September 19
WHAT TO WATCH
1. Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam, U.S. International Figure Skating Classic short dance (Big Spender / Sing Sing Sing) (LINK)
While not the skate they may have hoped for, this rhythmic, athletic, and technically demanding short brings out some of the team’s best — and often unheralded — abilities.
2. Brittany Jones and Josh Reagan, U.S. International Figure Skating Classic short program (Under the Bridge) (LINK)
A clean skate for the pair who teamed up in 2013 — and struggled last season while reworking technique with new coach Bryce Davison — boded well for a strong event overall, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers make a refreshingly quirky pick for high-level competitive skating.
3. Alicia Fabbri and Claudio Pietrantonio, JGP Cup of Mordovia free dance (Any Other World / Over My Shoulder) (LINK)
Last season, they won novice silver at Canadian Nationals, and a fine JGP debut for this young team — she’s just 13 — holds promise for their future results as the season unfolds.
4. Nica Digerness and Danny Neudecker, JGP Cup of Mordovia short program (Spartacus) (LINK)
Another JGP debut, this one from a pair who finished seventh in the novice pairs event at last season’s U.S. Nationals. They’ve made a nice transition to junior so far with a pair of balletic pieces, including this short — and experience is key, with Neudecker aging out of junior eligibility next season.
With neither program available on YouTube, readers with access to Icenetwork’s archives might also take a look at Alexandria Shaughnessy Ronzio and Jimmy Morgan‘s skates in the pairs event — a first-time international appearance for the team (ninth at 2016 U.S. Nationals, though also making a good showing at this month’s MidAtlantics club event), and handled with great grace and some lovely touches on standard elements.
THE TFTI BONUS
Cut for time from our May 2016 feature “With Past as Prologue, Paul and Islam Carry On,” as talk turned to conceptual possibilities for a then-unchosen 2016-17 free dance:
“You obviously want to make the upcoming season your best one yet, with all these factors and things you learned in the past from programs we’ve done. But, you know, for us this year, it’s not going to be what we skate to. A big improvement we know we need to make is our performance, and a lot of that comes from confidence. So I think that finding our confidence and the performance quality and the excitement that we bring to a program because of that confidence — that is going to be what makes a program special. It’s not going to be a piece of music or what kind of program it is. We just need to step up our performance with whatever we’re doing.” — Mitch Islam, May 2016
September 26
WHAT TO WATCH
With so many big names competing this week, we’re looking at a few of the performances you may have missed.
1. Lubov Iliushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch, Nebelhorn Trophy exhibition (Since I’ve Been Loving You) (LINK)
Their tango short is a nice display of dance and Josh Groban free a fine continuation of their lyrical strengths, but a revival of TFTI’s favorite pairs program of 2015-16 can’t be denied — even with the loss of the competitive version’s exquisitely daring death spiral entry.
2. Ashlynne Stairs and Lee Royer, JGP Ljubljana Cup free dance (LINK)
They’ve had better skates of this free dance in terms of presentation, with delivery here a little rushed, but they did enough to set a new personal best score. The program itself shows the team’s good growing musicality. And most exciting — this one original Beatles-scored skate slipped through YouTube’s automated copyright software!
3. Camille Ruest and Drew Wolfe, Souvenir Georges-Éthier short program (Something) (LINK)
A real improvement in connection even since the Quebec Summer Championships — look at those side-by-side spins! — and in good time for their international debut this week in Pierrefonds. The free showed room for more development, but this short is a great step up to build on.
THE TFTI BONUS
Scores at top in Nebelhorn’s dance event were steep ones for a September competition — but TFTI wondered what it really meant in visual terms.
It’s true two-thirds of the podium line-up from 2015 to 2016 have changed — but Chock and Bates, last year’s victors, remain, setting an interesting idea of the scale of change:
Which, too, makes a comparison between last year’s first events — Challengers all — and this year’s also illuminating. Scores from last season’s Worlds, an exceptionally generous affair, are included for a sense of a team’s ultimate standard:
