You are here: Home / Skating / Reports / Nations Cup 2002 / Free Dance

Nations Cup 2002 - Free Dance

On the second day we watched the pairs practices, but I didn't take any notes. Steffi and I were quite occupied watching the display, where they obviously were testing the computer system, displaying testing marks for the Free Dance. According to that "test-run" Denkova & Stavisky would win with 2 or 3 6.0's Steffi and I noted that down in order to see whether the actual marks would be the same (you know predetermination and all ) Fortunately the real marks were a bit different, but wouldn't it have been fun to lay open the first big judging scandal of season 02/03 .

Vernekohl & Kurakin started the competition with their "Shakira" Free Dance, he was dressed in black, she was in an ugly dress in red and neon orange. They were very slow, had bad ice coverage and had long resting places, dancing on one spot. Their fast part could have been to any music, there wasn't any "Latin" interpretation to it. The slow part was interpreted a bit better, but rather boring. The music overall was too fast and energetic for them (well except for the slow part of the music ). I really would have prefered to see the Rauers James Bond Free Dance, that for sure would have been entertaining, besides I can't stand Shakira. Again I wish I had more positive things to say, but they really aren't very talented and didn't have a very clever music choice here.

Beknazarova & Kocherzhenko wore boring costumes, she in white, he in black. They skated to dramatic rocky guitar music. The music is called "Nuclear Train" from the "Edge of Darkness" Soundtrack. Their speed was mediocre, but I liked this program a lot better than their OD, they skated it with lots of power and were able to maintain their power and speed level throughout the whole dance. Their unison was rather good, they were expressive, she especially was selling it well, and they had quite nice lifts. Good job and an enjoyable program!

Paoletti & Pedrazzini had a Spanish themed Free Dance to music from "Carmen". They had good presentation and captured the Spanish feeling well. They had lots of resting spaces, where they were dancing in one spot during the free dance though, I counted 3 rather long ones. They were slow with poor ice coverage. They also had a bad fall towards the end of the free dance when they crashed into the border. It was quite obvious that the program was not ready, it looked as if they hadn't skated it very often yet, which is understandable considering his time off the ice, but at least the program was nicely choreographed.

Petetin & Jost wore strange black & white costumes (I didn't note down WHY they were strange...), their speed was quite good, but they were slowing down a bit towards the end. They had interesting lift positions, but were skating a bit sloppy. It was a dramatic program to "Concerto for Violin" by Philip Glass, I have no idea if the program was suppposed to have any theme or topic and, if yes, what it was supposed to be about. Their ice coverage was ok. The program was a bit boring, but ok.

Gudina & Beletski shocked us with their horrible and especially numerous music cuts, I think I counted like 10, always changing between something loud and dramatic and something soft. It was only like this in the first half of the program though, afterwards it became a lot more normal. I don't know whoever would do such music cuts and even more importantly: WHY? The music contained French lyrics and was from the "Notre-Dame de Paris" soundtrack. All this made the dance seem pretty hectic in the first half and I had a hard time concentrating on what they were actually doing. They started out with lots of speed, but they lost it a bit later and especially the step sequence seemed a bit slower, but overall they were very fast nonetheless. I liked the second half of the dance much better, also because the hectic music cuts had stopped. Their dance had lots of content, they tried to do lots of steps, but were a bit sloppy, not very polished yet. They skated with lots of energy and I noted down one very nice rotational lift. Even though I don't think this free dance is the best choice for them, they made the impression of being a very talented team.

Steinel & Tsvetkov presented a totally different kind of free dance, set to a collection of (quite cheesy) Italian songs from the 50's and 60's. They skated very fluent and with good expression. Their speed wasn't that good and they had easier steps than Gudina & Beletski. They have a very nice clean style, but skated quite far apart from each other. Their last part seemed rather slow with not too much content. Nonetheless it was a nice entertaining program and their unison and flow is quite good.

Moravkova & Prochazka were next, skating to the "Hello, Dolly" soundtrack. She was wearing a golden dress, he a black dress. After seeing this competition I can say for sure, that the color gold doesn't look good on just about everybody, except for maybe Michelle Kwan. Their speed was quite good and they had lots of footwork. I really like the music they choose (and I love the movie "Hello, Dolly"!), but she could try to be a bit more expressive. It was a nice dance, they just could have sold it better and some more highlights in the choreography would have been nice, it just didn't really grab me. They didn't really capture the feeling of the music and time period.

Chait & Sakhnovsky had to skate first of the last group. She was wearing a classic white dress, that made her look very fragile (fits the theme well, if she is really supposed to be an elf). He was in black with some red. They skated a classical dramatic program that was very intense. They had chosen 4 different sections of music, most of them from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, I especially liked it that they included "May it Be" from Enya. All the 4 sections had very interesting and especially very diversified choreography. They had very good lifts, including one overhead lift that *might* be illegal? I was very impressed by the dance and I think it's the best free dance they've come up with so far. Again they skated with lots of energy and were very expressive.

Dubreuil & Lauzon wore very beautiful costumes in *I think* blue and purple. They opened their free dance with a great lift, but I think they also had a lot more footwork in their dance in comparison to last year. They skated to some soft lulling beautiful music. At first the program looked like a dance that could draw you in and enchant you, but then it just somehow died away, because the music (even though beautiful) stayed the same for the whole 4 minutes and the dance didn't really have any highlights. The music was something that was composed for them originally and is called "Dance with my heart". I got the impression that they wanted to do something really special and different, but didn't succeed 100%.

Winkler & Lohse wore very strange costumes in silver and green, but they fit the theme. I had been very impressed by their dance when I saw it at an exhibition a few weeks ago. I still loved it here, but seeing them next to the other teams I noticed that their speed is still not up to the other top teams. But it's not like they were particularily slow. They were very into the music. I didn't take any other notes, probably because I had already seen the dance. The music was Safri Duo in combination with "Private Investigations" by Mark Knopfler.

Denkova & Stavisky's Free Dance was the most disappointing of the competition. The music was "Afrah Baladi" by Mostafa Sax. In the past they usually had very interesting choreographies, with lots of creative details, but this years Free Dance was very boring and didn't really have any highlights. Also they are a team that doesn't really look as impressive live as on TV, because they don't really have too much presence on the ice. She was wearing the reddish/blonde wig again. Their costumes were interesting, I think there was a scorpion on the front of his, I liked those (minus the wig).