Un-be-liev-a-ble. I hadn’t seen Virtue and Moir this season, and they were phenomenal. But then, pretty much everybody skated their best, which makes it the absolutely best kind of competition. Do I think they deserved to win? Yes. Do I think their routines will be the ones remembered from this season…I’m not so sure. In Canada, certainly, but I think Davis and White’s Indian routine and phantom routines are more memorable. Not to take away from V&M! They were breathtaking….but there’s something to be said for skating THE performance to a well-know and oft-used piece of music, or being The First to skate a completely different dance form.
But mostly, I love the comaraderie that oozes between these two couples.
Whew…I’m glad I stayed up to watch it. Yay V&M, yay D&W, and yay B&A, who completed a season of top-notch performances and deserve to retire to ice shows as the winners they are. And Yay pretty much everyone else. It was a great competition….except….
Frankly (she says, taking one of her patented extreme positions) I think the Russians deserved to have been disqualified for lifts that took blatant advantage of a hole in the rules…those lifts using her body ropes are more than obviously against the spirit of the lift rules. And then, there’s the award for bad taste…for all their costumes, (the mouth on the nude part of her costume that looks like…well, let’s be polite and say it looks like a pastie, just fries it) but esp the non-aboriginal dance in which the least of the insults to the people whose dance they were slaughtering was her red costume!
Please note, I said deserved, not should have been. Evidently, someone ruled the rope-usage legal earlier this season. (Don’t know…first I’ve seen of them and am too tired to go look it up on the internet.) But to me, those ropes are obvious props and therefore illegal. But once they were allowed in one competition, I guess they had to be allowed in the next. I do think the judges should have taken every opportunity to downgrade the GoE on every part of their performance that related to the ropes. And whatever part of the “folk dance” judging that pertained to authenticity should also have been downgraded. Big time. There aren’t a lot of examples of Aboriginal dance available, but from what I’ve seen, it does seem to use some specific kinds of moves and freeze positions, none of which were evident in this routine. It almost always tells a story or depicts nature, not an over-the-top flirtation that looks like something out of a bad prehistoric B-movie. But…enough. Other than that, the skating, of every discipline, has been MAGNIFICENT!
Speaking of other disciplines…the skaters I’d least care to be at the moment is whatever hockey team is set to play Canada next. Those Canadian lads are going to be out for blood…
What a great Olympics…
WOWZIE! WOWZIE! WOWZIE! What a treat to watch great skating……and see the friendship between the skaters…..made me cheer for the Canadians…..I kind of liked the way the announcers referred to North Americans, rather than USA and CANADA….public relations perhaps…but still nice.
I thought the Russian costumes were embarrassing…..they seemed to be totally clueless about how offensive some people would find them……there’s a difference between letting a culture refer and inform, and cluelessness. Gosh do you think I feel strongly about this?
I agree on every point and for me the Russian’s entire routine was as forgettable as their costumes were distasteful. I’m sure that the exchange of gifts with the Original Peoples of North America was done with great relief that neither the costumes nor the music was in any way familiar. Thankfully!
I agree with eveything you said. I watched it with my wife, she told me I was going to have to give up my “Man” card because I enjoyed it so much.
I totally agree about the Russians, but other than them, the ice dancing was the highlight of the Olympic figure skating competition for me (and this coming from a long time fan of Shen and Zhao). I’m really looking forward to the women tonight though.
It’s been refreshing to see some new countries winning gold at the Olympics after Soviet/Russian domination for so many years. I’ve really enjoyed your posts about figure skating.
Jane, you are missed! I’m hopeful and for pics and tales of adventure from the last couple weeks.