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Semi-Recent Developments in Ice Dance

CHELYABINSK, RUSSIA – SEPTEMBER 12: Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen of the United States compete in the Junior Ice Dance Rhythm Dance during day 1 of the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating at Traktor Arena on September 12, 2019 in Chelyabinsk, Russia. (Photo by Joosep Martinson – International Skating Union (ISU)/International Skating Union via Getty Images)

If you’re a devoted…

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#Bashynska and Beaumont #Demougeot and Le Mercier #Fear and Gibson #Galiyanova and Lochhead #Gilles and Poirier #Guignard and Fabbri #Khudaiberdieva and Filatov #Makita and Gunara #McNamara and Carpenter #Nazarova and Nikitin #Nguyen and Kolesnik #Popova and Mozgov #Shanaeva and Naryzhnyy #Shpilevaya and Smirnov #Sinitsina and Katsalapov #Soucisse and Firus #Wolfkostin and Chen

Great Skating Performances of 2018-19: The Ingenues

As always, I had approximately one zillion favorites, which I have narrowed down to one competitive program per skater or team. This round, I'm focusing on figure skating's bright future.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – MARCH 08: Alexandra Trusova of Russia competes in the Junior Ladies Short Program during day 3 of the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships Zagreb at Dom Sportova on March 08, 2019 in Zagreb, Croatia. (Photo by Joosep Martinson – International Skating Union (ISU)/ISU via Getty Images)

Welcome to the second part of my round-up of my favorite performances from the…

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#Akhanteva and Kolesov #Alexandra Trusova #Alysa Liu #Anna Shcherbakova #Calista Choi #Daniel Grassl #Feng and Nyman #Lopareva and Brissaud #Marina PIredda #Mishina and Galliamov #Nguyen and Kolesnik #Sota Yamamoto #Yuma Kagiyama

Pop Songs for the Gleefully Strange: Why I Love Rocketman

Photo by CBS Television. Uploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia.org. Transferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot, Public Domain, Link

I’m not expecting you to love Rocketman as much as I did. I’m assuming you won’t, for the same reason I don’t expect most people to love Stéphane Lambiel’s 2005-2006 free skate choreography or R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction as much as I do. It’s a good movie,…

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Great Skating Performances of 2018-19: The Breakthroughs

MINSK, BELARUS – JANUARY 23: Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres of France compete in the Pairs Short Program during day one of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships at Minsk Arena on January 23, 2019 in Minsk, Belarus. (Photo by Joosep Martinson – International Skating Union (ISU)/ISU via Getty Images)

The sun is shining, my taxes are due soon, and another season of figure skating is in…

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#Alexia Paganini #Anastasiia Guliakova #Cain and LeDuc #Camden Pulkinen #Efimova and Korovin #Fournier Beaudry and Sorensen #Guignard and Fabbri #James and Cipres #Junhwan Cha #Lajoie and Lagha #Matteo Rizzo #Tomoki Hiwatashi #Wang and Liu #Yi Christy Leung

2019 World Junior Championships Preview: Ice Dance

VANCOUVER, BC – DECEMBER 06: Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov of Russia compete in the Rhythm Dance portion of the Junior Ice Dance competition at the ISU Junior and Senior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, December, 6, 2018 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam – International Skating Union (ISU))

We’re less than a week away from Junior Worlds, and if you…

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#Demougeot and Le Mercier #Fabbri and Ayer #Green and Green #Gropman and Somerville #Kazakova and Reviya #Khudaiberdieva and Nazarov #Lajoie and Lagha #Lopareva and Brissaud #Nguyen and Kolesnik #Polishook and Kizala #Righi and Dubrovin #Shevchenko and Eremenko #Ushakova and Nekrasov #World Junior Championships

Why I Am Still a (Smug) Patriots Fan

I not only own this t-shirt but am wearing it right now. It was designed by Dylan Todd.

I am going to watch the Super Bowl today, and I am going to enjoy it.

My favorite NFL team, the New England Patriots, pulled off their customary playoffs rally, combining their unparalleled strategic acumen with the football equivalent of inflated program components scores. They are the most hated team…

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#the goddamn NFL

Some Notes on the John Coughlin Situation

This hat is innocent, as far as I know.

I wasn’t all that angry until I saw the red hats.

The pairs skaters were wearing them in the Kiss and Cry during the short program at US Nationals. Not all the pairs skaters – specifically, Dalilah Sappenfield’s students. They’re Kansas City Chiefs hats, in tribute to the late John Coughlin and his favorite football team. Surely, their resemblance to MAGA…

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2019 US Nationals Preview: Championship Ice Dance

VANCOUVER, BC – DECEMBER 7: Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of The United States compete in the Rhythm Dance portion of the Ice Dance Competition on December, 7, 2018 at the ISU Junior & Senior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam – International Skating Union (ISU))

Welcome to the third installment of The Finer Sports’ 2019 US…

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#2019 US Nationals #Binotto and Judd #Carreira and Ponomarenko #Chock and Bates #Erdman and Vlasenko #Hawayek and Baker #Hubbell and Donohue #Manta and Johnson #McNamara and Carpenter #Melton and O&039;Donnell #Parsons and Parsons #Reynolds and Reynolds #Takahashi and Altukhov

2019 US Nationals Preview: Championship Ladies Part 2

HONG KONG, HONG KONG – AUGUST 03: Alysa Liu of USA competes in Advanced Novice Girls group during the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy 2017 on August 3, 2017 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (Photo by Power Sport Images/Getty Images)

Welcome to the second part of my senior ladies’ preview for 2019 US Nationals! If you missed part one, you should read that first,not only to learn about the athletes…

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#2019 US Nationals #Akari Nakahara #Alysa Liu #Bradie Tennell #Brynne McIsaac #Emmy Ma #Hannah Miller #Heidi Munger #Megan Wessenberg #Sierra Venetta

2019 US Nationals Preview: Championship Ladies Part 1

LAVAL, QC – OCTOBER 27: Mariah Bell of the United States competes on day two during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Skate Canada International at Place Bell on October 27, 2018 in Laval, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis – ISU/ISU via Getty Images)

The US Figure Skating Championships are nigh. Elsewhere on the figure skating internet the hype train is revving up and the…

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#2019 US Nationals #Amber Glenn #Courtney Hicks #Hanna Harrell #Julia Biechler #Mariah Bell #Pooja Kalyan #Rena Ikenishi #Starr Andrews #Ting Cui

Japanese Nationals Start Orders

Putting my language skills to use! (Anyone got a stream they can link to?)

The start order for the ladies is up in Japanese but not in English, and it looks like live scoring will proceed on the Japanese results site but not the English site. If, like me, you took a Totally Planned afternoon nap and want to see how much of Nationals you can get through before you lose consciousness, here is a translation of the starting orders.

Ice Dance RD

1. Hirayama Kiria/Axel…

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#Japanese Nationals

22 Memorable Performances from 2018-19 US Sectionals

I love watching Sectionals. For the most part, the second round of American national qualifying events presents a lower level of skating than a major international competition, but that’s part of the fun. Many of the athletes will consider their season a success if they secure a spot at Nationals – and some are shocked and delighted just to have made it to Sectionals. Sectionals is a formality…

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2018 Grand Prix-view: The Men of Skate America

2018 Grand Prix-view: Men Part 1

The 2018-19 Grand Prix of Figure Skating starts this weekend, and I feel unprepared. Not because I lack knowledge – I’ve watched all the Challenger Series events so far this season, and kept an eye on other notable program premieres – but because I’m not attending Skate America in person this year, which makes the Grand Prix seem distant and theoretical. I’m not even going to watch most of the…

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#2018 Grand Prix #Alexei Bychenko #Jimmy Ma #Julian Zhi Jie Yee #Kevin Reynolds #Matteo Rizzo #Michal Brezina #Moris Kvitelashvili #Nam Nguyen #Nathan Chen #Romain Ponsart #sergei voronov #Vincent Zhou

do you think the ISU creativity rule was in response to things like P/C's Ed Sheeran last season which clearly did not fit the pattern character?

I have long since stopped trying to read any kind of logic into ISU decisions.

Re: that lovely Karina Manta article - I'm pretty sure Amber Glenn has posted/reposted LGBTQ pride stuff on her instagram and twitter for a while now. I'm not 100% certain though and don't want to presume her sexuality, so I thought I'd just let you know through an anonymous ask.

Thanks for reading - I’m glad you enjoyed the article! I’ve seen Pride-related stuff in Glenn’s social media, too, but to my knowledge she hasn’t made a definitive public statement like Manta and Suguri have. There are a number of figure skaters (mostly men, other than Glenn) who post similar content but have not formally come out, and my stance is always to respect people’s privacy even if their identity is “known” among fans. There have been times in my life when I’ve chosen to live in a glass closet, not denying my identity but also not talking about it, and I understand why someone would feel they needed to protect their career in that way or just not want it to be a topic of public discussion. It’s also unfair to make assumptions about someone’s orientation or gender identity based on Pride-related social media posts: we see that kind of thing and tend to assume gay/lesbian or maaaaybe bi, but what if she’s asexual? Or nonbinary? Or not sure how to label herself yet? Or a really exuberant straight ally who goes to a lot of Pride events with her queer friends?

TLDR: unless someone makes a specific public statement about their sexual orientation or gender identity, my default in the blog is to make no assumptions in any direction.

I appreciated your comment 'The ISU cracked down on creativity in the rhythm dance this season, making it clear that teams need to conform to traditional tango music selections'. I think a lot of ice dance fans don't know this and are wondering where the 'creative' choices we had in previous seasons are.

Hey, I got Tumblr messages and didn’t even notice! Thanks, anonymous reader!

I unfortunately don’t have the receipts handy for this, but the ISU was much more specific about the kind of music that would be acceptable for the RD than in years past with the short dance. The anecdote that I remember reading was that someone at the ISU convening mentioned that Britney Spears’ “Toxic” falls within the tempo guidelines and is often used in competitive ballroom dance for tango rhythms, and the reply was that Britney would not be acceptable because it doesn’t fit the style and character of the tango. There have been some creative RDs here and there - a few Chicago soundtrack medleys using the “Cellblock Tango,” things like that - but coaches and choreographers were informed early in the summer that they would be penalized for thinking too far outside the box. The silver lining is, many teams have looked beyond the usual warhorses, so we’re not clawing out our eardrums at the umpteenth “Tango de Roxanne” or “Libertango.”

Karina Manta Keeps Ice Dance Queer

Karina Manta and Joe Johnson at a 2018 Pride celebration, from Manta’s Instagram.

A deeply adorable thing happened on Instagram on Sunday night.It was also a deeply important thing. Karina Manta, a member of the USA National Team in ice dance, came out as bisexual in a bedroom spoken-word-and-guitar confessional that resounds with the kind of baby queer girl purity that would make all of…

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#Manta and Johnson

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