Olympic Recap, Day 9: Original Dance
It was a night of thrills and spills in the second round of Olympic ice dance.
No fewer than five teams suffered a fall during their original dance. To see the grim examples of these falls, see the NBCOlympics.com gallery appropriately entitled 'Carnage.' Tonight's original dance became a contest of survival among a field troubled with disaster.
But before talking about individual performances, a little background on the original dance. For the OD, each team must perform an ice dance to a specified ballroom style; for this competitive season, the theme is a latin medley. Skaters may choose two or three rhythms from a designated list (cha cha, rhumba, samba, merengue, mambo, and salsa). For more on music selection, check this out. The skaters must weave into this routine five required elements:
- side-by-side (not touching) midline footwork
- diagonal footwork (in various dance holds)
- a dance spin
- 2 different lifts, chosen from: stationary, straight line, curve, and rotational lifts
In general, I like the idea of some required elements. The step sequences in particular are good to see. And the fact that the dancers are limited to two dance lifts is good. I'm not a fan of the dance spin, though. It's a little too close to pairs skating for my taste (although some of the dancers spin better than their pairs counterparts). If the dancers can successfully weave these elements into a dance without it looking like they're merely setting up the next element, I think it really works.
Now on to tonight's original dances:
Russian favorites Novka and Kostomarov turned in the highest score on the original dance and are currently first. They had good expression and well executed elements, but I felt their program lacked flow. They skated a bit cautiously, possibly due to the fact that the previous two teams both suffered serious falls. I probably would have ranked them second in the original dance, but they enjoy a 1.38 lead going into the free dance.
The Americans Belbin and Agosto moved up to second place with a very nice original dance. This was my favorite dance of the night. The Americans had great expression, especially in the upper body. While many eyes were undoubtedly focused on Belbin, Agosto gave a great performance as well. Their expression also fit the music well, making full use of the tempo change to a slower, more sensuous rhumba after a fast start. They did lose a little expression during their midline step sequence, but their footwork was well executed. And after all the falls of the night, it was good to see them come out and successfully attack their program.
Grushina and Goncharaov of Ukraine took the third spot. They skated a clean but cautious program. I felt their performance was a bit uneven, and they were slow on their midline step sequence. I think the judges were a bit generous in their scores for the Ukranian couple, and I don't agree with giving Grushina and Goncharov a higher program component score than Belbin and Agosto.
Delobel and Schoenfelder of France possibly benefited the most from the misfortunes of some of the higher ranked couples. Their high energy dance moved them from seventh to fourth, but it was missing a true "latin feel." But they did have an excellent dance spin.
The Bulgarian couple of Denkova and Staviyski slipped to fifth place. They were skating a good program full of expression, but ran into difficulties on their dance spin. Staviyski missed a grab, and the couple had to fight to maintain their rotation. An awkward lift later in the program also hurt their score. They're lucky to still be in fifth, considering those flaws. See the full results after two rounds here, original dance rankings here, and super detailed OD results here.
That brings us to the big story of the night: the falls. The first victim of the night was Nathalie Pechalat of France (not televised). Then Drobiazko and Vanagas of Lithuania went down when Drobiazko caught a toe pick during their diagonal footwork sequence. Unable to avoid his partner, Vanagas came crashing down on top of her. Both Italian teams suffered terrible mishaps. Failla and Scali took a spill when Failla caught an edge during a step sequence. At this point she should have just let go; instead she held onto Scali, dragging him down. That cost them an extra point, as there's a one point deduction for each skater who falls. The other Italian couple, Fusar Poli and Margaglio (leaders after the compulsory dance), also fell. Their program had gotten off to a great start, but they went down on their last lift.
But the Canadian team of Debreuil and Lauzon suffered the worst fall of the night. During a daring rotational lift, Debreuil lost her grasp and spun out. She fell very hard on her right hip. Without his partner to counter his lean, Lauzon also went down. They managed to finish the program, but it was clear that Debreuil was in a lot of pain. She slowly skated off at the end, unable to take center ice for the customary bows. She was later taken to the hospital on a stretcher. Hopefully the injury isn't too serious, but it doesn't look good at the moment. There's a good chance that they will be unable to perform their free dance tomorrow night.
It's a bit shocking to see so many falls in ice dance, which has always been the least risky - and consequently the least fall-ridden - of figure skating's disciplines. But this is just one example of how the scoring changes have affected the sport. With required elements and specific points available for technically demanding moves, ice dance has gone through a transformation. And overall, this is a good thing. It brings some objectivity to what has always been a very subjective sport. I think the skaters like it too, since there is now a definitive way to distinguish yourself from your competitors. But with each couple's attempt to execute difficult and demanding maneuvers comes the risk of falling.
On a brighter note, the latin medley brought out some interesting costume - meaning a lot of skin from the ladies. Some highlights of the scraps of clothing passing for costumes:
Margarita Drobiazko
Barbara Fusar Poli
Tatiana Navka
Tanith Belbin
(I was hoping to link to more photo's of tonight's scantily clad ladies, but with all the media attention on the falls, there aren't as many pictures to show. My sincerest apologies.)
In addition to all that skin, just a few more observations on costumes. First, the worst outfit of the night award goes to Tatiana Navka for the leopard print dress with neon blue trim and matching headband. The honorable mention goes to Olivier Schoenfelder for the yellow headband. It's latin medley, Olivier, not iron chef.
Hopefully things will go smoother in the free dance, the final round of Olympic ice dance competition. NBC will broadcast the event tomorrow night at 8 pm.
2 comments:
I noticed the skimpy costumes too... they look more like ballroom Latin outfits- and less like figure skating outfits.
AUGH! Israel's ice dancers Chait and Saknovski are skating to Bolero- sacrelige! As IF they could measure up to Torvill and Dean. my favorite commentator quote- "if you're going to sing the National Anthem you'd better be Whitney Houston and not Rosanne Barr"... I assume they're referring to pre-Being Bobby Brown Whitney Houston.
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