You are here: Home / Skating / Reports / Europeans 2002 / Original Dance
Europeans 2002 - Original Dance
Day 2 started with one of my favorite portions of the Europeans, the Original Dance! We already arrived pretty early at the rink and wanted to see some practices for the men's long program. To our surprise we were told that we had to buy tickets for practices, so far all the practices had been for free *rolleyes*. Well since we were already at the rink, we bought them. With some difficulties, since none of the people working at the rink seemed to speak or understand a single word of English, which I honestly would expect at an event with many international viewers. Nothing too exciting happening during practices, otherwise I think I would remember more. Stefan Lindemann tried his quad-toe several times, but always fell hard, his best effort was heavily stumbling out of the landing. Afterwards it soon was time for the Original Dance. Unfortunately our seats turned out to be pretty bad, we had the most expensive tickets (on the side behind the judges), but we were sitting in second row at the very right end of the long side of the rink and there was a small part of the rink not really in sight, without leaning forward. Had we been sitting 1 meter to the right, we would have paid half the prize! (And probably would have had a better overview)...
Abbreviations:sbs=side by side
Original Dance
Gebora & Visontai from Hungary were the first pair to skate. They looked rather slow, skated pretty far apart and also the character of their dance didn't look very Spanish to me and their expression could be better.
Next to skate were Faiella & Scali from Italy. I really loved how they interpreted the character of the music, they were one of the few couples that really made me think "Now that's a Spanish medley!". Their expression is already very good, they are also a good looking pair and their dance had very nice choreography. Speed was mediocre. I think they definitely are a pair with potential.
Humphreys & Baranov from Great Britain had a pretty boring Original Dance, that just didn't have any highlights and not much Spanish character.
Quabdelsselam & Delmas from France were ok and that's pretty much all I've noted down (plus some stuff about the character of the music that I can't read anymore ;-)).
Moravkova & Prochazka from the Czech Republic made a quite good impression on me in the expression departement, they looked a little sloppy maybe, but were zestful and their speed wasn't too bad either, I enjoyed their dance.
The Finnish pair Huot & Valkama (she has very nice hair, long blond curls) seemed pretty slow and their steps were rather easy too, also they were off-unison in the sbs step sequence and didn't interpret the character of the music too well.
Golovina & Voiko from Ukraine were ok, again I haven't written much down, except for that she has quite good line and extension.
Frazer & Lukanin from Azerbaidshan (I'm sure I misspelled that!) looked rather slow, had ok presentation, standing out in the program was one interesting dance spin.
Petetin & Jost from France came out wearing pretty strange costumes, that didn't exactly have a Spanish look. Their lifts are quite good, she is much smaller than him (actually they look rather like pairs skaters than ice dancers, which is not really an advantage - except for in the lifts I guess). They skated rather far apart and their steps looked a little wobbly.
Vernekohl & Kurakin from Germany looked rather slow and I still think she has to try to be less stiff. I had problems concentrating on their skate, because she had what looked like a quite huge hole in her costume (on the back), which was rather irritating, because I just couldn't stop looking at it.
Gudina & Beletski , the second Israelian pair had chosen a nice music with lyrics for, they looked a little shaky, but zestful, an ok performance.
The German pair Rauer & Rauer were wearing purple costumes, that I didn't really like too much. Also her skirt was way too long, especially for her figure. They are both very small, still I think it really wouldn't matter too much if they weren't always wearing costumes that make them look even smaller. The topic of this year's OD doesn't really suit them, considering that they didn't look too bad and they were much better than at Nations Cup earlier in the season.
Romaniuta & Barantsev from Russia looked powerful, but didn't really capture the Spanish character of the dance too well, at least in the Tango section. Still they also look like a promising team, unfortunately they had to withdraw before the free dance.
All I've written about Siniaver & Tukvadze from Georghia is that she stumbled out of the ending pose. Not much to say about their skate I guess.
Mosenkova & Sychov from Estonia had very easy steps and there was nothing remarkable about their OD.
Eliane and Daniel Hugentobler from Switzerland had music, that was a little hectic, but they skated powerful and were rather fast, they were off-unison in the sbs step sequence.
Navka & Kostomarov from Russia were next. He came out wearing a neon red jacket, ugh! I wrote down that they had a "cute beginning". I guess I really should try to be a little more detailed in my notes ;-). Were a bit off unison in their straighline step sequence, their expression was nice. A good OD, but nothing really outstanding.
The best Russian team Lobacheva & Averbukh were next. Now that was interesting, their first showing this season (except for the CD's that I didn't get to see of course). I didn't like their costumes, she had a very nice dress, but was wearing a huge flower in her hair, that didn't exactly look like a flower. His costumes looked like leather and not Spanish style at all, except for if they were trying to skate a "Spanish Rock Medley". Their flamenco section seemed a little hectic to me. They were fast, a little shaky maybe, probably due to their lack of preparation. They were off-unison in the straightline footwork sequence, but their expression was very good and they had a very interesting rotational lift. In a whole a good OD, but nothing exceptionally good.
Drobiazko & Vanagas from Lithuania skated their OD in their usual style. One problem that I have with that team is that no matter what music they are skating to their programs always look alike to me. Still their OD was good, a little bit too much posing elements maybe.
The Italian team Fusar-Poli & Margaglio were next. Somebody had thrown something for Drobiazko & Vanagas on the ice that fell into a lots of tiny pieces, so it took some time for the flowergirls and the Italians to pick everything up. They had changed their flamenco music since the beginning of the season and also have gotten new costumes. The old costumes had looked very "heavy", also the old flamenco music seemed more aggressive to me, so with the new music and costumes the dance looked much lighter and more zestful to me. I could have sworn though that I read that Maurizio Margaglio had said the new flamenco music would be more aggressive, so maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about :D They had a good performance, with no obvious mistakes, they were fast and had good expression.
Anissina & Peizerat from France were next. I still don't like those orange flowers on her dress, but overall their costumes are nice. I like their music choice best of all the teams. Still their OD didn't look as impressive to me as on TV, because they looked slower than the other top teams and lacked power. Their dance has good choreography and steps though.
It wasn't really the best thing for Novak & Kolasinski from Poland to skate after all the top teams, since it made their skating look even less impressive than it is. The problem of this team is that there's just nothing outstanding in their skating, they are a solid team that never seems to make any improvements.
Denkova & Staviysky from Bulgaria had an interesting straightline step sequence. Unlike the other teams they didn't stay constantly side by side like the other teams, but he changed from her right side to her left and back to the right (I supposed that's allowed then ;-)). I haven't written down anything else, just that their presentation was ok.
Chait & Sakhnovksy from Israel are another team with a lovely and a little different music choice, I really enjoyed their Original Dance and it's one of my personal favorites of the season.
Grushina & Goncharov from the Ukraine had an Original Dance that I really didn't like, because they looked as if they didn't even try to interpret the Spanish character of the music. They also had strange costumes in black and yellow.
Final Standings Pairs
After the Original Dance we hang around at the rink, probably watched some practices, although I don't remember and then got back to the rink for the men's long program.
