Wednesday, March 7, 2018

You be the judge

canadablue's clear, bite-sized, apples to apples PC versus VM comparisons

Someone should retweet to @LynnRutherford. It's a safe bet Rutherford would respond that canadablue is partisan, which is why someone should ask Lynn if she thinks the actual skating on evidence is partisan. I doubt she'd be able to say. We all know you need to be a super expert to discern these things.

Me, I love the butt jut call outs on Cizeron. Tired of Gabriella getting saddled with the role of the skater dragging down the team. No fan of her, but he's nowhere near top drawer. He's ragged. Show me a case of his sublime edgework, stroking, and beautiful, un-enabled glide. Just show me.

In the comments section of the preceding post, there was some discussion of 2002 Worlds and what a brouhaha ensued when the Israeli team beat the Lithunanians to the bronze.

Setting aside that outrage in figure skating is always super selective and ultra hypocritical, here is the Lithuanian free dance.




Here are the Israelis:




Who can tell? The Lithunanian program is exactly like most of the programs skated by most teams from 1999-2002, or it feels that way. It's bravura in style, with a lot of hair work by the woman, but how much skating is going on? He's on two feet much of the time, on a flat a lot of the time, and mostly uses his edges for stroking, working up the momentum for his next bout of flinging her around.

I'm not saying the Israeli skate deserved to finish ahead of the Lithuanians, but it's one of those cases where, if it WAS rigged, I can't get bent out of shape. Chait is unsteady at least once during her skate, but she's not being dragged and flung around as much as Drobiazko. In fact, they do more skating than the Lithuanians, more non-stroking skating. Assessing skating bona fides amidst the flinging and running, rotating and sliding, posing and presenting by Drobiazko Povilas is challenging. There's less gratuitous non-skating with Chait Sakhnovski, but yes, I'm left with the impression that if I sent the two teams stroking around the ice, the Lithuanians would be stronger. But with the content being what it is, how can all of those who protested the outcome assess who deserved to win. The good skaters who didn't do a whole lot of skating, or the lesser skaters who skated quite a bit, at least comparitively?

The Israelis probably are a cut or so below as far as skill level, but to balance that out, I prefer their costumes (the black and white is really refreshing for that era) and their skate-y (for 2002) program. And they're pretty.

Speaking of pretty:



And the team I understand is ice dance's latest wunderkinder:



We can see the difference, right? Anyone can. Yet among the internet fandom I believe Saucise Firus are gearing up for a PC-esque cult.

Is "ironic" the word for the prevalence of figure skating/ice dance fans who are bored to death by both skating and dance and prefer as little as possible in their ice dance programs? Whatever, they're in luck - the ice dance world agrees with them.


Skating. So nice to see in a skating program.
Please please don't let them
be Paul Islam'd. Somebody give them a
Fix You.

ETA - as I've done a lot, I again googled "lyrical contemporary, origins of" because, as our academic in the comments below surely realizes, "Modern" is relative. In certain historical contexts, it can mean a mere thousand years ago. In other contexts, "modern" can mean my Fitbit.

Ice Dance joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. It's a modern addition.

Lyrical contemporary dance is older. Is is loosely defined as a sort of fusion of ballet, jazz and modern, and those genres go back more than a century.

The first article I came across appeared to be a translation, and contained this gem in describing lyrical contemporary dance:

Some characteristics: ‘performance’ instead of show, dance has a social and political function (So the dance Has a meaning) Merce Cunningham had a great impact on contemporary dancing dome of his ideas where:


    • Abstraction- There’s no need to tell a story or reflect something, so unlike lyrical, contemporary is more of just dancing how every you want to. 
    • The audience is free to act in the way the dance makes them feel
So that's nice for everybody, and seems like PC and their fans are the pot finding its lid.

But I also once again googled this:

"What is figure skating?"

Wikipedia answers: What is figure skating?

Wikipedia includes this helpful chart:

In conclusion:

Figure skating and Lyrical Contemporary(ish) dance are different things. Which one is the Olympic sport? So when people ask what makes PC a superior ice dance team, they're asking about what's shown in the chart above. They're not asking about this:

1915
*Contemporary lyrical doesn't need to observe any particular rhythm, btw, just what you want in an ice dance program.

64 comments:

  1. Completely agree about Drobiazko/Vanagas vs. Chait/Sakhnovsky. Neither team was that good, but because D/V were crowd favourites and skated very "emotional", dramatic programs, fans who really knew nothing about the technical side of ice dance constantly lauded them while eviscerating C/S. Yes, I totally believe that Galit's father paid a lot of people off to get his daughter medals, as many people screamed about back then, but I also don't think that D/V were a great team that constantly deserved to beat them.

    Disagree about H/B vs. S/F. Neither team is fully baked yet. H/B are already falling into a trap of the same-style argument that plagues P/C. We'll see what happens.

    I also don't fully understand the blog owner's love affair with Paul and Islam. They were a much better team than they were given credit for, yes, and they did indeed have excellent basic skating skills. However, they never really maximized what they were best at, were not presented to the best of their abilities in the crucial seasons when they should have been moving up the ranks as seniors, didn't help themselves by often skating nervously and tentatively and making large errors on key elements, and Skate Canada just got tired of waiting.

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    1. Same style is not a problem if the team is skating. That is the difference. PC uses their style to hide their skating deficits. Style, IMO, doesn't matter. A team could skate the same style in the free throughout their career, while increasing the quality of the execution of their elements, and it would be perfectly valid. The OD would take care of rhythmic variation and dance styles, although we all know that's pretty much a joke as judged.

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    2. P.S. Much better team than they were given credit for is pretty much everything, isn't it? It's not a hand wave. There are plenty of fake teams who skate with confidence and a game face, whose make as many errors and glitches as Paul Islam, but whose deficits are taken as features. Paul Islam were never properly credited in their scores for what they did well, their overall "vibe", which, as you note, was more reserved than many teams, seemed to dominate the perception of them, and in sport, that's not proper.

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    3. H/B are going to be terrific and will do great things if the powers-to-be let them. Unfortunately I believe they are going to be kept behind the sham of H/D. I find Hubbell closing in on Piper level of annoying-there's something definitely off about her facade. Oh right, she's already thrown V/M under the bus to promote her bestie. Quite the opposite of Hawayek who unapologetically shows her support and appreciation of the quality of V/M's skating.

      H/B have already shown me more versatility than P/C. I really enjoyed their SD this year. For all the talk of Cizeron and the way he moves on the ice, take a look at Baker. I thought he was the best male to really capture that Latin feel.

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    4. "Neither team is fully baked"

      A team doesn't have to be fully baked to be a lot closer to being fully baked than another team, and it's fair and also kind of the point to make judgements on the current state of teams, even while acknowledging that things could change in the future. You can also have a team that has the wrong ingredients or was poorly made, so they're going to be bad unless someone starts the whole process over again. S/F fall into that category, IMO. H/B haven't hit their ceiling, but they are on a completely different level right now than S/F.

      I do hope H/B branch out this quad, both because I think they're capable of doing other things (not required, but I respect teams that show versatility just because they can) and because I agree strategically they need something that will excite people and make them seem fresh (as stupid as that is). Pasquale is such a fantastic choreographer, though, whatever they do will be skating-based and have nuance.

      Also, anyone who thinks DSC doesn't grow their skaters well should take a look at how H/B have developed over the last quad. The improvement in skating skills is massive.

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    5. OC already dealt with the P/I topic well, but a couple more things- it rarely seems to occur to people that maybe P/I were prone to skating tentatively and making mistakes because SC kept tightening the noose, and they could have naturally become more confident if they were focused on that instead of fighting off challenges that they should never have had to worry about. More power to any team who can not get caught up in games like that and skate with a panache that showcases their skills to best advantage, but a fed should be supporting teams to work on what they need working on, not psyching people out and seeing who survives like it's the Hunger Games. SC got tired of waiting? No, as soon as Sochi was over, they were pushing them out the door.

      Skating confidently and going clean is only a legitimate factor if it's showing how well you can skate, that you don't need to think as much. It's a difference maker, but it's not as important as the basic quality of skating throughout a program when compared to less-skilled teams. They were never in a situation that they were going to be allowed to challenge a W/P or a Shibs. So why the hell should it matter that they didn't skate confidently? They were better at the foundational stuff than almost all the teams they kept ranking behind and so deserved the points that stuff is supposed to be given credit for.

      The topic of videos reminded me that I made a few in the past about the 2016 Nats P/O vs P/I situation. P/I made an error on a lift, yes, but their superior skating easily should have earned them enough of a buffer to get another trip to Worlds. I will give P/O credit that they did tend to "skate" their programs more than some, but you know what, so do a lot of junior teams. The vids aren't as specific as my recent ones, but the difference is pretty stark.

      https://twitter.com/canadablues/status/773779489255886848

      I absolutely loathe this open one-note FD by Marie-France (Alex flapping her arms on the word "wings" - such utter brilliance!) so the difficulty isn't there, and I think P/I regressed some in their skating after leaving DSC for Gadbois versus themselves, but for SC to put G/P out of their reach and then prop P/O over them too was criminal.

      Nearly everyone acts like there was something uniquely defective about P/I that they floundered at magical Gadbois, but the majority of the teams there are extremely mediocre on an ongoing basis and there is really no reason to think they are competent technical coaches for a team that had reached P/I's level. V/M are V/M, they don't count with these things. H/D have visibly improved but she was just getting her feet back under her from severe injury in their last season at DSC and, while very very good, they do not have the technical polish of the Shibs even after three seasons. Multiple teams flocking to Gadbois and being transformed isn't a thing that actually happened, but it is demonstrably true of the DSC. And P/I were terribly packaged in their Gadbois FDs which didn't help things, but why is that their fault? Any other situation fans blame the coaches, but no, P/I are held responsible for everything that went wrong in their career.

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    6. I am not 8:12 but ENDORSE THIS WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

      In fact, let's look at who moved to Gadbois since 2014:

      - P/C
      - Robledo/Fenero
      - H/D
      - P/I
      - Olivia Smart
      - V/M
      - Shane Firus

      P/C have been litigated and relitigated here. R/F are...not as terrible as they were four years ago I guess but talk about low bars. Like P/O, they needed special favors just to get a Worlds minimum one time, and like P/O, they promptly failed to qualify for the Worlds free dance -- the same Worlds, in fact!

      Olivia Smart and Shane Firus have, I believe, also been addressed here to varying extents in their partnerships. I hope whatever people here might think of their skating, they can generally agree their scores this year have fuckall to do with what they're showing technically.

      Hubbell's health cannot be overlooked as a factor in their improvements. And what also can't be overlooked is their own mistake-prone nature, a rep that only very recently began to dog them -- but Zach was quite infamous among some fans for his constant pratfalls on end poses and transitions for years before Gadbois. It's still happening. It's only getting noticed now because the stakes are higher, but as the stakes have raised, their self-doubt, or some inability to focus, seems to have gone along.

      And actually, I'll throw in FB/S, who have been at Gadbois their entire partnership. I like them fine. I like them better than the other Canadians left at Gadbois. And they have developed just as any team should over a number of years, but they're also pretty error-prone (tough to watch them without holding my breath through the twizzles), and they haven't made much progress in results or scores over the last quad. I know -- it's because of their fed, and now that will all change. But it's a bit of a double standard to dismiss their stagnation there as "fed problems" while shrugging off the same fundamental possibility for P/I.

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    7. Thank you canadablue and 9:46. It's unacceptable for fans to critique teams and placements while disregarding this is meant to be a sport, and worse for judges to do the same. A performance with deficient skating or lacking a true test of high level skating skills, delivered with confidence, should never defeat a less confident performance that displays the damn skills this sport is meant to be judging.

      Love the Hunger Games analogy - this is exactly ice dance. It's exactly Virtue and Moir's experience these past eight years. It's rigged for and against certain teams, and then there was/is Virtue Moir, who alone played the game with the entire sport rigged against them and beat it in the end.

      A word about them - I have no patience for criticism from other skaters or professional observers that, boils down, appears to object to the fact that a team with the most natural talent and the highest level of demonstrable skating skill should win every time. I am absolutely nauseated that the likes of Lynn Rutherford and Phil Hersch are so baked in their ignorance they can't recognize Virtue Moir have no equal. There's no apples to oranges. Good skating is good skating.

      The sport certainly appears to object to rewarding superior talent, leveling the playing field at every turn, in the rulebook and with the tech caller and judging panels. Imagine if all Olympic sports were that way - the most brilliant athletes in track and field, for example, were made to start yards behind, or carry weights, or were otherwise handicapped like mature racehorses, and less talented competitors not only got a head start, but tripping and falling were ignored or wiped out. "Let's see, they tripped and didn't recover for four seconds, let's deduct that from their time for the trial sprint - ah, look at that, they were the fastest."

      That's what ice dance has made of itself, and continues to make of itself.

      I think it's obvious that Paul Islam went to Gadbois only as a Hail Mary pass, politically speaking - something that's against their nature, it seems. But they're a loss to the sport. I'm very glad they got to be Olympians and skate that fabulous competition at Nationals 2014.

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  2. I think I prefer Beaudry/Sorensen to Soucisse/Firus... I wonder how the Canadian ice dance hierarchy is going to look like within a few years.

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    1. Who knows, but the existing officialdom certainly grifted while the grifting was good. Still wonder why William Thompson bolted when he clearly loved his position. Was it a personal reason (such as health) or was it political - or a reaction to politics?

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    2. Um, when I posted about the 'ice dance hierarchy', I was thinking more about the ice dance teams, not the officials. *sheepish*

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    3. The team from Denmark has much better basics than S&F, so with fair scoring they should pass them, and G&P as well really. S&F and FB&S score similarly, which IMO is political due to S&F being from a bigger federation. Interesting dynamic with D&L coaching both teams. With W&P not committed to retirement (which is ridiculous; their skills are deteriorating), one would imagine FB&S wouldn't be making the switch unless they were assured by SC they were in serious contention for the third spot. OTOH, if they start placing 10 places higher because they have a Canadian flag next to them, that makes ice dance look so bad. And you would think SC would prefer a homegrown team like S&F, but they're pretty terrible.

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    4. 9:08 I should have made it clear that I understood that before making my remark about officialdom, but as the hierarchy is determined by politics, that was my way of addressing it. What skater(s) ranks where depends on the alliances, politics, etc. made among those not on the ice.

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  3. what i love about hawake baker is if you look at their lifts last two years they are very very clearly trying to emulate VM's lifts which I find really wonderful. kryolova is their coach and she's a good choreographer but this team is obviously going to make a run for it in next quad and i hope they make it to the olympics and the U.S. podium.

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    1. I love Hawayak/Baker, especially him; his skating is almost Scott Moir-esque.

      If ice dance was a legit sport, H/B should absolutely be Worlds and Olympic podium contenders in the next quad. But because they train at DSC, which seems to be politically out of favour, they'll be pushed down and some bullshit team from Gadabois(or whatever the next training centre du jour is next quad) will be held up.





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    2. im hoping that if SHibs walk away from sport and let's be for real they will NEVER be allowed another olympic medal, the narrative will be HB vs. HD.

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    3. He's excellent, I particularly love the grace, efficiency and finesse of the step off in the lift gif-ted above. But Scott is more than wonderful musicality and powerful, smooth blade work - his balance over his skates is second to none. In the lift we can see Baker's spread eagle begin to be a bit un-evenly weighted as his left knee begins to extend further than his right. I think he has control of that, if it makes any sense. Some men just accept that this is their spread eagle, some avoid a spread eagle in a straight line, but I think Baker is aware because you can see him take the adjustment.

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    4. To add, a charming aspect of the lift exit is he takes her hand, she exits on an edge and he puts his other hand on her waist. So the exit transforms into a dance hold.

      oc

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  4. Unfortunately Hawayek and Baker's freedance looks positively old-fashioned next to P/C's. Whereas many people see P/C's freedance as being of a lyrical style, it really isnt. H/B despite having great moment of extension and etc, has the feel of Viennese theme restaurant. It is clear they are trying to emulate P/C, but upon any deeper analysis they just don't get what P/C are doing. But that's pretty much the same with all their copyists.

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    1. Because P/C's freedances are so innovative and the skating is so awesome? Wow, way to miss the point, Anon 4:38.

      Nobody is "copying" P/C - at least any self-respecting, skating teams aren't.

      Also, you're contradicting yourself here - "Whereas many people see P/C's freedance as being lyrical style, it really isn't." So what is it then? What's this awesome "deeper analysis" as to why we "just don't get what P/C are doing".

      What P/C is DOING is masking their lack of skating skills with a package that strips all difficult content so there's no chance they'll fall. That's it. Their marks are a result of pure corruption, not because of anything they're doing on the ice.

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    2. 438 is a pc troll duh.

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    3. In the end of the day if you don't have sufficient personal depth or a personal sense of artistry you are highly unlikely to be able to appreciate what P/C do. I would suggest that's likely the case in terms of yourself.

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    4. lol! love this PC troll.

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    5. I am pretty stupid so I do need help. :(

      Would you mind detailing for us the specific dance techniques being demonstrated throughout P/C's free dances, as well as outlining the specific ways in which they're utilizing melodic and harmonic lines in addition to simple and complex rhythms? That's all pretty surface though -- we might be better off if you can identify the philosophical concepts being argued or presented through each program, particularly the ways in which specific movements are used to engage with the music and represent some post-structuralist interpretation of ice dance's bourgeois traditions. Just make sure not to accidentally deconstruct these programs and find there's absolutely nothing of substance holding them together, lololol!

      Thx in advance!!!!

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    6. There's actually a lot of issues with what you have written. I would, for example, underline the fact you use the word "deconstruct" in a non-derridean derived manner, whereby you actually just mean analyse. I would also outline your layering of "representation" upon "interpretation". All in all all this little attempt at parody outlines is that you don't actually understand the vocabulary you are using, and aren't capable of using it in a way that actually makes sense. Good luck though!

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    7. this PC troll is awesome. google translate is working overtime.

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    8. PC's free dance is very fresh and modern for about 1985. If you want to credit them further, then let's do 1992. That only addresses their "style". Their skating will never stale, however. Bad skating is bad skating in any era.

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    9. Thanks 11:00 a.m. I had to look up non-derridean, and now I know a new term, though I don't see myself applying it any time soon, particularly when avoiding answering a question about where in their skate either Papadakis or Cizeron, let alone the two of them, show superior skating skills.

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    10. Again, the lens of "style". You poor thing.

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    11. I don't answer poor quality questions that the person asking feels they already know the answer to; and is asking for sarcastic effect.

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    12. Oh please with that. You are free to ignore the tone and answer the question, since this comment thread is about the skating. You came in making claims about PC's superiority and when asked to back them up with defined examples you decided to critique the word usage of the person who asked the question when you know perfectly well what they are asking. IOW, you're full of it.

      You will be deleted if you continue this bullshit. Define modern, define their style and also its relevance to judging criteria so their high scores are justified, define what is current and fresh about it. Finish what you started in terms of discussing the merits of the team within a judged, competitive context or you will be deleted, because right now you're trolling.

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    13. BTW, obviously I've deleted a bunch of stuff, and I want to tell any PC troll who has hang-ups about Gabriella's nose (which is perfectly fine - she's a good-looking woman) and therefore vents their resentment on Tessa, that they will be deleted and have their ISP blocked. Nice to get a window into how some PC fans lie to and console themselves.

      oc

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    14. H/B FD is not copying P/C. It looked very V/M if anything.

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    15. I don't think H/B's program is at all trying to emulate P/C. Their Liebestraume FD has always reminded me of Mahler. There were enough moments in it that were familiar that I went back to rewatch Mahler when they debuted that program in 2016.

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  5. Thoughts on the Canadian junior ice dance team L/lL who are trained by gadbois? They qualified for the gpf and are currently sitting in 2nd after the Sd at the junior worlds. People are gushing about them.

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  6. Speaking of pc cult fans where did the crazy ones from YouTube go? I haven't heard a peep out of them since Canadian nats. When I was scrolling through the comments of Tessa and scotts viral performance from the Olympics not a single mean comment? I can see S/F get cult like fans just like D/w and p/c. With L/L coming up, the Denmark team becoming Canadian and S/F coming up I can foresee P/I finnally getting the boot from Sc for real. Gadbois is forming a monopoly on ice dance just like eteri is with ladies and Brian had with men's.

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    1. Lol I meant G/P not P/I. ( I miss P/i 😐)

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    2. Well, good luck to Gadbois's second dominating cycle - without a Virtue Moir in the mix I'm sure ice dance will continue to rise in popularity as PC unveil their fifth Le Parc-derivative program in a row. I think blogger has a poll feature, don't know if it can be made into a post. Maybe we should do a poll guessing next season's free dance music. How about Red Violin? That seems just about right to me.

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    3. I can imagine pc doing a boring classical piece for the umpteenth time for their fs and fans calling it ballet on ice rinse recycle and repeat. Another gadbois team which is equally as bad as pc will come out of nowhere in two seasons as if on cue and win everything. Calling it now.

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    4. They claim that last season's fd was a departure from their style and this season they returned to their comfort zone, so we're talking imperceptible nuances here.

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    5. Really??? I don't see the difference. Maybe I'm interpreting the whole program and music wrong. Come to think of it, I'm seriously confounded with the scores with the seasons since D/W and V/M quad (and comeback till now). It's gone actually bonkers. I give up thinking they'd (i.e. Judges, journalist, skating org/Feds) have some sense. Or reined in somewhat. I guess the purpose of D/W's win shows us that scores can be easily manipulated, narrative believable as long as it's broadcasted enough by "experts" and worse, bad skating is actually great skating over superior ones. Go figure ...

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    6. 10:27, my comment was sarcastic. They've skated the same program four years running despite pretending there are differences, and will skate the same program next year.

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  7. Zach Donohue suffered from ADHD as a child. Maybe there's still some repercussions from that affecting his skating. He definitely has a very hyper demeanor and way of talking.

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  8. OMG I thought the tumblr anon was making stuff up but it's actually for real- VM are apparently not good technically and their Carmen glorifies rape.

    Go to Samantha Kelly's (YT account name) VM Worlds Carmen vid, change the comment setting to Newest First, and you'll see the comment not too far from the top.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Oa39Uojj0&t=199s

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  9. We already know this crap exists. Just like we know why fans come in and attack Tessa to make themselves feel better. Obviously those who claim VM aren't good technically don't know what technique is, they obviously don't know what rape is, and they all need to get out more. But it's just very recognizable and predictable fan behavior.

    oc

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  10. Tessa and Scott will be on The Ellen Show next Tuesday, March 20. Should be fun to watch.

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    1. and PC are definitely going to Worlds. snooze fest without VM and Shibs.

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    2. Hope HB can make their presence felt.

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    3. yeah. interesting to see who will be allowed to take 3rd place.

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  11. With them on The Ellen Show, i doubt they can lie about their actual status or if they have children easily, i mean, Ellen is not someone they can control or will have any interest in covering anything if they were are couple so what do you think about that interview coming soon? Do you think it will end up revealing something?

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    1. Ellen plays the game - just watch any time she pushes how very, very heterosexual certain teenage hearthrobs are. It's actually kind of sad considering her own history and I understand if people want to remain in the closet or aren't given much choice by their management but I just wish she wouldn't do it with such relish.

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    2. LOL, why do you all entertain OC's delusions?

      V/M just straight up denied they were together yesterday.

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  12. Ellen will show steamy still photos or gifs of their performances and ask innocently “so you are platonic business partners?” Which she can’t help because in their opening dance, their hands will be all over each other and Scott will be giving Tessa the “I want you in bed” looks that he is famous for. They will squirm and blubber the usual “we put on a really good act”, “we are best of friends”, “we are fond (can’t use the L word) and respect each other”, “we have worked with each other 20 years” nonsense. Scott will look at Tessa the whole time fixated on her “gorgeous green eyes” and he will hold onto every word she says. He will tell Ellen that Tessa is the most wonderful, brilliant, kindest partner he could ever have (almost beatified but not quite) and he only goes to the rink to see her. The audience will melt and let out an “awe” in unison. Ellen will show a “sure you do” smile and have them play one of her Game of Games – like 3 second rule and ask them pointed questions and they have 3 seconds to answer. (If you haven’t see this game, go to YouTube and see Sophia Vergara play with Ellen). Tessa will avoid the questions she doesn’t feel comfortable with and Scott will incriminate himself because he just can’t help it. He is so utterly smitten, crazy, over the moon, in love with her that I can’t see how anyone would believe otherwise. Their chemistry in the studio will be palatable and the audience – as well as millions of views will sigh wishing they all had such a “business relationship”. Life won’t be the same…

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    1. They denied it outright. What now?

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  13. This was posted in one of the skating forums (fancam of Olympics SD practice with V/M & P/C skating one after the other):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ0tvpg8Org&feature=youtu.be

    Someone on the forum remarked on how huge V/M's rhumba pattern was (they almost hit the boards) in comparison to P/C's. I don't know how P/C ubers can trumpet the French team's so-called excellence in that pattern.

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    1. Since "discovering" SM several weeks ago and watching all of their programs I can find on YouTube, I finally took a look at PC. My first thought is that PC perform and go through the movements well but SM bring their programs to life. Not only the superior skating and attention to details, the chemistry is the cherry on top that sends SM into the stratosphere of skating legends. I was thinking what it would look like if SM skated to the Ed Sheeran songs...the looks alone would be worth the admission.

      Another note, I saw a GIF on tumblr from one of the fan sites that showed Guillaume with his arm around Tessa's shoulders giving her a quick kiss on the head while Scott is skating in the background drinking water and being totally oblivious...Nice to see the friendship between the skaters.

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  14. https://twitter.com/canadablues/status/974913531555471360

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  15. Apparently, Krylova is moving back to Russia.

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  16. 25 minute interview with MFD @ the end of the latest TSL vid.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZVarsXHW7U

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  17. Two denials on TV, Canadian and American. So they're no longer playing coy, but straight up admitting "No."

    I'm inclined to believe them.

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    1. Yeah me too at this point I’ve always thought they were friends w benefits but ever believed they had a kid and hide it that’s a level of insanity unseen and just too far fetched

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    2. You really shouldn't believe everything you hear on TV, you know.

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