2018 Lombardia Trophy Free Dance

[Lamente Ariane]

Considering the amount of skaters that use the critically reviled Burlesque for their programs... I think being Best Picture matters very little to skaters.

(Though they really should look into Moonlight and The Shape of Water, those are beautiful soundtracks as well as beautiful films!)

 

[skatemd1]

It's interesting. G/F are very close in height (4 cm), the Parsons actually have a similar height difference to several teams (12 cm). Capellini/Lanotte and Stepanova/Bukin also have 12 cm, Hawayek/Baker have 10 cm, and McNamara/Carpenter only have 8 cm according to their bios. Sinitsina/Katsalapov have 13 cm, Gilles/Poirier have 11 cm, etc.

I hear the height thing brought up a lot for the Parsons and not often for some of the others I've listed. I wonder why? Of course, maybe some of the bios are just inaccurate and that's the issue.

Now that you mention it, I have often wondered the same thing and it has nothing to do with their bios (which are accurate, having seen them in person, or just looking at their photos, it's obvious). There seems to be some kind of double standard, only applied to them. IMHO those who keep carping about this should either get over it, or at least be consistent and look at all these other teams and treat them exactly the same way. There is actually more difference in height between the Parsons than there is between many other top teams, so stop singling them out. To me, it's how they skate that counts, and I do like this team (and the others mentioned above) a lot. I could care less if they are 12 cm different or 8 cm or whatever. They skated really well today and finished 2nd (and FYI, the Italian team that took home Gold today is much closer in height than they are, but they won for an obvious reason - they skated better).

 

[pearly]

Excuse me. I started this topic by saying:

"With both the Parsons and G/F I feel the lady is too tall for their partner. I like a bigger difference in height. It makes the lifts seem easier and effortless."

G/F here stands for Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabri. The other teams SnowWhite mentioned were not in this competition.

There are things other than height that can make a team look mismatched.

 

[ancientpeas]

Excuse me. I started this topic by saying:

"With both the Parsons and G/F I feel the lady is too tall for their partner. I like a bigger difference in height. It makes the lifts seem easier and effortless."

G/F here stands for Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabri. The other teams SnowWhite mentioned were not in this competition.

There are things other than height that can make a team look mismatched.

Well.. Charlene and Marco have been together for a while and both are older skaters from a country with not a huge pool of ID to pick from so I think it's probably more that they found each other and it worked even if it was not ideal.
With Rachel and Michael: Not to be annoying but it would not surprise me if Rachel gets a new partner sooner rather than later.

Do you feel there is an ideal height difference? I think V/M are probably pretty close but P/C have a good height difference too.

 

[Mrs. P]

I certainly understand if people feel like a small height difference doesn't work and those couples who have them might not be their cup of tea or they don't enjoy watching them.

But that is far different in saying whether a height difference (or lack thereof) is a detriment to a dance pair's career. The Parsons are still relatively early in their career as seniors -- they are in their second year. And I disagree they are mismatched because of their height. I actually think like other sibling teams (Shibutanis come to mind) they are super well-matched in terms of skating skills and extension. Michael also generally doesn't have problems with lifts, which you would think would be the case with partners with a small height difference.

Again, this idea that the lady has to be shorter I think is crucial if you take on the stem-flower (i.e. the man (the stem) presenting the flower (lady) view of ID. But I never saw the Parsons as adopting that stem-flower model. They always had kind of a "cerebral meeting of the minds" kind of vibe and I think it works for them. In other words, AP, I don't see them looking for new partners. Couples have surprised me before (see this entire off season!) but I don't get any indication they are going in that direction.

We'll see, but I think overall this was a pretty good competition for them and there's improvements from the last competition, which is good.

 

[Heleng]

Had to miss FD yesterday and can’t find video of Parsons FD anywhere! If anyone can post it, I’d be most appreciative!