No, not really – and we’re telling you what happened in Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, during the first Grand Prix event of the season, 2019 Skate America.
We start with the “firsts” – the first Grand Prix gold medal for Cheng Peng and Yang Jin in the pairs event, the first Grand Prix medal (bronze) for Dmitri Aliev, the first Grand Prix medal (bronze) for ice dancers Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen – and, atop of everything, 15-year old Anna Shcherbakova landing two quadruple Lutz jumps in her long program in an international competition, the first lady to do so in the history of the sport.
Plus: Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier having the Lion King as their ally (like in 2014-2015 season) and winning another Skate America medal with it, Nathan Chen hip-hopping on the ice of Vegas to his third (consecutive) Skate America gold, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva jumping the triple Axel as if the Axel were her second skin.
Our (personal) take-away, apart from all of the above? Jason Brown skating to music from the movie “Schindler’s List”. Our hearts might have stopped for a second or two during his skate – that emotional, that impressive, that heartbreaking.
So there you have it – a list of highlights from Skate America, more like a series of Pictures at an Exhibition.
by Florentina Tone
Embed from Getty Images
This joyful short program, to “Alegria” from Cirque du Soleil, full of innovations and lovely postures is such a good vehicle for Cheng Peng and Yang Jin this season – so many beautiful, eye-catching moments in it, like, let’s say, the entrance into the death spiral.
***
Dmitri Aliev skates big and in complete abandonment to the music. He fills the air, the ice with the shapes his body creates and he’s totally addictive to watch. And his short program in Skate America, to French music (“Je dors sur des roses”) from “Mozart, l’opéra rock”, was a joy to the eyes. And a joy to him as well – he skated brilliant. And that quad Lutz-triple Toe was a highlight – the quad almost looks like a triple, he just flies into it. Wearing burgundy, a hint to the colour of roses, he’s the epitome of elegance.
***
Wearing black and white with a splash of read, Nathan Chen looks ready to skate to one of the most beautiful songs out there, La Bohème. Évidemment, Mr. Aznavour’s La Bohème. And he does just that, skates to it, dances to it, arms embraced, as if he were really dancing with someone. But though all jumping passes were in place (even the overrotated quad Lutz), the second part of the performance seemed a bit rushed, as if Nathan were in a hurry. And, to us, La Bohème requires a bit more space, a bit more air. Yet, he almost ran in places, to his final spin, and then he stopped, elegant again, like a ballet dancer that he was, that he is.
***
All-in-black Keegan Messing skating to Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” was such an emotional moment at Skate America. And you could really feel the emotions, thousands of kilometers from Vegas, in front of a computer screen. And we’ve been dying to see Keegan skate to something more quiet, more peaceful, to something more serious, let’s say – and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran proved to be a perfect choice. Wonderful quad Toe-triple Toe, powerful Axel and Lutz. It was a beauty of a skate – and no better moment to dedicate it to his late brother. At the end, he was in tears. And so were we.
© International Skating Union
***
Call us biased, but mood-wise, choreography-wise, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen’s rhythm dance is our favorite from everything we saw at Skate America. It’s like a free dance, with characters, and nuances, and details, except it’s a rhythm dance. And they are strong, and aiming high this season – and Laurence is a star. And their twizzles to music, to lyrics? Perfect match.
© International Skating Union
***
“You better understaaaaaand…”, you see Olivia uttering the words – and you better understand this rhythm dance suits them great; or is the other way around: Olivia Smart and Adrián Diaz are such good actors that they embrace each role with so much ease. They chose a great theme for them this season – music from “Grease” – and they become one with the music, the characters. Lots of attitude, lots of personality, and lots of curs as well. And they love to be under the spotlight – where else, if not in Vegas.
***
Skating to music from the movie “Perfume”, Anna Shcherbakova is like a feather, like a fragrance that stays in the room long after the person left – you watch her, you remember her. And she seems modest, and humble, and hard-working, and she makes everything she does – and she does a lot throughout a program – look so very easy. But it’s not easy – she fell during the step sequence, a sign right there that nothing these girls do is easy.
***
You can see this Florence + The Machine short program grows in Elizaveta Tuktamysheva – little by little, it becomes hers. And it should – Shae-Lynn Bourne created an amazing vehicle for her this season, maybe the best short program she has ever had. And the music has crescendo, and the choreography is just superb – all that is left is for Elizaveta to completely feel the program. And she calls herself Empress, and her fans do too, and the truth is there’s something royal about Elizaveta. Her triple Axel is definitely royal – one of the best in the ladies event at the moment.
***
Wakaba Higuchi thrusting her fist in the air when the music, the program ended – a victorious fist, at the end of a stunning short program, and at the beginning of a season that looked rather worrying. A month ago in Bergamo, she was in all places, Wakaba, really disappointed – now you could see her composure from the very first seconds. She looked calm, calm and comfortable with this program, with Sia’s voice, with the jumping passes in the program. And everything she did was strong and confident – she was indeed a bird set free, one that abandoned herself to the music, to the sky, but, somehow, had perfect control of everything. And that was a big moment for her and for everyone in the arena.
© International Skating Union
***
Now that was a spectacular performance – sparkles, attitude, confidence and all – from Bradie Tennell at 2019 Skate America. Ever since the Worlds in Saitama, she looks like a completely different skater – one that knows she belongs among the very best; and so she acts accordingly. She has this confidence, this attack that she didn’t have in her previous years – and Benoît Richaud’s choreographies the last couple of seasons gave her wings and helped her to discover herself. And this year is no different choreography-wise, and there are so many star-movements in her (unusual) Mechanisms-Chronos short program. And the costume to that? Gorgeous.
***
Japanese girls went contemporary this season – and Kaori Sakamoto’s opening pose is a jewel. And we might have questioned this choice of music when we first heard of it or when we saw Kaori skating to it in some shows – but we don’t anymore. The rhythm, the power, the energy are a match to Kaori’s – and someone (Shae-Lynn Bourne) “read” her right. She could do this, she can do this, she is this. And as much we liked her last season skating to Charlotte Church’s voice, we like her already skating to “No Roots” by Alice Merton. Great choice, great program overall, and a stunning performance in Vegas. Plus: the wow-dress. Plus: teasing the judges.
© International Skating Union
***
Oh, that was insanely impressive from Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier in their Lion King Returns long program at Skate America. Just spectacular. So many highlights in this free skate – so bold, so dangerous. And you saw it coming from their first (successful) elements – they were flying on the ice of Orleans Arena. And the energy was just fantastic.
© International Skating Union
***
This pair right here, Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin, is so interesting and so very intriguing – we’re loving their Daft Punk free skate, lots of highlights in it. And she’s always very focused, and he seems to be the rock. Seeing the scores – and the scores have them on the podium – she finally smiles.
***
We travelled the world with Cheng Peng and Yang Jin – and we thoroughly loved the journey. And she’s a treasure, literally, and we love the program, the music (“Cloud Atlas”), the packaging. And what a bold girl, she kept going after the fall – and they finished the pairs event on the top of the podium. And this is Cheng and Yang’s first gold medal in the Grand Prix circuit – and we couldn’t be more proud of them. We love them here at Inside Skating – they’re such a marvelous pair; and Lori Nichol’s choreographies have always helped them shine.
***
Koshiro Shimada’s energy, joy are really contagious. Wonderful musicality – he does learn from the very best. “Good fight, you’re a fighter”, Stéphane Lambiel greets him at the boards, and the truth is Koshiro is a fighter, finding the resources to put behind the fall on the quad and continue on such a joyous note. The mindset of a champion.
Wow, Kazuki Tomono is just phenomenal, performance-wise, in his long program to music from the movie “Moulin Rouge”. It is as if he were flying in the last part of the program, and everything seemed so well put together; not to mention Kazuki seemed to very much like his character; and the contrast between the silence, the quietness at the beginning and the explosion in the second part is so very well constructed, and performed. It suits him, it suits the passion that he has. More like a volcano that looks quiet at start, and then it’s ready to burst. Plus: he is so very elegant.
***
Watching Jason Brown skate to music from the movie “Schindler’s List” you are at a loss of words. Not only because he has magnificent skating skills, he does, he does – but because he skates with purpose, with meaning, because watching him you realize no one has ever skated like that to “Schindler’s List”.
To Jason and his Jewish heritage, this true story is so personal – he wanted to skate to it before, but he knew he needed to wait until he was ready enough, mature enough.
He felt ready now – and he skated his heart out there, building one of the most emotional stories of his career.
© International Skating Union
The quietness of his opening pose, Jason with his eyes closed, is just apparent; and the story starts so heavy, so abruptly, that your heart breaks – you hear the violin, but you also hear the heavy sound of the machines in the factory, or even the heavy sound of trains leaving to a point of no return. The tension is almost unbearable – and there are no easy moments in the program. You hear, and almost feel the aching pain throughout the story – and then the ending pose is so dramatic that you need seconds to recover. In the background, a woman is watching Jason, hands at her mouth – we were all that woman at that point. And the standing ovation comes almost like a relief – some layers of history are still difficult to accept, to live with, tens of years after they happened.
Skating-wise, that was magnificent. David Wilson put together a tailor-fit program for Jason Brown and, for four minutes, Jason was one with the story, he became the story.
***
Nathan Chen era started two years ago at Worlds – and shows no signs of weakness. And with “Rocketman”, another unusual choice of music, but one that does him so much good, another (golden) brick was set at the right place. And for the last part of the program, Nathan really hip-hopped to the sound of the Hurray-s and the applause in the arena, the music was almost inaudible. But who needs music when they have Nathan dancing to the fingertips, to his creamy left glove.
No doubt about it, he hit the jackpot once again with this free skate – a proof that Marie-France Dubreuil has such a good eye for what Nathan needs, what suits him best.
And the program has a contemporary feel that makes him one of us, and so relatable.
Popped quad-Toe aside, that was Worlds-material already. In terms of energy, it was just that.
And that scene in the Kiss and Cry, when he explains the error using his glove – the glove as the surface of ice – is just so (analytical of) him.
***
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko kept us glued during their flamenco free dance: their speed, their power, their energy, so many highlights in maybe their strongest free dance ever. Such a great choice of music for them this season – they shine while skating to it. Plus: wonderful attention to details, to nuances of music, head movements in character, arms in character, great costuming atop of everything. A great program for sure, and one that will not be easily forgotten.
***
You fall in love in a second with this music box that Olivia Smart and Adrian Diáz’s free dance is this season. There’s so much into it – the instant happiness in the first part, the nostalgia in the middle, when the masks fall for a second, and then again, putting them on for a second part of happiness in front of the audience. We’d die to know the story of this program, the whole idea behind it – but to us, it’s that: the story of two clowns who put on happy faces for the public, and then their real life, the two of them when the circus leaves town. We say it works great for them this season – and shows them skillful, versatile.
***
When it comes to embodying strong characters, when it comes to showing intent, and meaning, when it comes to giving it all, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are among the very best the skating world has. And this particular free dance, skated in complete abandonment, to music from the movie “A Star is Born”, is a stunning vehicle for Madi and Zach, Ally and Jack, this season. Yes, they embody power – they always skate as if their life depended on it – but they also embody love, and longing for each other. And this might be another capital free dance for them, after their signature Beth Hart.
And do an experiment, like we did: watch the program looking at her (as all of us usually do), and then watch it again looking at him. You’ll see it for yourself: they’re equally good, both of them shine. They’re both stars.
“Thank you, Patch, for killing me with your run-throughs”, you heard Zach saying in the Kiss and Cry. And this program is, indeed, a tour de force. For him, who had bronchitis, in particular.
***
“There’s so much room in that program to grow the interpretation to something really spectacular”, Nikolaj Sørensen said about their free dance in September. Guess what, in October, at Skate America, it’s already spectacular. Their technical abilities are great, but when it comes to performing, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen are among the very best. They shine, they both do, but Laurence puts her entire heart and soul into this dance, it’s easy to see.
And a dance that didn’t see the light of day that easily – “The long was quite long to figure it out…” – proved to be a major hit in Skate America, their first Grand Prix this season, and most definitely will be one of the defining free dances of their career. And if in Vegas they committed to it 100%, becoming one with the music, one with the story of their love, imagine by the Worlds in Montreal.
Remember, they’re aiming high this season – and with this set of programs they might just check all the boxes in their wish list.
And the chills were there, that’s a sure thing.
***
There you have them, two different versions of “Cry Me a River”, one after the other, at Skate America. And for Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, this is, somehow, the return to simplicity, to the very core of ice dance, the basics of it. They chose a contemporary approach of the free dance this season, simplicity in costuming as well, highlighting their body shapes, and Justin Timberlakes’s “Cry Me a River” really works for them. And they won the free dance at this year’s edition of Skate America.
© International Skating Union
***
This rather quiet music, calm and beautiful – to music from the movie “Sabrina”, a program choreographed by David Wilson – makes wonders for Eunsoo Lim. And she’s so precious, more like a raindrop, and so lovely to watch. “We love you”, someone from the audience shouts. So do we.
***
What a start of the free skate for Elizaveta Tuktamysheva – the triple Axel has become her most powerful ally, done with ease and confidence. And when the jumps are all done, when she allows herself to really perform, her joyful character shines through.
© International Skating Union
***
This beautiful blue-red fire bird called Anna Shcherbakova landed not one, but TWO quad Lutz jumps, one in combination, in her long program at Skate America. The TES box exploded – how could it not? – but have you seen the grace and the finesse? We’ll raise an imaginary hat to Anna – she’s a phenomenon.
Plus: she’s happy, but she stays beautiful and humble – we love that at her. “I am really happy that I could have done that clean. We work on this jump a lot, we work on it every day, at every training”, Anna said in the winner-interview.
© International Skating Union
***
Kaori Sakamoto lacked some of her usual energy – see the doubles in the first part of her free skate in Vegas – but she recovered great for the second half, where she really became on with her (cinematographic) character. One thing is sure though: this Matrix program is one for the ages, it will surely become one of Kaori’s signature pieces.
***
This program, building momentum in the second part, to music from the movie “Cinema Paradiso”, is so good for Bradie Tennell – and she makes herself proud performing to it, especially when recovering from an injury. There’s this brand new sense of refinement accompanying her all the way – beautiful purple presence at Skate America.
© International Skating Union
READ MORE: