Set down on outside edge.

Meryl hops - OF COURSE.

onto an outside(ish) edge, still supported by Charlie, but doesn't skate on it because

It's two foot time. Both of them.

And Charlie hops. In place. On two feet. Meryl is pure finesse til the end. Observe her fabulous posture. It's like she's rollerskating out with a plate of burgers.

Meryl's all - the music hasn't stopped yet or anything, but who are we kidding. We've got this. 77 points! Sure, she'll keep her hand on her hip a la polka but no need to get one of her feet off the ice. Charlie feels the same. The program is over.

Oh all right  - one last hop. For good measure. On two feet.

And done! Miles apart as usual, cause, you know, chemistry you can cut with a knife.

The next post, we will see Virtue and Moir's exit from their lift.

************
So from the moment Meryl hits her arabesque until the end of the program, Charlie is on two feet and stays that way.

It's another one of those element extension tricks Marina uses (for Davis and White) to fool the eye. He's wide stanced and two footed before the lift starts. She's just hopped into an arabesque and has stopped skating. His feet remain in that stance for the lift. And his feet stay that way until the program is over.

The untrained eye takes it in as of a piece with the lift. It's not. The untrained eye sees what Meryl's doing as a spiral into the lift. It's not.

They're using the lift placement as an excuse to park it on two feet prior to the lift as well as afterwards, through to the program's conclusion.

Blow up their pcs - they've earned it.

P.S.

Once Meryl touched down and Charlie stopped rotating, the lift was over, so no doubt per the ISU the lift itself is the exact same value as what Virtue and Moir will do. Plus Meryl's positions and the difficulty of how Charlie picks her up under his arm so she's across his body obviously rates the highest everything.

Besides, given the base value assigned to Meryl's position, one imagines Meryl's position with her torso against Charlie challenges stability, no?

Her position doesn't make the element MORE stable, does it? What with her core weight and balance distributed diagonally across his shoulder, down across his chest and onto his opposite hip, so that no one part of his body has to absorb Meryl's "weight" and so Charlie's balance isn't challenged by having Meryl positioned on only one side?

Her first lift position actually follows his axis. She's dead across his center of mass, and her diagonal line means not only is Charlie's body not pressed left to right, he's not unduly pressed north to south.

Unlike Scott who has Tessa on one shoulder, perpendicular to his axis, so there's one off-center balance point, away from Scott's center of mass (where the rotation is concentrated) and the success of the move depends on her distributing/carrying much more of her own weight unsupported by Scott. Tessa's on her back, laid out on a perpendicular. Nor does she have her arms and chest draped on Scott, face down, her legs swinging out behind like a carnival ride. She actually has to control her limbs, her balance, her weight. Remember the contraction principle of rotation - if you're contracted - everything close to the body, to your axis - you rotate faster. If your arms (or your partner's limbs) are extended, it challenges the speed you can achieve. Scott and Tessa choose the more difficult position.

That Tessa. Heifer that she is compared to sylph-like Meryl who needs Charlie's entire body for stability, and Charlie, best partner in the world that he is needing to wear Meryl like a poncho or otherwise he'll fall down.

P.P.S. - for all their hopping, leaping, rushing frenzy, nobody kills time and runs down that clock like Meryl and Charlie. Why skate when you can burn seconds with non-skating. It adds up. That is a long assed finish they've got there out of that rotational lift and every inch on two feet. Meryl is just about doing the snow plow out there, and Charlie also has both feet on the ice. But it's okay cause they're still working the hair, and the waist up flourishes. Charlie hasn't stopped tossing his head (hair) back or throwing out an arm, and Meryl's hand on her hip means "style of the dance". But for a short dance, that two foot run out from the lift is an obvious time waster.

That lead into the lift is another time waster. Is there a reason Meryl has to hit that arabesque pose so far from Charlie? The guy has to anchor himself with two feet, jut his butt out behind and tilt his torso forward to get into a sort of lowered center of gravity, ab-clenching tug-of-war stance and then yank her in. That's another (literal) hefty space of time where he's planted on two feet before he ever has to brace for the lift, and she's not skating either - she's being pulled like a little red wagon.

For a couple of skaters who make a huge show of their busyness on the ice, they sure do like to to take frequent breaks to run down the clock and give themselves a breather from actually skating. Or dancing. Or partnering each other.

There's no skating continuity here, segment to segment. They can only skate in separate, individual segments - literally. The entire program is unlinked segments, unlinked because the segments aren't linked by actual skating. So naturally, it's in pcs that DW are defeating VM, who skate in and out of their program segments and elements.

Skating While Davis White

To me the post title ought to be presented as the reason Davis and White blow out the scoreboard every time they leave the ice.

I've screen capped the rotational lift in the short dance. I am looking at the list of poses by the 'lady' that add difficulty and just the first go over makes me believe that Meryl in the catchfoot - no matter how she's draped across Charlie and never mind the cross-body overall security of her position - qualifies as difficulty, and I think when her chest, shoulders and arms are lying across his body it's also difficulty because her lower body isn't. And then you add in the incredible control and refinement of the whole thing, and no wonder.

Davis White and Virtue Moir got the same score for the rotational lift - 5.36. That's .14 short of perfection.

The fact that Tessa's catchfoot is postcard perfect (foot turned out, body fully stretched, everything perfectly aligned) so that every single time the rotation presents her to the camera it is identical (identically perfect) to the previous position is shown in the screen caps, but I'm going to post those tomorrow. For now, this caught my attention:

Meryl and Charlie's entry into the rotational lift:

 

Charlie does more than pull her in - he actually yanks her in. We can see that she began quite a healthy distance away.

He lets go with another yank (look at the video) and

Off that yank she is propelled forward and he bends down for take off.

Scott and Tessa:

Shocker. Tessa SKATES into the lift.  She's not jerked or yanked across the ice into Scott's arms. There's no tugging. She skates right into the guy. He also puts his hands on her hips. He doesn't bend over and hoist her across his body like a sandbag. He is guiding her into her rotational move that ends with her laid out on his shoulder. It's a mutual, evolving move.

Which is, of course, not at all better than what Charlie just did hoisting Meryl like he's lifting that bale.

The respective lift exits is the next post because I couldn't help over capping DW to make fun.

So. to sum up:

Tessa skates into the lift entrance position, as does Scott. He only goes to his two foot stance when he's actually lifting her.

Into the lift entrance Scott has his hands on her waist, she has her hands on his arms, and the entrance immediately releases into a fucking no hands arial rotation* which ends with her laid perpendicular across one of his shoulders, where she does a catch foot. Her body position is extended throughout the rotations, everything is aligned, she is set down on an inside edge, flows out of her partner and transitions to an outside running edge.

So while in the rotational, she's not distributing her balance/weight across the plane of his body - she's perpendicular to it, which has got to be just as easy as draping herself across his front diagonally like a Miss America banner with her catch foot securing her position behind his body, the way Meryl does it. Because diagonal weight and balance distribution isn't easier on both of you or anything.

Right? It's elementary.

Davis White:  Meryl hits an arabesque position (after a hop, of course) and with several feet between them, Charlie plants himself into a two-foot crouch and takes her hand, yanking her towards him like she's a pull toy.The lift hasn't started and yet he's not skating and she's not skating. He then bends over her body with one arm under her body and one arm over, her against his side for maximum security, and flips her across his body, diagonally shoulder-to hip, her catchfoot hooks her onto his body. He rotates and she changes position using both hands on Charlie and also her upper chest on him.  She's set down on an outside edge and hops onto two feet.

So of course both lifts are given the same base value and get the exact same aggregate GOE.

*The arial rotation keeps sticking with me. This move first showed up at the end of Farrucus in 2010. Tessa rotated and then she was set down and immediately hit her final pose on one knee. She didn't skate off the set down.

However, very shortly before she and Scott skated it at Worlds 2010, word reached them that it would be better to take it out. Since figure skating - especially ice dance - is a real, legitimate sport, nobody unequivocally told them to take it out, citing the relevant violation. It was just heavy hinting and you know, proceed at your own risk. MAYBE there would be a deduction. So they took it out. They used it in exhibitions.

Come 2012-2013 short dance, it's back in. And it's not an ending pose - she does an arial rotation into her lift position.

Call me suspicious, but it's hard not to think the ISU told them to take out that rotation in worlds because they were FUCKING WITH THEM. Period. It was chain jerking. Otherwise, maybe they'd have an institutional memory and call it out in the short dance this past season. But nope.

Why would it be a violation in Farrucus? It seems that it might have pushed the same buttons as the original goose dismount - oh this is a pairs move (in the goose dismount it was - oh this is a jump).

It's a twist move. In a twist, the female rotates and is set down on, ideally, a running edge without using her partner's body to absorb her descent. So maybe in Farrucus Tessa and Scott did it so well it looked too pairsy - maybe the ISU would have been happier if she'd clutched onto Scott with both hands and landed definitively on two feet, like the current World champion is wont to do with her partner. I think Tessa - out of instinct - was set down on one foot, even if it wasn't an edge, and then did her lunge/kneel final pose. Which is just like pairs.

Considering the set down was nothing like pairs - she was set down onto one foot and hit a pose - one imagines it was the "twist" part of things that had the ISU passive-aggressively hinting around.

And yet it was okay for this year's waltz. She twisted in the air throughout the entire season. And it was okay with the ISU.

Skating into and out of your elements - who needs it.

Informational resources

Today I found this:

The Biometrics of Skating and Rotating

I think it's a useful information resource because it's a physics page using figure skating to explain certain physics principles, such as projectile motion. It's not a skating page. It's written clearly with simple, helpful videos, and there are tips for what to focus on in the videos so as to track the physics principle in action.

It seems to me that the ISU is not just not brain trusts, but it's not a bunch of physics experts either. Which - fine.

Except, when assigning a level of difficulty to an ice dance element, it might help if you understand whether or not the "feature" that you say adds difficulty actually DOES add difficulty. Rather than, say, it turning out that the feature assists both rotational momentum and projectile motion (horizontal).

It also helps if you understand the physics of say, another element, well enough to recognize that doing it requires superior skating skills.

But the ISU doesn't need no stinking physics. I bet most physicists have never skated at a high level themselves.

I was also reading some old articles on Sanda Loosemore's old skating web page. An article on CoP:

Statistical analysis of CoP in action

is still relevant years on. The ISU designed a statistics-based scoring system without really understanding statistics, nor do the judges employ statistics rationally.

I, personally, think the 6.0 system was a little too Scott Hamilton-ey, but if you're going to assign values to elements you have to be good at making distinctions, and judges suck at it. At least in practice, they've shown themselves to suck.

But of course, figure skating pr is going to continue to turn the problem with the sport onto the fans. We don't get that it's so so hard. We don't feel like we know the figure skaters personally. It's a real sport!

P.S. - it's so strange that Debbi Wilkes failed to check a page like the jumping and rotational physics page before announcing how figure skating feats compared to the feats executed by "real' athletes.  Due respect, turns out even the tallest, strongest male singles skaters don't 'jump higher than basketball players".  They jump just about high enough to dunk a basket - if they're really, really high.

Program Intermission - Reading Comprehension

In the comments underneath some posts below (as well as in common discussion on skating message boards) there are sweeping statements and some speculation about Jennifer Swan's choreography that imply the Carmen program is the work of only Swan. And that Virtue and Moir brought in Swan after Marina's choreography was unsatisfactory.

As a public service, this:

Jacquelyn Thayer's interview with Jennifer Swan

I don't understand and never will understand why people can't or won't read or become informed and instead favor speculation.*

I will never understand how so-called fans of ice dance consistently fail to understand that a competitive ice dance program must be SKATED according to very specific criteria for high levels and GOE, that an ice dance program must include specific elements executed according to specific rules and restrictions, and these elements must also come in under a certain time in and of themselves, as well as the program as a whole come in under a certain time, and so therefore the music cuts must both work with the element layout and the overall program time restrictions.

But no. All over message boards fans are like- hey, Virtue Moir should just take Swan and you know - fill in the skating stuff! Or get Igor to do the tech!

As if the tech is just pasted onto the choreography.

Thayer's interview with Swan isn't over long, and yet it answers every basic question about the collaboration. And it doesn't matter! Fans ignore what she says and make up their own version of what went on.

Key points:

Swan worked with Virtue Moir (and MARINA) on Pink Floyd, so her involvement with their skating programs goes back four years at least, although she's known Tessa for years and years.

Marina and Virtue and Moir asked Swan to work with them in May of 2012. MAY.

Swan is a successful and busy choreographer and was out of the country. She wasn't available until July.

In the meantime the skaters and their coach developed a "working draft" of Carmen.

Swan arrives and begins working on the specific movement Virtue and Moir will use in Carmen.

This process looks a whole lot more to me like choreographer comes in and, via collaborating with the skater and the coach, works out the choreography according to the figure skating.

NOT a choreographer coming in and developing choreography on the floor and some how, by some miracle, the skaters then take it onto the ice and - voila!! Just plug in twizzles, footwork, spins, lift, linking moves, entrances and exits to high risk elements with ease!

It's a figure skating competition first and foremost and that's the first consideration. Swan is yet another brilliant collaborator, yet another "best" sought out by Virtue and Moir, who is talented enough and visual enough to integrate what she does off ice into an ice dance program. Who is able to thoroughly understand completely different movement mechanics (the foot in the skating boot is rigid and there's nothing more antithetical to modern movement) and still make the modern movement work with skating, with the result that the final program is seamless.

We realize that it is seamless not because it represents the work of a single ballet choreographer but because Marina and Swan and Virtue and Moir worked together brilliantly and each perfectly understood what they wanted the program to look like in the end - every movement having both choreographic and psychological intent, nothing extraneous, using modern movement style which = lower center of gravity/working towards the floor as opposed to the "up up" of  a lot of other dance.

This program is the work of people who understand what they're doing backwards and forwards and are genius problem solvers and thoroughly grasp both the big picture and its component parts. Otherwise this program would not have been possible.

Another collaborator is Maria Mountain. It was up to Mountain to figure out what the skaters needed to do in order to fulfill the choreography - i.e., this particular move might put unaccustomed pressure on a knee, this move asks something different of Tessa's body than she's asked of it before in lifts.

I don't get why so many fans fetishize choreography in ice dance as an art APART AND SEPARATE FROM SKATING.

That is impossible when it is done properly. When the skaters are actually skating their dance style and not just styling their skating.

Which of the above do we think is harder?

I think my favorite fan remark was that Virtue Moir ought to go to Igor and just keep Swan for "flourishes". Flourishes? When have Virtue and Moir become knees up skaters? Or gesture skaters? Flourishes skaters? What a freaking insult to Swan and what was accomplished with Carmen. Carmen was a choreographic collaboration using figure skating as the medium - that's the genius of Carmen, that's the CoP-centricity of Carmen and it is not just Swan's masterpiece but belongs fully as much to the coach and the skaters.

___________________________
*And not for nothing but it also kills me that in the past the blog has been bashed for calling Virtue and Moir liars about their off ice relationship by the same people who happily throw everything else Virtue and Moir say out the window in favor of their own political theories and aesthetic preferences and made up soap opera scenarios about everything from Virtue and Moir's personal relationship with Davis & White to their coaching situation. And to other aspects of Virtue and Moir's relationship. They have no problem whatsoever ignoring, second guessing or completely disregarding what the skaters say about that stuff and plugging in their own made up theories. It's not the blog bashing that kills me, it's the inconsistency and it's the oblivious.