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Friday, the 26th: Dance Practice, Ladies SP

We had free tickets for the Go Figure! Coaching seminar with Tamara Moskvina, Oleg Vassiliev and Richard Gauthier, so Friday morning was another day where we had to get up early. Well not as early as we actually did get up though :-P I must have been most food- and sleep-deprived on Thursday night, because I decide that in order to make it to the pairs seminar at 9am, we should get up 2 hours before it starts. Well nothing wrong with that, but I then brilliantly calculated that 2 hours before 9am would be at 6am and suggested that getting up time to Steffi. Who later said she found it a bit strange, but since we had always needed so long to get ready in the morning so far, she just assumed I wanted to make extra sure we wouldn't be late. So we got up at 6am :-P As if that wasn't bad enough, it is really kind of ridiculous how long it took us to figure out our misunderstanding. I just did not realize anything was strange at all, we arrived at the train station next to the Hilton hotel (where the seminar took place) at 7:45am and I said to Stefka that we have still 15 minutes left, so that should be more than enough. She pointed out the quite obvious, that we actually have 1:15 minutes... I was in a state between totally PML'ing and wanting to bang my head against a wall for quite some time :D Ahem, we decided to go to the hotel anyway and check out where things are, so we hiked around the Hilton a bit, since we couldn't immediatedly figure out where the entrance to the hotel area is (hotels in Dortmund are all strange :-P). Of course we were still an hour early when we were there, so eventually we decided to go back to the rink for at least a short time. Back at the train station, we saw that there was no immediate train leaving (blah), so we figured it makes no sense to go back and instead we went to the nearby gas station to buy some more water and chocolate. Back to the Hilton...by that time I was pretty much exhausted, especially since my backpack now weighed some tons, due to the extra-water bottles :-P (and I was wearing the shoes with heels). Anyway from that point on the day only got better. The pairs seminar was really good, since all the coaches were entertaining and had interesting things to say and I can definitely recommend it (or similar things) for the future. I had been looking forward to the breakfast all week, but of course now that I could have had it, I had no appetite, not being used to strange habits like eating anymore :-P, so I didn't exactly manage very much. Well at least an opportunity for good coffee and orange juice. After the seminar we were all perked up again and I got even perkier when Paola PM'ed my from the rink, trying to arrange a meeting, including the info that the Kerr's are practicing right now, ok I of course wasn't getting perky because of missing the Kerr's, but I knew it meant that we would be back in time for C&S' group. And we even made it back in time for Kulikova & Novikov's run-through :) I managed some nice photos of them (only slightly marred by very bizarre practice costumes :-P Well I actually liked Svetlana's because it had something cool-y devil-ish, but his had a BOW-TIE!). C&S had a fine run-through and skated nearly all of the program, except for some small parts. I made the same mistake as in the OD practice, trying to photograph them again. Well I got one good shot of their starting pose, which is not much of an achievement considering they do nothing but standing next to each other directly in front of us :-P I was smart enough to give up the action-photography attempts halfway through the run-through though and just watched instead.

Here are some photos from the dance practice:
Chait & Saknovsky
Chait & Saknovsky
Chait & Saknovsky
Chait & Saknovsky
Dubreuil & Lauzon (sneaking into the way ;) )
Faiella & Scali
Faiella & Scali
Faiella & Scali
Faiella & Scali
Faiella & Scali
Kulikova & Novikov
Kulikova & Novikov
Kulikova & Novikov
Kulikova & Novikov
Kulikova & Novikov

I had been looking forward to the ladies SP immensly and now it finally began, wheeeeee. Ji-Jun Choi 2footed the 3flip and had a problem with her 3z-2t combination. She had great spin positions, the spins themselves were well-centered, but slow. She did a respectable job presenting her Libertango program. As said before she has a lovely balletic style. Jenna McCorkell was good despite the combo mistake, but she always has this really generic "beautiful" music. Julia Lautowa skated with good speed and power, but also could not complete the lutz. She did a good job with accentuating her music. Sara Falotico's spins were a bit slow, she also fell on the lutz. Her solo jump out of steps was only the 3toeloop.

Michelle Cantu was the first big highlight of the SP. She skated to "42nd Street" wearing a very cool costume.She did a 3z-2t (but fell on the toeloop), 3flip and 2axel and skated a really greatly choreographed and presented program, with a lot of oomph and energy. Of course she has some quality problems, but it was a great skate nonetheless and a joy to watch. Stylistically her SP reminded of Jenny Kirk's Chicago program. Mojca Kopac screwed up lutz and axel unfortunately. Again nice quality on her non-jumping elements and musical interpretation. Zuzana Babiakova was unclean on lutz and flip, but had good spins and a nice program. Daria Timoshenko must have had one of the worst skaters in the SP, she screwed up every single jump. She did a nice Biellman as always. Dan Fang has a beautiful style and program, but she fell splat on her lutz. She did one of her great spirals. Miriam Manzano had the first clean skate of the evening (even though the lutz might have been 2footed).

Fumie Suguri was clean with great speed and fast spins. Her Paint it Black is an interesting different program, even though I'm not 100% sure that the idea works perfectly. Viktoria Volchkova's 3flip might have been 2footed. The music of "Heartbreak Hotel" suited her well, if only she was a bit faster. We were wondering whether this is an old program or new program? I can't remember having seen it before and I know it's not the one she used at the beginning of the season, if I'm not completely mistaken. Jenny Kirk fell on the lutz and could have used some more speed in that program. She looked much better in the qualifying. Seeing up to three programs of one skater in a competition, it is really interesting by the way, how much the performances of one skater can differ from one day to the other, even with the same program, when it comes to things like speed, power, flow, confidence, power, etc. I guess it is very dependent on the form of the day. Sarah Meier could use some more difficulty in her footwork, but I really like the part of her program that is to "No Woman No Cry".

Idora Hegel had a very nice program to a Gypsy Dance, her only mistake being an extra-turn between the jumps on the 3z-2t combination. She was maybe a bit slow, but her footwork was very energetic. She wears her hair in really strange bangs, that are so extremely long that they nearly cover her eyes. Anne Sophie Calvez skated well, but her program was a bit generic. Joannie Rochette was also clean as far as I remember, and managed the 3z-2t. She has a nice quality on spirals and spins and skated smoothly with good flow. Susanna Pöykiö unfortunately doubled her flip, but skated an otherwise beautiful program with lovely choreography. As usually I felt she could use a bit more energy to her skating. I really like the choreography of Elena Liashenko's SP, it is very beautiful and a musical program. She skated with good flow and nice speed, but I'm not sure if the flip wasn't 2footed. All I've written down about Carolina Kostner is "Wheeeeeee!" :D She was great. Jennifer Robinson somehow has developped a pretty strong legwrap that I don't remember her having before. Her speed and ice coverage did not exactly look stellar directly after Carolina. It is a quite nice program, but she needs more energy.

Irina Slutskaya was wearing a really long ice-dancish dress. She screwed up the flip, but otherwise it was a beautiful program. Her skating overall was still a bit slower than in the past, but she had fast good spins. Miki Ando's program was very nicely choreographed and she skated to the music/beat. I was impressed with her very good spins. I really liked how her hand movements accentuated the musical highlights of the program. Amazing job overall for such a young skater :) Michelle Kwan was definitely better than in the qualifying and was also very good, I liked how her program built tension throughout, underlined by the exciting music. She had good ice coverage and seemed to built speed throughout the program. Shizuka Arakawa had another very powerful skate, including another easy 3-3, I don't think this program suits her style as well as the LP, especially due to the costume and the step sequence (and I don't think that program is voidy at all :-P), but it was still a great skate. Elena Sokolova unfortunately had a bad skate, but I liked the circular footwork a lot. Sometimes a pic says more than thousand words, so here's my note about Sasha Cohen ;)
She was simply fantastic, there didn't seem to be a single move that wasn't done to the max and then I think the choreography of this program is just about as perfect as it can possibly get and fits Sasha so unbelievably well. I think i slightly hyperventilated before her flip and during and after her skate and my face felt all hot afterwards, so I was wondering if my cheeks might be red and right after the ladies LP the first thing Katja says is "hehe, your cheeks are red!". How embarassing :D Like 1 hour afterwards I went to the toilet and saw that they still were red :-P (Stefka claimed nicely that it just looks healthy ;) ). Julia Sebestyen had a bit of bad luck having to skate after Sasha, but did a beautiful job as well :)