2003

Skate Canada

Dance Event

By Lynn Rutherford

 

All photos Copyright 2003 by George S. Roosano

 
Standings
Place Couple Country CD OD FD
1 Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov RUS 1 1 2
2 Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski BUL 2 2 1
3 Marei-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon CAN 4 4 3
4 Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski ISR 3 3 4
5 Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe CAN 5 5 5
6 Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin RUS 7 6 6
7 Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin AZE 6 7 7
8 Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido JPN 8 8 8
9 Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell USA 10 9 9
10 Josee Piche & Pascal Denis CAN 9 10 11
11 Christina Beier & William Beier GER 11 11 10

 

Compulsory Dance
Ravensburg Waltz

 
Starting Order - Compulsory Dance
  1. Christina Beier & William Beier
  2. Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin
  3. Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido
  4. Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe
  5. Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski
  6. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin
  7. Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov
  8. Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell
  9. Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon
  10. Josee Piche & Pascal Denis
  11. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski

 

Compulsory Dance Placements
Place Couple Country
1 Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov RUS
2 Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski BUL
3 Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski ISR
4 Marei-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon CAN
5 Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe CAN
6 Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin AZE
7 Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin RUS
8 Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido JPN
9 Josee Piche & Pascal Denis CAN
10 Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell USA
11 Christina Beier & William Beier GER



Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov


2003 MasterCard Skate Canada International, held at the Hershey Arena in Mississauga, Ontario, opened in sedate fashion when 11 couples took to the ice for the Ravensburger Waltz compulsory dance.

The Ravensburger, invented by the West German brother-and-sister team of Angelika and Erich Buck, along with British coach Betty Callaway (future coach of Torvill & Dean), was introduced at the 1973 West German Championships. Constructed in two sequences of three identical step patterns, it should be skated in the fashion of the elegant Viennese waltzes, with close holds and good speed. While challenging, it is not considered as difficult as the Austrian Waltz, the compulsory dance selection for last week's Skate America competition.

The performance of the evening came from Russian champions Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov, who placed fourth at the 2003 World championships. The tall, handsome couple made good use of their well-matched lines, and their exceptionally elegant and lyrical waltz earned a total of 40.04 points, giving them a 1.76 point lead going into the original dance.

"We did pretty well for ourselves tonight," said Navka. "It's unusual for us to be in first place, so it feels great."

Like most of the skaters, the 28 year-old Navka expressed confusion with the new Code of Points judging system.

"It is very difficult to understand how the new system works. If we have a mark of 40, and Maxim (Staviyski) has 38 - is that a big difference? A little difference? No one knows yet. It will take time. Maybe some other people understand it, but it's all above me."

What an ISU spokesperson called "a minor software glitch" caused Navka & Kostomarov to wait several minutes after their warm-up to skate. At the completion of the competition, it became apparent that the marks of the five couples who skated in the first warm-up group were understated on the scoreboard and to the audience in the arena. For example, immediately after their performance, Israelis Chait & Sakhnovsky were announced as receiving 30.90 total points; by the end of the competition, their point total stood at 37.70. An announcement in the arena attributed this discrepancy to a malfunction of "the connecting line from the central system to the scoreboard," and as of press time, no other explanation was offered.

Fortunately, Navka & Kostamorov were not affected by the delay.

"It was right after our warm-up, anyway, so it didn't matter," said Kostamorov with a shrug.

While they lacked the elegance, line and polish of the Russians, 2003 World bronze medalists Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski of Bulgaria skated a smooth, error-free dance to finish second, with a total of 38.28 points.

"This judging system is a new experience for all of us," said Denkova. "Right now, we are just enjoying our skating. After the competition is over, we will study the results and see how the judges marked us, and look at the differences between level one and level three elements."

Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski of Israel, who placed sixth at the 2003 Worlds, skated the waltz with seemingly effortless speed and placed third, just .58 of a point behind the Bulgarians.

"Of course, the marks are difficult to understand," said Chait. "But I think the new system is going in the right direction. For example, when we were planning our programs, we had to really push ourselves to get our footwork and lifts to a level three. Before, we might have left them at a level two."

After the top three couples, the CoP "grade of execution" scores dropped off considerably. Fourth-place finishers Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon of Canada had difficulties with the final third of the waltz pattern in both sequences. Their timing was noticeably off, causing several near stumbles. They enter the original dance with 34.87 points, followed by Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe of Canada (30.30); Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin of Azerbaijan (29.53); Oksana Domina & Maxim Shabalin of Russia (29.24); Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido (28.44); Josee Piche & Pascal Denis of Canada (27.49); Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & 
David Mitchell of U.S. (25.98); and Christina Beier & William Beier of Germany 
(25.23).

 

Original Dance

 
Starting Order - Original Dance
  1. Josee Piche & Pascal Denis
  2. Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell
  3. Christina Beier & William Beier
  4. Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon
  5. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin
  6. Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin
  7. Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido
  8. Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe
  9. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski
  10. Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski
  11. Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov

 

Original Dance Placements
Place Couple Country
1 Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov RUS
2 Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski BUL
3 Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski ISR
4 Marei-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon CAN
5 Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe CAN
6 Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin RUS
7 Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin AZE
8 Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido JPN
9 Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell USA
10 Josee Piche & Pascal Denis CAN
11 Christina Beier & William Beier GER




Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov


The familiar strains of "Sing," "Jump, Jive and Wail," "Rock Around the Clock," and other favorites filled the Hershey Arena this afternoon as the ice dancers interpreted their choice of swing, rock n' roll, boogie woogie, jitterbug, blues and jive rhythms.

As it turned out -- even under the new Code of Points judging system, well known for encouraging movement in dance standings - there was no change in the leader board. Russians Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostamorov, who led after the compulsory, increased their lead with a smooth, polished routine to blues ("Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone") and rock n' roll ("Rock Around the Clock") rhythms. Their straight-line sequence, skated to the blues, was performed on one foot over half the length of the ice. A slight slip by Navka toward the end of their diagonal step sequence did not seem to impact their marks, and they earned a total program score of 42.40 for the OD; added to yesterday's score, this gives them 101.14 points overall.

"Today was the first time we skated this dance in front of an audience, and they were very nice and helped us a lot," said Navka. "We like to skate rock n'roll, but we preferred the waltz rhythms last year."

Ironically, as in the compulsory dance competition, the Russian couple had to wait several minutes to skate while a technical glitch in the scoring system computer was repaired.

"It wasn't as long this time, and it didn't bother us at all," said Navka. 

Bulgarians Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski held second place with a fast, crisp dance to blues ("A Man's World") and swing rhythms. The program featured in interesting, low-to-the-ice pair spin, but was not as innovative as many of their previous dances. They ended with a total score of 40.64 for the OD, and 97.32 points overall, 3.82 points behind the leaders.

"We don't really like the rock n' roll, so that's why we picked blues and swing," said Denkova, who also said she preferred last year's waltz rhythms.

The award for "most steps per minute" must go to Israelis Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovsky, who skated their rock n' roll and blues routine at breakneck speed. The rhythms seem tailor made for this couple, whose performance was marred only slightly by a final lift with Chait in a long, split leg position under Sakhnovky's chin that bordered dangerously on undignified. The couple earned 39.72 points for their OD, giving them 93.52 points overall. 

"Rock n' roll is our dance. We love it," said Chait. "We're happy with the way we skated today, and we're looking forward to the free dance."

Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon finished fourth, after several timing mistakes and near stumbles in both their straight line footwork sequence and diagonal footwork sequence prevented them from breaking into the top three. They earned 36.95 points, for a total of 87.82 overall.

Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe, also of Canada, skated a relaxed, energetic program to swing and blues rhythms, but had a noticeable stumble on their straight-line foot work sequence and finished fifth with 30.47 points, for a total of 76.07 points. Russians Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin, skating to blues and boogie woogie, had some sloppy footwork sections and a rather wild final lift, finishing sixth with 42.33 points and a total of 71.57 points going into the free dance.

Kristen Fraser & Igor Lukanin, who skate for Azerbaijan, performed jive and blues rhythms and finished seventh, with 41.17 points for the segment and 70.70 overall. They were followed by the Japanese couple, Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido, who skated an exceptionally entertaining rock n' roll and blues program choreographed by coach Natalia Linichuk for a total of 40.03 points for the segment and 68.47 overall.

Americans Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell opened their OD with the blues rhythm, because - as Galler-Rabinowitz put it - "Our smoothness and soft knees are our greatest strengths, and we wanted to show them off." Their OD, which also featured rock n' roll, had such difficult steps that they lost speed in several sections. The young couple, who placed fourth at the 2003 U.S. Nationals, earned 38.40 points for the OD and have 64.38 points overall, putting them in ninth place.

Josee Piche & Pascal Denis of Canada stand tenth entering the free dance, and Germans Christina Beier & William Beier are eleventh
.

 

Free Dance

 
Starting Order - Free Dance
  1. Josee Piche & Pascal Denis
  2. Christina Beier & William Beier
  3. Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell
  4. Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido
  5. Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin
  6. Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin
  7. Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe
  8. Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski
  9. Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov
  10. Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon
  11. Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski

 

Free Dance Placements
Place Couple Country
1 Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski BUL
2 Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov RUS
3 Marei-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon CAN
4 Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski ISR
5 Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe CAN
6 Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin RUS
7 Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin AZE
8 Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido JPN
9 Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell USA
10 Christina Beier & William Beier GER
11 Josee Piche & Pascal Denis CAN




Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviski


Skating to a medley of tunes from "The Pink Panther" and "Austin Powers," Russian champions Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov placed second in the free dance to Bulgarians Albena Denkova & Maxim Staviyski, but hung on to win Skate Canada with a total score of 207.45 points -- 4.63 points less than Americans Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto, who triumphed at Skate America last week.

The tall, elegant Russians turned in a smooth, sexy performance that was marred only slightly by Kostomarov's stumble on a simple transition move. While entertaining, their program lacked the difficulty of the two teams that finished immediately below them. Navka & Kostomarov's free dance earned 37.80 points for technical content, and 106.31 points overall.

"We are happy with the result. I did a little mistake, and I hope the next competition is better," said Kostomarov.

Asked her feelings about the new judging system, Navka replied, "There have been many changes in the rules, and we had to change our program a few times. Next year, I hope all of the changes are made before July, so we can prepare better."

Denkova & Staviyski, the 2003 World bronze medalists, performed an exceptionally difficult dance to the classical strains of Handel, in refreshingly restrained lavender costumes. Their low-to-the-ice lifts and spins were smoothly 
done, and they maintained their speed and fluidity throughout while skating extremely close together. Although the couple won the free dance portion of the competition with 107.12 points, their second-place totals in the compulsory and original dances relegated them to second place.

"We are happy to be on the podium, but of course we wanted to win," said Staviyski.

"We are a little disappointed. Under the old system, if we had won the free dance, we would have won the competition," added Denkova.

Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon overcame an unfortunate fall at the start of their straight-line footwork sequence to turn in an outstanding performance and overtake Israelis Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovsky for third place. Their Argentine tango is chock full of difficult lifts, steps and stunning highlights. The dance received 39.30 points for technical content - over five points more than the Israelis' technical score. The Canadians' overall score was 103.22, less than three points behind the winners. 

"We're very surprised," said Dubreuil. "When I fell, I just said to myself, 'keep going, keep going.' Under the old system, if you fell, you also fell down the ranks. But with "Code of Points" our level of difficulty helped make up for the fall."

"We knew with this new judging system that our levels of difficulty would be our strength," added Lauzon. "Obviously, we have a lot more work to do on the program, but this is very encouraging."

Interestingly, both the Bulgarians and the Canadians executed seven lifts in their programs, but only the first six lifts were factored into their point totals. In essence, the final lift did not count.

Chait & Sakhnovski's "Clowns" program, skated to the soundtrack of the Fellini movie of the same name, was fast and furious, but was not adjudged as difficult as the top teams' efforts. Their garish, outrageous costumes caused much (negative) comment. In what must be a major disappointment, they ended Skate Canada in fourth place, with 190.89 points - nearly 17 points less than the winning team.

Canadians Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe, who train in the Michigan area with Igor Shpilband's group, skated a fun, energetic number to soundtracks from Fellini films (different from "Clowns"). The number was fast-paced, with a several nice changes of pace, but the couple lost speed in a diagonal footwork sequence and never seemed to quite catch up. They finished fifth, with 164.85 points overall.

Russians Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin have a tall, elegant presence on the ice, and performed their "Four Seasons" tango with good speed and flow. Some unison problems and awkward transitions on lifts held them down in sixth place. Creative lifts and spins, often in angular positions, highlighted Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin's free dance to the rather fast-paced "Innocent Love under the Rain." The couple, who compete for Azerbaijan, finished seventh. The Japanese couple, Nozomi Watanabe & Akiyuki Kido, performed a rather choppy routine to the "Nutcracker," choreographed by coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, and ended in eighth place. 

Americans Loren Galler-Rabinowitz & David Mitchell's free dance, entitled "Obsession," was choreographed to tango music. While the young couple did not quite embody the passion and attitude of the fiery rhythm, they incorporated many difficult steps and lifts into the dance - so much so that they appeared to lose speed in parts. They earned 69.81 points for their free, and finished the competition in ninth place with 134.19 points overall. 

"I think we learned this week that we really belong out there in these competitions. We feel much more confident now," said Galler-Rabinowitz. "It took a while, but now we know we have a good platform on which to improve. We plan on being around for a long, long time to come."

"The program was abstract for them, and gave them new boundaries to push. I think it really works well for them," added the couple's coach, Barrett Brown.

Josee Piche & Pascal Denis of Canada finished 10th, and Germans Christina Beier & William Beier were 11th.

 

2003 Skate Canada Dance Medalists

 

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