2016 Finlandia Trophy Free Dance

[sneakers]

We haven't seen them yet so for now I decided to be positive IZ have better skills than SB & the music is very encouraging

there's that though, they have their very good skating skills but they have been kind of inconsistent. When they make those silly mistakes, it makes me want to put Shpivelaya / Smirnov into seniors already... :hslap:

 

[Snow63]

It's more that it will be interesting in terms of a competition. As far as the dances go, not so much. So far most of the programs are a snoozefest.There hasn't been one senior FD I'm really excited about so far, except perhaps for Hawayek and Baker.

But we didn't see the Shibs and Ilinykh/Zhiganshin yet, I have high hopes that they'll do something uptempo and entertaining.

 

[NoNameFace]

Well give your Poles credit. The two halves of the dances aren't seamless, but at least it's FUN. I won't be bored watching them.

yes, as I said most of FDs are worse, Polish couple is quite a positive surprise, at least their FD is catchy, fun, crowd pleaser and a well-told story

 

[Snow63]

Bears bears everywhere *_* )))))

Gimme more bears, please! I love it, really

 

[Marta25]

It's more that it will be interesting in terms of a competition. As far as the dances go, not so much. So far most of the programs are a snoozefest.There hasn't been one senior FD I'm really excited about so far, except perhaps for Hawayek and Baker.

Well, I/Z have a Bollywood Free Dance. I admit that I`m a little bit afraid how it`s going to look like, there are just so many things that can go wrong with it, but they certainly will stand out compared to the other teams. Their Short Dance is more traditional with using Sing, Sing,Sing in their Swing section.

 

[Kutien]

1 Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN RUS 172.83 1 1 video
2 Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE USA 165.76 2 2 video
3 Tiffany ZAHORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO RUS 153.00 3 4 video
4 Laurence FOURNIER BEAUDRY / Nikolaj SORENSEN DEN 149.69 5 3 video
5 Natalia KALISZEK / Maksym SPODYRIEV POL 147.46 4 5 video
6 Olivia SMART / Adria DIAZ ESP 142.12 6 6
7 Cecilia TORN / Jussiville PARTANEN FIN 126.93 7 7 video
8 Taylor TRAN / Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS LTU 117.63 8 8
9 Emi HIRAI / Marien DE LA ASUNCION JPN 102.03 9 10
10 Olesia KARMI / Max LINDHOLM FIN 101.02 10 9

 

[Plisskin]

Hopefully many teams go back to the drawing board and fix these programs. Especially the SD. Otherwise, what a hot mess season it will be in dance.

 

[Sugarpova]

Gimme more bears, please! I love it, really

It will be smth New tho ...
Spanish bears!!!!

 

[bramweld]

S/B might be light with the tango feel, but at least its a breath of fresh air. The judges are absolutely bored stiff with all these lyrical one dimensional dances from team Dubreil et al. Thank you for answered prayers. Hopefully this means good news for teams thinking outside the box.

H/D looked even more subdued today. Me thinks changes are on the way. I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled a C/L and withdrew from S/A to work on their dances.

 

[Alexz]

Bears bears everywhere *_* )))))

Yes, but do they ride their bicycles down the streets?

 

[Snow63]

It will be smth New tho ...
Spanish bears!!!!

Knowing Zhuline even his Spanish bears will be very dramatic and very Russian I can't wait to see it honestly!

 

[lauravvv]

wowza, StepBukin as Russian No.1 ???
I guess its not that farfetched after all...

Ilinykh / Zhignashin, Sinitskina / Katsalapov and Zahorski / Gyureiro battling for No.3 will be exciting...

What makes you say this? At Ondrej Nepela Memorial Bobrova/Soloviev got 71 points for their SD with an error on twizzles and a slightly lower base value than what Stepanova/Bukin got here and close to 108 points with only a 1 point base value difference (with Stepanova/Bukin) for their FD (and they also had a mistake on their spin there). I know that Ondrej Nepela was largely ovescored for most teams, but the scoring for the other top team there - Chock/Bates - seemed more adequate given their huge mistake on twizzles in the FD, so I surmise that Bobrova/Soloviev's scores were not that far off either compared to what other (top) teams have scored in this season's B competitions. In any case, I think when Stepanova/Bukin and Bobrova/Soloviev will meet in one competition it is going to be obvious that B/S are still overall better skaters who deserve higher PCS despite not so ideal programs. And we have not even seen Ilinykh/Zhiganshin skate yet, and have seen Sinitsina/Katsalapov only at test skates where they were far from their best form.

I don't think it very likely, S/B won and with those huge GOE from their amazing twizzles alone.

What has that to do with the possibility of Ilinykh/Zhiganshin winning over Hubbell/Donohue at Skate America? Or did you want to say that Stepanova/Bukin won the FD over H/D just because of twizzles, so Ilinykh/Zhiganshin have less hope of winning over H/D, as, in your opinion, they are worse than Stepanova/Bukin (because of inconsistency and/something else)? The first part of that sentence (Stepanova/Bukin winning over Hubbell/Donohue just because of twizzles) is not quite true anyway - Stepanova/Bukin won also because of higher PCS and higher GOE on their step sequences and spin. As for Ilinykh/Zhiganshin, yes, they used to be inconsistent, but we don't know if they will be that now after training in a different regime with Shpilband for so long.

 

[sneakers]

getting senior Bs or challenger series is important for Ice Dance as this will give them feedback from judges on what they need to change or rework. That is why I'm skeptical of I/Z getting a medal in skate america. We havent heard anything about them until now....

 

[coldblueeyes]

quote

I think what the other poster meant was that they are in their own fight to number one, instead of battling to be the third, fourth team in Russian ID. S/B did score well for their programs, but their problem is not actually the programs in itself, but the technical side of them. For years now they have been getting the same levels for their step sequences, for example - maximum of level3 - and that's a big part of the threshold for their scores. An they got a level2 in here in one of the stsq, actually. That's is what I think will keep them from reaching number one. Not just them, but other couples that train with them have problems on the technical side - Shpilevaya and Smirnov, for example. I love them, but they do have faults on the technical side that couples like Loboda and Drozd, in juniors, and Bobrova and Soloviev have not, or at least have been progressively worked to overcome.

 

[lauravvv]

getting senior Bs or challenger series is important for Ice Dance as this will give them feedback from judges on what they need to change or rework. That is why I'm skeptical of I/Z getting a medal in skate america. We havent heard anything about them until now....

Okay, you are right about that, except, as we saw, not all is good with Hubbell/Donohue's programs, and they have almost no time to change anything until Skate America. But anyway, it does not answer why should Stepanova/Bukin become Russian number ones this season. Bobrova/Soloviev are still there, and Ilinykh/Zhiganshin may get the feedback they need at Skate America and become better until Trophee de France and especially Russian Nationals. Sinitsina/Katsalapov will get some real feedback so late that they won't have time to change anything until their next GP, but at least they have lots of training time until their first GP and then some time to improve until Nationals.

 

[Snow63]

Bobrova and Soloviev missed last 3 Worlds for a different reasons, the door was wide open for any team to step up. Now they seem to be back to their full potential, or at least close to it, so there's a big possibility that they will close the door now. But we still need to see how the other two teams will skate, and more importantly how judges will score them. Early conclusions are not always showing the real picture.

 

[Marta25]

IMO, it`s way too early to proclaiming S/B the new Russian #1. Yes, they had a great competition, but so did Bobrova/Soloviev in Nepela. Russian Nationals are what 3 months away? And if we look at the Grand Prix selection, B/S have a much easier path to qualify for the GPF than S/B, who have to compete at Skate Canada against Virtue/Moir, Chock/Bates, Gilles/Poirier and Cappellini/Lanotte. So, I wouldn`t be surprised if they ended up 5th in that competition.

What I`m expecting is for Bobrova/Soloviev to stay #1 this year and for S/B, S/K and I/Z to fight for #2 and #3. Maybe S/B have right now an advantage over S/K and I/Z, but that advantage can again vanish into thin air, if S/K beat S/B at Cup of China.

 

[blancanieves]

Makes you wonder, why isn't ice coverage a criteria for twizzles? I think top couples do it anyways but it would be interesting to see if that was made mandatory.

Better ice coverage is rewarded with a higher GOE (Grade of Execution) for the element, in this case the twizzles.

 

[sneakers]

IMO, it`s way too early to proclaiming S/B the new Russian #1. Yes, they had a great competition, but so did Bobrova/Soloviev in Nepela. Russian Nationals are what 3 months away? And if we look at the Grand Prix selection, B/S have a much easier path to qualify for the GPF than S/B, who have to compete at Skate Canada against Virtue/Moir, Chock/Bates, Gilles/Poirier and Cappellini/Lanotte. So, I wouldn`t be surprised if they ended up 5th in that competition.

What I`m expecting is for Bobrova/Soloviev to stay #1 this year and for S/B, S/K and I/Z to fight for #2 and #3. Maybe S/B have right now an advantage over S/K and I/Z, but that advantage can again vanish into thin air, if S/K beat S/B at Cup of China.

dont forget Zahorski / Guerreiro is on the same level now as Ilinykh / Zhiganshin and Sinitsina / Katsalapov

 

[Blades of Passion]

Stepanova/Bukin were sexy and had some interesting, difficult moves to back it up too. Good job!