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The short programs were fairly disappointing. In the dance compulsory, Bourne & Kraatz skated an excellent first pattern with great flow and neat footwork, but their second pattern was nowhere near as good and I felt that they were off the music at the end. Romanova & Yaroshenko had a fall, while Lobachova & Averbukh had excellent speed. Krylova & Ovsyannikov were a bit stiffer than I expected. I thought Anissina & Peizerat's Golden Waltz was just lovely. At the far end of the rink, Marina and Gwendal did an edge kicking the free leg quite high, which the other couples were not doing, and a man operating a camera protruding from that corner kept nervously ducking when Gwendal swung his skate blade over the top of the camera.
I wasn't shocked to see Bourne & Kraatz first in the Golden Waltz, but I did assume that the tango and free would go K&O's way. I don't have the details written down for the singles and pairs skating events (dance is easier since I can just record my impressions!). I was really impressed with Kazakova & Dmitriev's short program, which included clean SBS triple toes, a huge split double twist, and a very difficult one-handed star lift executed with great speed down the ice. People can say that Artur is out of shape, gets winded, and so on, but the man does have incredible pairs skills. K&D did go a bit off during the SBS spins, unfortunately. Woetzel & Steuer had a gorgeous short program. For the men, Todd nailed his triple axel-triple toe, but then fell on the lutz. This also was not terribly shocking for those of us who'd seen the practices, as Todd had been having some problems with the lutz out of that footwork. Dmitri made some kind of mistake ... or was it just that he only did a triple axel-double toe? I thought he doubled the lutz. Yagudin unfortunately blew the short, while Ilya was also pretty off, the spins going every which way. Elvis had a clean short with a better costume than the "bell-hop" one he wore for Skate Canada.
Finally, Aleksei took the ice, still looking very collected and almost casual (for him, that is!). The triple axel was a bit wild, and so he only did the double toe, but the crowd really got into the program, cheering and clapping throughout. Aleksei was so exuberant that he ran out of room during his footwork and had to stop himself at the boards. It wasn't that noticeable on TV, but since I was closer to that end of the ice, I gasped a little when I saw that! Aleksei got a great crowd response from the get-go. Believe me, I saw Aleksei on the '94 Tom Collins Tour, when the audience reaction was what you might receive from a ward of people in a permanent vegetative state.
The women were up next, with Michelle Kwan having a nasty fall on the triple lutz, where she seemed to just totally lose it in the air, and Tonia having a very bad night with two falls. Olga doubled her lutz, Irina fell on hers, and Maria badly two-footed hers. Finally, the dancers did their tangos, all of which lacked quite a bit of spark, probably because of doing them as well as the compulsories all in one night. Bourne & Kraatz skated a nice dance that was in no way shape or form a tango, while Krylova & Ovsyannikov skated their tango in excellent fashion.
My final feeling on Bourne & Kraatz is that all of their dances seem to fall somewhere between a waltz and a quickstep. They just aren't able to carry any other tempos or presentation effectively. They have a lovely edge quality, but that about sums them up for me personally. Anissina & Peizerat's remains my favorite. They have added some steps and looked very polished. I love dance teams in which both partners are equally expressive; this is a very rare quality! Lobachova & Averbukh wore fluorescent orange, at which I turned to my neighbor and said, "I thought Punsalan & Swallow didn't qualify for this one!" I was afraid that it would break my camera lens if I attempted to photograph it. The crowd was very displeased when Krylova & Ovsyannikov moved ahead of Bourne & Kraatz. In fact, when the judges' names were being announced for the free dance, the crowd loudly booed the Russian judge. That judge had actually placed B&K third in the tango, with Anissina & Peizerat second, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, I was symphathetic because I would have ranked the dancers the same way myself.