Cup of China always seems to have an entertaining dance event because there's always the question of what kind of crazy costumes the Chinese teams will wear. I'm watching the videos of the Short Dance on YouTube because Universal Sports had "technical difficulties" and hasn't posted the broadcast of the event yet. To whomever is responsible for shafting IceNetwork this year as far as live Grand Prix coverage goes, thanks for nothing! Universal Sports has been a big bust so far.
On to the Short Dance thoughts!
Xiaoyang Yu/Chen Wang - Cowboys! Yu is wearing what looks like a replica of Tanith Belbin's Western OD costume from the 2007-2008 season. She's rocking it and looks very perky! Noticeably slow on the Yankee Polka patterns. The lasso arm movements are too cliche for my taste. Oh, and a music transition to "Cotton-Eyed Joe" just like Tanith and Ben!
Xintong Huang/Xun Zheng - They look very elegant. I love Zheng's "princely" costume. Maybe they'll bring the costume craziness in the free dance? Also slow on the YP patterns and in the circular no-touching step sequence. Looks like Zheng had a little stumble there.
Victoria Sinitsina/Ruslan Zhiganshin - More country music :( Victoria's posture is a little Bobrova-ish (Hunchy McHuncherson). An oops moment at the end of the circular steps where it looks like Victoria almost runs into Ruslan. They do the YP to "Witch Doctor" ("Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang"). Not very pleasing to the ears. More lasso arms! This was kinda a hot mess to me. Score seems rather high....
Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri - First time I've seen this team. They're cute together. A bit far apart on the circular steps. Twizzles nicely done. Good performance with lots of energy.
Madison Chock/Evan Bates - I'm one of the few people who likes Madi's costume. Love the colors and the cut of the collar fits the theme. Great job of keeping the character throughout the dance. Excellent twizzles - I can see definite improvement there from last year. I think this program with the playful theme suits them.
Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev - She looks less "hunchy" in this program. I find the program rather snoozy overall. They have better speed than I remember them having last year. I think they could still use some work on their lifts. Not the most attractive.
Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje - Kaitlyn's new costume looks even more like Maria's blue dress in the movie (The Sound of Music). She has a flower in her hair now and Andrew's lost the flower on his pocket. The music cuts still kill me. They look very smooth on the YP. Slight wobble by Andrew on the twizzles?
Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat - I don't like the music cut of doing the Can Can music at the front and back end of the program. Something felt disjointed. The slowed down version they use with the YP sequences also feels off, like it doesn't go with the pattern steps. They look really cute and on top of their game technically.
I'll try to post thoughts on the Free Dance tomorrow night!
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