#AuthorLifeMonth Challenge

Author Dahlia Adler came up with a great Instagram challenge for authors for the month of February, and I'm jumping on board! Follow me at @jcomeaux4 on Instagram to get a daily look at my writing life starting February 1 and check out the tag #AuthorLifeMonth to discover other authors!

2016 U.S. Nationals-Sunday Events

I had a lot to catch up on at home after Nationals, so forgive me for the delay in posting my last recap! Sunday was another up and down day in the emotions department. It started off with lots of fun at the Friends of Figure Skating breakfast followed by a quick trip to the Saintly City Cat Show next door to the arena. It was both hilarious and adorable! Meet the cat known as Rhett Butler:

And his ice castle LOL:

Back to the skating, the men had a high standard to live up to after the ladies' free skate on Saturday, and so many of them delivered! In the early groups, I really enjoyed Sebastien Payannet's performance. He has wonderful carriage and style. I was so happy for Grant Hochstein reaching the podium for the first time but so sad that Ross Miner is missing out on Worlds in his hometown. I was surprised at some of the scoring among the top three, but I think we have a strong team going to Worlds.

On to the exhibition, it was so disappointing to go from the high of Nathan Chen's jaw-dropping free skate to watching him hobble in pain off the ice during his show program. I really wanted to see how he would fare against the top men in the world at the senior level. On a happier note, there were some fun moments during the exhibition, like Jim Petersen filling the holes in the ice during the Zamboni break.

There were also some beautiful performances. Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran's program to "Try" by Pink had a wonderfully sultry undertone. Their chemistry is so good. Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea also have amazing chemistry, which they displayed in their soft, gorgeous program to "Manhattan" by Sara Bareilles. I was also super impressed with the junior pairs champions Joy Weinberg and Max Fernandez. They had so much speed!

And that's a wrap for 2016 Nationals! I'm already counting the days until Worlds in Boston. I'll be there Monday-Sunday, so be on the lookout for lots of photos!

Here are my pics from the FOFS Breakfast => FOFS

And my pics from the Sunday events => PHOTOS

2016 U.S. Nationals-Saturday Events

Well, today was an emotional roller coaster. To sum up, here were the things that made me ecstatic:

1) Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea being total bosses and nailing their whole program like it was an easy practice. When Tarah landed the throw Lutz, I became a crying mess. The way they relate to each other is so lovely and honest and it really draws you in to their performance. 

2) Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran energizing the crowd with their Journey program. Even though they had a couple of mistakes, their other elements and their spark with each other and the music lit up the building. My God, how I wanted to see that program in Boston. It would've been an insane atmosphere.

3) Anastasia Cannuscio and Colin McManus winning the pewter medal. They have worked so hard for so long to scratch and claw their way up the ice dance ladder, and they've quietly improved year after year. To see them put out their best performances of the season and be rewarded for it was so satisfying.

4) The ladies all bringing it tonight and putting on quite the show. I hope this gives our world team the confidence they need to slay in Boston. No flubs in the short, please! (I'm looking at you, Gracie and Ashley.)

Here are all my photos from Saturday's events => PHOTOS

2016 U.S. Nationals-Friday Events

Friday started off with an AMAZING junior free dance event. The depth at the junior level in dance in the U.S. is astounding, and this event showed off just how diverse and strong our teams are. The tiny teams of Katherine Grosul/Cameron Colucci and Eliana Gropman/Ian Somerville were adorable and so impressive for their ages. Chloe Lewis/Logan Bye gave a passionate tango performance, and I hope they can continue to move up the ladder because they are one of my favorite teams to watch. The whole last group of top five teams were ridiculously good. Julia Biechler/Damian Dodge were the last to skate and their performance was the most emotionally-charged for me. They really blew me away with their commitment to the program and how much they've improved.

The short dance was another exciting event with outstanding performances from the top five. I was so happy for Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus breaking through to the top four! It's going to be an intense battle for first on Saturday between Madison Chock/Evan Bates and Maia & Alex Shibutani, and I hope everyone brings their A game!

The men ended the evening, and overall I thought it was a well-skated competition with some big highlights - Ross Miner flying across the ice with pure joy in his Billy Joel program and Max Aaron throwing down a quad-triple and showing his new softer side in his Nessun Dorma program. Tim Dolensky's performance was another highlight - he has gorgeous flow and connection to the music. I was also thrilled to see Curran Oi back, who was one of my favorites when he skated as a teenager. 

Here are all my photos from Friday's events! => PHOTOS

2016 U.S. Nationals-Thursday Events

Greetings from St. Paul, Minnesota! I've made my annual trek to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (this makes 16 in a row!), and I'm loving being back in this world that I so enjoy. I arrived in St. Paul on Wednesday evening and started my day Thursday at senior dance practice. This was after reacquainting myself with the Skyway that I walked through many times back in 2008 when Nationals was here.

I watched the first group of dance and got to see my favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates do a full run-through of their short dance. They never do full run-throughs at event practices, so this was a treat! They perform the SD with such joy that it always makes me smile. They looked fast and crisp on both the footwork and the waltz pattern. And Evan had a new costume - a black tuxedo with a velvet jacket.

Danielle Thomas and Daniel Eaton also did a full run-through as did Kaitlyn Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker. Both teams looked strong and smooth and ready to compete! Kaitlyn changed her dress, and her new one is very similar to Danielle's, which made it amusing to watch as they skated around each other.

I skipped the next two groups of dance for lunch (priorities lol) so I could make it back in time for the pairs SP warm-up. Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran looked great on their jumps, but one of my other faves Tarah Kayne was struggling, which had me very nervous for the competition. But she turned it on when it mattered! She and Danny poured their hearts onto the ice in their new "Take Me To Church" program. I could tell they felt the music in their souls. I loved how they flew into the death spiral at the beginning of the program. I've never seen them skate faster than they did this afternoon.

Some other highlights of the event for me - Marissa and Mervin were so gorgeous and connected with each other in their "Summertime" program. Their skating skills were unmatched in the event. They move so effortlessly across the ice and I love how they look at each other while they're skating. Darn that triple Salchow!! 

I also greatly enjoyed Jessica Pfund and Josh Santillian. Their jumps are just BAM and they really conveyed the emotion of the music so much stronger than they did when I saw them at Skate America. I am so excited for their future! Another team I'm excited to see more of in the future is Caitlin Fields and Ernie Utah Stevens. They've had a tough season dealing with injury, but they have a spark about them and a great connection. If they can get their technical elements up, they will be right in the mix.

The ladies' short program was quite the stunner. As a Polina Edmunds fan, I am so happy that she skated so well! Her short program is one of my favorites this season, and she performed it with so much control and elegance. I wanted to see a good showdown between Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold, so it's disappointing that neither of them brought the goods, but it's fun to see some new names near the top of the standings. Tyler Pierce skated with so much heart tonight!

Here are all my photos from Thursday's events! => PHOTOS

Dancing With the Stars Tour

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I wanted to share a quick review and my photos from the Dancing With the Stars "Dance All Night" tour. It was an awesome show! I've been to the So You Think You Can Dance tour and Move Live, but this was my first DWTS Tour show. I think the overall dancing was a little better at Move Live, but this was still a fantastic two hours of entertainment.

The show started with a high-energy group number to Icona Pop's "Emergency" and then Val got on the mike and welcomed us. This was the first of many times the dancers spoke to the crowd. I think they could cut back a little on those filler speeches (some of the dancers obviously weren't as comfortable with the mic). Alek danced with the girls next, and after he and Lindsay spoke to the crowd the stage transitioned to the Great Gatsby section. This was one of my favorite parts, especially Peta and Val's dance to "Young and Beautiful."

Jenna, Alan, and Keo did a fun trio to "Exes and Ohs"that I really enjoyed and then came one of the highlights of the night, the guys' "Pony" number. The temperature in the building shot way up as the guys did their best Magic Mike impersonation. It was smokin' hot!

The fun continued with another segment where audience members were chosen to go up on stage to dance with the cast. There was an older lady named Tootsie who provided lots of laughs as she loved all over Artem and Val and gave us some hilarious one-liners. Once the dance contest was over, the cast took us around the world with dances such as "Santa Maria" (Lindsay and Artem) and "Espana Cani" (Emma and Val).

I can't remember the exact order of the numbers, but Brittany and Alan did a beautiful contemporary piece to "Jealous" by Labrinth that I loved. It's so fun to see so many dancers from So You Think You Can Dance on this tour!

After intermission, Emma and Julz did a gorgeous waltz to "Beethoven's 5 Secrets" by the Piano Guys. Another waltz that had me very excited because I LOVE the song was Lindsay and Artem's dance to "Kissing You" from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack (there was so much good music in this show!). 

The whole cinema section was awesome with dances to The Godfather score (Sharna and Alan), Kill Bill (Peta and the guys), and Jailhouse Rock (Alek, Lindsay, and the guys). Alek also got to dance his rumba with Emma, which made me very happy because I'm obsessed with the song "Let It Go" by James Bay. Another gorgeous contemporary number was "Wicked Game" with Jenna, Lindsay, Alan, and Val. The final duet of the night was Lindsay and Alek's lovely dance to "America the Beautiful." I thought this was Alek's best dance of the night.

Overall thoughts - Peta really stood out for me among the ladies. She absolutely shines when she dances and her smile is radiant. My eye went to Val and Artem a lot when all the guys were on stage, and I also loved seeing Alan from SYTYCD. The digital backgrounds they used for the sets were really cool and more impressive than Move Live's stage setup. I highly recommend the show if you love dancing and great music!!

Here are all my photos from the show! => DWTS Tour Photos

2015 Skate America

I apologize for not being more timely with my photos from the event. I usually try to do my blogs after I return to the hotel each night, but the late times of the events plus technical difficulties with Google Photos threw a wrench into my routine. Regarding the late times, if anyone from USFS is reading this, PLEASE consider moving up the start times of the events in the future so we are not leaving the arena at 11pm or later. There’s no reason why we can’t start earlier. This week’s events at Skate Canada all end before 9pm. I will gladly have a 4pm senior citizen dinner before the night session if it means getting back to my hotel at a decent time to hang out with friends/work on my blog/catch up on sleep (especially when the Friends of Figure Skating breakfast starts at the ungodly hour of 7:45am after an 11:30pm medal ceremony the night before). Sorry, rant over!

On to the skating, the event started in fine fashion with an almost perfect pairs short program. There was one fall in the entire event, which came from Stolbova/Klimova. Sui/Han had a slight stumble in their pair spin, which cost them the entire element and first place. They would have had a comfortable lead if not for the zero points on that element. I continue to be amazed by how far they’ve come artistically since they were two kids zooming around the rink. They’ve developed such beautiful flow and body movement between their huge elements. While Sui and Han have been together for many years, a team that has only been together a short time also left a big impression on me. Pfund/Santillan have skated together for only six months, and their jumps and throws are better than many veteran pairs. If they can work on their speed and add a triple twist, look out!

The ladies’ short was next, and I was surprised at the commanding lead of Medvedeva. Her jumping ability can’t be denied, but I don’t think her program component scores should be so generous at this point. She still has a bit of a juniorish quality to her skating (understandable since she’s 15!) I thought Satoko and Chen were underscored compared to her. Chen lit up the whole building and skated “big” in her Nessun Dorma short.

After a rainy trek to a nearby sub shop for dinner, we were back at the arena for the night session. The short dance kicked it off, and it appeared from the scores that the technical panel was being stricter than ones we’d seen during the Challenger series. I’m not crazy about Chock/Bates’ new music choices, but they performed the heck out of the program – an impressive feat since it was only the third run-through of the program they’d done. They were the clear head of the field with their command of the ice.

The men closed out the evening with more surprising results. Nessun Dorma is a piece that brings audiences to its feet more times than not, and Aaron capitalized on that with perfect jumps and much-improved connection to the music. I’m not a fan of Uno’s music, but I just love watching him move effortlessly across the ice with those soft knees. I was impressed with Kerry’s skating skills (I hadn’t seen him compete before), but I wish he’d give more "face.” He needs to project more to the audience and not look so nonchalant about his skating.

You can find all my Friday photos HERE.

The pairs started the action again on Saturday. I can’t gush enough over Sui/Han’s long program. I’m a sucker for Samson and Delilah to begin with, and their interpretation is stunning. It’s like watching a beautiful painting come to life. The second Chinese team Wang/Wang had some trouble on the jumps and throws, but they are also so pretty to watch. Kayne/O’Shea also had some early problems on the SBS Salchows and the quad Salchow throw, but they really fought hard for everything after that. After seeing their beautiful clean quad in practice, I was so hoping they’d land it in the competition! Another young pair who showed their mettle was Seguin/Bilodeau. In a very tough field they took the bronze (should have been silver) with two strong programs. The joy in their skating is really palpable.

The ladies’ free skate is always my least favorite event. It just seems to last a long, long time. I thought Satoko wuzrobbed again. I’m not sure why the judges think Medvedeva is so far ahead in artistic ability because I don’t see it. She’s better on the PCS front than most of the other baby Russians that have come along (I’m looking at you Radionova, Lipnitskaya, and Pogo), but she still needs more time to mature. Gold threw down an impressive free skate, and I thought she’d win easily since she’s more polished than Medvedeva.

The free dance started off the night session and provided a little bit of everything. I really enjoyed Yanovskaya/Mozgov’s Great Gatsby free dance. The costumes fit the theme, and they had a lot of fun with the music. I was so happy to see Cannuscio/McManus earn a great score for their Beethoven program, which they delivered with such heartfelt emotion. The story they tell is clear and moving. Another couple who told a moving story was Hawayek/Baker. It’s obvious how much the program means to them as they embody the characters. Chock/Bates looked a little more tentative than they usually do in their free dance, and I suspect it was due to the short dance issues and Evan’s illness that they had to contend with the past couple of weeks.

The men wrapped up the competitive action Saturday night, and it wasn’t a pretty event. Aaron and Uno were again the standouts for me. Brown also performed very well. I love The Piano soundtrack, but I just can’t get on board with his music the way it’s cut right now. The lack of tempo change until more than three minutes into the program drives me batty. Uno’s jump landings were also driving me batty. He drags his free leg a lot on the landings so it looks very messy. Everything else about his skating is sublime, so I want him to clean this up!

You can find all my Saturday photos HERE.

The FOFS Breakfast on Sunday was a fun event as always. It was especially great that all the Team USA members could attend since they were finished competing. Jason Brown's line stretched across the ballroom and lasted over an hour. He received so many gifts from fans, and he was so appreciative of the support. I thought it was a bit odd that Kori Ade was there taking photos with fans since I've never seen a coach at this event in ten years of attending it. Josh Santillan had the best outfit I've ever seen at the breakfast. He was showing his patriotic pride!

The Exhibition closed out the weekend on Sunday afternoon, and it was a great show! My favorite programs were from Kayne/O'Shea, Gilles/Poirier, Sui/Han, and Chock/Bates. Max Aaron put on an impressive display by doing two full programs back-to-back. And there was the usual cringe-worthy moment that always seems to happen in these exhibitions. This time it came from Julia Lipnitskaya and her attempt at sexy dancing to Beyonce.

You can find all my Sunday photos HERE.

I know attendance was pretty poor at the event, but I wouldn't mind seeing Skate America in Milwaukee again. The airport was easily accessible, the arena was a quick walk from the hotel, and there were lots of food options in walking distance. It was a great setup overall!