Let’s Dance! 2019-2020 Season | Golden Skate

Let’s Dance! 2019-2020 Season

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
I know we have various country-specific ice dance threads here, but I’d personally like a thread where dance fans could discuss topics that interest us which has a more global focus. Things like:

Who is doing the best job in fulfilling the musical/Finnstep brief this season?

How are the races for Canada dance #1, USA dance #3, and Russia dance #3, likely to shake out this season?

Which first- and second-year Seniors are likely to have the most success transitioning from Juniors?

Which current Juniors do we expect to have a great future?

If you, too, would like a central place to talk about things like this, please have at it.
 

Lamente Ariane

Skating Skills -5, Fashion +3, Camp +4
Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 5, 2017
I think Skate America will be very interesting to watch in Dance in particular, seeing as it's the season debut for both Stepanova/Bukin and Hubbell/Donohue with quite a few other teams having had strong showings in earlier competitions (the big one being Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen). Zagorski/Guerreiro are also a somewhat unknown quantity this season.
 

vesperalvioletta

Medalist
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Country
United-States
I'm interested to see how Kazakova/Reviya, the junior team from Georgia, do in their senior debut at Asian Open Trophy. Their free dance is very innovative. I don't think they're as polished as some of the other teams going to the Junior Grand Prix Final, but they're a lot of fun to watch.
 

theharleyquinn

Medalist
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Great idea! I am getting the feeling that we will see more movement this year in the pecking order of ice dance than we did last season, and the future of the U.S. third ice dance spot is of big interest to me. Seeing where Carreira/Ponomorenko place at the end of the Skate America SP and FS will be a helpful clue. I enjoy McNamara/Carpenter a lot, but with their withdrawal from IdF, they may have hurt their chances a bit because of the need for momentum leading into Nationals. For now, I think it's C/P trying to close in on Hawayek/Baker's spot but we'll have to see what happens here at the first GP.
 

Kitt

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Country
United-States
US #1 and 2 might be interesting too. That free dance of Chock and Bates might be hard to beat!

Oh, I am so looking forward to this season!
 

Dreamer57

Record Breaker
Joined
May 20, 2018
I hope that Popova/Mozgov fight for the Russian dance #3

I think that Shevchenko/Eremenko are likely to have a lot of success transitioning, although their GP assignments look quite tough.
For current juniors, Yoshida/Nishiyama :cool: I also really like Wolfkostin/Chen and Shanaeva/Naryzhnyy!
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
I hope that Popova/Mozgov fight for the Russian dance #3
!

I’m with you on that one. I think that out of everyone we’ve seen so far, they have gone the farthest with embodying the musical theater theme; their RD is gloriously true to the spirit of the musical it is derived from. Just about everyone else seems to have gone in a tasteful and conservative direction.

So, we’ll have to see what Zahorski/Guerreiro do at Skate America. And seeing the FDs that Gadbois has given both Chock/Bates and Hawayek/Baker, I just can’t wait to see what Hubbell/ Donohue may have for us...
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
I'm interested to see how Kazakova/Reviya, the junior team from Georgia, do in their senior debut at Asian Open Trophy. Their free dance is very innovative. I don't think they're as polished as some of the other teams going to the Junior Grand Prix Final, but they're a lot of fun to watch.

I love that FD as well. But is that team ready for seniors, do you think? Would they be better served by maturing in juniors for the rest of the season, and then making their big international move next year?
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
I think it really helps a team if they do a minor senior competition in their last junior year to get some senior TES scores. It's an enormous head start if the TES are good enough to qualify them for the competitions they are aiming for in their first full year in seniors.
 

vesperalvioletta

Medalist
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Country
United-States
I love that FD as well. But is that team ready for seniors, do you think? Would they be better served by maturing in juniors for the rest of the season, and then making their big international move next year?
I wondered if they were trying to do Euros this year? I'm not sure if they'll age out of juniors after this season or not. If not, I think they'd probably be better served trying to stay in juniors and win everything they can before moving up, but if they do age out, then this might not be a bad thing. The competition isn't very stiff at Asian Open, so it'll be a negative risk. I'm just confused about the rhythm dance. Do they have a senior program and a junior program? They must.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Do they have a senior program and a junior program? They must.

Teams that have done split seasons before have always had different SDs/RDs because the music requirements are different as well as the pattern requirements, eg Friend/Badaoui last season. I can understand why a team would want to do split seasons, but in practical terms it's not really a great ideas, as both patterns end up undertrained.
 

litenkyckling

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
I think that after SkAm, Z/G should perhaps be a little nervous - I know that they beat Carreira/Ponomarenko but that was only by around 1 point when Z/G didn't make any huge errors and C/P made 2 in the RD. I think that if C/P had been in the final group for the FD then their GOEs might of been a tad higher (they got a 1.25 GOE when their transition between is very difficult, surely worth a bit more but who knows). Maybe a challenger would've helped Z/G this season.

I also think the Spanish rivalry one is interesting - I'm personally for H/K. I thought that some of the GOEs that S/D were getting at SkAm weren't really deserved - I know that their RD is a crowdpleaser but I thought that a huge amount of it was posing while skating on two feet. And in the FD I wouldn't have been giving them a 9 in PCS but hey, I'm not a judge...
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
I think that after SkAm, Z/G should perhaps be a little nervous - I know that they beat Carreira/Ponomarenko but that was only by around 1 point when Z/G didn't make any huge errors and C/P made 2 in the RD. I think that if C/P had been in the final group for the FD then their GOEs might of been a tad higher (they got a 1.25 GOE when their transition between is very difficult, surely worth a bit more but who knows). Maybe a challenger would've helped Z/G this season.
From what I understand Tiffany had some other injury problem over the summer, so I think their result at SkAm is fine with the understanding/expectation that they'll have a lot more time to train the program going forward.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
I hate to say this but in terms of actual programs this is shaping up to be the most boring season in years and years.

And political sheananigans are more noticeable than they have been in years.

I'm already profoundly disappointed, and it isn't even November.

Honestly, the juniors were so much more interesting.
 

Roast Toast

Medalist
Joined
Apr 13, 2017
I hate to say this but in terms of actual programs this is shaping up to be the most boring season in years and years.

Really? I feel like we have such a concentration of talent at the top of the dance world. Of the top teams, I personally think only G/P and S/B have decidedly worse free dances than last year. And I think there's actually a surprising number of possible signature pieces — I especially dig G/F and H/K's programs. I do hate the musical theme so no comment there.

I like what the juniors are doing but I can't help but feel like the buzz for them online is a bit artificial. They were also very exciting last year and where's the hype for S/E and L/L now?
 

cell

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 11, 2006
I hate to say this but in terms of actual programs this is shaping up to be the most boring season in years and years.

And political sheananigans are more noticeable than they have been in years.

I'm already profoundly disappointed, and it isn't even November.

Honestly, the juniors were so much more interesting.

My favorite free dance so far is from Shevchenko and Eremenko..more innovative than P&C's IMO and more interesting than most top teams

https://youtu.be/pS0VbeJc_3k?t=705
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Really? I feel like we have such a concentration of talent at the top of the dance world. Of the top teams, I personally think only G/P and S/B have decidedly worse free dances than last year. And I think there's actually a surprising number of possible signature pieces — I especially dig G/F and H/K's programs. I do hate the musical theme so no comment there.

I like what the juniors are doing but I can't help but feel like the buzz for them online is a bit artificial. They were also very exciting last year and where's the hype for S/E and L/L now?


Because Ice Dance is REGRESSING. We're back to the boring old judging system of "you have to earn your placement no matter how you performed," and "once we place you that's where you'll stay for the foreseeable future."

Take a look at placements between RD and FD at any typical competition last year and so far this year.

REGRESSING.

It also isn't helping matters when so many teams are concentrated in so few coaching environments.

And I wouldn't be the least surprised if the continued disrespect for the dance patterns makes for some dire RDs in the future.
 

Roast Toast

Medalist
Joined
Apr 13, 2017
Because Ice Dance is REGRESSING. We're back to the boring old judging system of "you have to earn your placement no matter how you performed," and "once we place you that's where you'll stay for the foreseeable future."

Take a look at placements between RD and FD at any typical competition last year and so far this year.

REGRESSING.

There's nothing to regress to. Ice dance has never had a period of time where the "wait your turn" policy wasn't in effect. V/M and P/C are not the "gotcha!" people think they are.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Well we'll see. Another year like this one next year and I'll probably go back to extremely casual fandom.
 
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