#the 2nd curve lift traveled in a straight line

[sunskate]

ACI ice dance- first warmup group plus W/T

did i already say i love Dozzi/Papetti's Nessun Dorma program lol when you're a newer team, judges don't give you the benefit of the doubt if you make mistakes, and D/P had issues with twizzles and levels on steps at this event - but give me an expressive team any day. some skaters have a sensibility or taste informing their choices so that they know how to calibrate things - like LaLa - another team doing the ChaCha Slide could have been epically tacky. or Hannah and Ye- some of the gestures she's making at the end of Umbrellas could be overwrought and ott, just *too much* -- but she’s judging it so that it goes to the line but not over it, and it works. anyway, Leia and Pietro have a certain elegance - their tango last year was like this too, where it feels organic and musical

Robinson/Portz- their serpentine lift in the FD is a highlight for me - it's beautiful how they change position as he changes curves (don't get me started on how another team in this competition with a serpentine lift is on a flat for the 2nd curve lift but scored higher with it😑 Olivia and Tim are the 3rd team with one, and theirs is very cool, and i love how it ends right on the music). Alyssa and Jacob have nice soft knee action. i know he said he likes the fun RD most, but the softness and emotion of this program works really well - i like them a lot too

Harris/Chan's FD felt confusing in person - i can see more clearly what they're going for on the video - the music feels kind of episodic, and there's an ebb and flow like ocean waves in it that they're not quite capturing yet. if you're going to do something atmospheric you have to cast a spell with it, and they have some awkward moments to iron out before they can hold the audience with this-- i think this is a difficult program to pull off because it needs to flow like water

Wolfkostin/Tsarevskiy-- Charlie White did this really annoying thing where he'd clap very loudly when his team finished some of the elements - many coaches clap for their teams, but usually you feel they're clapping like they're applauding. but Charlie was very insistent and loud, like A) trying to get the audience to start clapping for them - it mostly didn't work💀 you have to give people credit - crowds won't be swayed if they're not feeling it, B) showing the judges he thought it was good or trying to influence them into thinking that, or C) signaling to the team that he approved. like stop interjecting yourself and let their skating speak for itself lol

(but after he did that for his team, both MF and Romain loud clapped for the IAM teams who came after - they hadn't done it for anyone before that. i just got a really competitive vibe from Charlie with this)

W/T had a skate they can be happy with here - they had a twizzle issue, but so did so many other teams- this was a deeper field than at Lake Placid where they won. W/T were in the club comp and Pate/Bye were in the International, so they didn't go head to head at Lake Placid