Myths and Legends of Ice Dance
- Thread starter puremagic
- Start date
- Joined
- May 17, 2017
They're not youngsters. I mean we have seen them for years.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
Oh, I was confused. I think the Parsons have great sustained, deep edges. They're like a hot knife on butter out there.
how young are you asking? Rachel Parsons is 19 yo.
- Joined
- May 17, 2017
Aside from them, there's a new Russian young pair isn't it? I don't remember the name, I just saw them yesterday. Such deep and smooth edge.
Ushakova/Nekrasov? They're in the OP.
- Joined
- May 17, 2017
Yes, it's them. Russian fed should do something with them, pack them up better. They can be the future.
They're project 2026. A lot can happen. But the potential is really huge.
Well singles skating stroking and ice dance stroking is different, even Patrick Chan would have to tweak his stroking if he were to become an ice dancer. Also Patrick Chan is a beautiful skater but I don't think he's a great dancer or has the same kind of musicality the way ice dancers do/are trained to have.
And it's pretty rude to say that good male partners are "settling," the current field is quite gifted. At this past worlds, the top teams who had big mistakes were made by the men (Zach, Evan and Scott). Ice dance isn't just about skating skills, sometimes it's about having the same goals, having a suitable height difference, similar bodily awareness skills (to hold each other in a proper dance hold, skate closely, finding each other etc etc), their styles, personality etc etc. Piper may be weaker than Paul but I think they have a similar energy on ice and their quirky chemistry can't be re-created by pairing Paul up with any other partner that is "better" than Piper.
And it's pretty rude to say that good male partners are "settling," the current field is quite gifted. At this past worlds, the top teams who had big mistakes were made by the men (Zach, Evan and Scott). Ice dance isn't just about skating skills, sometimes it's about having the same goals, having a suitable height difference, similar bodily awareness skills (to hold each other in a proper dance hold, skate closely, finding each other etc etc), their styles, personality etc etc. Piper may be weaker than Paul but I think they have a similar energy on ice and their quirky chemistry can't be re-created by pairing Paul up with any other partner that is "better" than Piper.
Eons ago single skaters had to compete in Compulsory Figures in order to learn good edge work. Since 1990, single skaters now spend more time working on Compulsory Dances to learn good edge work. As in all sports, some ice dancers are better than other ice dancers, but to say that 80% of ice dancers don't have decent edge work is ridiculous.
deep edges in a 6.0-era FD
The best places to find the deepest edges are probably in the pattern dance part of the SD/compulsory dances that rely on long edges. Last year's Midnight Blues (and Blues in junior) patterns; the choctaws in this year's rhumba which you'll never see that deep from singles skaters.
Oh, and another reason we sometimes saw stronger male partners with comparatively weaker female partners 10-20 years ago, although it seems to be less common recently: Wealthy girls/families offering to pay all expenses for a strong male partner to skate with a girl who might not have found a partner, or not a topnotch one, based on her skating skill alone.
The best places to find the deepest edges are probably in the pattern dance part of the SD/compulsory dances that rely on long edges. Last year's Midnight Blues (and Blues in junior) patterns; the choctaws in this year's rhumba which you'll never see that deep from singles skaters.
Oh, and another reason we sometimes saw stronger male partners with comparatively weaker female partners 10-20 years ago, although it seems to be less common recently: Wealthy girls/families offering to pay all expenses for a strong male partner to skate with a girl who might not have found a partner, or not a topnotch one, based on her skating skill alone.
I think it's up to the individual, Tessa was doing really nice single axels on CSOI a few years ago. Paul Poirier has practiced every triple except for the axel and he did mirrored single axels in exhibition with his old partner Vanessa Crone.
Would it be possible to do toe jumps (e.g. a nice double lutz) while wearing dance blades or would you have to wear "regular" skates for that?
(I assume both Tessa and Paul&Vanessa did those single axels in their dance skates?)
I don't know the answer to this, but I would guess it's possible. I was literally just watching videos of Peggy Fleming the other day and it looked like she was wearing old-school figure blades. Maybe they weren't strictly figure skates, but they do look a lot different from modern freestyle skates, and she did all her doubles in them (including lutz and axel). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxnWoQq9iMY
- Joined
- May 17, 2017
One of my coach was an ice dancer and he couldn't jump. The other ice dance coach can do single jumps.
Two different questions:
Do ice dancers practice jumps?
Is it possible to do toe jumps in dance blades?
Ice dancers who were (or still are) also singles skaters might or would practice jumps. Skaters who started ice dancing at young ages and never trained in singles skating would not be able to train them in the same way. They might try for fun, or to develop single jump variations that would be legal in free dances (or exhibitions).
Once I was on the ice with several high-level ice dancers who were playing around with walleys, and I saw one of them try a double loop but it wasn't very good. They were wearing dance blades. I don't know how much, if it all, they had ever trained in singles, but I believe they had only ever competed as ice dancers.
Do ice dancers practice jumps?
Is it possible to do toe jumps in dance blades?
Ice dancers who were (or still are) also singles skaters might or would practice jumps. Skaters who started ice dancing at young ages and never trained in singles skating would not be able to train them in the same way. They might try for fun, or to develop single jump variations that would be legal in free dances (or exhibitions).
Once I was on the ice with several high-level ice dancers who were playing around with walleys, and I saw one of them try a double loop but it wasn't very good. They were wearing dance blades. I don't know how much, if it all, they had ever trained in singles, but I believe they had only ever competed as ice dancers.
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2014
In all sports "more popular for girls" it happens that the few boys involved are really good. Because the fact that they are doing figure skating/gymnastics/ballet instead of more "manly" sports is already a selection. It often means that they really love it, they probably have a certain talent for it, and also get a ton of gratification because they are always requested as partners and always get the main roles in a show....if most of these things don't apply, it would be worth it for a boy to go through years of teasing or even bulling. So I don't find it unusual that even though there aren't many boys/men doing figure skating, the ones at the top are as exceptional as the ladies, because the same kind of selection happens, just in a very early stage.
Regarding ice dancing, I have also noticed that while at the top (in this particular moment in time) the male partners are often better than their female ones, as soon as you go down in rankings the opposite is true.
Anyway the lack of balance between partners is kind of inevitable....it's not easy to match height, age, availability, location, nationality, personality, work ethic, skills and talent. Compromise is kind of inevitable. Unless we take Virtue/Moir: I'm sure they have worked hard to get where they are, and so have their coaches and families to help them, but it's out of sheer luck that they are such a perfect match and ultimately that is what made them successful since they were babies and what makes them so unique in the world of ice dancing
