Tessa

Scott remains brilliant, but it's hard to remember back in the day when some fans thought he was the genius and she was the technician. He's wonderful, and I try very hard to watch him and just him in this free dance, but I keep going to her. The layers of detail in what she's doing, and HOW she's doing it, are breathtaking. He has gorgeous run of blade, his shoulders are more relaxed than they've ever been, but it's Tessa who is framing these programs. She has the in the bone understanding and he is her foil - in performance, not in skating. Performance includes not just the acting, but the intention behind every isolation, every beat, every transition.

Direction changes, hold changes. Not
advertising it. How many fans even notice?
And the blade run, the speed.

They switch sides during the twizzles. I don't think people notice 1/4 of what VM do, because they refuse to advertise - meaning, refuse to cue the audience. Heads up, this is hard. And what they do actually is difficult, compared to other teams who look for something "effective" that is actually made easier by the required feature.


This what Latin dance looks like.

y.

One fan on a skate board claimed they lost the latin character
here.

SD Practice

I don't believe Marie-France had anything to do with either of VM's programs.

I love that both programs are flashy.

Putting this here for later.

The skating part of this gorgeous skating aside, Tessa's body articulation is extraordinary. Also, how little they need to do to effect transitions into lifts and out of them. I wonder if they'll be made to fuss it up /unnecessarily b.s. to disguise their extraordinary mastery of the mechanics, and I wonder if people who don't know what they're looking at will think how Virtue and Moir are doing things here is basic. Good luck any male ice dancer in the world besides Scott assisting his partner into a rotational lift with what looks like a flick of the wrist.

Oh look, voluntarily using some Latin in their
fd. And here I'd understood from a pair of two-time
world champions that Latin can't be skated even
as a pattern dance whose vocabulary has
existed in ice dance since time began.

Look at her.
Back when they did their
"reality" show, I dragged Tessa
pretty hard for coming across like a bot.
But the truth is, she's not human.
Think how impossible it is for
any other ice dancer to do what she does,
and then remember that in her spare time,
she's had kids.

Tessa's skating and quality of movement is mesmerizing in this free. As spectacular as she's always been, there's even more softness, fluidity, power, precision, seamlessness and flow in her skating and her movement. Even down to her hands and wrists when they're on Scott's neck as she changes position. And the quiet, the power, speed, accuracy and absolute perfect mechanics of the lifts so far - not a single fail safe.

Add caption

This is beautiful. A million ice
dancers have died on the ice with a sequence
of collapsing into their partner's arms,
but Tessa isn't collapsing. Her "character"
is. She's not.

Tension in Paradise

Belated remarks:

Papadakis & Cizeron haven't confirmed their music, but this interview in May* - written by someone in the style of a mythologizing syncophant - had lots of pre-emptive sour grapes:

Gabriella: Yeah, we like to skate very fast, sometimes not so much into the details, but more…)

Yeah, I feel you Gabriella. And actually, many of your fans believe ice dance should not be defined and quantified. I think a divinity is meant to descend and anoint Papadakis Cizeron with gold upon the conclusion of their free skate, a la Bernie Sanders' bird.

Both P&C and some of their fans were dragged mercilessly on the interview thread, deservedly, so that's some sort of progress. Maybe some day a plurality of fans on skating forums will decide that real skating skills and rhythm should determine a competition's outcome, versus program composition / music selection, and I'll faint dead away.

Gabriella: I’m not a big fan of Latin for skating. I love Latin dances, I love watching Latin dances, on the floor. But on the ice… I think it’s such a different dynamic in the body that cannot really be translated on the ice, so it’s always gonna look kind of… cheap…

Guillaume: Cliché…

Understood. They can't do it, so it's not worth doing. More ice dancers than this blog can name check have ably translated Latin dance to the ice.

Gabriella: Cheap and cliché, Latin dances on the ice. Plus, there are no much possible different choices for themes and musics. Latin music always kind of sounds the same for me, with the same kind of instruments, and rhythms and… Not like this season – you could’ve had the 20ties, the 30ties, the 40ties, the 60ties, rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop, there was so many difference choices you could have! Latin music? Iiiih, not so many! [she makes a squeaking sound, and then starts laughing]. So it’s hard to be original on these things.

That's a whole lot of ignorance in one paragraph.

Guillaume: The thing about the free dance is that you get to really ice dance, and not dance on the ice. You know what I mean? And the short dance is more about dancing on the ice. All those ballroom positions don’t really fit to the ice, to the material that we have. I think it’s always gonna be a struggle, because we are ice dancers, we’re not ballroom dancers.

And for me the short dance kind of feels like Dancing with the stars. You pick skaters, and you try to make them ballroom dancers, but it’s never gonna… Like if you wanna see Latin dance, go watch a ballroom… ball, you know? [laughing] So I think it always kind of looks cheap.

And that's a whole lot of mumbo jumbo bullshit. That's freedom defined as liberation from any sort of technical standard, when anyone with a clue understands technique facilitates freedom. What does he think his particular skating discipline is about if not translating dance to the ice? Well, we all know. Skating whatever the fuck, however the fuck. He's absurd.

Anyway, it was the first time I have seen fans suggesting that P&C are full of themselves. In some respects, why shouldn't they be. They know it's not what their blades are doing that gets them on the podium, so they must have decided it's legit mystical, which is perfectly ok for a sanctioned Olympic sport.

There's a lot in the article about how movement in the ranks is more possible now, without ever mentioning the superior skating skills upon which rapid upward movement is meant to be based. It's all a big mystery, per P&C and the interviewer. The interviewer attempts to say they are admired by other skaters, but P&C mostly report how they've received messages from other skaters saying something like, "Shit, if you two can be world champions without anything in your skating or previous history suggesting it, it gives me and my partner hope! Maybe we, too, can be random but fortunate pawns in a double (Olympic) cycle, multiple-Fed-engineered, quid pro quo!"

Other stuff:

Remember this? Kind of a twist lift
at the end of Virtue & Moir's Olympic OD.
20 minutes before performing the OD 
at Worlds 2010, the vaporous figure 
skating grapevine somehow conveyed 
that this same maneuver might be illegal 
to perform at Worlds. Due to to it being 
possibly a kind of twist lift.

I remember Scott complaining about how he and Tessa try to push the envelope, but get pushback. I think he should have complained instead that he's in a recognized ISU discipline, yet a maneuver they executed at the Olympics mysteriously became possibly illegal for Worlds, but, you know, up to you. That's not how any legit sport functions.

Here it is, back. 
Say nothing else about Virtue and Moir, they like the long game. 
Astrologically speaking, they may be Taurus (Tessa)
and Virgo (Scott), but as a team it's pure Scorpio.

Iliushechina Moscovitch - quad sal at the Cricket Club.
Kirsten Moore-Towers is gnashing her teeth.

Moore-Towers wants to do a quad "yesterday." Maybe the above video was this team's only decent attempt in many tries, who knows, but it's a much better quality throw than Duhamel Radford's. They don't stop skating for half the rink before launch, it's an actual throw, not an assisted jump, and, while Lubov lands with a deep knee bend, it's not a crouch. Her carriage is open, and there's run of blade on her landing. Dylan's form at take-off is a mess - off the ice, lurching forward, and a mule kick, but the judges never seem to care what the guy does. Michael Marinaro certainly isn't going to show him up.

Even if Iliushechkina blows a jump, it didn't stop Sui Han from becoming world champions last season. Often as not, pairs results are determined by which error-strewn performance manages to grind out the most points.

Finally, Bryce Davison got married in June, an event I was skeptical would ever take place. Every photo I'd seen of the happy couple seemed awkward, IMO, and lacking conviction. There was a reserve, a stiffness. Then I read that his dearly beloved was a former skater, and I found this:

Michelle Moore prior to taking the ice for Canada in 2009.

That's one of the cutest things ever, and explains a lot.

BTW, her skating skills are excellent. Just not a strong jumper. Congratulations Bryce Davison.

P.S. Excerpt from Weaver & Poje's Beverly Smith interview:

They were gleeful when the International Skating Union announced that the rhythm in the short dance for Olympic season would be Latin. “We LOVE Latin,” Weaver said. “We love the dancing in the clubs. We loved our Latin program from 2011 to 2012. It’s one of our favourite genres and styles. So without repeating ourselves, we wanted to find a way to still be exciting and entertaining.”

*Excerpted on Goldenskate.com

Old School

Virtue & Moir | HPC 2017 FD Practice Moulin Rouge from ScottandTess on Vimeo.

At :33 there's an old school VM move - not spectacularly at blade level a la Carmen, but in the spirit of the original Goose pivot off Scott's knee, and the closing move of the 2010 od before 20 minutes prior to its presentation at Worlds, somebody decided it might be illegal.

Are Scott and Tessa going to hear through the grapevine that :33 is a throw? Nope. Canada got what it wanted out of 2014 - a World Champion out of Gadbois, and then last season VM "legitimized" the deal, in effect co-signing their own screw job.

High Performance

Before the weekend I'm checking out the ethereal, free-spirited, it's not about the steps, it transcends - hell, bypasses! - conventional skating skills masterpiece Papadakis Cizeron are preparing to unveil. The rumor is Moonlight Sonata, and that sounds just about right.

How did so many people guess Virtue and Moir were doing Moulin  Rouge? Short dance music sounds ok (Rolling Stones, Eagles, Santana). Music cuts produced by Dubreuil. Does Marie France's genius have no ceiling.

From this article by Ryan Pyette (https://tinyurl.com/yaucbarb):

They brought in choreographer David Wilson again (me, thank God) and called on Sam Chouinard, who had previously helped them with hip-hop movements. They convinced their husband-and-wife coaching team of Patrice Lauzon and Marie-France Dubreuil the famous old cabaret in Paris was the way to go.

But this:

“Marie and Pat let us play with it a little bit,” Moir said. “Once they saw our passion, they started to come around a little bit more. We’re super-proud of our 2014 (Olympic silver in Sochi) programs, but one thing we could’ve improved upon was picking something we really connect with . . . we ended up settling below that.”

Oh fuck them. So typical. When something or someone is no longer useful, it's under the bus. They are really the most hypocritical, what have you done for me lately people on the planet. Whatever fans thought of Seasons, back in 2014 Virtue and Moir repeatedly asserted, before and after the games, that every inch of that program was them, every detail hand-crafted.

I had missed this though, from 2014 Global News: (https://tinyurl.com/y7e7lplg)

Virtue and Moir also said they were frustrated but not surprised by a report in a French sports magazine that alleged U.S. and Russian judges colluded to give higher marks to skaters from their countries.

“It sort of comes with the territory. We knew what we were getting into when we signed on for this,” said Virtue. “We were hoping if we did our job and left no room for doubt that it would be hard to deny us the gold.

At least Virtue acknowledges politics could have controlled the outcome. Of course, Politics DID control the outcome, starting with a whole lot more than the U.S. and Russia. Such as Canada. Nothing bears that out more than their miraculous wins last season once they'd submitted to the imperatives of the Gadbois Center.

This year, with quotes about how they're people pleasers, and how they "ran into a little bit of that last season" (a characteristically insinuation-rich, unilluminating comment from Scott), coupled with the fact that Dubreuil Lauzon this year more blatantly than ever only nominally appear to be their coaches, Virtue and Moir might be moving past the Dubreuil-Lauzon/Virtue-Moir quid pro quo. Particularly with the remarks about assembling the right team for this season. I thought that was the whole point of Montreal last year, at least according to them then. But Scott sounds stoked - and concise - when he describes their training and their plans, which from him is always more credible. As does is the absence of weird and shifty body language. I'd almost forgotten what he sounds like when he's direct.

I liked this:
 (Tessa) It's always tricky translating ballroom movements to the ice and we really want that to read authentically so - trying to incorporate some edge work instead of just standing on the spot. (Scott) We kind of feel like we've done this Latin rhythm a couple of times. I think that's more our fault because we were in the game a long time, so we're trying to do something a little different this time.

I guess what I mean is when they talk about their preparedness this season, I believe them. They're always ready, always the best, but they don't sound as if they're pandering about either their environment or their program choice, which I was not expecting. And every other word out of their mouths isn't Marie France or Patch, so maybe they get to dial that down this season.

***
The newly unveiled Virtue Moir webpage looks like their old webpage - generic Q&A and gallery. I'll set my calendar for how frequently it is updated.

***

I was reading up on narcissists for non-Virtue Moir reasons, and came across a comparison between narcissists and gaslighters that brought to mind Virtue and Moir. The gaslighting description fits to a tee Virtue and Moir's original interaction with fans on their social media accounts. When they began lying to the public, their tactics conformed to actual pathology. But then again, they are perfectionist, so when they decided to scam the fans, why use half measures? To wit:

Many narcissists and gaslighters have thin skin, and can react poorly when called into account about their negative behavior. The gaslighter nearly always resorts to escalation by doubling or tripling down [snip]. Many gaslighters view relationships as inherently competitive rather than collaborative; a zero-sum game where one is either a winner or a loser, on top or at the bottom. “Offense is the best defense” is a mantra for many gaslighters, which also represents their aggressive method of relating to people.

Seems on point to me, with the Moir family conforming to the type as well.

Best wishes

Engaged!.

Ok

June 1, 2014 blog post:


http://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2014/06/ive-spent-better-part-of-week-blog-wise.html

Excerpt:

"Fedor Andreev 

Fedor and Tanith

Fedor and Tessa

This was briefly a thing.

Jana/Fedor's photo shoot doesn't mean much; it was Marina's insinuations. Alas, the partnership dissolved before it could pick up any of Fedor's gentlemanly, clean-cut, vaguely antiseptic, trust-him-with-your-daughter romantic steam.

Fedor and Meryl.

This from a guy who had "Not sure" in his "sexual orientation" category on myspace. Guess he's made up his mind. "

Around 2009 Fedor briefly started sucking up to a very young Maia Shibutani on social media, but thank the stars above that never became a thing.

Figure skating can have plenty of off ice histrionics, but the coach's son running through all his mom's star ice dancers in succession without creating even a ripple of drama among the women themselves is far-fetched, not to mention skanky, not to mention we know the implied thing w/Tessa was a complete sham.

Fedor, we can speculate on why he makes the choices he makes. Since she revamped her look and froze her face - and WHY her face is frozen I have no idea - everything about Meryl has been a mystery. The overcompensation deployed to enable her to make basic movements in her sport, and to make basic movements on the dance floor, her inability to hold herself in space, the necessity of having a billion redundant points of contact to make the most elementary transition - WHY? It's an enduring puzzle.

The only theory ever proffered to me is that muscle tone doesn't = strength, and underweight people who are extremely ripped may completely lack strength, and so Meryl sacrificed strength for a "winning" aesthetic. That theory doesn't cover all the bases though. Never seen anyone like her.

Everything about Meryl is uncanny valley in my opinion, and this latest development only compounds that impression.

Vimeo interview.


What does it take to win a gold medal? - Scott Livingston interviewing Tessa and Scott from Mystic Seasons on Vimeo.


Yes, Scott and Tessa, what DOES it take to win a gold medal? What do you have to be willing to do to win that gold? ("Win" should always be in implied quotation marks. Not that they don't legitimately win, it's just that the legit part of things has nothing to do with why they're winning.)

Sell ourselves out.

Nah.

I could screen cap their micro expressions forever though.

Their answer was: "Early on, we were willing to do those things that our competitors weren't."
Tessa is describing what she calls the "sacrifices" they made in terms of conventional middle and high school activities in order to train for optimum development and performance as skaters. If she'd meant "willing to do those things on the ice" that their competitors weren't, the obvious retort would be "Willing to do, and being able to do, things on ice that your competitors couldn't is one of the reasons you DIDN'T win the gold you deserved in 2014."

Leaving home at 13-15, changing coaching centers, missing out on extra-circular activities at school - these are things very few ice dancers do while developing their careers, except for just about every single one of them, and it gave Virtue and Moir an edge.

I mean Jesus Christ, Tessa. Exactly which of your high school age competitors never got up early, didn't miss a party, and never traveled far away from home? Come on.

That said, the interviewer is trying to quantify exactly what they did that made them succeed, as if it's something they DID. It's a stupid angle for the interview. They were more talented. Athletically, as skaters, rhythmically, and as dancers and as partners. That isn't something you DO. That's something you are. You can't decide to be that talented, and then make a serious of choices and practices that create talent. You can wring every drop out of the talent you're given, and they did. A lot of very talented people coast. They didn't. As usual, Tessa and Scott are reluctant to call a spade a spade.

I didn't finish the entire interview, because Tessa started speaking and framing her words with her hands, and when that happens, I'm always scared of what's going to come out of her mouth next.

I have to say their willingness to toss anybody under the bus when they're done w/them continues to take the breath away. Marnie McBean, David Pelletier - remember the fawning back in 2010? FF to 2017 and they made no contribution. Scott even name checks them to make the point.