#finnstep

[figureskatingcostumes]

Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius skating to music from Bandstand for their rhythm dance at the 2019 Finlandia Trophy.

(Photos by Antti Lehto)

[wanderlustinwonderland18]

The inventor of the finnstep ladies and gents ✨

[anythinggoe]

Challenger and Grand Prix Finnstep key points and scores as of the Grand Prix Final (06/12/19)

[thsevenseas]

Putting this all together in one place so I can keep track of it a bit easier but these are the steps for the Finnstep this season (they’re only requuired to do up to step 33 which I circled) and these are the keypoints (from ISU communication 2239):

This blogpost from the last time the Finnstep was the required pattern has gifs of each of the keypoints and them explained in laymans terms (gbless) which I’m just gonna copy and paste:

Key Point 1 Lady Steps 20-21 (XB-LBO, XF-RBI/RBI Tw1½/RFO) The female partner crosses her left foot behind her right foot on a back outside edge and when this foot touches down she immediately picks up the right foot to cross it in front of her left foot on a back inside edge. Immediately following these steps, you see the female partner twizzle 1.5 rotations entering on that same right forward inside edge and exiting on a right forward outside edge. Key Point 2 Man Steps 20-21 (XB-LFI, RFO-Sw3/RBI Tw1/RBI) The male partner crosses his left leg behind his right on a forward inside edge and as soon as he gets on this edge he brings the right leg up and crosses in front of his left without touching the right foot down on the ice before moving it back to its regular alignment and setting it down on a forward outside edge. On this same forward outside edge, the male partner completes a swing three turn, exiting this turn on a back inside edge. This edge becomes the entry edge for the single twizzle that follows, and the male partner exits this twizzle on the same right back inside edge.

Key Point 3 Lady Steps 32 & 33 (LFO Sw-ClCho, RBI/RBO/RBO Tw1½/RFI slide into stop) The team comes out of the corner and both skaters get onto their left forward outside edges and swing their right legs forward and step onto right back inside edges (swing closed choctaw on left forward outside edge). The female partner then changes to a right back outside edge which is the entry edge for the 1.5 twizzle. She exits this twizzle on a right forward inside edge and slides to a halt on this edge. Key Point 4 Man Steps 32 to 33c (LFO Sw-ClCho, RBI OpMo, LFI, RFI/RFI Tw1/RFI slide into stop) The team comes out of the corner and both skaters get onto their left forward outside edges and swing their right legs forward and step onto right back inside edges (swing closed choctaw on left forward outside edge). The male partner then performs an open mohawk on this same right back inside edge, bringing the left foot in front of his right and placing that left foot on a forward inside edge. He then steps onto his right forward inside edge and performs a single twizzle, exiting on a right forward inside edge and sliding to a halt on this edge.

And some vids of VM and DW doing it in the 13/14 season:

[icedanceupstarts]

Finnstep Preview Watchlist

So the thing about the ISU's vigorous recycling schedule is that most of the top teams have actually already competed the Finnstep. Everyone was younger and less experienced then of course, but it's still cool to look back and see a preview of next season. It's also fun to see how many of them were skating to musicals even when that wasn't required at all, because life is a cabaret I guess. Check out some sparkling Finnsteps and the just as sparkling hairpieces below!

Finnstep Together:

Gabriella PAPADAKIS / Guillaume CIZERON

Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE

Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN

Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE veteran bonus: Weaver/Poje competing the compulsory dance in 2009

Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES bonus: young Evan skating the compulsory dance in 2009 with former partner Emily Samuelson

Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER bonus: actual infant Paul skating the compulsory dance in 2009 with former partner Vanessa Crone

Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI

Laurence FOURNIER BEAUDRY / Nikolaj SORENSEN Enjoy this suboptimal fancam from when the Canadanes were just the Danes

Shiyue WANG / Xinyu LIU

Shari KOCH / Christian NUECHTERN

Stepping out with(out) my baby! Some people were skating seniors in 2013/14, but not with their current partners. All experience is good experience!

Finnstep Apart:

Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV

Sara HURTADO / Kirill KHALIAVIN

Olivia SMART(Quickstep)/ Adrian DIAZ

Tiffani ZAGORSKI/ Jonathan GUERREIRO

Allison REED / Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS

Misato KOMATSUBARA / Tim KOLETO

Some of these teams have been together awhile, but were still in juniors for the 2013/14 season. While the Quickstep isn't the Finnstep, it's the same style of dance if not the same steps, and gives you some idea of how the team might handle this stylistically and all that jazz.

Quickstep Together:

Kaitlin HAWAYEK / Jean-Luc BAKER

Alexandra NAZAROVA / Maxim NIKITIN

Anastasia SHPILEVAYA / Grigory SMIRNOV

Anastasia SKOPTCOVA / Kirill ALESHIN

Lorraine MCNAMARA / Quinn CARPENTER

Sofia EVDOKIMOVA/ Egor BAZIN

Junior ice dance is pain, so quite a few of the younger teams were competitive as juniors in 2013/14 season, but have had a partner(or two or…) since.

Quickstep Apart:

Natalia KALISZEK / Maksym SPODYRIEV

Betina POPOVA / Sergey MOZGOV

Anna YANOVSKAYA / Adam LUKACS

Marie-Jade LAURIAULT/ Romain LE GAC

Carolane SOUCISSE/ Shane FIRUS

Sofia SHEVCHENKO / Igor EREMENKO

Ksenia KONKINA/ Pavel DROZD

And some people are going to be going in flying pretty much blind while their competitors are refreshing their memory and refining their quickstepping! Life just isn't fair. Good luck to all the newbie children, including but not limited to Juulia TURKKILA and Matthias VERSLUIS, Lilah FEAR and Lewis GIBSON, Christina CARREIRA and Anthony PONOMARENKO, Marjorie LAJOIE and Zachary LAGHA, etc. We have high hopes for next season, and expect great things from everyone regardless of their prior experience level.

[illyria-and-her-pet]

Finnstep

So I’ve been meaning to post guides for pattern dance key points and finally made a page for it on tumblr. I want to do Tango Romantica and Argentine Tango since they are this season’s pattern dances, but I thought I would post the Finnstep first, since I already made a thread for it on twitter, but never got around to posting in on tumblr. I already had videos and screenshots, but now I have gifs as well since I got an external hard drive and finally freed enough space to use photoshop on my computer again. Making gifs also helped me notice things before that I didn’t with just the videos and screenshots. Also tumblr allows me to explain more with no character limit and also no risk of my browser running out of memory and losing the entire thread since you can’t save twitter drafts on the computer rip. Though it was hard getting all these gifs under the 3 MB limit lol. 

Here are the key point features for the Finnstep in the 2013-2014 season. I’ll be making a guide on the Finnstep key points using the top 4 teams from the individual Sochi SD. 

Here are the levels and GOE each team got on their Finnstep sections. D/W (pic 1) earned 15.86 points, V/M (pic 2) earned 14.86 points, I/K (pic 3) earned 15.79 points, and P/B (pic 4) earned 15.79 points.

Section 1, Key Point 1: Lady & Man Steps 1 & 4 (XB-RF, XB-LF) and Lady Step 12 (LFO Tw1½)

Here are slow motion videos of Lady Step 12 (LFO Tw1½) from the BBC and NBC angles. I didn't bother showing steps 1 & 4, since they don't have an entry or exit edge, so pretty much every team should easily execute those steps, but you can see them in the first video of the entire Finnstep section. 

Here are gifs from the NBC angle. 

Meryl, Tessa, Elena, and Nathalie all met the key point feature: “Tw1½: correct Turn” because the LFO entry edge was correct and they completed 1½ rotations on their left foot without jumping or scrapping it, so they all received yes for this key point. However, Meryl did not clearly exit the twizzle on one foot like Tessa, Elena, and Nathalie. This falls under mistakes not listed under key point features, so while she still got credit for this key point the judges should have taken this into account for GOE. 

Section 1, Key Points 2 & 3-

Section 1, Key Point 2- Lady Steps 20-21: XB-LBO, XF-RBI/RBI Tw1½/RFO

Section 1, Key Point 3- Man Steps 20-21: XB-LFI, RFO-Sw3/RBI Tw1/RBI

The key point features for section 1, key point 2 are:

1. Tw1½: correct Turn 

2. XB-LBO: free leg crossed behind the skating leg below the knee 

3. XF-RBI: free leg crossed in front of the skating leg below the knee 

4. Correct Edge (RFO) after Tw1½

Meryl, Tessa, Elena, and Nathalie all met features #1-3. Tessa, Elena, and Nathalie all met feature #4 correct edge (RFO) after Tw1½, as well. Meryl is on a flat, so she didn’t meet feature 4. In the team event, she had this same error and got no on section 1, key point 2, which dropped D/W’s section 1 to level 3. However, the technical panel still gave her yes for this key point in the individual event and D/W got level 4 on section 1.

Team Event BBC angle (I can’t find NBC)

Individual Event BBC angle

The key point features for section 1, key point 3 are: 

1. Sw3, Tw1: correct Turns 

2. Sw3: correct swing movement of the free leg 

3. XB-LFI: free leg crossed behind the skating leg below the knee 

4. Correct Edge (RBI) after Tw1

When I first made this twitter thread with the videos and screenshots, I thought there was 1/6 key points that D/W executed well and it was section 1, key point 3. But after making and look at these gifs... rip this key point might have been questionable as well. Charlie’s RFO-Sw3 had a correct right forward outside entry edge and right back inside exit edge, but he may not have met feature #1 of correct turn on it because it may have been hopped. He doesn’t keep his blade on the ice the whole time like Scott, Nikita, or Fabian who did meet feature #1. This could have led to the technical panel giving Charlie no on this key point, but they gave him yes. I made a gif with just the RFO-Sw3 from both the NBC and BBC angle and took screenshots to verify and it does look like he hopped it.

Charlie, Scott, Nikita, and Fabian all met features #2-4. Nikita and Fabian got yes on this key point for meeting all 4 features. Though even though Fabian’s RBI was on an inside edge and enough to get credit, I think it could have been a little deeper/clearer. Scott got no on this key point despite meeting all 4 features, which led to section 1 of V/M’s finnstep dropping to a level 3. I really am not sure why he was given no when imo he actually executed this key point the best. He crossed his free leg below the knee on his XB-LFI; his right forward outside edge entry edge, right back inside exit edge, and swing movement of the free leg was correct on his right forward outside swing three turn and it wasn’t hopped; and he did a full rotation, had the best right back inside edge exit of all the men, and didn’t hop his single twizzle. 

Section 2, Key Points 1 & 2-

Section 2, Key Point 1- Lady Steps 32-33: LFO Sw-ClCho, RBI/RBO/RBO Tw1½/RFI slide into stop

Section 2, Key Point 2-  Man Steps 32-33c: LFO Sw-ClCho, RBI OpMo, LFI, RFI/RFI Tw1/RFI slide into stop

The key point features for section 2, key point 1 are:

1. Correct Edges 

2. Sw-ClCho, Tw1½: correct Turns 

3. Sw-ClCho: correct placement of the free foot 

4. Sw-ClCho: correct swing movement of the free leg 

5. Correct Change of Edge (Inside to Outside)

Tessa, Elena, and Nathalie all met features #1-5 and got yes on this key point. Meryl met features #3-5, but did not meet features #1-2, which were correct edges and Sw-ClCho, Tw1½: correct turns because her right back inside edge exit of the left forward outside swing closed choctaw was not correct. Her initial blade placement was flat, she leaned into an inside edge, leaned back into a flat edge, and then leaned into the inside edge once again. This should have led to no on the key point, but the technical panel gave her yes. 

They key point features for section 2, key point 2 are:

1. Correct Edges 

2. Sw-ClCho, Tw1: correct Turns 

3. Sw-ClCho: correct placement of the free foot 

4. Sw-ClCho: correct swing movement of the free leg

You can see in both the video and gif that Charlie’s execution of his right back inside open mohawk is very messy. He hops it and there is a lot of snow flying from his blades. This is specifically addressed in the technical handbook though and says that the technical panel will ignore this mistake when considering credit for the key point because “OpMo: correct turn” is not a key point feature. He did meet key point features #1-4, so he got yes for this key point. It should affect the GOE though. 

Fabian, Nikita, Scott met all 4 key point features and got yes on this key point. Nikita was on an inside edge for the right back inside edge exit of the left forward outside swing closed choctaw, which was enough to get credit for feature #1 correct edges and feature #2 Sw-ClCho, Tw1: correct turns, but I think it could have been deeper/clearer.

Scott’s RFI was on an inside edge and enough to get credit for feature #1 correct edges, but I think his RFI could have been deeper/clearer. 

All the teams met the correct swing movement of the free leg key point feature since the requirement is continuous movement and the distance of the free foot being more than one blade distance away from the skating foot. So this will not affect credit for the key point, but this is more aesthetic and has to do with the GOE.

Meryl and Charlie’s free leg unison could be better and both need to point their toes. Tessa and Scott’s free leg unison and toe point is excellent. Elena and Nikita’s free leg unison on the back swing is very messy and Elena’s free leg could be higher. I think both Elena and Nikita’s free legs could be higher on the swing forward. Nathalie and Fabian’s free leg unison could be better on the swing back and Nathalie’s free leg could be higher. Their free leg unison on the swing forward is excellent though. 

Another thing that wouldn’t affect credit for the key point, but is more GOE related since Tessa still had the correct right back outside entry edge to the 1½ twizzle, got all the rotations around without hopping them or turning them into checked three turns or pirouettes, and had the correct right forward inside slide to stop exit was that I think Tessa’s exit to the twizzle could have been a little smoother, especially if you compare the exit here to the exit at GPF for example.

Section 2, Key Point 3: Lady & Man Steps 64-65 (LFI XB-ClCho, RBO3/RFI Tw1½)

The key point features for section 2, key point 3 are:

1. Correct Edges 

2. ClCho, 3, Tw1½: correct Turns 

3. XB-ClCho: correct placement of the free foot 

Every team met feature #3 with correct placement of the free foot. Every team also had clean left forward inside edges, right back outside three turns, and right forward inside 1½  twizzle. The close call on whether this key point should get credit or not is if both partners are on right back outside edges on the exit of the left forward inside cross back closed choctaw. Scott is on a very deep outside edge even upon initial blade placement. Charlie, Nikita, and Fabian look to be on outside edges on initial blade placement and then lean into a deeper outside edge. Nathalie and Tessa look to be on shallow outside edges on initial blade placement and then lean into a deeper outside edge. Elena looks to be veering between flat and shallow outside on initial blade placement and then leans into a deeper outside edge. Meryl looks to be on a flat edge on initial blade placement and then leans into a shallow outside edge. It could have been a close call for all 4 teams, especially D/W, but the technical panel gave all 4 teams yes on this key point.

All the teams are on a correct left forward inside edge for their LFI XB-ClCho, so this doesn’t have to do with credit for key points, but aesthetics and GOE. V/M and I/K have excellent free leg unison. P/B free legs do not match and Fabian could have better extension here. D/W free legs are very messy as it looks like they’re about to crash into each other. 

[icedancegems]

The Best is Yet to Come: Alex & Maia Shibutani in Sochi 2014 | Music Monday

The best is still yet to come! Alex Shibutani and Maia Shibutani from the USA had not only chosen Michael Bublé's track for their Figure Skating Ice Dance Sh...

Remembering their finnstep 😍😃

[favouritemoments]

Elena Ilinykh & Nikita Katsalapov

2014 European Figure Skating Championships - Short Dance