by Jacquelyn Thayer Figure skating is a distinctive breed of Olympic sport, where subjective preference is in regular conflict with objective measurement. This shapes its perception among viewers — read any fan discussion to see how even a skater’s technical scores can easily become a topic of heated debate — but just as much its…
Category: Ice Dance
Dance, Feature, Ice Dance
The Varieties of Virtue and Moir
Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the most demonstrably versatile team in ice dance history, have also just laid claim to the title of most decorated skating team in Olympic history — a tally of two gold medals in the individual ice dance event and team event in PyeongChang brought their total across three Olympic…
Dance, Ice Dance, Quick Steps
Wednesday Watch: The Last Tango and the Joy of Rehearsals
We’re still on a tango kick (so to speak) so for this week’s Watch, enjoy this 2015 backstage performance of “La Cumparsita” from Flavia Cacace and Vincent Simone: I have a strong affection for performance executed outside of the official trappings — rehearsal footage and demos in practice wardrobe, away from the eyes of a…
Ice Dance, Other Sites, Step Sequences
19. Tango, Pt. 2: Freestyle
For this second entry in our tango series, we’ll move away from the structure of the compulsory — Argentine and Romantica — tango and move ahead into its looser, choreographed free dance interpretations, along with a quick nod or two to the now-departed original dance. And as the dance proper goes, perhaps the most useful…
Behind the Scenes, Dance, Feature, Ice Dance, Profile
From the Archives: Pasquale Camerlengo
Pasquale Camerlengo with Angelika Krylova and long-time students Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje at the 2014 World Figure Skating Championships. (Photo by Chris McGrath for Getty Images AsiaPac) by Jacquelyn Thayer Continuing our cutting room floor series, these insights from Pasquale Camerlengo were captured during a June 2015 interview. As a competitive ice dancer in…
Ice Dance, Other Sites, Two for the Ice
Behind the Program, Ep. 6: Manta and Johnson, 2016-17 Free Dance
In ice dance’s current sea of soft lyricals, a free dance with some grit is bound to stand out. And from a team whose last free showed a buoyant, vintage bent, the contrast is even more striking. Karina Manta and Joe Johnson, seventh at last season’s U.S. Nationals and bronze medalists at 2015’s Autumn Classic…
Ice Dance, Other Sites, Step Sequences
18. Tango, Pt. 1: The Compulsories
It’s lent its stylings to two senior compulsory patterns, arisen in five seasons for original dance usage — and once as a secondary short dance rhythm, one of those topics we’ll discuss at another time — and otherwise functioned as the focus of countless more free dances. Of all specific partner dances, none can be…
Ice Dance, Other Sites, Step Sequences
17. Samba
Between next month’s Rio Olympics and the recent announcement of the 2016-17 season’s revisitation of the Latin short dance, it may finally be time to turn our eyes to that most complex of Latin dances: the samba. A quick look at its overall history is useful and highlights certain of its historical complexities. Note that…
Behind the Scenes, Dance, Feature, Ice Dance, Profile
From the Archives: Mark Pillay
by Jacquelyn Thayer Author’s Note: In summer 2015, I interviewed several top choreographers from the figure skating world for a feature in Dance International magazine’s Winter 2015 issue. Due to space limitations, some great insight was left on the cutting room floor — until now. In a new series, Moving in Measure delivers a closer…
Ice Dance, Other Sites, Two for the Ice
With Past as Prologue, Paul and Islam Carry On
It was a classic quote of much-debated origin — “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts” — that concluded the ice dance team’s reflective Facebook post, a season wrap-up tradition begun in the wake of a devastating Canadian Nationals, where an element error meant the difference…
