Euros 2022: The Free Dance wrap up

 


Full disclosure I was going to liveblog this, but I love ice dance too much and there was too much on the line between seeing who would win between the 2 Spanish teams and seeing if Stepanova/Bukin would be able to challenge for gold against their compatriots Sinitsina/Katsalapov. 

Final standings:
1. Sinitsina/Katsalapov
2. Stepanova/Bukin
3. Guignard/Fabbri
4. Smart/Diaz
5. Fear/Gibson
6. Hurtado/Khalliavin
7. Davis/Smolkin
8. Reed/Ambrulevičius
9. Lopareva/Brissaud
10. Nazarova/Nikitin

Before we get to the top 10 I want to shout out the Armenian team Garabedian/Proulx-Sénécal who finished in 13th. They had a LOVELY free dance to Autumn Leaves. Not super surprisingly they are coached by Marie-France Dubreil/Patrice Lauzon. Still, having good coaches doesn't necessarily make you a good performer and these guys really sold their free skate. I thoroughly enjoyed it, one of my favorite performances of the day.

9. Lopareva/Brissaud
These guys are amazing. Did I hate their Rhythm dance? Yes! But they got me with the free dance (you may recognize the Allegretto piece from the DeBeers commercials in ye olden days). I think they have a really bright future-something I thought before I even looked them up and realized they have only been together for 3 seasons on the senior circuit! I fully expect them to contend for top 5 in Cortina 2026 (maybe even 2030).

8. Reed/Ambrulevičius
This was a rare instance where I thought the RD for this team was stronger than their FD. Still liked this performance but it's not giving as much personality as I'd like to see from them. 

7. Davis/Smolkin
As I said on Tumblr-who the FRICK chooses to skate to Moulin Rouge! As an ICE DANCE team? IN AN OLYMPIC YEAR? It took me a solid 2 minutes to put out the brain fire I was having and recognize this was a very good skate, but honestly their coach should know this is not a smart music choice. It will inevitably make everyone think of Virtue/Moir's skate and how it's better than this one. If you're going to skate to something that's already part of a famous routine, DO IT BETTER THAN THEY DID. Someone plz explain this to me. 

6. Hurtado/Khalliavin
These guys just looked tight throughout, just kind of nervous and tense. And I can't blame them too much given that they were fighting what they probably knew was a losing battle for that Olympic spot, but I am also wondering if this is the right music/choreography for them. I've seen this program a couple times before and I think they've skated it tight every time. They seemed like very gracious to Smart/Diaz-congratulated them on their placement and their Olympic berth, big ups for sportsmanship.

5. Fear/Gibson
It might sound a bit mean, but as I said on Tumblr, this routine would kill at Junior worlds. They're clearly talented, but looking at both programs as a whole it seems like they're playing dress up and these programs were chosen by little kids. They're giving it their best but I hope they show more mature routines in coming years and yes I'm looking at you MF/P. 

4. Smart/Diaz
A HUGE congrats to this team on winning that Olympic spot. When you look at the margin between them and Hurtado/Khalliavin it amounts to 15 points over the course of the 3 competitions (Finlandia, Spanish Nationals, Euros), so not all that close in ice dance standards but they did not take their foot off the break so a big hats off to them. On top of it they finished with their highest ever placement at Euros in 4th! This has got to be one of my favorite programs of the season. The stationary lift is just *chef's kiss. My ONE complaint is that for a Mask of Zorro routine why is she wearing mint green when she could be wearing something more like ANY of these:



The first one is obviously my preference because that dance scene in the movie is ICONIC. Anyway, moving on.

3. Guignard/Fabbri
Ok is it just me? This program does nothing for me. It's nice music. The skating is nice. But that's it. Someone on Twitter wrote that for a team with nutso Barbara Fusar-Poli as their coach, they really lack the kind of fire she was known for and I totally agree. But I also don't know enough about them to be sure if this program is typical for them in terms of performance.

2. Stepanova/Bukin
This program was definitely my favorite of the top 2. That being said, thinking back there's nothing that really sticks out about this program. It's nice! They didn't challenge Sinitsina/Katsalapov as much as I hoped but I'm sure they'll be in the mix in 2026. 

1. Sinitsina/Katsalapov
I've seen this program in previous competitions this year. This time, the music change toward the end really jarred me. Not just the music change but the mood and choreography change. I...really hated it? Another tweeter called it an Irish jig to Rachmaninoff and yeah. The first section of this program is actually really beautiful so the change to finish on this crazed hopping around is just a bummer. Sigh. 

20 days to Beijing y'all!!

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