Ice Dance, Original Dance
The Original Dance of the 2008/09 season is rhythms of the 20s, 30s and 40s. The 30 couples in the event chose a wide variety of dances.
Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein (USA) strengthened their lead after the Compulsory Dance ahead of teammates Madison Hubbell/Keiffer Hubbell. Ekaterina Riazanova/Jonathan Guerreiro of Russia moved up from seventh to third place.
Chock/Zuerlein put out a strong performance of their entertaining Charleston routine that was highlighted by a straight line lift with changes of position and fast twizzles. The Junior Grand Prix Final Champions were awarded a level four for the lift, the spin and the twizzles and a level three for the circular and the side by side footwork. The team earned 57.29 points (32.60 element score/24.69 program component score) and improved their previous personal best by 3.51 points. Overall the U.S. Junior Champions accumulated 90.44 points so far. “It’s actually a lot of fun to do this area of 20s and 30s because I’ve always loved the Charleston, the outfits they had back then. It’s just a lot of fun to interpret”, Chock commented. “We’re basically happy with our performance. It was solid for the most part and we just connected well with each other like we usually do because it’s just fun to skate with him”, she added. Her partner agreed: “This performance definitely ranks up there with others. I think it was one of our top performances this season. Obviously there were a few parts that were shaky. I stumbled a little bit on a step, but it wasn’t on an element. That was ok.”
Hubbell/Hubbell had chosen a Blues and danced to “Minnie the Moocher”, showing off their maturity and strong footwork. The brother and sister team produced a straight line lift, a dance spin and twizzles that were all graded a level four while the circular steps and the side by side midline step sequence were graded a level three by the Technical Panel. The Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalists scored 53.44 points (30.50/22.94), slightly surpassing their previous personal best of 53.31 points and were ranked third in the Original Dance. Overall they remained in second place at 84.83 points.
Riazanova/Guerreiro delivered a smooth Slox Fox to “C’est si bon” by Louis Armstrong and a lively Swing to “Sing Sing Sing” by Louis Prima that included a excellent synchronized twizzles, a one-armed rotational lift and precise footwork. The twizzles, the spin and the lift got a level four, the side by side and circular footwork a level three. The Russian Junior Champions picked up 53.80 points (30.60/23.20) and collected at total of 82.82 so far to move up four spots after the Compulsory Dance.
The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009 continue Friday with the Ladies Free Skating and the Free Dance. For more information and full results please see: www.isu.org and http://www.isuworldjunior2009.com. An extended version of this report will be available on the website later tonight.
