{"id":9570,"date":"2016-09-21T19:09:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T23:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=9570"},"modified":"2018-05-13T12:34:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T16:34:32","slug":"2016-u-s-international-classic-free-dance-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/2016-u-s-international-classic-free-dance-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 U.S. International Classic Free Dance Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Anne Calder | Photo by Robin Ritoss<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Madison Hubbell &amp; Zachary Donohue<\/strong> (USA) expressed the story of love with every movement in their free dance. It opened with \u201cI Want to Dance with Somebody\u201d sung by Bootstraps. The singer immediately set the mood for a romantic connection between the skaters and audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe artist is not just singing the words to a song,\u201d Donohue explained.\u00a0 \u201cHe really feels it, and that translates into the way we skate the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By choosing one of Hubbell\u2019s favorite songs, \u201cI Can\u2019t Help Falling in Love With You\u201d by Ingrid Michaelson, the middle section built on their strong connection.<\/p>\n<p>The music also helped Hubbell &amp; Donohue be more creative with their elements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything has a natural birthing moment in music,\u201d Donohue said. \u201cYou want a lift to say something \u2013 be more than just a lift. There is a deeper meaning behind every movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are just not moves,\u201d Hubbell added.\u00a0 \u201cTo just twirl the girl around wouldn\u2019t make sense for us. We have very simple lines that put us face to face \u2013 like we are singing to our best friend or lover. I want to look into his eyes. We want all our technical elements to create a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The seamless performance earned a 102.08 score in its international debut. The total 166.90 earned them the gold medal and their second straight Classic championship. The Americans next compete at Finlandia Trophy (October 6-10).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kana Muramoto &amp; Chris Reed<\/strong> (JPN) won the silver medal with a Flamenco dance to \u201cPoeta\u201d by Spanish guitarist, Vicente Amigo. Reed lost a little momentum at the end, but said it was more adrenaline than altitude.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was great atmosphere here, so we built on the character from the start,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe crowd helped us get through to the end.\u201d \u201cWe gave it our all,\u201d added Muramoto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis competition gave us a confidence boost to where we can be,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to work for the top ten at Worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The free dance 90.08 and total 151.18 total were both personal best scores.<\/p>\n<p>The Canton, Michigan trained team next competes at Skate America (September 21-23).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alexandra Paul &amp; Mitchell Islam<\/strong> (CAN) moved up two notches after the SD with an 87.26 score and claimed the bronze medal. Their lifts and twizzles earned level 4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are really happy with what went down today,\u201d Islam said.\u00a0 \u201cIt felt good to see a clean program. That\u2019s what we were aiming for \u2013 give it 110% each time we\u2019re out there.\u00a0 We are happy to skate clean and are more motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recovered well from yesterday and got a little fire back,\u201d Paul added. \u201cWe still need to put out a good SD at our next competition, but we know we can come back from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe SD is so technically based, that we\u2019re going home and work on the technical side,\u201d Mitchell pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>Paul &amp; Islam next compete at Skate Canada (October 28-30).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Olivia Smart &amp; Adria Diaz (ESP) <\/strong>slipped to fifth in the free dance, but finished fourth overall. The new team skated to pieces of music named \u201cExperience\u201d by Italian pianist and composer Ludovic Einaudi; it earned a personal best 81.22 score. The total 138.34 was also a personal best.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe program is about our experiences together,\u201d Smart said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about what we went through together,\u201d Diaz added.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately bobbles in the twizzles and her slip entering the straight-line lift gave them negative GOE scores. The curve lift and combination spin earned level 4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is only the second time we\u2019ve performed this program, so it\u2019s really a work in progress,\u201d Smart explained.\u00a0 \u201cWe will feel it more and more each day. It\u2019s a step forward since the last time we performed it in Lake Placid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smart &amp; Diaz next compete at the ISU Autumn Classic in Montreal, Canada (September 28-October 2).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Karina Manta &amp; Joseph Johnson<\/strong> (USA) earned a fourth place score for their interpretation of \u201cDream On\u201d by Aerosmith. Unfortunately, a lift collapse at the end lost them -2.60 points and bumped them down to a fifth place finish. Their free dance (84.16) and total (137.76) were personal best scores.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe skate as a whole was great,\u201d Johnson said. \u201dHer arm\u2019s been hurting, and we haven\u2019t done the lift all week. It was a counter balance issue. Her weight went down and mine went back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are happy with the response to the program,\u201d Johnson concluded.\u00a0 \u201cWe try to make it flow. The transitions on the spin are only a week old. We will evolve from here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Anne Calder | Photo by Robin Ritoss Madison Hubbell &amp; Zachary Donohue (USA) expressed the story of love with every movement in their free dance. It opened with \u201cI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[257,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-2017-event-recaps","category-recap-archive"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=254%2C150&ssl=1",254,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.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\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.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\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Paul-Islam-2235.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":"by Anne Calder | Photo by Robin Ritoss Madison Hubbell &amp; Zachary Donohue (USA) expressed the story of love with every movement in their free dance. It opened with \u201cI [&hellip;]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-2um","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9570","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=9570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9597,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9570\/revisions\/9597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}