Spoiler - World Team Challenge

[Bailey]

Just home from the world team challenge. What a fun night! The skating was really very good and I'm looking forward to watching the broadcast again tomorrow! A few notes for those who are interested - and this is from memory...

Final Results:
1) Canada
2) Russia
3) USA
4) Europe

Team Canada Rocked!!
Jennifer Robinson had a very nice bluesy/jazzy number to begin and she landed all her jumps all night, including a triple Lutz in her first program. Her second program was Simple Abundance (I think that's what it's called - she skated it at the Canadian Open a few years ago). What a pleasure to see her skate that program live - it was breathtaking!
Jamie and David skated Radar Love and they were unbelievable. Very edgy but fun number for them. Their second program was Somewhere Over the Rainbow and they were a little off for the whole program. Nothing major, just some shaky moments including a touchdown on the throw triple salchow.
Kurt was wonderful! His first program was Time in a Bottle and he landed five triples including a triple toe-loop, triple toe-loop combination! His second program was the costume from Summertime (a few years old) but the music was Peter Gabriel, The Feeling Begins. Unbelievable!! He was right on all his jumps in the second program except a doubled jump (salchow, I think) right at the end. He recieved three 10's.

Team Russia
B/S first program was a very slow balad - very nice. They skated a medley of dance songs for their second program. I've never seen them dance like that - but the program was overmarked in my opinion for the skating they actually did. She landed the throw in the second program, not the first.
Maria skated to Abba for her second program. She fell on most of her jumps all night but the crowd loved the program.
Alexei skated to Winter for his first program - I LOVE THAT PROGRAM! He landed every jump he attempted including some triple-triple combinations in both programs. His second program was the Sting song from Ice Wars. He got four 10's.

Team USA
I must say, did really enjoy Karen Cadavy. Even though she did not recieve high marks, she has the most beautiful skating skills!! Todd had a good night with some good jumps, but he did not recieve the marks of Kurt or Alexei.

Team Europe
Loved watching Oksana - my first time to see her in person. Didn't like either program. The first was goldeneye - her line and the choreography was aweful but her speed and the intensity of her skating is something to see! The second number was classical, but ended with Brittany Spears, my Perogative (I have no idea how to spell that word!). I don't get the concept of the program, but her line was better and it was a much more 'beautiful' program to watch. Very interesting...

[Bailey]

Other fun notes:

- The crowd was awesome! Many skaters including Jennifer Robinson's artistic program, Sale and Pelletier, Kurt, and Alexei got standing ovations after their skates. Before Kurt's last program, someone whistled the tune to the hockey "Charge." Very cute! The arena was pretty much sold-out - something we haven't seen at many skating events this year. Also, note the new arena in Winnipeg - we are all still really excited!
- Dewey Browning was sitting in my section and Michael Jiranek was at the boards coaching Kurt.
- During the intermission, Jennifer and Kurt came out to visit with the little flower girls - very nice of them!
- Watch for Alexei and Anton during Maria's Abba number - they were dancing and they were more entertaining than Maria at times!
- Anton and David were late for the pairs warmup and arrived on the ice wearing Team Canada and Team Russia hockey jerseys. Hope they show the warm-up!

That's about all I can remember now. Enjoy the broadcast tomorrow!

[MQSeries]

Thanks for the report.

Oksana skated to Vanilla Ice for Ice Wars and now she's doing Brittney Spears? She has horrible musical taste.

[mskater]

Thanks for the report.

Oksana skated to Vanilla Ice for Ice Wars and now she's doing Brittney Spears? She has horrible musical taste.

musical taste, and I say 'her own' musical taste. Thank God for something different:]!! That's one of the reasons I love Oksana, she doesn't do the same old 'cookie cutter' routine like so many other skaters...

Go Oksana!!!

[Marg2]

Thanks, Bailey

I believe Jennifer's music was "Simple Pleasures".

I only saw it on TV but she amazed me by how good she was.
Kurt and Alexi, Jamie and David, and Elena and Anton were terrific, just what pro skating should be. (IMO)

[cygnus]

Thanks, Bailey

I believe Jennifer's music was "Simple Pleasures".

I only saw it on TV but she amazed me by how good she was.
Kurt and Alexi, Jamie and David, and Elena and Anton were terrific, just what pro skating should be. (IMO)

Actually it was the old Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts", and the same tune was later used for the hymn "Lord of the dance". Lovely program, however, whatever the title of the music! :)

[Artemis]

^ It's a piece she's used as an exhibition in past years -- I'm so glad she's revived it for competition. BTW, I believe the vocal "Simple Gifts" part is sung by Alison Krauss, and the instrumental arrangement of the tune is actually the "Appalachia Waltz" performed by Yo Yo Ma.

[md2be]

i have to say, I just caught this on TV on Christmas - the marathon back-to-back broadcasting of it...wheeeee!


Kurt astounds me. I think his last program "Passion(?)" was simply perfection.
I also think he should choreo for Michelle.

[jcspkbfan]

Now this was my idea of a good, exciting, old-fashioned, prop-free (unless you count Oksana and B&S' costume changes as props!) pro competition! :halo:

I'm not usually a big fan of Oksana or Britney Spears, but I still thought Oksana's second number was a huge improvement over her Ice Wars artistic program. The opening classical portion of the number was beautiful and at least the Britney portion of the number only lasted about a minute or so (at the most!) Not to mention I thought the costume was a huge improvement! I also thought this program was a much better interpretation of "vintage Oksana vs. today's Oksana" than the Vanilla Swan Lake Ice program. I was impressed with Oksana cleanly-landed-on-one-foot 3-lutz during her first number, too.

Apart from seeing Kurt's awesome Passion program for the first time (which was first choreographed over a year ago and I was disappointed he didn't unveil it last year), Jennifer Robinson was definitely the most pleasant surprise of the competition for me. I never thought Jennifer could pull off "sexy" very well in the past (coughteachmetigercough), but she definitely proved me wrong during her first number! And I'm glad she chose "Simple Gifts" as her second number--it's a classic and I consider it one of her signature programs.

I'm so happy the "broken curse of Canadian ladies skating" we're seeing at the eligible ranks has extended to the pro level. Who would have ever predicted a year ago that Jennifer could beat an Olympic gold medalist and two World medalists? :bow:

It's a shame none of the major US networks chose to broadcast this event (unlike Ice Wars) since I thought it was a better, more exciting competition which hopefully left fans with a more positive opinion on pro skating than Ice Wars did!

Kurt astounds me. I think his last program "Passion(?)" was simply perfection. I also think he should choreo for Michelle.

After seeing Kurt's second number, I would have loved to see what kind of spark he would have added to Michelle's SP to the same music last year. 8-) I'm sorry Kurt won't be performing this program at his US SOI guest star stops this year (because of Alexei's program to the same music), but I certainly hope he can perform it at Celebration on Ice and Canadian SOI later on this year. I think this is the best program Kurt has skated during the past few years, and coming from me, that's definitely saying a lot. :bow: