PSA Announces Best Performance Awards for US Nats

[el henry]

The Professional Skaters Association has announced the Best Performance Award Winners for US Nationals:

Press Release: Professional Skaters Association Announces 2021 Best Performance Award Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS RELEASE Contact: Elizabeth Thornton [email protected] Professional Skaters Association 3006 Allegro Park SW Rochester, MN 55902 507.281.5122 | www.skatepsa.com Profess

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Best Performance Ladies
Amber Glenn – Championship Ladies Free Skate Program
PSA Coaches – Darlene Cain, Peter Cain
Choreographer – Misha Ge
Music Selection – “Rain in Your Black Eyes (remake)” by Ezio Basso
Costume Designer – Denyse Frey

Best Performance Men
Jason Brown – Championship Men Short Program
PSA Coaches – Tracy Wilson, Karen Preston
Choreographer – Rohene Ward
Music Selection – “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone
Costume Designer – Elena Pollack

Best Performance Pairs
Alexa Knierim / Brandon Frazier — Championship Pairs Free Skate Program
PSA Coaches – Todd Sand, Jenni Meno-Sand, Christine Fowler-Binder, Rafael Arutyunyan, Chris Knierim
Choreographer – Renee Roca
Music Selection – “Fall on Me” by Andrew Bocelli, Matteo Bocelli
Costume Design – Lisa McKinnon

Best Performance Ice Dance
Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue — Championship Dance Free Dance Program
PSA Coaches – Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon
Choreographers – Marie-France Dubreuil, Scott Moir
Music Selection – “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley and k.d. lang
Costume Designer – Josiane Lamond from Elite Expressions

About the Professional Skaters Association: The Professional Skaters Association International is the largest figure skating coaches association in the world. The PSA is the official figure skating coaches’ education, training, and accreditation program for U.S. Figure Skating and the Ice Sports Industry.

About — Professional Skaters Association

About PSA

skatepsa.com

Congratulations to all

 

[TallyT]

Definitely the right choice with Jason

 

[el henry]

Of course I would think Jason is well deserved. I think the others are good choices too

but holy moley could Alexa and Brandon list any more coaches? it looks like the list of producers on a Hollywood movie

 

[Arriba627]

Excellent choices all around. Of course, I'm thrilled for Jason! I'm probably happiest for Alexa and Brandon. I love the way the choreography highlights the highs and lows of the music, especially during the lifts. Alexa's Lisa McKinnon costume is to die for. Best of all, I like the way their partnership is evolving, even at this early stage of things. I love Chris K., but I think it was 2 or 3 years ago that I said I thought Chris was holding her back, and I'd love to see her skate with Brandon or Danny O'Shea. Of course, never in a million years would I dream that would happen, what with Brandon and Danny's fierce loyalty to their partners (and Chris' too!).

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

These are all great choices. Congrats to them all!

 

[SkateTM0102]

Of course I would think Jason is well deserved. I think the others are good choices too

but holy moley could Alexa and Brandon list any more coaches? it looks like the list of producers on a Hollywood movie

I believe they work with Nina Mozer as well, so probably!

 

[Mathman]

Good choices all the way around. No controversies, ( although of course one might have a favorite that was overlooked).

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

I believe they work with Nina Mozer as well, so probably!

LOL, I think Nina Mozer is listed as one of their coaches in the 2021 U.S. Nationals program booklet, if I'm not mistaken.

Oh well, Alexa & Brandon are a star team. I wish them huge success, and I hope they will stay in at least for another year after the Olympics during a transition year when some top teams tend to retire.

ETA:
These PSA winners are all excellent choices. It looks like they didn't give out Coach of the Year or Choreographer of the Year, since it really wasn't a normal, full year of competition.

 

[ice coverage]

... It looks like they didn't give out Coach of the Year or Choreographer of the Year, since it really wasn't a normal, full year of competition.

The Annual EDI Awards Reveal Party is scheduled for May 18 (as a pre-summit event in conjunction with PSA's virtual summit for 2021).

It is normal for Best Performance awards to be announced separately from other types of EDI awards -- including Coach of the Year and Choreographer of the Year.
The awards in the latter group typically are announced at a dinner at the annual PSA meeting (usually in May, AFAIK).

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

The Annual EDI Awards Reveal Party is scheduled for May 18 (as a pre-summit event in conjunction with PSA's virtual summit for 2021).

It is normal for Best Performance awards to be announced separately from other types of EDI awards -- including Coach of the Year and Choreographer of the Year.
The awards in the latter group typically are announced at a dinner at the annual PSA meeting (usually in May, AFAIK).

Ah okay, so maybe there will be an announcement then. It makes sense to come after Worlds I suppose. But these awards are only for US skaters, coaches, and choreographers, right?

 

[el henry]

Ah okay, so maybe there will be an announcement then. It makes sense to come after Worlds I suppose. But these awards are only for US skaters, coaches, and choreographers, right?

The awards are only for US skaters’ performances. Of course, a US skater may be coached or choreographed by a non American (pretty sure you didn’t mean that but just to clarify )

my impression, based on nothing but my impression, is that they save the EDI awards for the dinner, because in normal times it‘s the dinner and conference, and dinners at conferences have awards. some of the awards, such as the Gustave Lussi, have nothing to do with performances.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

^^ Thanks. I don't know a lot about the PSA. The awards are always interesting to see who wins. They have generally been making good choices in recent years.

 

[ice coverage]

Ah okay, so maybe there will be an announcement then. It makes sense to come after Worlds I suppose. ...

Regarding Worlds:

"Following the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in March, members of the awards nominations subcommittee will participate in a conference call to nominate coaches for the coach of the year, developmental coach of the year, choreographer of the year, and sport science coaching awards. ..."

Joint PSA/U.S. Figure Skating EDI Awards — Professional Skaters Association

Joint PSA/U.S. Figure Skating EDI Awards

skatepsa.com

(In contrast, the Best Performance awards use Nats as the only basis.
The 2020 Best Performance awards were announced on Mar 14, 2020.
The other 2020 EDI awards were announced at a virtual event on May 21, 2020.)

I really hope that the Coach of the Year, Choreographer of the Year, and Developmental Coach of the Year awards will be given out this season, per usual.
The pandemic made the work of coaches and choreographers more challenging than ever!

 

[ice coverage]

The Annual EDI Awards Reveal Party is scheduled for May 18 (as a pre-summit event in conjunction with PSA's virtual summit for 2021). ...

Congratulations to all the 2021 nominees for other PSA EDI Awards.
(Meaning awards other than the already-announced awards for Best Performances at Nationals.)
I have transcribed the list of nominees below.

The Reveal Party was for revealing nominees.

ETA (on May 28):

Updated link for the Reveal Party video:

2021 EDI Awards REVEAL

2021 EDI Awards REVEAL

psatv.uscreen.io

Just discovered that the old one does not work anymore.​

PSA members will receive a Zoom link for May 27's live announcement of winners.

The nominees are (in the order that they were revealed) ...

Sonja Henie Award:

Starr Andrews
Mariah Bell
Amber Glenn​

Paul McGrath Choreographer of the Year:

Shae-Lynn Bourne
Alex Chang
Renee Roca
Rohene Ward​

Developmental Coach of the Year:

Joel Dear/Inese Bucevica
Tammy Gambill
Yulia Kuznetsova
Trudy Oltmanns​

F. Ritter Shumway Award: Patrick O'Neil; Nick Perna; Carol Rossignol

Gustave Lussi Award

Nathan Chen
Zachary Donohue
Sean Rabbitt​

Pieter Kollen Sport Science Award: Garrett Lucash; Lindsay Slater; Melissa Vriner

Joe Serafine Volunteer of the Year: Cheryl Faust; Teri Klindworth Hooper; Andrea Kunz-Williamson

Fritz Dietl Award for Ice Arena Excellence: Ice Den Chandler; World Arena Ice Hall

Distinguished Official Award:

Ann Barr (Arctic FSC); Kathleen Krieger (Wagon Wheel FSC); Kimberley Moore (Carolinas FSC)​

Photo of the Year: Melanie Heaney; Jacob Marsh; Pablo Saccinto

Coach of the Year:

Rafael Arutyunyan/Vera Arutyunyan/Nadia Kanaeva
Tammy Gambill
Patrice Lauzon & Ice Academy of Montreal Coaching Team
Todd Sand/Jenni Meno-Sand/Christine Fowler-Binder​