State of the Art: Pair Skating

Of all the disciplines I have always admired Pair Skating the most. Pair skating requires two equally skilled single skaters who have trained all their lines, edges and body movements to be as one plus numerous extremely acrobatic elements to be executed with perfect quality. It is true that pair skating looks horrible when the pairs try too difficult elements for their level. But when all is trained to the perfection added with good speed and interpretation of music not to forget the famous connection on the ice, Pair skating is pure joy to watch (read about G&G). The element of risk is always present what makes it ever so exiting.

It is good to remember that it was Pair Skating and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier who made Figure Skating to change the whole judging system by their Salt Lake City program of Love Story. Audience and whole Figure Skating family did not accept their silver after a clean program and couple of days later the political bias was revealed behind the results. Gold medal was shared and Figure Skating was never the same.

My favourite duo couple of years back were a classy Canadian pair of Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison. They had such smooth lines on ice and a sweet connection. Unfortunately their career ended for Bryce's knee injury leaving bronze medal at worlds their best ever result. This program is from their last season and has a really classy style.

But most recently, what is hot in Pair Skating? Interesting enough the reigning Olympic Champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov are having a break and Tatiana very pregnant. Aliona Savchenko, multiple World Champion has made a comeback with a new partner. Five years younger Bruno Massot is huge besides tiny Aliona and they have delivered some promising programs. Overall Pair Skating does not have one single star but a handful of pairs who can all win at their best day. They are all still building up to their very perfection but they all are a joy to watch.

Canadians Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford are great and athletic but compared to the legends of the discipline I still miss the harmony on ice. Young Russians Yevgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (Their names are made for winning in Pair Skating 😃) are the most promising and have dominated the arenas this year. The other two Russian pairs are just an inch behind. Then there are Wenging Sui and Cong Han, Chinese porcelain dolls - so fast, so skilled and yet so small but rumored to be injured this season however there are other Chinese pairs who could podium at worlds. Europeans had a really delightful bronze pair Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres - long timers in the discipline but what a progress they have made this year!

So the doors are wide open for the new stars! Personally I always enjoy watching Italians Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek. Valentina was a great rival of Kiira Korpi in singles but couple of years back she switched to Pair Skating and has made a really delightful career there with Ondrej. With clean programs they are just knocking the door for top six at worlds.

State of the Art: Ice Dance

It became true yesterday. I will be watching Helsinki World Figure Skating Championships LIVE on the arena every single day in March as part of the volunteer organisation. Now it is time to summarize past couple of years, building ultimately to 2018 Olympic Games. Helsinki is a key milestone on the way as the results will determine the initial entries to Olympic Games. So, lets start with Ice Dance.

Picture: www.goldenskate.com

There is one star brighter than all the other and that is the French Ice Dance duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron - funny enough making the abbreviation of G&G by their first names as well (read this). They jumped from junior ranks directly to the very top of the seniors by winning both Euros and Worlds in the season of 2014-2015. Their magnificent free program combined of contemporary dance and classical Mozart Adagio made everybody to realize that there is yet another direction in Ice Dance and these two are the pioneers of that ground. I remember writing to my Facebook wall after their first GP competition that let me predict these to be the new stars. Finally we have an Ice Dance pair who could bring the true nature of contemporary dance on the ice and expand it to new levels with the fluidity of the ice. The inspiration for the program is from a dance piece Le Parc made for professional dancers. In the previous year I had paid attention to the smooth and extremely flexible body lines of Guillaume. He is by no doubt all time best male ice dancer so far.

The year after they continued their contemporary style with beautiful lyrical music.They left everybody speechless again by telling of a story of building a home in a new circumstances of their life. (Placing 1st in Euros and Worlds again)

This year they challenge their fans, audience and judges by coming with borderline music of rather abstract theme and rhythm and they are skating with their smooth contemporary style to a chaotic almost unstructured choreography. I must admit it took me time to accept that and I'm still trying to get the deepest meaning of that. Looking forward to see that LIVE! However they won Europeans again albeit the start of the season has been a roller coaster and they have not dominated Ice Dance this year.

Who is behind this duo? How come they have achieved such success and become the youngest ever Ice Dance World Champions. Their coaches Marie-France Dubreul and her husband and Ice Dance partner in competitive years Patrice Lauzon together with a choreographer Romain Haguenauer are the "Team Zueva" of late 2010. It is this team that has made such an impact on Ice Dance. Marie-France is former world medalist with Patrice but it seems that they will make even bigger impact on Ice Dance as a coach and choreographer team. And what a jewel they have with Papadakis Cizeron to make their ideas live!

But, this year we heard that the former multiple World Champions and Olympic Champions 2010 Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are returning to competitive skating. Not only that, but with the same team of Marie-France and Patrice behind them. The pattern of one coaching team with different pairs concentrating on the top seems to continue when the old team of Zueva is slowly fading from it's fame. Virtue and Moir will be great but Papadakis and Cizeron have all the goods to go beyond great, something we can't imagine yet.