\u00a0<\/p>\n
by Michelle Wojdyla<\/p>\n
Three juvenile dance teams. Three medals.<\/p>\n
Two gold.<\/p>\n
Huh?<\/p>\n
When Zoe Sakas & Christopher Larosa finished their free dance and saw their overall score (48.50) posted, they assumed they would have a bronze medal. Danielle & Alexander Gamelin scored 72.34 and Tori Look & David Botero had 64.43.<\/p>\n
This was not the case. Starting this competitive season, the juvenile and intermediate dancers would all go directly to the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships (a.k.a. \u2018junior nationals\u2019) and skip their regional competitions. Competing in their sectional championship was optional. Both the Gamelins and Sakas & Larosa were from the North Atlantic Region, and therefore went gold-silver instead of gold-bronze. This was news to Sakas & Larosa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they told us we\u2019re like, \u2018um, no. We got third,\u2019\u201d Sakas said.<\/p>\n
Dressed in red and black, the young couple skated to Jennifer Lopez\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Get Loud\u201d and a paso doble.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our first competition,\u201d Sakas said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been skating [together] for about six months now. It\u2019s good experience to be down here. We worked really hard towards it. I think we did ok.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did the best we could,\u201d Larosa added.<\/p>\n
With a short time before they head to Salt Lake City for junior nationals, the team is feeling ambitious.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should make our program more complicated, with harder movements in it, as long as we feel we aced all the stuff before,\u201d Sakas said.<\/p>\n
Her partner mentioned their action plan: \u201cwork, work, work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twins Danielle and Alexander Gamelin skated a strong free dance to Arabian music. Out of the 30 GoE scores given, 28 were either 0 or 1. They received only two \u20131 GoE, both on their step sequence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf of our footwork is on one foot and we tend to lose our balance at the end,\u201d Alexander explained.<\/p>\n
The team received three level 4 elements: the twizzles, straightline lift and combination spin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was nervous at first,\u201d Alexander confessed. \u201cWe tend to mess up the twizzles sometimes, and after we did the clean twizzles I was \u2018whew\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n
The highlight of their free dance is twisted\u2014literally.<\/p>\n
Instead of going heel-to-heel in their pairs spread eagle, Danielle goes toe-to-toe. Her position is perfectly straight as she glides in front of her brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do it because my hips turn in and my knees aren\u2019t aligned,\u201d Danielle said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was practicing spread eagles\u2014\u201c Alexander began, before his sister finished his sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201c– and I got a little jealous,\u201d Danielle admitted. \u201cI was just standing against the boards, turning my feet in and then I was \u2018I\u2019ve got an idea!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
With little time before their next competition, the Gamelin\u2019s have a game plan similar to Sakas & Look\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cFix the kinks and practice, practice, practice, practice,\u201d Alexander stated, before putting in the exclamation point: \u201cPractice!\u201d<\/p>\n
Hometown skaters Look & Bortero found competing at home a unique experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really weird because we weren\u2019t in hotels and stuff,\u201d Look said. \u201cThis is our home rink. We were going to have more people come, but we didn\u2019t know we were skating so early.\u201d<\/p>\n
The juvenile free dance started at 7:45 a.m.<\/p>\n
Skating to Sarah Brightman\u2019s \u201cHarem,\u201d Look & Botero earned a level four on their twizzles. Some balance issues brought multiple \u20131s on the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it went pretty good,\u201d Botero said. \u201cWe could have done better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Look concurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always something to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the only team representing the South Atlantic region, Look & Botero stood atop the podium at the end of the day. Next on the schedule\u2014after all that practicing\u2014is to go west, young dancers, to the 2008 U.S. Junior Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 by Michelle Wojdyla Three juvenile dance teams. Three medals. Two gold. Huh? When Zoe Sakas & Christopher Larosa finished their free dance and saw their overall score (48.50) posted, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recap-archive"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?resize=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?resize=489%2C382&ssl=1",489,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?fit=489%2C489&ssl=1",489,489,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?resize=400%2C489&ssl=1",400,489,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NOFM.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u00a0 by Michelle Wojdyla Three juvenile dance teams. Three medals. Two gold. Huh? When Zoe Sakas & Christopher Larosa finished their free dance and saw their overall score (48.50) posted, […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-eX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5660,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions\/5660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}