2007

Four Continents Championships

Dance Event

All photos Copyright 2007 by George S. Rossano

by Alexandra Stevenson

1. First up of the 12 couples from 7 countries to skate the Golden Waltz were Marie-France Dubreuil, 32, & Patrice Lauzon, 31, who set a standard no one could beat. She was gorgeous in a beautiful light blue knee length dress with splits in the chiffon-y skirt and lots of tasteful gold and silver sparkles. He was elegant in tails and a gorgeous cream waistcoat and matching cream bow tie. However, his tails flapped in a distracting way and when he raised his shoulders too much of the bottom, side and back of the waistcoat was exposed.

The five time Canadian champions, who train in Lyon, France with Muriel Boucher Zazoui, flew gracefully through the complicated steps which took them twice around the Broadmoor World Arena which was dotted with a sprinkling of about one hundred spectators (a far cry from the packed crowd for the compulsories in Spokane or Halifax.) It is the longest compulsory.

Dubreuil explained, "Skating first is always a little more nerve wracking with the altitude. We didn’t warm-up fully because we wanted still to have some juice for the performance. At the end, we were just exhausted. It felt like doing an original."

That was not surprising because the compulsory derives from an original invented by Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko. Ponomarenko is now a Technical Specialist though Marie Bowness & Katerina Mrazova were fulfilling that function here. Ponomarenko says, "only about four or five steps were changed from when we did it." The music, however, is different. The Russian duo, who married and now live in California with their two children, were from Moscow. Taught by Natalia Dubova, they won medals in three successive Olympics, bronze (’84), silver (’88) and gold (’92). They were known for their near perfect footwork so no wonder this is considered the most difficult compulsory to do.

Dubeuil & Lauzon recently went through a trying time. She explained, "I got a virus which caused an ear infection. It shifted a piece of my inner ear and that gave me vertigo. I couldn’t even sleep lying down. I couldn’t turn my head without getting vertigo. I even fell down and injured my arm in the shower because of it. A therapist worked with me twisting my head like a wrestler. I had a hard time at nationals but I’m okay now. After nationals, we came straight here because there was no point in going back to France (where they train) for such a short time."

The skating world is lucky to have this couple still around. Who can forget Marie-France’s disastrous fall in the original in Torino, which took them out of the Games? Astonishingly, she was able to return to the ice and compete in the world championships in Calgary not long after. There, they won the Free Dance and finished second overall.

They said they would retire but after a short layoff discovered all the things they thought they disliked about competing were the things they actually missed the most. After talking to other athletes at a meeting for the Canadian Olympic Association, they changed their minds and decided to continue competing.

This season started well. They won their two Grand Prix events and were second in the Final behind the world champions, Abena Denkova & Maxim Staviski.

2. Lying second are Tanith Belbin, 22, & Ben Agosto, who turned 25 on January 15. They were only 0.82 in the elements score and 0.64 on the components behind the leaders. Belbin & Agosto, who won the Olympic silver medal in the absence of Dubreuil & Lauzon, recently won their 4^th straight US title and have won medals in all five of their appearances in the Four Continents Championships, silver in ’02 & ’03 and gold for the past three years.

They looked like a couple on top of a wedding cake, she, all in white, with a see-through skirt and arm covering, he in standard black tails and white bow tie. Everything progressed well until the fourth segment of the second sequence, when Agosto tripped and put his left hand on the ice to keep from falling. He explained, "I still feel it was our strongest performance of the waltz, because we felt very tentative at nationals. We wanted to push it out here, to make it more exciting. It felt great and very smooth. It was a short turn-around from nationals but we managed to improve on the small things. Having performed here before we were used to the altitude, but it is still something we are aware of."

They received a negative GoE (0.58) which gave them only 1.02 marks. Dubreuil & Lauzon got a +0.75 which gave them 2.35. The bottom line is they would have been significantly ahead but for the error.

Belbin said, "The fact that we are less than a point behind the leaders even with a major error puts us in a good position. Even with the error, I felt this was a better dance than at nationals. We were more contained, we held back at nationals."

However, the draw for the original section has not favored them. The bottom four drew for the first group to skate but an open draw for the other eight couples. Belbin & Agosto will skate second in the second group, which is before the ice resurface while Dubreuil & Lauzon are skating second of the group after the flood.

3. In third, a significant distance (1.20 on the elements score plus 2.84 on the components) behind Belbin and Agosto, are Meryl Davis, 20, & Charlie White, 19, the ’06 US Junior champions. Breathing down their necks are the Canadians, Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir who were ahead of their US rivals by 0.14 on the component score but behind by 0.41 on the element marks.

These two talented couples both train in Canton, MI, with Igor Shpilband & Marina Zueva (who also co-trains Tanith & Ben). The careers of these two duos seem almost parallel. Both have skated with their partners for many years. Both were in their first Senior Grand Prix events this season.

Charlie even beat Scott once in a hockey match. Davis said, "It helped a lot having the Golden Waltz at Nationals. If we’d only had a week to brush it up, it would have been a lot more difficult."

Because this is their first senior season, they only started working on it after they won bronze at the world junior championships last March. White said, "It’s been an interesting ride doing this dance. At first we thought it was just too difficult. It was an almost hopeless task." In Lake Placid last summer, the first time they competed with it, he fell flat during the first few steps. Then in Skate Canada, in the GW, Davis ran out of rink. Her blade hit the barrier and she brought White down with her and both crashed to the ice. Those beginnings are now over and, after a lot of work, they are much more comfortable with it. White added, "But you get into it and you start to feel it, start to feel the music. By the end of the year, it was pretty comfortable, not too bad at all. And confidence-wise, we’ve been feeding off what we did in nationals (where they were an upset second in this dance, beaten only by Belbin & Agosto)." They finished third overall at nationals gaining a spot on the world championship team."

Neither Davis & White, nor Virtue & Moir received a negative mean GoE for this dance, for which the eleven judges and the referee give eight marks plus scores for the four component divisions for each couple. (There are five components for all the other sections, but the compulsory, of course, does not get a choreography mark since the steps are identical for everyone – or, I should say, are meant to be identical.) Davis, who was prettily attired bright pink, said about that choice, "I was advised to get the brightest possible color. I think I’d call this neon coral."

4. Moir, 19, struggled with a nose bleed that started at the end of their warm-up. "I just choked it back and kept breathing in (which you really shouldn’t do because the blood then goes down the wrong way). We shrunk down the second pattern." Looking at the marks, he confessed, "I really don’t know what the marks mean." Virtue, 17, who was also in pink, said, "The second sequence was definitely more difficult but we tried to keep the energy level up."

Virtue & Moir are the reigning world junior champions and were runners-up for the Canadian title in Halifax. They won bronze in this event last year.

5. In fifth, 3.71 points behind their teammates, are Lauren Senft, 19, Leif Gislason, 23, who were 4^th in the Canadian championships. The competed in this event two years ago finishing fifth. "It was a little disappointing not being third at nationals," said Senft. "But they announced we would come here at the closing ceremony. We hope this season will end on a high note and are pleased to be here." (Kaitlyn Weaver, who is from Houston, and Andrew Poje who teamed up only in August, were a surprise third in Canadian nationals after being 7^th in the CD and 3^rd in the other two sections. They are being sent to World Juniors instead of this event.)

Gislason said, "We skated very free and with no reservations. We were really excited to be done and not to have to train this dance anymore!" They changed training locations last April 20 and now train with the stable of skaters in Canton, Michigan.

6. In sixth place, only 0.33 behind Senft & Gislason are Kimberly Navarro, 25, & Brent Bommentre, 22. "We did some minor mistakes, (particularly in the third segment of the second sequence) after the cascade steps," said Navarro, who wore a regal dress of gold, "but we feel we really connect with the audience and with ourselves right from the opening pose. We feel we improved a lot after Vienna, Skate America and Skate Canada."

Navarro & Bommentre were the replacements for the second ranked US couple, Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov. The US couples skated one after another, with Navarro & Brent Bommentre, sixth on, Belbin & Agosto seventh, and Davis & White eighth.

7. Skating last and delighted with their seventh place standing, 1.95 points behind Navarro & Bommentre, are the ’06 US Novice champions, Cathy Reed & her brother, Chris Reed, who now represent Japan.

"Because of my age (19)," said Cathy, "I knew we could not compete on the junior circuit. Because we are half Japanese (they have a Japanese mother), we were able to approach Japan." They were both born in Kalamazoo. Chris is 17.

"We’re totally excited," said Chris. "We competed in Zagreb and were well received. (They finished fourth.) That was great experience. We were second (of three couples) in the Japanese championships. (The current champions have said they expect to retire after the world championships in Tokyo.) The Japanese have lots of talent in the singles events. We would like to show that we can represent them well in ice dance. Going from novice to the Golden Waltz was the hardest thing. When we tried it with the music, we thought it was impossible."

Cathy, who wore white and muted green, said, "I can’t stop smiling. We were very nevous." They drew to skate the original last immediately following Davis & White.

8. Xintong Huang, who just turned 20 in January, & Zun Zheng, 19, who are the Chinese champions, lie eighth, 2.81 points behind the Reeds after getting minus GoE’s for all but one of their eight segments. They were 10^th in this event last year and have competed in the last three world junior championships, finishing 19^th, 14^th, and 11^th. They train with Hongyan Xi in both Harbin and Beijing. They were 2^nd in the recent Asian Games.

9. Olga Akimova, 23, & Alexander Shakalov, 28, from Uzbekistan lie a further 1.70 back in ninth place after getting minus GoE’s for all the eight segments. They are trained by Svetlana Alexeeva in Moscow, although their hometown is Tashkent, their country’s capital city. This is their third appearance in this competition. Akimova was at the Four Continents with two previous partners, while Shakalov also competed in this event with another partner. Their highest finish has been 11^th last year.

10. Xiaoyang Yu, 20, & Chen Wang, 20, were 7^th in this event last year in their fourth appearance in this event. They lie a small 0.54 behind the Uzbekis. Yu & Wang who train alongside their teammates, Huang & Zheng, were the ’06 Chinese champions but were third in the Asian Games.

11. Brother and sister, Laura, 25, & Luke Munana, 27, who were born in San Jose, CA, but are the first ice dancers ever to represent Mexico, are in a transition phase. "We recently changed coaches (from the Ponomarenkovs to Muriel Zazoui in Lyon, France.) We have only been there for a week but it is very exciting and she is changing many things about us including our technique." They lie 1.40 behind Yu & Wang.

12. Because the GW is so difficult, it is easy to sort out the competitors. Maria & Evgeni Borounov were completely outclassed, finishing 8.12 points behind the Munanas. "We’re not at this standard," admitted Maria, who is 24 and was born in Perth in Western Australia when they live and train. "We were second in Australia when there were only two couples and this time we won the title but there were just us. We only learned this dance a short time ago and it is so hard. We didn’t fall and we had no deductions. I thought I skated as well as I could. Evgeni thought he did better in practice. He said he was very nervous. We’ve only competed once before internationally. That was this event last year (where they finished 14^th). We’ll have a whole new frame of mind tomorrow. We will be doing nothing like the same steps. Our association has set us a goal. If we make 85.00 points, we will go to the world championships. It was a long trip here." They were married (to each other) in ’02. Evgeny, who is 27, was born in Moscow. They train with Elena Kustarova & Svetlana Alexeeva.