Friday, November 23, 2012

2012 NHK Trophy SD Thoughts

So sad that we've already reached the final event of the Grand Prix season :( But happy NHK Trophy is here because some of my favorite skaters are competing in Sendai! And I love how the time difference always works out for NHK because I can watch some of the events live. Stood up late last night and watched the short dance....

Cathy Reed/Chris Reed - Music sounds like a movie score. Their circular footwork pattern appears shallow - they need to push it out more. Noooo, not another overhead camera! They all need to die like the Smuckers Sky Cam. Wait, is this Seven Brides For Seven Brothers? That combined with the kiss at the end makes the program a little icky for a brother-sister team....

Nicole Orford/Thomas Williams - If they were going to use John Michael Montgomery, a nice choice for the slow section would've been "I Love the Way You Love Me" instead of the hundredth version of "Tennessee Waltz" we've heard this year. Would've made the music cuts a little less jarring perhaps.

Xioyang Wu/Chen Wang - It's Tanith's 2008 country OD clone! They look slow after the Canadians. Rough twizzles.

Xintong Huang/Xun Zheng - I think Xun's outfit might work well as a prince costume for Charlie White in his and Meryl's SD. This team brings the pretty. It seems like every team begins their circular footwork with the same step. I guess there are only so many options - thanks, CoP.

Penny Coomes/Nicholas Buckland - Commercial interruption wipes out most of the program. I get to see the kiss at the end. I should've been keeping a tally of how many kisses we've seen in the short dances this year. There've been a lot!

Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov - The disco-loungey-middle eastern-folk music confuses me. Very messy twizzle from Nikita. Deductions all over the place. I'm looking forward to their free dance because it's pure unintentional comedy!

Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani - Alex lost the headband and is the Karate Kid no more. They have more attack than they did at Rostelecom Cup. Their hand movements are very sharp. Maia looks more comfortable in the Yankee Polka sequences than Alex. Anyone else think Oleg Epstein looks like Mr. Bean?

Meryl Davis/Charlie White - Sitting back and enjoying the gorgeousness of this program. They put on a master class and show the rest of the field how it's done. The lift at the end looks too long and too sticky (yep, they get an extended lift deduction). Glad Charlie stuck with the huntsman costume.

Yay that both the pairs short program and the free dance are at reasonable times tonight!

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