I have a long-winded introduction of my infancy in the fandom that I will spare you with, just please know I'm much too recent to fully understand the enormity of Evgenia's move from Eteri to Oster. I can tell you, though, that even I know that it's big and it does *feel* like a huge deal. All these movements to Gadbois also somehow feel monumental? Seeing from your list that Montreal now has many US teams, would you have any idea which is THE US rink now? Kind of like Canton was in days past?
Ok hi anon! First of all, no need to apologize apologize for not knowing things! It’s great that you want to be in this fandom in the first place, and even better that you want to learn more! (although I may not be the best source for learning, but I’ll try my best). Second of all, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to prepare yourself for a very long-winded response because that’s how I roll, but also because you asked an excellent question!
So first of all, the Evgenia moving part (I know you didn’t specifically ask about it, I’m sorry). So this move is monumental for several reasons. First and foremost is pretty much that Eteri is kind of a huge bitch (excuse my language). She essentially gets her skaters to the top by backloading (meaning she puts all their jumps at the end of the program in order to get more points). Furthermore her skaters (but especially Zhenya) pretty much always have choreography that involves pantomiming (which is essentially when skaters act out parts of their music, rather than using creative and innovative body movements to express the music). Both these are things that are generally frowned upon in the skating world, as although they do end up with the skaters receiving higher scores, they more or less throw the sense of artistry and balance that a skating program should have out the window. Another argument against Eteri is that she is straight up abusive to her skaters and encourages eating disorders among them, which is something that I cannot express how not ok that is.
Another perhaps not as monumental, but noteworthy thing about Evgenia’s move is the matter of her flutz. So when a skater does a lutz, their standing foot is supposed to be on an outside edge when they toe in and jump into the air, and a flip is pretty much the same jump, but instead the skater is on an inside edge. When doing a lutz, it is fairly easy to flip over to the inside edge unintentionally, instead doing a flip jump. When this happens, as it does with Evgenia all the time, it is called a flutz, and when scored, should not be called as a lutz, but often is. Many people hope that by moving to Orser, the problem of Evgenia’s flutz will be fixed.
In all, the most important part of Evgenia’s move, however, is simply that she will be training in a more supportive environment, with legendary choreographers, and will be inspired by skating alongside icons like Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez. (I cannot express how thankful I am for this move, I think it will be an excellent decision both for Zhenya’s skating and her health (mental and physical)).
Ok, sorry that took so long, now it’s time to answer the question that you actually asked:
So, yes, with the Shibs taking next season off, the top three US ice dance teams are now all going to be training at Gadbois (and Marina has NO ONE muahaha). Which, in a way, kind of is a big deal considering that they will be all training with their biggest domestic rivals, as well as their biggest international rivals, which should create an, um…*interesting* training environment. This also means that although MF and Patch (who I will henceforth refer to as mom and dad) do an excellent job of allowing their skaters to have their own unique technique of skating and creating programs to match this, the general style of the programs (the layout, the types of transitions, the choreographed movements (by Sam™)).
I guess that this means that, for ice dance at least, there isn’t really a US rink. Besides Gadbois, the rest of the teams are pretty much scattered across the country (I think a couple train in Maryland, but other than that, I really have no idea. There’s also the training facility in NJ where weapo train, but there really aren’t any top US teams there).
The same goes for freestyle and pairs. There are a bunch of freestylers who train with Raf in LA (Adam, Ashley, Nathan, etc etc.), but also Nathan’s going to Yale, so really who knows what’s going on with that. And then there’s always a fair amount who train in Colorado Springs.
I’m really not a pairs person, however I do know that there’s one or two contingents of pairs skaters who train in Florida?
So, overall, pretty much US skating in general is kind of a mess. I have full faith that MF and Patch can handle having all the top US teams, however it is definitely going to be interesting to see how all these coaching changes play out (especially in bock as they are already established in their style and as a top US team so I’m still very confused why they decided to move at this point in their career, but this post is already so long that we don’t have to talk about it right now).
Anywho, thank you so much for sticking with me if you made it all the way to this point in the reply. And thank you anon, for such an interesting question! (I secretly love it when anons ask me things that I get to rant about)
:)
