I've finally finished watching all of the ice dancing, so I feel like I'm able to actually comment in an informed manner now. Keep in mind, I'm probably not what anyone would call a casual fan, so I look at the performances differently and look for and notice different things than people who don't follow skating as closely. I have some pretty strong, long-standing preferences on what I like and don't like in ice dancing performances. ;)
Sentimentally, I wanted B/A to win, but going by the actual skating through the entire competetion, I would have given gold to V/M, silver to B/A, and bronze to D/W. DomShabs just should not have been on that podium in any universe.
V/M's free dance was just so clean and fluid. They're really good technicians, and just deserved that OGM.
I would have gone with B/A over D/W based on both performance and technical reasons. For all the hype of D/W this season, B/A are by far the better skaters. B/A's skating is a lot more powerful and fluid. They go smoothly from one thing to the next, whereas D/W are still a little bit choppy. B/A finish off their moves, are more polished, and more mature. D/W are a little raw, kind of rush some of their positions, and don't have quite the maturity to their skating that B/A have. Also, while Tanith has worked hard on her posture, extension, and toe point, Meryl (who is worse than Tanith ever was in these three areas) just drives me nuts with the posture, and total lack of extension and toe point. It's not just because she's short either--Sasha Cohen, for example, is short and does not have problems in any of these areas. Consequently, D/W's lines suffer, which lessens the quality, IMO. Also, and this is more going into subjective territory, I feel like the expression isn't as genuine from D/W as it is from B/A. It's kind of like when you can tell that someone is acting, it means they're not doing a good job? I kind of feel like that with D/W. I feel like the emotion, facial expressions were definitely choreographed and they're doing what they were told, whereas with B/A, their expression seems more natural.
That said, definitely D/W over the Russians. Oksana D. was and is still a great skater, but Max's knees are shot and it shows in their skating. There is such a huge difference from the way they were able to skate in Vancouver and how they were skating on the Grand Prix back in the fall of 07 before his knee problems really got out of control. (He had to have knee surgery after the Grand Prix final in December 2007. The Russian figure skating federation through a fit for them to go to Europeans that January, nevermind Max's surgeon heavily advised against it--he's knees just hadn't had time to heal. They went anyway, he ended up doing more damange, etc. The poor guy's knees are pretty much wrecked for life at this point). They did deserve to win the compulsory dance, but I would have had them in 5th, behind the Italians, in both the original dance and free dance.
I thought 6-9th places were probably correct. I wish DelSchoes had been skating better because they really did have good programs, choreography wise, and they are really fantastic technicians when they've been able to practice more. There are actually some people on the figure skating board I'm a member of who are complaining, saying Isa shouldn't have had her baby with an OGM on the line. I say phooey on them, because while I'm most certainly pro-choice, I think a woman has just as much right to choose to have her child (that in this case, although a suprise, was very wanted by all reports), and IMO, a baby trumps a possible Olympic medal.
Yeah, I don't know that I'd really consider myself a fan at all....I'm just a HUGE fan of the Olympics, so I'll watch anything. I know I don't have a critical eye when it comes to ice dance, so my observations were a lot more based on overall general effect, not technique or anything. I get a lot from the music. :) So often in figure skating, it feels like the music doesn't match the skating/moves. That was one thing I liked about D/W...their skating seemed to match the music. But like I said, that's in my un-critical eye. :)
Not matching the music is a rather common thing in all the disciplines now and a rather recent development. Before they went to this new scoring system, where positions, etc. had to be held for so many seconds to receive full credit for levels, etc., skaters could hold the moves how the music dictated. There's a great Michelle Kwan quote somewhere where she said that she'd listen to what the music told her to do. When you've got a rule book telling you that you have to hold a position for X seconds, what the music says sadly goes out the window.
Sentimentally, I wanted B/A to win, but going by the actual skating through the entire competetion, I would have given gold to V/M, silver to B/A, and bronze to D/W. DomShabs just should not have been on that podium in any universe.
V/M's free dance was just so clean and fluid. They're really good technicians, and just deserved that OGM.
I would have gone with B/A over D/W based on both performance and technical reasons. For all the hype of D/W this season, B/A are by far the better skaters. B/A's skating is a lot more powerful and fluid. They go smoothly from one thing to the next, whereas D/W are still a little bit choppy. B/A finish off their moves, are more polished, and more mature. D/W are a little raw, kind of rush some of their positions, and don't have quite the maturity to their skating that B/A have. Also, while Tanith has worked hard on her posture, extension, and toe point, Meryl (who is worse than Tanith ever was in these three areas) just drives me nuts with the posture, and total lack of extension and toe point. It's not just because she's short either--Sasha Cohen, for example, is short and does not have problems in any of these areas. Consequently, D/W's lines suffer, which lessens the quality, IMO. Also, and this is more going into subjective territory, I feel like the expression isn't as genuine from D/W as it is from B/A. It's kind of like when you can tell that someone is acting, it means they're not doing a good job? I kind of feel like that with D/W. I feel like the emotion, facial expressions were definitely choreographed and they're doing what they were told, whereas with B/A, their expression seems more natural.
That said, definitely D/W over the Russians. Oksana D. was and is still a great skater, but Max's knees are shot and it shows in their skating. There is such a huge difference from the way they were able to skate in Vancouver and how they were skating on the Grand Prix back in the fall of 07 before his knee problems really got out of control. (He had to have knee surgery after the Grand Prix final in December 2007. The Russian figure skating federation through a fit for them to go to Europeans that January, nevermind Max's surgeon heavily advised against it--he's knees just hadn't had time to heal. They went anyway, he ended up doing more damange, etc. The poor guy's knees are pretty much wrecked for life at this point). They did deserve to win the compulsory dance, but I would have had them in 5th, behind the Italians, in both the original dance and free dance.
I thought 6-9th places were probably correct. I wish DelSchoes had been skating better because they really did have good programs, choreography wise, and they are really fantastic technicians when they've been able to practice more. There are actually some people on the figure skating board I'm a member of who are complaining, saying Isa shouldn't have had her baby with an OGM on the line. I say phooey on them, because while I'm most certainly pro-choice, I think a woman has just as much right to choose to have her child (that in this case, although a suprise, was very wanted by all reports), and IMO, a baby trumps a possible Olympic medal.
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