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Nations Cup 2002 - Original Dance

Before the Original Dance the official opening took place, first a junior synchro team performed to a version of "Country Roads" by the Hermes House Band, which seemed a bit of a strange music choice for me, since the rhythm of the song isn't exactly easy to interpret (I noticed that on the dancefloor myself before , therefor the performance wasn't all that convincing. Afterwards they came out again carrying flags from different countries, strangely enough mostly flags from countries that had no skaters in the competition, like Argentina, Spain, Sweden and Greece (maybe that was because all the flags of the competitors had already been put up at the rink walls ). Reinhard Mirmsecker, the new head of the German Federation then did an amazingly short speech (I think I like him )

Beknazarova & Kocherzhenko opened the Original Dance. She wore a rose dress, he a black suit. They somehow managed to appear hectic, even though they were skating quite slow. They showed no difference in interpretation when the rhythm changed and they had lots of "dragging each other around" movements a la Grushina & Groncharov (which aren't necessarily a bad thing, I just don't like them). Their presentation was rather boring and the dance had no real highlights.

Paoletti & Pedrazzini had chosen a Waltz and Galop as their rhythms. When they were entering the ice a quite big piece of the board with the ads fell off the rink border and Fabrizio had to carry it off the ice (getting a quite loud applause from the audience). Marta wore a light blue dress, Fabrizio was in black and blue. They interpreted the rhythm quite well and the program had a very nice and enjoyable choreography, they skated zestful, but their steps were easy. I had the impression that Marta Paoletti seems to be a technically weaker partner for him than Valentina Anselmi was, but I'm not sure since I've seen Valentina skate only like 2 or 3 times. Also they only can have trained together for maybe 3 months, since they only teamed up after Worlds 02 and he was off the ice with an injury during the whole summer, they only were able to return to training together in September, considering that their Original Dance was quite well-skated.

Vernekohl & Kurakin seemed quite slow and clumsy during their Original Dance, also the choreography was pretty boring, no highlights and they weren't very expressive either. I wish I had anything more positive to say. I wasn't surprising to see them falling into last place with this.

Moravkova & Prochazka were next. I finally noticed that they are from the Czech Republic, not from Poland as I had thought all the time for whatever reason. He wore a black suit, she a blue dress. They interpreted their Waltz rather well, but were a bit off the music in the second part. Their step sequence was a bit out of synch, but I found the steps to be quite nicely choreographed. Overall they had a solid skate and did a good job distinguishing the two different rhythms they had chosen.

Chait & Sakhnovsky were the first to skate of the Top Teams. Galit wore a light yellow dress with a nice cut (but an a bit stronger color might have been better for her light teint), Sergei wore a black suit with some gold, the style looked a bit militaric. I thought their style looked a bit less frantic than last year. They skated with lots of passion and energy, especially Galit was really tiffin it throughout the dance ("giving her best in the expression department" for the non FSUniverse readers of this report ). I found the choreography to be original and creative, even though a bit extravagant. I had the impression that they seemed like an (even ) stronger team than last year and I guess my doubts about Evgeny Platov's qualities as a coach luckily were unfounded.

Petetin & Jost wore truely bizarre costumes in white & red, his suit only had one sleeve, on the other arm he wore illusion fabric. At first I had thought his second sleeve had fallen off or something, because I didn't notice the illusion fabric from far apart. I don't have the slightest idea what this costume had to do with the theme of "Memories of a Grande Ball"! I was kind of zzzzzz throughout the whole dance, but this wasn't necessarily their fault, maybe I just had fallen into a concentration gap. Therefor I don't have anything to say about their dance.

Denkova & Stavisky were the next ones with really strange costumes, well his was ok, even though I didn't like the dark green color, but Albena was wearing a greenish/yellowish dress (that I guess was supposed to be golden), which looked like it was made out of some curtain-like material and also had a very unfortunate "potato-sack" like cut. Katja surprised me with totally loving it when we talked about the OD afterwards. Maybe I just got no taste . Their choreography was quite nice, but a bit repetetive, it didn't blow me away. I think he had a mistake on a twizzle and they were a bit out of synch in the step sequence.

Dubreuil & Lauzon skated a bit messy, but zestful and at least in the first part I thought they weren't really that great into the character of the music. Their second rhythm was a lot better interpreted, but overall I thought their dance had some choreographical elements that didn't really fit the theme.

Kati Winkler shocked me by wearing some really ugly blue dress, that was much too long and heavy and even worse had puffed sleeves. I had seen this program in an exhibition just a few weeks ago and there she had worn a beautiful rose dress, duh. Their choreography fit the theme very well, they were the first ones who really made me think of a "Grande Ball". I'm not sure how their (and also Steinel & Tsvetkov's) choice of German lyrics will go over with the international judges though? Quite good speed and very good interpretation and expression. Not sure if it's technically as difficult as the other top dances in this competition, they definitely have laid their emphasis on the choreography and interpretation. She was of course skating with Rene Lohse

Steinel & Tsvetkov also fit the theme very well, also due to the fact that the style of their Original Dance is very similar to Kati & Rene's. They skated zestful, with pretty good speed, but the difficulty wasn't all that high. They definitely look like a senior couple this year. I wasn't as bothered by her facial expressions as last year, actually they were ok.

Gudina & Beletski ended the Original Dance. I noted down that her dress was kind of short for the theme of this dance. A second part of the ad banner fell from the rink border when they entered the ice. After that some of the volunteers checked the border before every portion of the competition . They skated fast and zestful and their dance was entertaining, but they didn't interpret their first rhythm very well (the second one was better).