- Joined
- Mar 23, 2014
What was more popular in the 90s/early 2000s in the US - ice dance or pairs? I was a kid, but I definitely preferred pairs over ice dance at that time. I didn't understand ice dance at all and there were no good US teams. I became interested once Belbin/Agosto came on the scene, and obviously US ice dance changed from there.
As for why pairs is less popular in general....I think it's partially because there are fewer teams. Less overall competition = less interesting. And I really think pairs can be difficult/not fun to watch other than the top 10-12 teams or so. The lack of depth in the discipline hurts it. There's not a lot of clean performances, and even when there are, plenty of teams look awkward/sloppy.
ETA: Overall, I prefer watching top-tier pairs to top-tier ice dancers. But if I'm going to HAVE to watch, say, an entire field at Nationals/4CCs/Europeans, I would generally prefer to watch ice dance as the overall quality will be higher.
Plus, pairs always seems like its more depleted due to injuries than ice dance.
As for why pairs is less popular in general....I think it's partially because there are fewer teams. Less overall competition = less interesting. And I really think pairs can be difficult/not fun to watch other than the top 10-12 teams or so. The lack of depth in the discipline hurts it. There's not a lot of clean performances, and even when there are, plenty of teams look awkward/sloppy.
ETA: Overall, I prefer watching top-tier pairs to top-tier ice dancers. But if I'm going to HAVE to watch, say, an entire field at Nationals/4CCs/Europeans, I would generally prefer to watch ice dance as the overall quality will be higher.
Plus, pairs always seems like its more depleted due to injuries than ice dance.
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