#jennifer swan seems to be in toronto now

[sunskate]

A/V are carried by her extensive training in Vaganova ballet. Teams can get away with murder below the knees with judges and audiences alike if the girl has perfect carriage and gorgeous arms and hands and carries no tension in her neck and shoulders so it always looks effortless even if everything is going horribly wrong (Madi Chock is one of the most decorated ice dancers of all time through this avenue). Ontario needs to find a serious ballet teacher if London has one because their most promising team V/B have everything going for them except for that and they’ll lose to less skilled skaters who do have it as a result.

oof. it’s true there seems to be a bonus for beautiful dance carriage ... for some teams lol - is it bc judges differ on what they value in skating skills but extensive ballet training sets a few skaters apart?

but if a skater has beautiful ballet carriage and gorgeous arms, then reflect that in Presentation and the 'multidimensional movements and use of space' criteria of the Composition score, don't give them blanket higher PCS for it? flow, power, speed, and glide are part of the Skating Skills score, and it doesn't always feel like those are adequately rewarded. like if there's a beautiful dancer bonus, then there should be a long glide, filling the rink with your power and speed bonus too

this is not a criticism of Aboian/Veselukhin - they're doing amazing straight out of the gate, have beautiful qualities and have been executing their programs well. i notice that seeing them on video magnifies what they do well, and that it's much less noticeable they're skating small etc than in person

but the judges are there in the arena, so idgi. W/T had a twizzle mistake in the RD, and i didn't love their FD program, but i don't understand how the judges gave them lower PCS for their skating skills than A/V in the FD or how they were down a point each in GOE on their lifts and step sequence by comparison

W/T's scores felt low for what they put on the ice. and i'm simultaneously puzzled about these programs and packaging. they can still make JGPF and the Junior Worlds podium, but thinking back the last couple seasons to the Mrazeks, B/B, N/M, L/Q and more - their Jr Worlds programs had stakes - you can see it when a coaching/choreo team is swinging for the podium, and i don't get that vibe here. which is odd, since they have the potential