Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov skating to Singin' in the Rain for their rhythm dance at the 2019 Grand Prix Final and practising at the 2019 Rostelecom Cup.

(Sources: torino2019, Wilma Alberti and Irina Tsimfer)

favourite ice dance costumes/dresses?

I have mixed feelings about Papadakis and Cizeron potentially coming back, but it's obvious they wouldn't be facing the level of competition they had with Virtue/Moir or even Sinitsina/Katsalapov and Hubbell/Donohue. It just makes sense for them to come back.

wait can you please explain how his concierto is cursed because now i'm genuinely intrigued and would love to hear why-

Ah so, in figure skating, Rachmaninoff's piano concerto no.2 is probably, most likely, definitely cursed. As in nobody skating to it ever wins anything.

Starting with Mishkutenok/Dmitriev in 1994 getting silver despite having the most difficult content. And then Chen Lu the reigning champion in 1996 also ending up in second with a gorgeous gorgeous program.

There's the most famous one, Mao Asada at the 2014 Olympics, laying down the most beautiful free skate to piano concerto no.2 (seriously if you only watch one figure skating program in your life it should be THIS ONE), but she came up only 10th because of a fall in the short program.

Tarasova/Morozov skated to it in 2018 and 2019, and they were 4th and 2nd when they could have had a big, big chance of winning both times. And then there's Sinitsina/Katsalapov who picked the first movement for the 2018 Olympic season and the second movement for the 2022 Olympic season. They had the most terrible season in 2018, and in 2022 they aimed for gold, but only got second in the team event before the whole thing went up in flames with (yet another) doping scandal, and then second in the individual event.

The only exception was Nguyen/Kolesnik winning 2020 junior worlds, but then they split up the next year.

The important thing to remember is that the first movement is slightly more cursed than the second movement. So, yeah, there you go :'D

when an announcer says "X's partner skills/partnering are/is exceptional" what does that mean, and does it always refer to the male partner?

Q #200:

Hi anon,

Awesome question. Partnering/partner skills refer to one of two things:

1. The ability to actually skate with your partner as opposed to simply existing on the ice at the same time. Refers to both the chemistry and projection between the two skaters to the audience as an entity and also important factors of spatial awareness in hold and when physically interacting with each other. The ability to anticipate what the other is doing and matching one another’s movement.

2. The ability of the male skater to “present” his partner according to the traditional lens of skating which falls under the very gender-role “woman is the flower and man is the stem holding her up.” There’s also the “lady is the picture and the man is framing her” schtick. This is all in accordance to the kind of very typical old, ice dance style where the woman is kind of held like a rag doll and told to hit pretty positions while emoting to the audience and the man does the skating and lifts her. Some retired teams that really fit this mold would be Dubreil/Lauzon, Khoklova/Novitski, Drobiazko/Vanagas. In this more gendered, traditional, reductive case the “partnering” would only refer to the man.

Skaters who are “bad” at partnering typically are skating like singles skaters either physically (not knowing how to interact with their partner, awkwardly doing choreography that requires holds and changes of position, maybe most importantly not knowing how to maneuver their partner safely during elements when something goes wrong) or emoting to the audience that way. Some of the 3 person rhumba patterns and partner swap exercises that Gadbois does are a really good example of which dancers have the best “partnering” skills, I would say Madi Hubbell is one of the best either leading or following. One of the most important developments in ice dance as skaters have sunk into IJS more has been more strength and “partnering” by women in lifts and taking more active roles in elements than simply hitting the splits. Even teams that have portrayed very traditional, romantic image are doing it in a more balanced physical manner where both partners are doing equal technical difficulty and are structuring their programs to be far more intricate than the traditional “picture and framing partner.”

Sometimes commentators try and “code” stupid comments about teams who don’t present as romantically as bad at partnering but some very heteronormative teams don’t excel at it (Nikita Katsalapov, Bobrova/Soloviev) and teams who are openly queer (Manta/Johnson) or who pursued very different storylines (Pechalat/Bourzat, the Kerrs, the Duchesnays, Delobel/Schoenfelder) who are very in tune both in terms of physical unison and projection.

Hope that answers your question!

Had a nightmare that I had to spend an entire day with Nikita Katsalapov.

This could have ended in disaster for them

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCD7mMHpQjr/?igshid=ZWQyN2ExYTkwZQ==

scary- they're really aware on the ice where they are and who's around them, but in the middle of that lift would be one time when he can't focus on much besides Tessa. ugh was that Katsalapov and Ilinykh that got in the way of their runthrough. Scott singing the music at the end as they continue ☺️

they have such pinpoint control though, that they can stop like that. or the RTR performance where he stopped her - i forget why - and they did that lift from a standstill

Do you know what’s weird for me? I find that with skaters that are a couple in real life, there’s zero chemistry on the ice…. Like, to me, both C/B and FB/S are the furthest thing from sexy and hot you could find… I really don’t see it, I don’t see the passion, I don’t see anything, I can’t help it, no matter how good looking they are. I get that Tessa and Scott were a once in a lifetime team, but like, even without being together, just one look between them would make you feel like you were intruding, or that they were about to jump each other. I never found that with any other team. I agree with the anon that says that FB/S are very vanilla, that’s the best way to describe them I think Lol you can be good looking and still not be sexy and hot, and that’s them Lol

Oh, I 100% agree. Chock/Bates, Guignard/Fabbri, Sinitsina/Katsalapov, legit zero percent of sexual chemistry. Candanes have a decent amount but way less than I would want them to have. Stepanova/Bukin had chemistry and are also a team notorious for not being a couple LOL.

Tessa and Scott are a one-in-a-lifetime occurrence for me at least, they are the only team I can think of that managed to make people go "are they dating??????" after a 3-minute dance routine in three different Olympic games, three different types of music, and in completely different ages... They legit had more chemistry standing next to each other doing a stupid interview than any other team has while skating. Tessa and Scott managed to convey more emotions in a stills image than any other team during complete programs. It's truly wild and not something I expect to see again. But that alone wouldn't have been enough if they weren't as good as they actually were, they had the insane chemistry but also the receipts to back it up...

But to go back to the topic, I don't think Canadanes are vanilla, C/B, S/K, G/F are vanilla af, Weaver/Poje were vanilla af, Canadanes are better than that, just not close to where I wish they were.

Turkkila/Versluis - Grand Prix Espoo 22 - Free Dance - FIN

Elements:

OFS 3+2 (very solid) | SLL 3 (?? This was beautiful) Twizzles 3+3 (just some slight bobbles for both of them on the exits of the last 2 Twizzles) | Choreo Jump + 2.28| StaLi 4+ RoLi 4(tv but stunning, +4 goe) | MiSt 2+3 (and close to 3+3!!) | Spin 3 | ChSt +2.21 (wish it was longer)| Choreo Lift +3.15 (really lovely!!)

Program: Four Impromptus , Piano Sonata 20 (Schubert)

I appreciate how understated and soft this program is and how well it works with their individual style. This feels like a genuine and unforced version of what Sinitsina/Katsalapov tried and failed to do year after year. They have such a refreshing quality to their skating that I just love <3

I would give them honestly an 8.75 in Composition because this was great. (Edit after looking at the protocols, they got an 8.64! Which is .5 higher than any other category of theirs. I feel vindicated and I’m glad the judges agree 😤)

I know I said it last event, but I love this dress and color on Juulia 💜 and I don’t think I noticed the details in Matthias’ tunic before, but I do really enjoy the cut and how the navy compliments Juulia

Also, what a great showing Finland had in Mens and Ice Dance 💜 (and both Jenni and Janna had one STUNNING program) they should be so proud as a host nation!! 🥺

Score: 116.73 (!!!), 191.79 into 1st — AND their first Grand Prix medal!! 🥉 which is Finland’s first in Ice Dance, and the first GP medal since 2012!

what a way to cap off The Grand Prix of Figure Skating Espoo 💜 🇫🇮 💜

World Rankings - 22/23

The ISU has updated the World Rankings for the 22/23 season.

Reigning Olympic and World Silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan leads the Men’s list, with Reigning Olympic Champion Anna Shcherbakova of Russia leading the Women’s.

Reigning Olympic Silver medalists Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia and Viktoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia lead the Pairs and Ice Dance lists respectively.

If you're talking about the UpAgain moments thing, honestly to me the ones that made the least sense were P/C and S/H. Like, what was their down moment? Winning silver at their previous Olympics? Actually even for Kaori, dgmw I love her and she had an amazing year, but she never really had a down moment either? I guess for Yuzuru you could say that well, he was battling with injuries for the entire quad and yet he still managed to certify the first 4A but that's not even the angle they're taking since they're just saying that he got injured before the free in Beijing so idk. Actually Nathan kinda makes sense to me cause he did have a glow up between the beginning and end of the quad. But I agree that Shoma's story deserved to be featured. You're right, they just took the biggest names for each discipline rn and rolled with it

For P/C and Sui/Han can be said the same thing as for Yuzu.

Sui and Han battled with many injuries through their entire careers.

Papadakis/Cizeron both had severe cases of COVID-19 that made them miss a season, also Gabriella Papadakis had severe mental health problem.

Kaori lost some of her momentum between the 2019-2020 and this season 2021-2022 and had trouble with motivation.

So yes all of them dealed with some kind of setback in their careers, but none of them struggled as bad to fear not even making the selection for a Worlds team like Shoma.

And even if we don't take Shoma into account as ofc I am pretty biased for him. There is Mai Mihara who sat out almost two years because she was so seriously ill that she could not even walk, but she fought jer way back to competition. Or Wakaba Higuchi who was Worlds Silver Medalist in 2018,but it took her 4 years to compete at a World/Olympic stage. Or let's take Jason Brown who missed the Olympics in 2018 and changed his whole surroundings to come back and be selected for the 2022 Olympics. And even if I am not their fan and atm including Russians is difficult for logical reasons the story of Sinitsina/Katsalapov, who also struggled to even get selected to represent their country in 2018 and now they are Olympic Silver medalists. Or one of the most impressive #UpAgain moment would be the Ukrainian team who represented their country in the most difficult of circumstances and little to no training and still fought and skated.

I can name a lot more stories where the #UpAgain narrative would fit much better than to chose basically all Olympic champions and with all respect towards Kaori (love you) it looks like she was just selected because the Ladies champ was Russian and therefore atm is not a possible choice.

All those champions are for sure wonderful and also have great stories, but I think ISU just could have done better and show more diverse skaters stories than selecting the most common names from the Olympics (excluding Russians). It's just disappointing but as we talk about the ISU I surely didn't expect anything else.

Adding:

Lol as if ISU would touch scoring. 😂

Yes I do agree that they had a rough quad.

Actually the hashtag #UpAgain could actually fit any skater. They all fall and get up again and they all fight with injuries as ISU didn't make clear as to why those skaters are selected there is no way of knowing what "criterias" they used. I just think their selection is a bit too obvious and lazy.

Aux JO de Pékin, Papadakis et Cizeron décrochent une médaille d'or

Les deux patineurs ont réalisé le meilleur record du monde dans la discipline avec 226.98 points. C’est la 11e médaille remportée par les équipes françaises.  C’était le titre qui manquait à leur palmarès. Ils l’ont désormais décroché aux JO de Pékin. Gabriella Papadakis et Guillaume Cizeron ont remporté lundi 14 février la médaille d’or en patinage artistique au Jeux Olympiques de Pékin. Ainsi, le duo français a devancé les Russes Victoria Sinitsina et Nikita Katsalapov (220,51 points) ainsi que les Américains Madison Hubbel et Zachary Donohue (218,02 points).  A lire également : Le patinage, sorte star de l'hiver "C'est un symbole de tout ce qu'on a traversé pendant ces quatre années" pour Papadakis Cette victoire s'ajoute à leur palmarès déjà impressionnant : quatre fois champion du monde et cinq fois champions d'Europe. Dans le programme libre, Gabriella Papadakis et Guillaume Cizeron ont exécuté “un tango entre la vie et la mort” très apprécié par les critiques. Les favoris ont donc battu leur propre record de 37 centièmes de points aux JO de Pékin. « Cette médaille d’or avait beaucoup de poids, beaucoup plus qu’il y a quatre ans », a réagi la patineuse de 26 ans à la suite de sa victoire. Elle poursuit : « C'est le symbole de tout ce qu'on a traversé pendant ces quatre années, du travail qu'on a effectué, de toute notre carrière. C'est hallucinant le poids de cette médaille aujourd'hui ». En effet, cette victoire est une consécration pour le duo qui patine ensemble depuis maintenant 17 ans. Un triomphe d’autant plus savoureux compte-tenu de la déception ressentie en 2018.  En effet, lors des précédents JO d’hiver en 2018, les Français affichaient leur déception à la seconde place. Ils avaient été pénalisés car le tour de cou de Gabriella Papadakis s’était décroché laissant apparaître sa poitrine. Papadakis avait qualifié cette séquence de “cauchemar’. Par ailleurs, le duo avait précisé en conférence de presse de ne pas évoquer ce moment pour les JO actuels.  Read the full article

2022 Euros entry #32

Free dance

Guignard/Fabbri(ITA)

Thoughts: I don’t know if this counts as a crescendo ending but I think that’s my main issue with this program.

Stepanova/Bukin

Thoughts: I think this is the first outfit from Alexandra in a while that I’m just not a fan of

Sinistina/Katsalapov(RUS)

Thoughts: well done. I also love what Victoria did with her hair.

2022 Ice Lab International entry #1

Junior women short program

Nikola Fomchenkova(LAT)

Thoughts: she took a minute to get used to her music. But to be fair, this is a difficult song.

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Choreographer Lyudmila Vlasova (R), Elena Ilinykh (C) and Nikita Katsalapov (L) seen at a training prior to the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships.