{"id":18340,"date":"2018-10-23T19:45:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T23:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=18340"},"modified":"2020-02-16T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T17:01:08","slug":"recap-skate-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/recap-skate-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap: Skate America"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Anne Calder | Photo by Robin Ritoss<\/em><\/p>\n

The 2018 ISU Grand Prix season officially began from October 19-21 in Everett, Washington. Ten couples representing seven countries competed for prize money and points. Four teams participated in their first Grand Prix event.<\/p>\n

The podium included Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue from the USA (gold), Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri from ITA (silver) and Tiffany Zagorski & Jonathan Guerreiro from Russia (bronze). The Italians and Russians won their first GP medals. The Americans won their 10th, but first gold.<\/p>\n

Rhythm Dance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Six points separated the top four teams; the third place Russians narrowly edged out the second Americans by .86.<\/p>\n

Hubbell & Donohue used two Astor Piazzolla selections for their tango music then added a small hint of his operetta, Maria De Buenos Aires<\/em> at the end. The segment scored 78.43.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found the classic Argentine style suited our skating,” Hubbell said.\u00a0 “This music had a lot of variation to show our power and sensuality; it also had some moments of sharpness.”<\/p>\n

The program began with tight level 4 twizzles that showed off their speed and ice coverage; the judges\u2019 reward was a 2.80 GOE. The duo missed three key points, but added five points to the base value for a total 17 panel score.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the program concluded with two deductions – costume and unexpected collapsed pose.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the dance, I got a little bit overly passionate and fell on top of Zach,” Hubbell said.\u00a0 “We tried to hold it like we were finished, but Zach put his hand down, and I stepped on it.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight I learned how flexible I am, and it\u2019s not as much as I thought,\u201d Donohue added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Guignard & Fabbri danced a few steps, and then made a spectacular cartwheel entrance into their level 4 twizzles that earned 1.87 GOE. Their two patterns scored over 16 points after hitting six of the eight key points. The final element \u2013 a diagonal step sequence scored a 2.63 GOE. The Italians chose three different tango selections for their dance that earned a 75.01.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to find more modern versions of tango music and less classical – to fit into our fast and strong way of skating on the ice,” Fabbri said. “We wanted to build strong, but also passionate to show our feelings for each other.”<\/p>\n

Zagorski & Guerreiro\u2019s first element was their strong and tight twizzles that earned a 1.97 GOE from the judges. They hit six of eight pattern key points that scored a total 15.46. The closing midline footwork showed crisp steps and closeness that the judges rewarded with a 2.76 GOE. Their tango music included \u201cBesame Mucho\u201d and a selection by Astor Piazzolla. The total segment scored 73.30.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time for us to perform the tango. I enjoyed taking a few ballroom classes,\u201d Zagorski said.<\/p>\n

Lorraine McNamara & Quinn Carpenter placed fourth with a personal best 72.44 score. The young Americans were the only team to earn level 4 for both patterns, which pushed their base value to the highest of the day \u2013 32.79.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun for our first Skate America,” McNamara said.\u00a0 “The crowd was amazing and gave so much energy. We wanted to feed off of our music and give what the music gives, not just a typical tango, but show the depth of our music and bring out emotion to touch the audience.”<\/p>\n

Free Dance\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The final results were the same as the Rhythm Dance placements, except the scoring margin between first and fourth places increased to 20 points.<\/p>\n

Hubbell & Donohue\u2019s 200.82 edged out the 200.78 earned by Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin at the recent Finlandia Trophy for the top 2018 Total score.<\/p>\n

With the introduction of the +5\/-5 Grade of Excellence (GOE) all statistics start from zero for the season 2018-19, and all previous statistics are now historical.<\/p>\n

Hubbell & Donohue chose both the instrumental and Des’ree vocal versions of \u201cKissing You\u201d from the Romeo and Juliet<\/em> soundtrack for their free dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe struggled to find music after last season,” Donohue said.\u00a0 “Madison has always loved the song, \u201cKissing You\u201d, so (Coach) Romain Haguenauer suggested we do Romeo and Juliet.<\/em> We had never portrayed a well-known story and put our own spin on it. So to do something we\u2019ve always wanted to do \u2013 why not at the beginning of the Quad?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cZach and I put in a lot of work since SLC \u2013 to dive into the emotions of Romeo and Juliet and also to put more skating quality and more power into the program,\u201d Hubbell added.<\/p>\n

The GOEs were all +3 and +4; the component scores were all 9\u2019s. They outscored the Italians in the segment by five points. The 122.39 free dance and 200.82 total score were personal bests.<\/p>\n

Guignard & Fabbri chose selections from La La Land <\/em>and scored a personal best 117.29. The Italian national silver medalists added a 2.59 GOE to the twizzles with a spectacular entrance lift. Their circular footwork and one-foot step sequence were rewarded with over 5.43 GOE marks. The total score was 192.30. The team was much happier with their performance than after the rhythm dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt better than last night,” Fabbri said.\u00a0 “Our legs were more tired, but we were more focused not to make small mistakes like yesterday. We will probably fix some elements, but it was a good dance for us.”<\/p>\n

McNamara & Carpenter outscored the Russians in the FD with a 108.13 score, but missed the podium by less than a point. The total 180.57 was a personal best.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I think we were more focused on giving our best performance, and that\u2019s the most we can do,\u201d Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

Zagorski & Guerreiro held off the Americans and placed third with a 181.38 total score. Their free dance was \u201cBlues for Klook\u201d by Eddie Louis choreographed by Christopher Dean. All the elements are new to the team, which could explain the deductions for extended lifts. This is also their first outing as Zagorski has been bothered with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be completely honest, we didn\u2019t know what was going to happen today,” Guerreiro said.\u00a0 “We have not had that many free dances under our belt. We were praying and hoping for the best and that our experience from last year would help us get through it. And it did! We didn\u2019t fall, which was good. It was quite rough. It\u2019s a good start.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to do our program to show our new style of choreography,\u201d Zagorski added. \u201cBy the next competition, we can add on to what we did today and not have any deductions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highlight was their level 4 twizzles, which were tight and covered a lot of ice. The segment score was 108.08.<\/p>\n

Skate Canada International will be held from October 26-28 in Montreal, QC Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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