Saturday, September 14, 2013

Virtue and Moir and Davis and White's 2013 sd, feet only

I did the feet only video cut myself this time, on a different program than they were done before, so the look is a bit different.

VM are seen full length at one point, otherwise their legs would have been hidden for the rest of it.

The obvious: Virtue and Moir's power, run of blade, depth of edge, ice coverage in the Finnstep, their unison in and out of hold -  every single aspect of their short dance is skated better than Davis and White's skate. Davis and White's poverty of movement is apparent is striking compared to Virtue and Moir.

They don't skate with their entire bodies - they reach and stretch, gesture and lean, but they don't engage their entire bodies to execute their program. This isn't about movement or dance style (although all dance and movement styles call for engagement of the entire body), this goes to skating. Their poverty of movement vis a vis VM is partially why Scott and Tessa, along with their superior stroking, have bigger, deeper patterns. It's why Virtue and Moir cover more ice, have better run of blade, why their posture is cleaner and their movements more relaxed, expansive and fluid, it's why nothing collapses when they transition.

Virtue and Moir's choreography is, as ever, more difficult than Davis White's.  

Notice especially the difference in the footwork, the girl's under-the-arm twizzle in the Finnstep, the dance couple's mutual twizzle/turns as they cross the ice, and the twizzle element. The twizzle element KILLS me. Even with Scott drifting it's in a different class than DW. Everything VM do is bigger, faster, clearer, closer, smoother, cleaner, more powerful.

With DW their feet are so far apart compared to Virtue and Moir. They really let the air in between their respective skates.

Everything is phrased with equal emphasis. That Scott and Tessa phrase their skating - that they're nuanced even mid-element - doesn't just go to musicality - it goes to control of their bodies and control of their blades.

This is a comparison but it's a pedestrian program skated unremarkably.  There is nothing authentically competitive about this program.





39 comments:

  1. OC look www.usfigureskating.org/leaderboard/results/2013/68594/SEGM008.html

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  2. Excuse me but D/W just got a 110. I think we can officially say it's over now. And I don't care I hate Marina.

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    1. you havent even seen V/M's fd though

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    2. Marina gave D/W two crap programs that a panel of American-influenced judges chose to slobber over. What would she need to do to be less hateable, out of curiosity?

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    3. I'm so angry I can't even see straight.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCYIlw7S014&feature=youtu.be

      Ice dance better get thrown out of the Olympics after this season.

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    4. @7:41

      It doesn't matter that we haven't seen VM's FD yet. It doesn't matter how well they skate or what kind of masterpiece it is. They don't have a chance.

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    5. "Marina gave D/W two crap programs that a panel of American-influenced judges chose to slobber over. What would she need to do to be less hateable, out of curiosity?"

      These programs are beyond ridiculous. It's almost like Marina is sabotaging them. Not her fault if the judging ignores reality more than it ever has.

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    6. Oops I meant to quote 7:35. Obviously, I agree with you 7:41.

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    7. This is definitely in no way on Marina. She couldn't have possibly given DW a worse set of programs.

      If this doesn't expose how fucked up ice dance is right now...

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    8. We should do one. Same twizzles for the SD AND FD? SMH.

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    9. For the sixth damned season in a row.

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    10. @7:42

      this is why people dont call ice dancing a sport.

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    11. Marina has zero to do with it. Davis White are doing basic stroking through both programs and hit their (elementary) elements. It's all smooth. The end. Their deficiencies are glaring vis a vis Virtue Moir for even a layperson. She hasn't done any magic. They're just pump pump pump stroke stroke stroke, hoist, crouch, stroke stroke - lower bodies and skates far apart. Look at the holds - or lack of holds. Look at the complete lack of relationship of their bodies to one another. Facing each other arm's length apart, or sbs stroke stroke pump pump. The programs are alike in this way.

      110 is a desperate score. Let's see if it's this comp's desperation or the ISU's desperation.

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    12. The handstand lift looks even worse here...it looks he's gonna drop her.

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    13. I've got a gif comparision coming - DW are using a cheated version of VM's 2011 lift onto Scott's back, and an horrific version of the Carmen upside down straight line. Naturally this means each element will score higher than when VM themselves did them, even though DW have to bastardize these moves and even then, don't execute them well.

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    14. Hate Marina? For what? I swear that FD is one of the weakest I have ever seen from Davis and White. Normally Marina does a lot more smoke and mirrors with their choreography. This time, they're totally exposed.

      Oh wait, I guess we're supposed to hate Marina for not taking into account how uninformed, biased skating fans and commentators would react to the programs before she constructed them. HOW DARE SHE NOT MAKE ALL OF HER DECISIONS BASED ON THAT. The nerve!

      You want to hate someone? Hate the ISU for facilitating the culture that allows federations to jockey for positioning and bargain their ways to championships.

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  3. Off topic, but how awesome is Weaver/Poje's new FD? This trumps that piece of shit of "tango" that D/W did in 2011. Hell, this trumps their piece of shit "Persian" program.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kCH306U0tM&feature=youtu.be

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  4. OC, what's the hop count for the FD? And WTF are the hops she's doing at 3:26?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCYIlw7S014&feature=youtu.be

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    1. They definitely hop here, but not as relentlessly as in past seasons. The lp and the sd are alike. Stroke and pump, stroke and pump, at arms' length facing each other, or sbs, in each position their lower bodies are far apart. The elements are cheap - the lifts in the fd especially are BAD. What concerns me is they got feedback - take out the hops and scurrying - just be smooth and we'll give you the gold. What else explains these programs, those twizzles that don't even gesture towards style of the dance, and the empty between the elements?

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    2. What is it? FD? Something new, something old, something blue and something borrowed! :/

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    3. Me too, 6:01! Ha!

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  5. Does diodio have unlisted videos for other teams besides D/W and W/P?

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    1. Unless Derek Hough and their other "collaborators" just studied Virtue Moir and made Virtue and Moir's stuff easier, I don't see what they contributed to these programs. Marina took Tessa and Scott's lifts and made them easier and cheaper for DW. DW hit the media and commence bragging how they're topping themselves by ripping off their training mates and executing a cheaper version of their old elements. And, they'll defeat VM doing this.

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    2. And, hopefully, afterwards ice dance will get thrown out of the Olympics.

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    3. Yes few couples like L/GK and T/S

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    4. It's so ironic how in Vancouver it was celebrated that real skating and real dancing had created ice dance legitimacy, and the very next year the "discipline" reverted to the same old crap - drama, gesture, knees-up bullshit.

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    5. The same old crap and then some. I've been following ice dance for a couple of decades now. This is the worst I've ever seen the politics. It's the biggest scandal ever in skating, and no one is saying anything.

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    6. 8:53, could you post the links?

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    7. As we enter the 2014 season, Davis White are going to defeat Virtue Moir by ripping off their lifts - bastardized, easier versions of their OLD lifts, and by doing even lamer versions of the twizzles they've done since they've been seniors, and by skating facing each other with their lower bodies and feet far apart, or sbs in a basic waist hold with their feet far apart. Unbelieveable.

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  6. I love how it looks like they're about to tease you with a third twizzle, but its really BS filler move.

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  7. The second half of the last "lift" looks like a cheap rip-off of V/M's first 2011 FD rotational lift, except that Meryl just couldn't be bothered to do anything with her legs and Charlie couldn't be bothered to rotate.

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    Replies
    1. pics to compare? because i'm not seeing it.

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  8. And the coronation on FSU is complete:

    Third, a note to the haters: If you honestly think Meryl and Charlie have not improved leaps and bounds since
    2010 and are not deserving of Olympic gold in Sochi then I just don't know what to think. This pains me to say it
    and some won't agree, but I think the results were absolutely correct in Vancouver. They have always been my favs
    but I truly believe Meryl and Charlie weren't quite there yet at that time...but not anymore.

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    1. The self righteousness on the D/W thread right now is hilarious. They appreciate V/M, don't you know, and just wish we could do the same in return.

      What really jumped out at me with that quote is that - I agree, D/W have improved. In bizarre non-skating ways, but at least before this FD was unveiled, they did LOOK better, somehow, than a few years ago. But whether a team has improved should make absolutely. no. difference. if the other team was much better to begin with, and has improved MORE. I can't really point out a top team that hasn't improved over the last few years, but it doesn't mean these teams should be beating V/M.

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  9. If you guys are considering petitions and writing to the ISU on facebook (do they have twitter?)... don't wait... do it by Skate America. Don't complain after VM have already lost the gold. How nice it would be to have DW the ones struggling, for once. Let's get the ISU nervous that there will be Chan/Ten level complaints if DW win.

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  10. I can't get the videos to play, am I missing something?

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    1. OC said in the comments of the most recent post that they'll upload them to youtube.

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