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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.
These comments will be a little lengthier. First up was the Golden Waltz, which I hadn't had a chance to see yet. This is a wonderful compulsory, but very difficult. Even the best couples there were tentative in the competition, slowing down on two difficult sections and sometimes not carrying off the pure "Klimova & Ponomarenko moves" effectively. The weaker dance teams had a lot of trouble even staying on the pattern and looked petrified throughout. Chalom & Gates really impressed me with decent speed and very clean, neat footwork. I assumed that Bourne & Kraatz would own this one, being coached by co-creator Dubova, but they were a little rough in the competition and the ordinals were split. Anissina & Peizerat skated with confidence; after Worlds, I was glad that they looked more at ease at the beginning of the competition.
The tango competition in general was more varied than at Skate America. Barbara Fusar Poli & Maurizio Margaglio of Italy looked a little nervous. They had a rough week with many near-misses in practices, with one bad fall by Barbara and Maurizio knocking into the boards. Their tango did not really stand out to me as being very interesting or well skated. They tend to be scrapey. Chantal Lefebvre & Michel Brunet of Canada looked pretty slow and ragged, and then she fell on one move about half-way through. The Russian couple, Anna Semyonovich & Vladimir Fyodorov, did a lot of chomping and gnashing, but not very impressive dancing. The expression was too much for their lack of speed and flow, and my notes say "Dracula and his crazed minion." Sylwia Nowak & Sebastian Kolasinski of Poland were a little bit wooden, but very traditionally ballroom in a tango to music from "Don Juan de Marco." There was a lot of complexity in the footwork and holds, and very solid skating. Kaho Koinuma & Tigran Arakelian of Armenia had a nice feel to their tango, but were incredibly slow, and their best moves were the ones that had nothing to do with dancing.
Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania skated a wonderful tango with a lot of style. The choreography was very interesting and performed well, playing with the timing of the music in unusual ways. It was sensuous and unique. I also enjoyed Eve Chalom & Mathew Gates of the U.S., who opted for a style that was less heavy on the dramatics and the romantic tension, but still had an interesting rapport between them. They were bound and determined to skate incredibly close together, which was very impressive, and they performed with good speed and good quality edges and turns. I liked this better than their free because Eve got to play a larger role in the choreography, which she is quite capable of carrying off.
The competition came down to the last two dance teams, who could not possibly have been more different. Since the audience was well aware of A&P's position as "spoilers," I had the sensation that the general take on the difference could have been described as Good vs. Evil, or perhaps just Nice Kids vs. Rampant Sex. Marina and Gwendal had mind-boggling costumes for the tango, which in practice they had performed with a black bandana over the bottom half of Gwendal's face for the first 45 seconds or so. The bandana was not in evidence, but most of Marina was. Her costume consisted of illusion fabric, little sprays of sequins, and encrusted sparkling breast-caps with tassels on the ends. Gwendal wore a plain black top with little polka dots on it, but on close inspection his black trousers had rip marks down his thighs, as well as a tiny rip in the bottom (potentially visible only to the fans blessed with binoculars). Besides the costumes, which I personally thought were delicious, their tango was wonderful. The choreography was lush, varied, and dramatic without seeming forced. Punsalan & Swallow should watch this one 10 times and then write an essay on what is sexy and what is not sexy.
Meanwhile, Bourne & Kraatz skated what I would call the "Tango of the Innocents." If Anissina & Peizerat were close to over- wrought, Bourne & Kraatz were positively perky. Their steps were nice and the choreography was good for a lilting type of waltzy tango. I can't quite believe that even a "romantic tango" can be *that* virginal, but personally, I like a little bit more spice in the sauce. I find that they have only one type of expression (smiling and friendly) and I would like to see a little bit of a change every once in a while.
The free dances were a mixed bag. Semyonovich & Fyodorov skated to what sounded like a Glockenspiel "Malaguena" with much upper body heaving and chomping at the air. A lot of two-foot skating, a lot of holds at an arm's length, and in general much worse than I would ever have expected from the fourth-ranking Russian team. I guess that is what happens when all the good coaches move to the U.S. Marika Humphreys & Philip Askew skated to "Danse Macabre" and didn't quite skate up to some of their concepts. Some very simple forward skating and back crossovers between moves, a lot of not very well-executed lifts. Koinuma & Arakelian skated to "Jewish" sounding music and Big Band and were slow and shaky. Lefebvre & Brunet had a very entertaining free dance to "Mexican Hat Dance" in bright canary yellow. Some of the footwork and lifts were a bit labored. What kind of toothpaste does Michel Brunet use, anyway?
Chalom & Gates skated last year's free dance. It was a great performance and I really thought they should have moved up over the Russian team. (How often am I going to say that about an American skater? ;-) ) I wonder if they are going to come up with a new free later this year or continue to use the Latin number. I love the dance, but I was impressed this week with Eve's skating, and think they can move on to something more like the tango, which doesn't look so much like he is dancing around her because she can't quite keep up with him. Bourne & Kraatz skated a nice free dance to Swing music in beautiful costumes. Shae-Lynn's dress has white beading over the top on a black background. The choreography and skating was very pretty, if a little bit childish. In general, it was a "dancey" program, if not a totally coherent Big Band, Swing, or whatever-it-was- striving-to-be. Every now and then they reminded me of a less high-powered Wilson & McCall. Unlike most of the women at this event, Shae-Lynn (and Marina) was never in an unattractive position during the dance.
Drobiazko & Vanagas skated an interesting free dance to jazzy music in pale peach and grey costumes. The lay-out of the program was different, not just a lot of repeating circles and serpentines, and they looked very sharp and strong. I thought they lost some steam near the end of the dance, but overall the choreography was excellent and their expression was dead-on for a really coherent feel throughout the dance, something that Bourne & Kraatz didn't really capture. Nowak & Kolasinski skated to gypsy music in red and black costumes. They are not slow skaters at all, but this music was occasionally so fast that only Grishchuk & Platov or possibly Krylova & Ovsyannikov could have used it. I thought there were too many poses and lifts, which is not really this team's strong point. They are better at the "dancier" stuff, but oddly enough did not really use that to full potential.
Barbara Fusar Poli & Maurizio Margaglio skated a dance to Italian music which didn't really do much for me. I wondered aloud if it would be insensitive for me to say that I preferred Lobachova & Averbukh's Italian theme dance last year. ;-) The lifts were not that great, although they do skate with good speed. After Barbara had a bit of a stumble at the end, I was quite surprised that they moved back up to third ahead of Drobiazko & Vanagas, who I thought had a much more interesting dance. Perhaps D&V had some kind of deduction. I always wish the dance judges would hold a press conference after the competition and explain everything to us poor fans.
Last but not least, Anissina & Peizerat skated a beautiful theme program to Eastern/South Asian sounding music. The unison and footwork were wonderful and the program had a lot of lifts and unique moves that were very well executed. They did fall on one move in the warm-up and so only did a modified version of the move in the performance - it looked like Marina's head garment had caught onto Gwendal's boot. Oh, yes, the costumes. In practice, Marina and Gwendal had been wearing a "fake-out" costume which was so ornamental and distinct that it was difficult to believe it wasn't the "real" version of the outfit. The practice version was red chiffon, with Marina having one leg bare and one leg with a red harem-pant leg, a "skirt" drape of chiffon slung across, with a lot of illusion fabric above and a silver head piece with what appeared to be an asp above the middle of her forehead. The costume for the actual performance was much more bare, with strips of colored fabric hanging from a dress that was basically made entirely of nude illusion fabric with a few ornamental strips of fabric here and there and a glut of sequins. The headdress was even more elaborate, and Gwendal wore an orange tunic with a medallion made of sequins, a breast-plate underneath, and heavily decorated boots. I was in costume heaven.