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Europeans 2002 - Free Dance
For the free dance we had seats in the last row (luckily there aren't too many rows in Lausanne), but in the middle of the rinkside behind the judges, so we had a perfect overview. I much prefer those seats over the "where have the skaters gone?" seats during the OD. The hall was sold out, the atmosphere was great. We were sitting next to a nice British couple, mother and little daughter, who intensly discussed the costumes, asked me if the skaters would skate only once or twice during the evening and decided that that team with the exotic looking lady with the long red hair must be the Italians. They really were enjoying themselves :) I have to admit I noted down the name of the judges, but wasn't good enough to figure out most of their nationalities :D For the free dance, the announcer always announced the name of the music, but unfortunately he always did it directly after saying the names of the skaters, so usually it was drowned in the audience's applause.
Free Dance
Petetin & Jost from France had strange music cuts, still looked like pairs skaters, the program was dramatic, but rather dull.
Gebora & Visontai from Hungary wore pretty strange looking costumes, but at least they kind of fit the theme of their program now, unlike the ones they had worn in practice. Their music was cool, a medley from the musical "Hair". Unfortunately the music was the most enjoyable part of their program, they didn't pull it off too well. They looked rather slow, their lines could be better and their expression wasn't all that great either.
It was the second time we saw Mosenkova & Sychov from Estonia live this season. Their music was called "When I close my eyes", a slow, lulling piece. Their speed is actually not even that bad, but then their steps looked awfully easy.
Huot & Valkama from Finland skated a soft, classical program to piano music. Their program had many lifts that were quite nice.
Stephanie & Thomas Rauer from Germany did their Grease free dance, which is a cute program for them, the style just suits them perfectly and since they've said that their main goal as skaters is to enjoy the audience I guess you can say they did their job very well. Imagine another rant about her wearing costumes that make her look even smaller here ;-)
Gudina & Beletski from Israel skated to some folk music piece called "The Greek Suite" (if I understood it right). They were pretty slow and especially she looked a little sloppy. The section in the middle was a bit boring, but they had some nice choreographical ideas!
Golovina & Vojko from the Ukraine had choosen an interesting piece of music: "Nothing else matters" from Metallica. I think it was some a little more classical sounding version though. Good performance, but a bad fall towards the end. I liked the dance, although it had no real highlights.
Moravkova & Prochazka from the Czech Republic were skating to some dark, dramatic pieces from the soundtrack of "Moulin Rouge". I liked the music, very different, but one a little more upbeat part would have been nice maybe. Their expression was quite good!
The French team Quabdelsselam & Delmas was another team we had already seen live at Nations Cup. The announcer said their music was called "modern opera" (very informative). Their slow part was very long, which made the whole program pretty boring. The last part was nice. In a whole nothing special.
Humphreys & Baranov from Great Britain were next. The pants of his costume were too wide! I liked their FD much better than the OD, especially the first part of the program was very nice, a playful and zestful dance.
Fraser & Lukanin from Azerbaidchan were rather slow and had boring music and choreography, the music sounded the same all the time and the choreography looked the same all the time. The FD was called "Circle of Life". Pretty boring life they were portraying if you ask me :D
The Italians Faiella & Scali skated to "4 Seasons". This program doesn't suit them as well as their remarkable OD. It's not like it's bad, but it just didn't let you go WOW like the OD. But then it's probably asking too much for such a new team to have two sensational programs! They had some interesting lifts, including an impressive reversed lift (probably meant as an hommage to Anissina & Peizerat :D ). Unfortunately he had a fall somewhere in the middle.
Navka & Kostomarov from Russia were a highlight! I really lurve their MJ free dance!!! I like their music choices much better than what B&K chose. Actually only the first song sounded like Michael Jackson anyway, but I guess all of them were?? They had very entertaining, cute choreography, cool dance moves, lovely expression, great actual dancing. This dance just makes you smile from the beginning to the end! Maybe it's to much show, but who cares. Besides it's not like it didn't have any technical content. Got a huge applause from the audience.
Eliane & Daniel Hugentobler from Switzerland were next, with their program to I will survive. They hadn't changed anything of the song, no slow part at all, with made it pretty monotonous, especially since the choreography also looked the same during the whole 4 minutes, no highlights.
The Poles Nowak & Kolasinski were next- Their music was called "Give a little time to". Give a little time to WHAT/WHO ????? That music was rather strange, but I found it interesting. The choreography wasn't interesting though and they just aren't very expressive.
Grushina & Goncharov from the Ukraine skated to "Barcelona". After their OD this free dance was definitely an improvement. I liked her costume. The fast part was too hectic, but the slow part was actually nice.
Denkova & Staviyski from Bulgaria skated to music from Cirque du Soleil. The announcer said the music was called "Eternal life". Very nice costumes! Good lifts, some innovative details in the choreography. The very last part was the best. Good, but somehow this free dance had impressed me more on TV.
First of the last group were Fusar-Poli & Margaglio from Italy! They both had new costumes, Barbara's was very nice, Maurizio's a little boring though, just plain black with a bit of pink glitter on the shoulders. They had made quite some changes to the programs, especially to the lifts and the slow part is now longer too. In a whole the program looked much better to me than at the beginning of the season and they skated it very very well, not a single mistake. After this performance it has become my favorite free dance of theirs now :)! Loved it and I just love watching Barbara's expression no matter what she's skating to! Maybe it's because according to one of our German commentators "she's just showing the 'pure joy of life'!" ;-). While they've never had a really "outstanding" free dance, they IMO are the team with the most diversity in their dances.
International premiere time for Lobacheva & Averbukh from Russia. Quite boring costume and hair, how disappointing ;-). Their free dance is called "Time for peace". The music was completely different from what I had expected, monotonous guitar music at the beginning and monotonous guitar music at the end. In the middle a female voice chanting "A time for love, a time for peace, a time for whatever". Definitely the most dramatic free dance of all the top teams this year. The first part looked rather hectic, but overall this free dance looked very promising to me and I liked it (although I think I liked the one from last year a bit better). They had a rather good skate, no real mistake, a bit off-unison at parts and a little unpolished still. Also he nearly fell during the ending pose, but they were already finished, so I don't think that should matter.
The "such nice people" Drobiazko & Vanagas from Lithuania were next. Their free dance is in their usual style, the choreography isn't all that exciting, but they looked very powerful and have good presence on the ice. I liked them better than on TV, but I still don't really get what's supposed to be so interesting about their skating, but it's obviously just me!
Chait & Sakhnovsky from Israel were next with their lovely free dance to Israelian Folk music. As always they were very fast and secure, I love the music and the choreography, one of my favorites this year!
Last to skate were Anissina & Peizerat from France, they had a good skate with the only mistake being a little bump into each other during the twizzle section. They looked faster than in the OD, but still are slower than the other top teams. I don't like this free dance as much as some of the ones from the past, like Carmina Burana or Man in the Iron Mask, when they were by far my favorite dance team. I just would have liked it if they had chosen to do something in a different style for a change (ok, probably not the best idea in an Olympic season ;-)), since I am sure they could have pulled it off! But I like the music, the costumes and their lifts are always good.
Overall I was very impressed with the whole free dance competition! After the medal ceremony (during which the French "Club de Supporteurs" had to sing LALALALA, which I found kind of uncalled for and I really don't care if it ever was "their" football song ;-) :p ) we went to the Official skaters hotel, got a table at the bar (next to the hotel entrance and next to the elevators, everything very close together at that hotel) and watched the skaters arrive. Saw some cute dogs (Galit Chait's, carried by Sergei and the one from Abitbol & Berandis, wearing a coat). Didn't see Gwendal arrive, but I had seen him earlier in the week off-ice and he looks very good! Marina arrived, but just went to the elevator directly. Irina & Lobacheva carried two plates with cake into the elevator. The Italians did a nice celebration in the hotel lobby together with their fans, family and the rest of the Italian team (the third dance team Valeria Anselmi & Fabrizio Pedrazzini had come for a visit too), that lasted until at least 1:30am.
Final Standings Ice Dance
