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STANDARD DISCLAIMER
These are my own opinions and observations. I may not always be
100% accurate and my ideas are certainly open to debate and criticism.
I prefer the Russian style of skating and may not be as enchanted with
the "popular favorites" in North America. I hope that these reports are
enjoyable to most readers, but I do not apologise for stating my own
feelings.
As usual, I was not able to see the compulsory dance skated, which was the Golden Waltz. My notes begin with the original dance, which for this season is the tango rhythm. A friend summarized the tango as "men in cheap suits and the women who wrap their legs around them." This was a pretty good description of the over-arching themes presented. A lot of the couples had trouble with the character of the tango. The tango should not look like two people waltzing while having an argument. It should also not appear from the woman's face that the man is stepping on her foot.
Wing & Lowe's tango was smooth, but simple. Robinson & Breen's was a little more frantic, while the Pitons had awkward moves and drags at a snail's pace. Webster & Kravette had some nice choreography, and Romanova & Yaroshenko's was quite elegant and creative, but I had little sense of connection with the music. I think it is pretty difficult to skate with the music when the tango chosen is of the random accordion noise variety. I was very disappoined with Punsalan & Swallow's tango. I thought it looked too easy, a lot of three-turns. I also didn't care much for their expression, and my notes say "Vanilla Tango." Mrazova & Simecek garnered my comment about the waltz above, with some good ideas but just the wrong feel altogether.
Lobachova & Averbukh had a wonderful interplay in their tango with some humor and as usual, some very unique choreography. One thing I really enjoy about them as dancers is that they work very well together, but they also retain a high degree of individualism. There is often a tension in their programs between individual/couple, which they played on well for this particular dance. A few more run-throughs should smooth out the rough edges. Winkler & Lohse were downright cutesie and all wrong, IMHO. Krylova & Ovsyannikov had by far the truest tango expression, in that they were constantly shifting from hot to cold, and also in that they can express these subtle changes very clearly both in their choreography and in their manner. It was a very difficult tango skated with excellent speed, and rounding the corner near the end of the dance, Krylova caught a toe or something and went straight down. Oleg yanked her right back up, almost without missing a beat, and they got high marks despite the fall.
Moniotte & Lavanchy also had a good tango, one of the better dances I have seen of theirs, with a light style that minimized their tendency towards caricature. Their basic quality of skating is just not that high, despite their speed and audience connection, and I still don't understand how they ever got as far up in the worlds rankings as they have been.
The free dance event was an excellent competition, with a lot of stylish performances in a wide range of styles. Most of the dances need a lot of work at this point in the year, and so it was kind of exciting to see these free dances in their latent stage of development. First up were Amy Webster & Ron Kravette, who skated their Gershwin free dance in purple costumes. Lifts were nice and their expression was good, but they had a fall near the end of the program, and in general they skated it a bit tentatively and too far apart from one another. Kate Robinson & Peter Breen skated to "Riverdance" in deep blue velvet costumes, questionable music by ISU standards. Their performance was slow and the mood was rather bland. I liked many of the individual moves that they did, but overall the free dance didn't hang together very well for me. Barbara & Alexandre Piton of France skated a 50's rock number in Glad-Bag costumes. Their transitions between holds were ungainly and in general they were sloppy and soporific.
Punsalan & Swallow skated to Latin music in toxic orange colored costumes. If compared to their '94 free dance, they have improved tremendously in their speed and sureness. They still have no chemistry, but he is quite expressive. I did like this free a lot more than last year's and thought it had a good bit more content in terms of footwork and connected moves. Kati Winkler & Rene Lohse of Germany skated to "Take Five" in grey and white costumes. I am not sure what petroleum-based product his trousers were made of, but it was the highlight of the performance as far as I was concerned. This could be a good dance with a little work. They are using their light, fun style to good advantage and aimed for some angular, interesting moves which were not really well-defined enough to be successful. Kati tends to hit a lot of unattractive positions because of a lack of full extension through the whole leg and so many moves with the legs spread in (semi-)splits.
Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe of Canada skated next to a medley of Charleston songs in very attractive costumes - him in a pinstriped grey vest and trousers, her in a maroon dress with chiffon skirts. I absolutely loved this dance. It was not incredibly difficult, but what they did do, they did very well, and stayed completely in character throughout. The choreography could have used a little more variety in terms of the holds, but they had a nice softness to their movement and excellent unison. Next up were Katerina Mrazova & Martin Simecek of the Czech Republic, skating to some kind of jazz music that kept threatening to sound like "Blueberry Hill," wearing a peach dress and a rust outfit which are probably not the final costumes for this program. The musical choice was redundant and boring and they completely failed to hold my interest.
Anzhelika Krylova & Oleg Ovsyannikov skated next to the "Waltz Masquerade" by Khachaturian. He wore a plain black and white outfit (shirt and trousers), while Anzhelika had on a beautiful black velvet dress with an overlay of grey chiffon and sequined appliqués. This dance was a showcase for their breathtaking speed and flow over the ice, with moves that flowed from one to the next without any obvious set-ups. A few transitions were rough, and in general they don't have the crispness of Grishchuk & Platov, but this would be a strong bid to challenge G&P should they return to eligible competition. One thing I noticed is that compared to most other skaters, Krylova & Ovsyannikov sort of look like this specially bred super-race of giant skaters. They are just so much taller than anybody else that their sweeping moves seem to take up the whole ice surface. Of course, Lobachova & Averbukh are also especially tiny. As for the marks, it looked like K&O might have taken a deduction. One of the lifts looked a little questionable to me, with him on his knees, but it was really hard to see from my seat.
Next up were Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko of Ukraine, who skated to the jazz arrangement of Bach's "Air on a G String" that the Duchesnays used a few years back. She wore a lilac dress and he wore a grey velour outfit. They had very nice expression and flow over the ice, and this program looked polished for this early in the season. They had a long separation, which may have cost them in the marks, but I really enjoyed this program. It was sensitive and very elegant. Irina Lobachova & Ilya Averbukh of Russia skated to Big Band and 50's rock in bright orange and black costumes. Some of their moves were a little wild, but it's early in the season, and this program had a lot of steps in it. They used the music very well, with clever choreography and a lot of expression. It wasn't quite as fast as it was in practice, but they were both non-stop at making this one work. I loved it, but I'm not sure it would be everyone's favorite style of interpretation. It's more than a little tongue-in-cheek.
Last, Sophie Moniotte & Pascal Lavanchy skated to gypsy music, with added sound effects (at one point, I was picturing gypsies fighting each other in brightly ornamented space ships), in costumes that looked like what fifth graders would come up both in terms of concept and creation (e.g., colored circles of cardboard stuck on with Glu-Stick). They scraped around for a while and just didn't do it for me. I found it very boring and was disappointed. By the way, Punsalan & Swallow moved up over Romanova & Yaroshenko in the free and thus overall with a split panel. The Kazakh, Russian and Ukrainian judges put R&Y ahead, while the American, Canadian, French and German judges put P&S ahead. Both dances were good and of about equivalent technical merit (yes, I do think P&S have improved this year!), but I found R&Y's very moving and P&S's sort of grotesque. Of course, I can't really complain with my two favorites coming in 1 and 2.