2003 USFSA Pair and Dance Partner Audition

[Starlight]

The 2003 USFSA Pair and Dance Partner Audition will be held in Colorado Springs, CO on March 14 -16. Applications were due on Feb. 3rd. Does anyone know which skaters may have been invited to attend?

[rinkrat24/7]

People probably won't know who is going and who isn't unless they know a skater personally who is going.Because they don't tell us who else is invited to go until we arrive at the actual audition.

But you never know someone could have hear thu someone, thru some else who is going so this post may be usless.:roll:

[butterfly]

Why do they keep it such a secret? I would love to know who will be there. We could all try to do match up :). Please, please anyone know anyone who is going to be there?

[icemama]

I don't think it is a massive secret, it's just not publicized/published. Do they take the exact number of girls as guys? Surely somebody out there knows someone going?

[PlatniumAngel]

They were very picky with choosing pair skaters to attend the try-outs this year. I know of quite a few dancers and pair skaters going...but I don't feel I should give out their names

[blue111moon]

It's kept quiet precisely to stop the kind of speculative pairing that would go on here if people knew who was going. The skaters are under enough pressure and scrutiny as it is. They don't need more from strangers on the Internet.

[butterfly]

Originally posted by blue111moon
It's kept quiet precisely to stop the kind of speculative pairing that would go on here if people knew who was going. The skaters are under enough pressure and scrutiny as it is. They don't need more from strangers on the Internet. Oh Please!!! That is what we do in this chat room is speculate til the cows come home. These skaters are not going to be influenced by what we say. They, their coaches and parents have the only opinions worthwhile...I certainly wouldn't rely on a chat room to influence me. This is the least of pressure these skaters experience in the competitive world they live in. Since when did this chat room become "sensitive". I have to be honest, I am just curious.

[Skatewind]

I have no idea why there is a need to obsess over who's attending the event by people who are not participants or involved with the program. :?:

I'm sure they will share information the activities once they have been completed.

[PinkFluffSk8r]

Since everyone will know eventually, I'll post who is coming from the Broadmoor.

Pairs:
Tiffany Vise
Krystal Sorenson
Ali Gadbury

Dance:
Amanda Loyd
Lauren Hennessy
Trevor Byrd

I look forward to hearing reports after the tryouts are completed.

[butterfly]

Originally posted by PinkFluffSk8r
Since everyone will know eventually, I'll post who is coming from the Broadmoor.

Pairs:
Tiffany Vise
Krystal Sorenson
Ali Gadbury

Dance:
Amanda Loyd
Lauren Hennessy
Trevor Byrd

I look forward to hearing reports after the tryouts are completed. Thanks PinkFluffSk8r that's great. I appreciate your candor and I agree with you that this will be known anyway sooner rather than later. I wish them good success.

[Icesk8dance]

Originally posted by PinkFluffSk8r
Since everyone will know eventually, I'll post who is coming from the Broadmoor.

Pairs:
Tiffany Vise
Krystal Sorenson
Ali Gadbury

Dance:
Amanda Loyd
Lauren Hennessy
Trevor Byrd


What about Justin Koleto and Lindsey Evans, have they found partners or possibly skating together?

[iskater13]

I am sure Tiffany Stiegler will be there..............be nice if some new guy partners would come out of the woodwork!

[butterfly]

Is there a limit to the number of dance/pairs skaters they invite and do they try to determine potential fits based on the known talent of the skaters before they hand out the invitations. It would not be good to invite a Tiffany Steigler if there were no pairs guys up to her level or potential.

[rinkrat24/7]

they usually take only 15 or 16? i can't reamaber exactly.

[PlatniumAngel]

I think Tiffany and Aaron would make a great match! I hope they will consider skating together. Sussanah Hall and Bert Cording... has she ever done pairs before? She seems a bit tall for pairs, she strikes me more as a freestyle skater or dancer, not a pair skater.

[Sparkey]

I have a question. One a potential pair or dance team has decided they'd like to skate together, how do they chose whether they'll go with the girl's coach or the boy's coach (assuming that both have competitive experience)? In Canada, it's automatically assumed that the new couple will go with the boy's coach. I find this extremely sexist, but that's tradition. Is it like that in the U.S. as well?

[rinkrat24/7]

Noone really wants to move and becuse of the shortage of male skaters usually the girl goes to the guy. Although it does not always happen this way, if the girl has a way better/well-known coach the guy will sometimes move to her. I think it really comes down to the situation but i believe most of the time the girl ends up moving.

I definately agree with you as a female ice dancer in the process of looking for a partner.

[CarolA0923]

I was wondering if program reputation might play into it. For example, Bert Cording is here in Nashville and let's get real, this is NOT a figure skating mecca! (Of course we do have Tonya running around with her boxing gloves.) I am sure we have good coaches, but not the name recognition you get when you are skating at some of the well known rinks like Ice Castles or UofD. A lot of the girls I hear who are avaialble are affiliated with what I would think would be considered better overall programs with more coaches etc.

[11yrskate]

[I was wondering if program reputation might play into it. For example, Bert Cording is here in Nashville and let's get real, this is NOT a figure skating mecca! ]

This definitely has something to do with it. We are in Dallas, and trying to get someone of any quality, to move from one of the better known programs is nearly impossible.

[butterfly]

The skaters have probably arrived for a fun weekend. Does anyone in Colorado Springs know who is there?

[dinise]

How is the partnering set up? Is it done by novice, junior and senior pairs? If there are 16 invited is that 8 men and 8 women and they all try different cobinations of people doing stroking, lifts ect?

There are people from my rink there but I never thought about how it all works. Anyone out there that has some sort of schedule to see what its about and enlighten me?

any info would be appreciated

[icemama]

I suppose it is done differently every year. This year for dance there are 20 women and 10 men. All skate at least one time with each other. There is off-ice work and on ice movement classes and compulsory dances. It gets narrowed down rather quickly due to size and level. On Saturday afternoon the coaches turn in the skaters "dance card" with their 3 top choices. There is a big pow-wow to sort it all out and on Sunday each boy will skate with 2 girls, hopefully matching as many choices as possible. Yet one can imagine the complexities. That's what I know!

[Icesk8dance]

Well, does anyone know who was there?

[sk8erboi]

Since the whole thing is over, I don't think that there is any reason not to share the list. So here it is.

Dance
Trevor Bird, John Corona, Robert Crowder, Chase Fishpaw, Paul Hurych, Cooper Johnston, Justin Koleto, Jonathon Lauten, Kurt Lingenfelter, Micheal McCullough, Natalie Bos, Alexa Bradshaw-Kreimer, Lauren Chrein, Michaela Cook, Taylor Davis, Lindsey Evans, Ashley Foy, Gillian Goddard, Lauren Hennessy, Lauren Hockel, Kimmerly Lauten, Amanda Loyd, Kristen Mendoza, Katie Oleski, Melissa Ralph, Laura Rosenberg, Anna Scheumann, Stephanie Segien, Angela Van Wiemeersch, Ashley Williams

Pairs
Michael Adler, Evert Bergstrom-Croul, Ethan Burgess, Jeff Charbonneau, Danny Clausen, Rusty Fein, Brandon Larcom, Jeff McGowan, Alex Merritt, Jordan Miller, Michael Modro, Joshua Murphy, Deryck Szatkowski, Eric Varian, Christie Baca, Jordan Barbare, Christina Barron, Katie Boxwell, Julian Burns, Audrey Clifford, Michelle Collins, Christen Dean, Olivia Fabian, Alexandra Gadbury, Sima Ganaba, Sheila Harkaway, Tatiana Klunchoo, Laurie Krein, Jayne Mayne, Amanda Moehling, Bridget Namiotka, Cate Rigoulot, Samantha Skavadahl, Krystal Sorenson, Katie Stewart, Karissa Strong, Tiffany Vise, Lindsey Wilson

[chattykathy]

Amanda Moehling- when I saw her at Mids I hoped she might think about skating pairs, compact and powerful. Good Luck.

[WeBeEducated]

Rusty is trying Pairs? nice! He would be a good match for Janice Mayne.
Not alot of potential teams in the dance section tho...but afterall, what guy would want to go thru all the training, all those endless dance tests(3 times the amount of tests/expense/time compared to singles) and then experience the minimum of opportunities, TV coverage, and ethical judging.

[Aaron W]

I hadn't realized that Strong & Westfall had split. :( Anyone know if he's partnered up with someone since he didn't attend the event? Or is he just focusing on singles at the moment?

Has Danny Clausen been actively searching for a partner in the past few years? I didn't know he was looking into pairs, although it wouldn't surprise me if I had heard something before and just forgot. I have a terrible memory.

I see Tatiana Klunchoo is listed. What happened with the Klunchoo & Gardiner pairing? Any chance he's decided to switch to ice dancing? I was commenting last summer after seeing he and Tatiana at the Indy Challenge that he's an expressive skater who might do well as an ice dancer. :)

Dang, now I notice that Samantha Skavdahl is also listed. :( What happened to Skavdahl & Davis? What's he doing now?

So many questions. :) You can private message me or email me at aaronw@mattsavoie.com if you'd prefer to keep certain things off the board.

[PlatniumAngel]

Wow alot of people split I did not know about.

[Icesk8dance]

Interesting mix of dancers, but I don't really see anyone that Melissa Ralph could team up with. A few new names for the boys, Chase Fishpaw and John Corona, have they ever competed before?

[butterfly]

Originally posted by Icesk8dance
Interesting mix of dancers, but I don't really see anyone that Melissa Ralph could team up with. A few new names for the boys, Chase Fishpaw and John Corona, have they ever competed before? I totally agree with you about Melissa Ralph, what were they thinking? She is a Junior silver medalist and I'll bet she was disappointed with the group. I didn't recognize many of the names.

In pairs did Tiffany Vise find a partner, and btw, whatever happened to Themi Leftheris, is he still skating pairs?

[PlatniumAngel]

I belive Themi is training with a partner out in Cali

[Impromptu]

Originally posted by Icesk8dance
Interesting mix of dancers, but I don't really see anyone that Melissa Ralph could team up with. A few new names for the boys, Chase Fishpaw and John Corona, have they ever competed before?

There was a Charles Fishpaw who competed juvenile at the 2001 junior nationals; and John Corona competed intermediate this past season (but didn't get out of the qualifier at junior nationals).

Anyway, I think ...of that list Trevor Bird and Justin Koleto skated junior last season; Jonathon Lauten, Paul Hurych and Michael McCullough were novices; Kurt Lingenfelter, Robert Crowder and John Corona were intermediates; Cooper Johnston was juvenile; not sure about Fishpaw, he could be either intermediate or novice by now.

[PlatniumAngel]

I never heard of Fishpaw, maybe he is new to dance? I heard he is from North Dakota

[BCsk8]

RJ Westfall has decided to concentrate only on singles. He is training in Cleveland with Carol Heiss. Cole Davis is continuing pairs. He had a tryout with Sheila Harkaway and the too supposably looked good together. Karissa Strong has tryed out with Jeff Charbenoue and look great together.

[mkice]

thanks for the updates, some of these are very interesting pairings and I look forward to seeing what they can accomplish together.

Any word on Christie Baca or Tatiana Klunchoo?

[lilpairsk8ter]

Edited to protect Adrian :oops: sorry about that. I wasn't trying to get anyone in to trouble i just really enjoyed RJ's skating.

[Leela]

Maybe Melissa Ralph could skate with Brent Bommentre. I believe I read somewhere here that he and Kirsten Frisch had split. I think Melissa would look good with Brent :D

[Impromptu]

The USFSA has some photos and a write up now:

http://www.usfsa.org/programs/athprog/pairdance-pix/pairdance03recap.htm

[butterfly]

Originally posted by Leela
Maybe Melissa Ralph could skate with Brent Bommentre. I believe I read somewhere here that he and Kirsten Frisch had split. I think Melissa would look good with Brent :D Hey you are right....they are both attractive and Melissa is a gorgeous skater. I saw her skate the most beautiful free dance at the 2002 nationals to take a first place in the free. They are both junior national silver medalists..right? Why haven't they thought of this? Leela you are a genius.

[Abahple]

Originally posted by butterfly
I totally agree with you about Melissa Ralph, what were they thinking? She is a Junior silver medalist and I'll bet she was disappointed with the group. I didn't recognize many of the names.

I think that you aren't really looking at this the way a skater would. Think: besides Brent Bommentre, (and that split was fairly recent; she wouldn't have known about it prior to the deadline for submitting the tryout application) what other male skaters of her accomplishment are out there and partnerless right now? None, really.

So where does she look? Most coaches who have confidence in their ability (and I count Igor among these) do not necessarily look for skating ability, but for skating potential. If they find a skater that has a "look" they like, then they will take on the skater with the belief that they can teach them to skate well, regardless of their current ability.

Most likely, having exhausted all other possibilities, Igor is looking for a "diamond in the rough".


-A

[Sparkey]

Just read the writeup on the USFSA partner audition. What the *** is the Vietnamese Waltz? :lol:

[Darrell H]

Could that be Viennese Waltz?

[Sparkey]

Whew! Thought I had another dance to learn. Still don't know the midnight blues.

[Darrell H]

Either that or you have to fight to keep each other from crossing the center line!

[Aaron W]

Originally posted by lilpairsk8ter
Anyone know why RJ left AN for cleveland did something happen in AN?

Apparently something happened, but we're not suppose to discuss it here. Adrian apparently heard from the parties involved that they were looking into matters, but that nothing should be discussed about it. We definitely don't want to get Adrian in legal troubles.

[snowflake]

i heard from a source that melissa didnt look all that special at the tryouts, didnt stand out all too much. maybe tho she didnt skate a lot b/c of the lack of good male dancers. but there were a couple, good new unknowns there too. dont know their names, but some real talent.

[PlatniumAngel]

Maybe she didn't ''stand out'' because she's only 5'1....she was just wearing basic black skating pants like alot of the other girls, so she blended in. There were some tall girl's there wearing competiton dresses who stood out more. There weren't many boys there for her, so she wasn't skating alot.

[butterfly]

Originally posted by snowflake
i heard from a source that melissa didnt look all that special at the tryouts, didnt stand out all too much. maybe tho she didnt skate a lot b/c of the lack of good male dancers. but there were a couple, good new unknowns there too. dont know their names, but some real talent. Don't know your source, but I've seen Melissa Ralph skate and she is a standout skater. From the list of participants, you're right there was no one there of her caliber. From her stats she has medaled both times she was at nationals.

[what?meworry?]

well, there is room for debate.

i also, have seen melissa and ryan skate and i found them (as a team) less than impressive. creatively strong, as are all igor's teams, but not as emotionally impressive as one would expect. that is to say, boringly predictable for an igor team.

with each performance, i thought them boringly pretictable, with the emphasis on "boring."

[butterfly]

Originally posted by what?meworry?
well, there is room for debate.

i also, have seen melissa and ryan skate and i found them (as a team) less than impressive. creatively strong, as are all igor's teams, but not as emotionally impressive as one would expect. that is to say, boringly predictable for an igor team.

with each performance, i thought them boringly pretictable, with the emphasis on "boring." Well, I guess the judges don't agree with you, and actually it takes more than emotional expression to be a strong ice dancer, but of course I know you are aware of that. Sounds like you don't like Igor :)

[what?meworry?]

on the contrary, i credit igor with the strong development of ice dance over recent years. this was the first team he put together that i thought was less then his usual performance standard. all of his other teams were extremely strong in their presance and presentation as well a skill and choreography.

[butterfly]

Well, everyone has their favorites no denying that. For me I think Ralph/Omeara were terrific. I looked at their scores for last year at nationals and they were given great scores for presentation. I think it is so sad that the team didn't work out. They certainly had as much presentation skills as GR/M whatever we might define that illusive thing called presentation. I have to admit that their compulsories were totally lacking, but then again they were an Igor team.

What?meworry don't be so hard on these kids, "boring"? don't you think that is a bit much for a team that took a silver medal ahead of Goodwin/Obzanski and Frisch/Bommentre?

[lilpairsk8ter]

Does anyone know if Katie Boxwell has found a partner? I really love her skating and hope after all she's been through that she still will skate pairs.