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Something I will say about the current state of ice dance is that never before has the midtier dance field been this good. It used to be that after the top ten things got dire and the teams fighting to make the fd were straight up unwatchable. Nowadays I actually want to make the FD field a little bigger there are so many solid teams

I agree, I also commented about this in my recent rewatch of the 2018 ice dance event at the Olympics. There, I felt like below the top 4 things started to mostly fall apart (though there were some good programs), but if I compare it even to worlds this year, there were so many solid skates in the top 20, that it was much different than the past, where the first teams were skating so rough.

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I'd like to add that until this last season Skate Canada has been TERRIBLE about giving their skaters opportunities to compete. You get one senior b at best and you'll like it. This means that if you don't have a really successful junior career its really hard to beeak through. You can't get the WS or SB points to earn a GP yourself, so you're stuck fighting for the same one host spot. Compare to the US which strategizes to give all their top dance teams chances to compete, which is how they usually max out their dance spots because so many of their teams end up on season's best lists. (It also doesn't help that Canada keeps losing their most promising juniors)

God, they really are the worst. They made it so that if you don't have a junior career, you have no opportunities. And their highest-ranked team this year was in 8th place, and their last junior medalists have already split. They truly have no pool of dancers just waiting in line, and given Canada's single skating state is so dire, dance has been their most successful discipline for years. So their complete lack of long-term planning is astonishing. They're not giving their skaters any meaningful events, resulting in them having only 4 teams in the GP circuit. For comparison, the US has 10 (!!!) teams (only two of them through junior results), and even France has 4 teams with two more host spots to give.

God, even writing this made me angry LOL.

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I say this with enormous affection for Shoma and Marin: a lot of the hype comes from the low expectations imo. Like for two retired single skaters where neither has a background in ice dance, they self choreographed, and he's shorter than she is, they look amazing! The twizzles are like legit L4 twizzles too even if a bit far apart, and their SS has always been gorgeous. I think the fanyus blinded themselves to how gorgeous Shoma's edges and knees are and can only recognize it now that he's in a different field and so no threat. They look great and they have lovely chemistry too, but they're also clearly singles skaters? Idk, give them another year of training and they might look readier for international competition, but I dont know that that is or should be their goal. I'd be delighted to see them do shows together for years to come though!

Yeah, I agree with every single word you wrote, and my love for Shoma is long documented :)

I think even after all those years since compulsories were canceled, when I think about a skater's ice dance ability, my first thought is always - can I believe this skater can do a Golden Waltz? And to be fair, while I don't think Shoma and Marin could do it, I also don't think that half of the current field can do it. I can't even see most of them do something "simpler" like the Tango Romantica or the Argentine tango (I know both are not simple, I just think they are simpler than the Golden Waltz). Hell, when I imagine most of the field doing a Yankee Polka, I burst out laughing...

I would love to see Shoma and Marin doing shows together for a long time, they so clearly enjoy it, and they can for sure improve, but if I were them, I'd stay clear of competitions, it takes much more than anyone imagines.

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I have a new fave now! I haven’t heard of Hansen/Lickers before but OMG I love what they’re presenting. Why aren’t they getting more recognition and assignments? Is it funding issues? Politicking issues? Skate Canada not caring?

They are no ranked high enough, which gets them fewer opportunities, which in term results in them not being ranked high enough...

They have been progressing beautifully for a few seasons now, but I feel like for them to go to the next level, they need the challenge of international competitions and a full season. There's a limit to how much you can motivate yourself when your biggest competition is nationals. At the very least, Sate Canaada should be sending them to more challengers and senior B events, it's not like they have that many promising teams after the post-2026 retirements will happen (I assume both G/P and L/LG will retire, so they will have L/L and F/A, which is still to be seen how big they can be, and I don't think their current juniors are that promising, while H/L are already mature and can do well). It's crazy to me that the biggest international competition this team attended is Finlandia Trophy, so short-sighted by Skate Canada.

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On a brighter note: the first episode of the pairs lore is definitely less biased

Listened to about 14 minutes of it so will share more when I actually have a chance to finish it

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So since you're a big ice dance fan and I know nothing about it, I'm curious about your opinion on this.

Shoma Uno and Marin Honda did an ice dance routine at Shoma's new show recently, so, with the caveats that a) this video isn't the whole thing, b) they've apparently only been practicing ice dance since October, and c) this is a show setting, not competition, would you be willing to share your thoughts on their routine here? https://www.tumblr.com/theskatingarchive/790524674823028736/%E6%9C%AC%E7%94%B0-%E7%9C%9F%E5%87%9C-marin-honda-%E5%AE%87%E9%87%8E-%E6%98%8C%E7%A3%A8-shoma-uno-jpn-2025-ice?source=share

Overall, I think Shoma and Marin both have such great basic skating skills that I think they are doing very well. Shoma, in particular, always skated such difficult step sequences that his edge work and knee bend might be the best out of all the male skaters we've seen in around a decade (yes, I think he is better than Hanyu).

Having said that, it takes a lot to go from singles to dance, we saw when KanaDai teamed up that while Daisaku was a wonderful single skater, he was below average in dance because it requres so much more. For the specific program you shared, you can see a lot of two-foot skating, nice twizzles but far apart, and a great connection but not a lot of eye contact in the first half (usually happens when it's more two single skaters skating together than a "real" ice dance team). The second half is better, and both are freer in it, and the lift is nice (but short). Overall, they are wonderful, and I'll watch Shoma skate to basically anything, but there's a long way for them to go until they can be competitive ice dancers (and I doubt they would like to).

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I think H/L are definitely 4CC bound, which may also give them some badly needed WS points

Yeah, barring disasters, they should have a 5th-place finish at nationals, so I would expect that for them. God knows they are deserving.

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seeing the other programs coming out of IAMO especially I am very curious as to what cpom are doing

Hard same, they have a very very strong streak the past 3 years, so we can be optimistic, but they also need very strong material given the strong internal competition they have for the Olympic spot. I'm seated, that's for sure.

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Well it looks like ice dance teams woke up today and chose chaos LOL. So many FD announcements that keep coming!

Orihara/Pirinin - 3rd year in a row of them doing a musical FD, this time the musical version of Moulin Rouge. Will be interesting to see how that looks like given I don’t think anyone else used the musical music (instead of the film) so far.

Taschlers - will be doing the Matrix FD, not sure what I think about that, it can be great, but I kind of hoped we’ll get a more coherent identity for them with the coaching change.

Smart/Dieck - as I wrote, Dune p.2 can be a big success for them, will depend on it being better than part 1.

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A very smart move from Smart/Dieck, Dune was a hit but repeating it would have made it stale. To have a Dune p.2 program is capitalizing on the success of the first Dune program but still leaving tons of room for creativity and new things. Super promising.

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It's so annoying that Hensen/Lickers have one of my favorite FDs for the 4th year in a row, but we never get to see it professionally shot, and they never have a real chance to mature a program until the end of the season since their season basically ends at Canadian nationals. Waiting for this to change.

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A disappointing FD from Lim/Quan for me at least. it's a soft and lyrical FD but highly generic, and while one of the lifts is new, the rest of the lifts and the choreographic elements are all reused from past programs. What is even more dissapointing is the amount of two foot skating that happens throughout the entire program - it's super apparent, especially in their diagonal step sequence. On the bright side, they had the highest BV on the night, and overall emote well during the FD.

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Quite a departure from their usual style for the Browns in this The Godfather FD, overall a nice program for them, I hope this win will help them get the host spot at Skate America.

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I really feel for Pate/Bye, there was for sure potential in their partnership, but under Igor, who always had other teams he clearly preferred, they never found an identity and were forced to always have the most generic FDs: Riverdance, Prince Igor, and now Lion King. And you think they could have arguably attempted to present a fresher take on The Lion King, but no. Igor gave them the most generic Lion King possible, with the music cut we all heard a million times before, including the same ending crescendo. Truly sad for them.

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Hensen/Lickers, on the other hand, decided to channel their coach and gave us a very H/D inspirsed FD, and it works really well for them. There are a lot of great moments in the choreography, and the combo lifts can be super cool when they nail it. I will say, though, that they look undertrained for me, so I do wonder what their summer was like. I really wish they had gotten a GP assignment finally.

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L/LG's FD might be the first time I'm left a bit unimpressed by IAMO choreography. To be clear, I love this style of music, and unlike many, I loved Chock/Bates's Snake Charm FD and never found it offensive, but this feels a bit like a knock-off of that program, and I'm not sure L/LG have enough charisma to make that work.

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The dramatic responses to Lin/Quan's RD are so odd, it's really not a bad program, and one that fits them quite well