Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon |
1. At 32, Marie France Dubreuil knows what she wants. She has that air of a woman who is comfortable with her body and her feelings, and she is obviously so in love with her partner, Patrice Lauzon, and he so clearly reciprocates, that watching them rhumba feels almost as if you are intruding on the couple’s privacy. The Canadians, who were second in worlds last year, were relaxed and doing what they wanted to be doing, and it was wonderful. The judges’ agreed, awarding them 1.54 points above the second placed couple, defending champions, Bulgarians, Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski, which is a huge margin to gain for a compulsory at this level of competition. In contrast, there is only a quarter of a point between four couples from Denkova & Staviski, who lie second, to the fifth placed Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto. There was no apparent striving or pushing in Dubreuil and Lauzon’s skating. "The power comes from the knee," said Lauzon. "That produces the softness," said Dubreuil smiling and looking into his eyes, as if their two minds had just one train of thought. She continued, "The real quality is the roundness of the body and the edges. The Rhumba has a different feeling to it than the other (compulsories). And we are now world champions of the rhumba!" Lauzon said, "We love compulsories and this dance is one of our strongest. Because it’s not as demanding as other dances, this is a nice dance to perform. But no one will remember the victory at the compulsory dance. Our goal is the last day." She wore a razzle-dazzle lime green outfit recycled from three years ago. Her husband-to-be was in a new creation with a macho black lacey top open to expose his chest. "It is a sexy outfit," said Dubreuil. "When I first saw him in it, yesterday, I thought, ‘Wow!’ 2. Although Denkova & Staviski have said many times they will not be competing next season, Staviski refused to say this was their last compulsory. He said, "We will take a break but we won’t necessarily be stopping competition." Denkova seemed more certain they would retire. She said, "Even if this isn’t the last compulsory of our career, it is the last compulsory of the season and already that makes us happy. It’s a relief not to have to do the compulsory anymore." They have not conceded that their time at the top is over. "Ice dancing has ceased to be a sport when once you are first, you stay first as long as you skate clean. The results change. We like that this is now possible." When asked about how they dealt with taking bronze at the recent European championships, behind the French winners and the Russian runners-up, when they had expected and thought they had skated well enough to take the gold, Staviski said he did not think about that event. "Why should we think of that event? We think, instead, about our world title." Pointing to the large bag of furry toys the fans had tossed to them on the ice, Denkova said, "You can see how much the Japanese fans love us." 3. Just 0.13 behind the Bulgarians are the Russians, Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin. Domnina seems to have managed to get through her terrible mourning period for her late father who allegedly shot himself after the European championships. (There have been rumors that it was a covered up murder because of his job which is association with the police. The proponents of this theory say the letter he left behind, saying no one was to blame, could have been forged.) Then they had an accident while warming up off the ice at home in Moscow. Shabalin said, "We hit foreheads so hard that I almost passed out." Domnina added, "Now we think it was funny. We’ve been training all year and something like this never happened, and then, suddenly it happened in one of the last practices at home." 4. Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder are 0.09 behind the Russians. "We are happy to be European Champions, but we do not think about it a lot here," said Schoefelder. Their gold in Warsaw was their first ever medal at an international championship. Delobel had an unfortunate stumble recently, which took them out of practice for a few days. "It was at an exhibition in Lyon. I was leaving the rink and I tripped over a television cable less than ten days ago and my ankle got hurt. It still hurts because something like this does not heal in three days. I think if it does not get worse, I will be fine. I try not to think about it. "Sometimes it is really hard to keep your timing right in the rhumba because it is a fast dance." Her partner added, "The rhumba would not be our choice. We would choose the Golden Waltz because it is more complex and difficult, with more steps and you can see the difference between the skaters better. But we are happy with the way we skated today." 5. The four-time US champions, Belbin and Agosto, lie a minuscule 0.03 behind the French dancers. Belbin said, "We felt great out there. The first time we did the Rhumba was at the Cup of China (Grand Prix) and we did our worst compulsory dance performance there. So we trained it very hard and are very pleased with how we skated. We felt great out there." Belbin appeared with dark brown hair. "We felt it suited our routines. I haven’t been this color since I was 11. As soon as this event is over, I can assure you I will be back to blonde." The ISU, originally, had planed to replace this dance with a version of the great Torvill & Dean’s rhumba original with which the Britons won 6.0s when they returned to Olympic competition after ten years. Belbin & Agosto helped to get the steps of that proposed dance down on paper and demonstrated a very rough version at the 2003 world championships in Washington DC. So, would they have preferred to do that version rather than the more simple current version? Belbin fudged her answer. "I would like to see more variety for choreography in compulsory dances," she said. 6. A considerable distance, 3.85 points, behind Belbin and Agosto are the Russians, Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski, who finished 12th last year. Khokhlova said, "We tried to give it our all. We went into it with an optimistic and cheerful attitude. However, it was better in practice this morning." They had performed this compulsory in both their Grand Prix events, the Cup of China, where they finished third, and the NHK Trophy in Japan in Nagano where they won the silver in the city of the 1998 Olympics. Novitski admitted, "We were pleased with our score. We didn’t expect such high marks. We feel we could have skated the dance a little better." 7. Only a sliver, 0.03 behind these Russians, are the Italians, Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali. Scali, who was dropped in a reverse lift by Faiella, in the FD during the European Free Dance, said, "We are very pleased today. The Rhumba was very hard for us until last year. It was a nightmare for us. But we have worked very hard with our new coaches, (Pasquale Camerlengo and Angelika Krylova) and have improved so much. It was a good job today, clan and looked easy." 8. The Scottish brother and sister, Sinead and John Kerr, who were 11th in the Calgary Worlds after being 10th at the Olympics, are a further 1.20 points behind. He said, "It went not too bad. This is not our compulsory dance. It doesn’t have that many steps, so it’s a difficult dance to do well. I prefer the modern dances which are more challenging. The level of today’s skaters is higher than in the past." 9. Making an impressive world senior championship debut, lying only 0.64 behind the Britons, are the second ranked Canadians youngsters, Tessa Virtue, 17, and Scott Moir, 21, who drew to skate first of the 29 couples from 21 countries. They set a good standard. "We haven’t competed the rhumba as a senior team, although we did it as juniors some time back," said Virtue. Her partner added, "It was fun to kick off the world championships. Considering it was our first, it was fitting that we started first." 10. Also making a good debut were Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who were just 0.30 behind Virtue & Moir. They train alongside Belbin and Agosto, and Virtue and Moir with the Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva in Canton, Michigan. Asked whether they were surprised they finished above their teammates, Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov, Davis very quietly explained that they had also been above them in the national championship in the compulsory in Spokane but had subsequently dropped behind them. White is obviously not impressed with this compulsory, making his coaches cringe a little. "We placed very well in this dance. We don’t have much experience. The Rhumba is not our favorite. It’s in a straight Kilian hold. It’s got a Choctaw and a three turn and that’s pretty much it. We are not too excited. It’s more about enjoying the experience." The Rhumba is not Spilband’s favorite dance either. "In Oberstdorf, at the world junior championships in 1982, I fell on the Rhumba. I was so embarrassed." He and his partner were fifth in that compulsory and took the silver medal overall. If he had not fallen, would they have won the gold. "No, I don’t think so," said the modest Shpilband. "It is actually a very difficult compulsory because the timing changes. It starts with 1 and 2 but then the emphasis goes to the 3 and 4 beats. That is very difficult for skaters to master." Zueva has more pleasant memories of the Rhumba. "It was one of the compulsories when I was fifth in the world (seniors)," she said. "Of course we did more compulsories then." 11. Lying only 0.32 behind Davis and White are Melissa Gregory and Petukhov, who were 14th in the Olympics but 9th in worlds a few weeks later. "We were very pleased with our performance," said Gregory. Her husband revealed that they had had to drop out of the Four Continents’ Championships after Spokane because of his leg injury. "I am fine now," he said. "I’m completely recovered. The Rhumba is a very fun compulsory but it is also very difficult because of the steps." |
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Original Dance
Tango
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1. Denkova and Staviski advanced from second to take the lead by 0.02 after their very fast routine set to Libertango, one of Astor Piazzolla’s most well known works. They were dressed in black with her in a Victorian corset-like outfit with silver highlights and he in a short sleeved light weight combination jacket and chiffon shirt which fluttered in unison with his flapping blond hair. "We tried not to think of the elements and the placement, but of the emotions of the Argentine Tango," said Denkova. All their elements except their spin, which was a 3, received Level 4. Staviski said, about going into the event as defending world title holders but after a defeat in the recent European championship, "It wasn’t big pressure. People always say, ‘Skate it like it’s your last competition.’ For us that’s true, so we don’t need to pretend." At the end he kissed her. They have been a couple for a long time but said recently they wouldn’t talk of marriage until they retired from competition. Denkova revealed, "We changed our music after Europeans. It is still the same piece, but it is played by a violinist. He played it especially for us during a show and we felt really wonderful with his music so we decided to use it for these worlds. Obviously, it brought us luck." 2. Dubreuil, in red, and Lauzon, in black, were shocked to drop out of the lead with a third ranked original which was set to Paya d’Ora performed by Orquesta del Tango de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. They began with the most knowing looks. This was a Tango from adults who have lived. They know the score and they’ve been burned by life. They received all Level 4s. In their straight line lift, she steps on the top of his right leg with the toe pick pointed to the inner thigh in what looks like a most dangerous position. Dubreuil said, "I think we skated really good, probably the best of the season. We love the Tango. We even look Spanish so it’s easy to put the feeling and expression into the moves. We wanted to concentrate on the passion performance side of the Tango. The only mistake we had was the synchronization in the twizzles but it was not a big mistake. The only pressure we had was that we never practiced the Original on the competition ice because our skates had not arrived at the time of the only Original practice on that ice. On top of that, we were first in our group so we only skated like two and a half minutes in the warm-up. We just tried to stay in the moment and stay focused." 3. Belbin and Agosto gained all Level 4s for the first time in their career and were second in the original which pulled them up from fifth (although second through fifth had been practically tied) to third going into the free dance. Their Original was set to two pieces by the most famous Tango composer ever, Astor Piazzolla, Concierto para Quinteto and Oblivion. She was wearing a new dress. In the Four Continents Championships she had caught her blade in the last one while they were performing an element. "We have been playing around with costumes all season and when I dyed my hair darker we thought that the red dress would stand out better." Their performance had an off-putting start when Belbin nearly ran into the barrier. "Despite the bobble that I had at the beginning, our program was quite solid," Belbin explained. "We didn’t have much practice in the competition rink and when I came out of our opening pose, I didn’t realize the boards were so close. I don’t actually have new choreography to bounce off the boards. I tried my best to continue and I think that it was a really great event and that the Japanese audience responded really well to this rhythm. I was distracted for the rest of the program because of that incident and less sure of myself because it was so unexpected. But overall we didn’t make any other major mistakes." Agosto said, "She recovered really quickly. I’m always impressed how she recovers when she has to, and I felt like the rest of the program was strong. We’ve been trying to work on connecting with each other and looking at each other a bit more and expressing the passion between two people in the tango. I think we did a pretty good job at that today. I think you can see by the score that everybody is very close and that there is no room for error. So we wanted to do all our elements correctly. We had the same issue (as Dubreuil and Lauzon with lack of practice in the competition rink and skating first in their group), especially being first on after the warm-up. We weren’t quite sure where we were on the ice, but once we got going, it was great." 4. Domnina and Shabalin lie 1.39 behind Belbin and Agosto. They received Level 3 for both their spin and diagonal steps. She said, "I’d say it was the best Original all season." He said, "Technically and emotionally it was well balanced. We expressed the character of the dance very well. We got a personal best and still lost a placement." 5. Delobel and Schoenfelder, fourth in the compulsory, were fifth in the original and lie sandwiched between the Russians, 1.61 points behind Domnina and Shabalin and a hefty 6.82 ahead of Khokhlova and Novitski. "Today’s performance was not at the level of our training," said Delobel. Even with all Level 4s, we could have skated better. There were many very small errors and a deduction of 1.0 for an extended lift." He said, "Coming to worlds, we felt that the top five couples were all very strong. This is a tight competition. It’s so close, the smallest of errors can play a large role. If the others skate well in the free, it will be very difficult for us. We must skate perfectly tomorrow to catch up." 6. Khokhlova and Novitski held onto sixth place but were seventh in the original behind Virtue and Moir. The Russians had all Level 4s except for a 3 for their diagonal steps. The Canadians had all Level 4s. Khokhlova said, "Today, we had a special mindset going into it because it is the last Original of the season so we wanted to show the very best. I think that’s what we did emotion-wise and performance-wise. I’m very pleased. It was one of the best performances of this dance, similar to the one we gave at the Grand Prix. We went out there in a fighting mood and didn’t want to loose a placement." Novitski said, "We achieved a new personal best at the world championship and that speaks for itself. The competition within our group, our level, is tough. We’re not for the first time in this situation. We try to grow as skaters and improve." They lie only 0.64 ahead of Virtue and Moir. 7. Virtue and Moir made a striking impression with their Association Tango right from the first cheese fest of this season, the Campbell’s event in Cincinnati. It was an extremely polished presentation then and it continued to improve in the following six months. Here it enabled them to climb from ninth to seventh with a sixth place in this section in their debut at the world seniors. Moir said, "I definitely feel competitive against these teams. We are really here for the experience. We love Tango-ing. We like any rhythm but the Tango is one that we have been especially successful with." Virtue said, "We were really solid out there and felt comfortable since we were really prepared for it. 8. Davis and White are also making a splash in their first senior Worlds. They, too, received all level 4s for their A Los Amigos Piazzola Tango, which had an appropriate for their youth, unusual, light touch with Davis softly placing her head on his shoulder. They were eighth in this section and climbed from tenth to eighth going into the free, 1.59 behind Virtue and Moir but just a sliver, 0.64 ahead of the Italians, Faiella and Scali. White said, "We skated really well. Definitely this is a personal best. We would like to celebrate! Now that we have the technical, we really want to focus just on speed and a lot of relating to each other." Davis said, "We really liked this program." 9. Faiella and Scali were upset at their showing to Tanguero performed by Sexteto Mayor which dropped them from seventh to ninth. "I don’t know what happened to my twizzles," said Faiella. "I felt good about drawing to skate last and other than the mistake, everything went well." They received four Level 4s but their non-touching midline twizzles were only Level 2 and the combination spin Level 3. Scali said, "We changed the music after Europeans because we need slow parts for steps and I really like the music. We lost lots of points for the little mistake." 10. Gregory and Petukhov advanced a little from 11th with their La Cumparsita and Tanguera. They lie 2.63 behind the Italians and just 0.38 ahead of the Kerrs who were heavily penalized with a deduction of 2.0 for an illegal element and dropped three places. Small jumps are allowed of 180 degrees. The British champions went slightly beyond that. "It seems a bit mean spirited to penalize us so heavily for a minor infraction," said Sinead Kerr. That’s the same deduction as if both of us had fallen. Ironically, next year it will be legal to have a full turn." Both Gregory and Petukhov took their lower than expected place philosophically. She said, "I think our performance was strong and we’re happy with it. There are ups and downs in competition and you never know what happens, especially with the new system." Her husband and partner said, "It was very solid and it was good. I’m satisfied." They received all Level 4s. |
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Free Dance
Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski |
The Bulgarians, dressed all in white with Denkova’s outfit very bare at the sides. They sped through their innovative Seven Deadly Sins free which gained the top marks for both the technical and component scores. They received Level 4s for all but their spin. Denkova said, "It is wonderful for us to be here and to have won the second gold medal. I never thought this is possible. We’ve fought for it since the beginning of the season. Our coach (Natalia Linichuk) cried with joy. We were strong in practices here. We fought every moment. The Japanese crowd was wonderful and supported us. Last year, I didn’t really comprehend that we were first until we got back to Bulgaria and were greeted with such a great response. This year, I understand each step we have made on the ice. I understand that we fought for it. I feel happier than last year. Although we won last year, I thought that, coming from a small country, it would be very hard for us to win again. "We enjoy performing in shows and in competitions. We can not say for 100 percent yet now (whether they will retire). It is a difficult step to make. Competitions are too much stress when you fight for the podium. We want to have a private life." Her partner added, "This is the brilliant end for us. I want to thank our competitors, Marie-France and Patrice. They are a strong team and if they weren’t, we wouldn’t be as strong. Now, I want to have a rest. But Albena’s President of the Bulgarian Skating Federation. She decides. I’m just a skater." 2. Dubreuil and Lauzon’s lovely version of At Last, sung with throat-y intensity by Etta James, received all Level 4s except for their mid-line steps which were given a 3. "We skated with a lot of love and joy," said Dubreuil. "We just felt really free out there, which felt great. It has been a great experience. "It was our first championship coming in as medalists from last year and being the chased skater instead of the one chasing so it was a little bit different but it was great. Last year, the Worlds were in Canada. It added to the pressure. After the accident in Torino, my body was not 100 percent and to get back on the ice after Torino – it was overwhelming and was very hard to skate. When it was all finished, I was like in a big dream. We were so happy to be on the world podium for the first time. This year we wanted to be on the podium again. "We skated this competition very well with no pain and much less strain. I think I’ll remember more what happened this year than last." 3. Belbin and Agosto were only fourth in the free, 2.76 marks behind Delobel and Schoenfelder, who were third in this section. Initially, the 4-time US champions feared they had finished out of the medals. They claimed the bronze by a hair’s breadth, only 0.24 ahead of the French. "I guess we dodged the bullet on that one," said a relieved Agosto. They had changed their routine from That’s Entertainment which was not received well early in the season to a completely new version to the soundtrack from a French award winning movie, Amelie. That put an enormous strain on them and there was no way they could be as prepared as they had hoped to be. Belbin admitted, "Obviously, we would like to have done a better job here today. I missed my twizzle. I can’t believe that. I never do that." They received a Level 3 for their twizzles and a minus 0.14 GoE. They also received a Level 3 for the rotational part of their long lift. The rest of the elements were Level 4 BUT they were saddled with a deduction of 1.0 for going over time. The momentary loss of balance in the twizzle meant Belbin nearly bumped into Agosto. "It definitely wasn’t our best performance mostly because of me," admitted Belbin. "I’m just glad it’s over. But we’re very happy to put to an end what feels like a two-year season because one year led into another. I think the post-Olympic year is difficult no matter what, and it was a challenge for us having to change the free dance in the middle of the year. Add injury on top of that and withdrawing from competition (the Grand Prix Final). Unfortunately, it’s very much in our track record to be low in the compulsories, pull up in the OD and hang on to it in the free dance. That seems to be our routine that we follow, but today I just didn’t attack the program with enough confidence, and that’s where mistakes happen. I think the rollercoaster is finally at a stop and we’re really looking forward to having a nice summer to train and to finally get our basic skating to another level. I really expect more from us in the future and I think that we can really step it up from this point forward. So, I ask our fans to stand by us as we push forward. Agosto, "We are very happy to be at the end of the season. I think we learned a lot about ourselves and how to really get the job done." 4. Delobel and Schoenfelder received all Level 4s except for a 3 for the curve lift in their amusing Bonnie and Clyde free. Schoenfelder said, "We skated better here than at Europeans (where they won gold ahead of the Bulgarians). We had more energy here. Since we weren’t in the same position as in Warsaw, it was mentally not the same. (In Poland, they were leading going into the free and held onto first place although they were beaten in that section by the Russians.) We knew that we had to do a program with no errors to win a medal. But we had two small errors that cost us the points we needed." His partner said, "We’re happy with the way we skated." 5. Domnina and Shabalin did not understand why they were on a downward slide. They were third in the compulsory, fourth in the Original and fifth in the free. Overall, the Russians finished 1.75 behind Delobel and Schoenfelder. They had a lot of power and speed in their free, which was set to Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances, but three of their elements, the spin, the diagonal steps and the circular steps were Level 3. In this section, they were frustratingly only 0.60 behind Belbin and Agosto. Domnina lamented, "Our technical score was rather low." Shabalin said, "We skated very well. It probably was the best performance of the season. We were at 120 percent. We did our job. We knew there was no Russian judge on the panel. But there was a Russian judge on the panel yesterday. I think many factors play a role and you never know which one is going to be decisive." 6. The only couple to receive all level 4s for their free were first-timers, Virtue and Moir, who performed a dreamy, beautifully presented routine to Sibelius’ evocative Valse Triste (Sad Waltz). Their element score, 52.27, was the third best of the competition. Their component scores were the sixth best. Their sixth place in the free enabled them to overtake the Russians, Khokhlova and Novitski, and take sixth overall but they were a massive 9.50 behind Domnina and Shabalin. Virtue said, "The energy in the crowd was amazing and it was a blast. We were really prepared going into this competition, and feel like we were able to perform as well as we have been practicing. We love skating together (they teamed up ten years ago) and this free is one of our favorites so we just wanted to enjoy the moment today." Moir said, "It was certainly a good time to get our personal best. It was a harder run through than usual. Maybe it was because of the pressure. We really wanted to make a splash on the senior circuit and, hopefully, we have made a great impression. I’m looking forward to watching the top group, and to learn a lot from them." 7. Davis and White also made a terrific impression in their first world seniors, finishing 4.80 behind Virtue and Moir. In the free, they scored 3.08 more than Khokhlova and Novitski and were able to pull ahead of these Russians overall by 0.85. Unwittingly, they used the same music as Domnina and Shabalin. With a less talented couple, this comparison might have highlighted the less experienced couple’s weaknesses but, in this case, it served to demonstrate just how talented Davis and White are. They received Level 4s for all but their combination spin, which was a 3. White enthused, "We got a personal best even with a deduction (of 1.0 for an extended lift). I don’t think we’ve done a run through this good all year." They also received a PB in the original. They have been invited to exhibit in the Marshall’s event in Reading in a couple of weeks. Davis said, "Then we have to study for exams. I’m studying cultural anthropology because of my skating and my travels and my interest in learning more about the people in all the countries I have been visiting." Her partner is also going to school. 8. Khokhlova and Novitski performed to Rodrigo’s Aranjuez Mon Amor. Their diagonal steps were Level 3 but their circular steps only Level 2. The rest of their elements earned Level 2. "We had some small technical issues," said Khokhlova. Their eighth place in the free dropped them to eighth overall. Novitski said, "We survived. The jet lag hit us tonight. We almost didn’t sleep last night. Therefore, it was quite hard. Apparently, there was no possibility for us to come earlier to Japan. The jetlag usually hits the hardest on the fourth or fifth day, and today was the fifth day." 9. Faiella and Scali were only 11th in the free which pulled them down to ninth overall, a chasm of 7.54 behind Khokhlova and Novitski and a sliver, 0.67 ahead of Gregory and Petukhov. It was not a happy occasion for the Italians. Faiella said, "I cut my hand on the Biellmann position during the first spin but it is not serious." Scali said, "I feel good about our performance today. We skated well, but the scores were not what we expected. This season is over, but I will ask the judges why the levels of some elements were lower today, and we will come back stronger next season." They had three Level 3s but the rest were 4. 10. Gregory and Petukhov were ninth last year so this was a disappointment. She said, "We thought we skated really strong till the end. We had a little mishap right before the twizzles, but other than that, everything was really strong and solid." |
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2007 Worlds Medalists
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