ashes once again rose the ghosts of Floria Tosca and Mario Cavaradossi of Puccini's "Tosca," channeled by Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto.  The story gave Tanith and Ben something to focus on.  Agosto made a reasonable Cavaradossi, but Belbin's interpretation of Tosca was less well defined.  The judges were more enthusiastic about the technical aspect of the program, giving them the highest element scores for the Free Dance.  In Program Components, however, they were judge second best to the French couple.  But in total points, they won the free dance to hold onto second place, just 1.11 points behind the gold.

Belbin & Agosto have always had fast, clean twizzles and dance spins. Their placements of these elements within the program was both unique and effective. Their lifts were exciting, especially the spiral lift. Tanith’s toe looked like it was going right through the roof. As the season progresses hopefully one will see more passion from Tanith, and a more obvious relationship between the characters which is needed in the re-telling of this story on ice.

The World Champions, France's Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder were the last to skate in the event, performing to "The Great Gig in the Sky" by Pink Floyd.  Their skating was fluid with a sense of oneness and a clear relationship that was missing from Belbin & Agosto.  Unfortunately, this non-character driven program was devoid of their normal strength and passion because it had no clear vision. What everyone saw and enjoyed was really nice skating.  They ended up marked third in elements but first in Program Components.  Rather than an abstract Picasso on ice, they gave us a sidewalk chalk Monet that had been rained on.

2008 Skate America Dance Medalists