State of Russian ice dance drama [01.09.2017]

Posted on 2017-09-01 • 7 comments

 

Summer is over and so it happened that first day of autumn is Friday – a day when I discuss Russian ice dance)

Today will be a bit unusual review. Some dancers were brave enough to show their new dances before Russain test skates, so I’m going to discuss them also.

Ekaterina Bobrova showed us that she’s in great shape:

Ekaterina Bobrova

Dima shared his intentions and plans for the season:

Dmitri Soloviev

And then I saw this………

video: WwwTulupRu

Probably I should be nice, talking about first pair from a country with powerful figure skating federation and medal ambitions.  Well……Katya’s dress and hairdo are actually pretty. Was I nice enough? Because that’s all.

You know, there are some skaters/dancers who don’t look well in sexy or passionate dances. No matter what they do and how hard they try, in such dances they look rather funny than sexy. Ekaterina and Dmitri are one of them. I don’t understand why coach and choreographer don’t see that and don’t give them dances with a different stylistic. Instead of looking solid and chic as an experienced pair, they look like teens who want to seem older and super hot.

My “favorite” moment of the dance:

Oh and the final pose…..it’s better than on photo we saw last week, but still looks like “back to the strip club”

Unfortunately, not only  choreography upsets me. They don’t look strong technically. Katsalapov’s twizzles disease infected Dima? What happened with the lift? Lifts never have been a problem for this pair. I didn’t expect good dance from them, but I did expect at least solid technique, as they are the most experienced pair in Russian team.

And please change Dima’s shirt. It has nothing to do with latina, Katya’s dress and he looks like a waiter.

Victoria and Nikita also showed the short dance:

video: WwwTulupRu

Hmmm the music is unusual, maybe even wierd, but the quality of the sound is poor, so I think it’s better to wait for a better video to make judgment about music choice.

Zhulin’s favorite is back) Actually, it’s good to see old good Nikita. Expressive, self-confident, a bit arrogant. Need to say, I like their SD (both choreo and execution) more than Bobrova/Soloviev’s. Maybe that’s because they had more time for preparation, off-season started earlier for them.

Well it’s not a classic ballroom latina, it’s rather a street latina. And I think it could work for Vika and Nikita. What I didn’t like – long entry into the lift and the lift itself. It looked too slow and a bit sloppy. What’s going on with lifts in Zhulin’s group? But holy cows, Nikita did twizzles!

As for the Vika’s dress, rumour has it that she’ll have another for competitions. It’s good, because this one is nice and elegant but doesn’t suit the stylistic of the program. But she can keep it for official practices.

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin didn’t show us anything, not even a short video on Instagram, the music choice is also a mystery. Guess, we should wait till the test skates.

Alexandra Stepanova

Also no news from Tiffany Zahorski and Jonathan Guerreiro. At least we know that they have a FD to “Muse” choreographed by Peter Tchernyshev. I think Muse should suit them.

Alla Loboda and Pavel Drozd debuted with their senior FD

video: WwwTulupRu

I have mixed feelings. Pavel is good, but unfortunately he doesn’t skate alone. I don’t like this dance. Maybe it would work better for someone else. But here I have an impression that they are not comfortable with it, the moves don’t look natural. Especially, for Alla. She can’t keep the same speed with her partner and she doesn’t have enough energy for the last part of the dance. Sorry, I’m not impressed.

Let’s better take a look at handsome Pavel

Pavel Drozd

Betina Popova and Sergei Mozgov also showed their FD.

Guess the music on the first try

Betina Popova Sergei Mozgov

Yep, another Carmen! :)

video: WwwTulupRu

It’s neither traditional Carmen, nor modern….it’s something in the middle, but surprisingly I liked it and I see a potential in this dance. You may joke about warhorse music, but this music helps, it drives, it gets a reaction from the audience. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need. Betina is back to great shape and they both keep good speed through the entire program. Beautiful spin, with interesting positions, interesting lifts (especially I liked the curved one). Really, I’m pleasantly surprised and looking forward to see the development of this dance. Though I wish Betina has less facial expressions, sometimes it’s too much) Need to say I liked them more than Alla and Pavel.

I know that it’s probably a rehearsal/training dress, but I quite like the concept (except fo the half-over the boots black tights).

Elena Ilinykh and her interest in art….Frida Kahlo, Dali I see some pattern here)

Elena Ilinykh

Elena Ilinykh Anton Shibnev

previous episode [25.08.2017]


 

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7 Responses to “State of Russian ice dance drama [01.09.2017]”

  1. OlgaLV says:

    Zhulin’s style is quite visible in his pairs.At some moments it looked for me that Viktoria and Nikita is like Navka,Kostamarov in their moves.But of course these pairs are not comparable with each other.

  2. Kitty Warner says:

    You’re right, I forgot about S/B, they are #2. So, #3 Victoria and Nikita need to go back to lift school!

  3. Harold says:

    I thought Nikita and Victoria looked better than Dmitri and Ekaterina.

  4. Kitty Warner says:

    Looks like Russia #1 and #2 need to go back to lift school. They were painful to watch.

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