2012 Grand Prix Final SD Thoughts

Last year at this time, I was walking around the snowy, enchanting streets of Quebec City and enjoying every moment of my first Grand Prix Final (and the amazing cuisine in QC!). Oh, how I wish the GPF was held in North America more often! It's such a spectacular event with the best of the best on both the senior and junior levels competing.

I've only seen some of the Junior Men's event on YouTube and the Senior Short Dance this morning on Universal Sports. Congrats to Josh Farris on his silver medal! I wish he could've had a better free skate, but maybe he'll save his best for Nationals this year. It's about time he had a good competition at Nats! I adore both of his programs and want to see him skate them lights-out.

Some thoughts on the Short Dance...

Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte - I don't know how anyone can avoid smiling when these two skate this program. It's just plain fun! One of the things I love about it is the continuity of the music. With so many teams using bad music cuts in the short dance this year, I love the seamless nature of this program. It all flows, and they keep the upbeat energy throughout. So happy for them earning level four on both sequences of the Yankee Polka! (And a thumbs up to Igor!)

Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov - And then we have the lounge-y disco Uzbek polka. They skate with a ton of speed and perform the program very well save for some shaky twizzling by Nikita. Compared to their hot mess of a free dance, this program is divine, but the music is just blah.

Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev - I keep trying to get into this program, and it keeps falling flat for me. I think they've made some strides this year in their overall skating skills, but their material is kinda snoozy. Happy to see them firmly ahead of I/K, though!

Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat - My friend called right as they took the ice and she's had a rough week, so I couldn't ignore her call. Their score says they skated well!

Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir - Scott wobbles a bit on the second twizzle, so I think that might be where the level three came in? Everything is crisply done, but the overall feel of the program is a little cold. It just doesn't have that spark that I think they need when up against Meryl and Charlie's outstanding short dance this year.

Meryl Davis/Charlie White - Their Giselle program is one of the most complete (if not THE most complete) short dances I've seen since the SD was created two years ago. From the first moment, they set the tone with an abundance of joy in every step. The entire sequence starting with the toe steps and then the Yankee Polka is brilliant use of choreography and music. It brings in the crowd and builds to the end of the program with so much energy. This will be known as one of their signature programs.

Free dance very early tomorrow morning. Going to have to shorten my late-night writing tonight!