Comments on the Olympic Compulsory Dance

Some of the hip chicks have asked me to comment on the Olympics, since I judge ice dancing, singles and pairs. While this has nothing to do with hip dysplasia, it is timely since I leave tomorrow morning to fly to Vancouver in order to watch the ice dance final. I just finished watching the original dance.

First a caveat - TV makes it very difficult to see the subtle differences between the top teams, especially during compulsory dance, even for someone trained to judge ice dancing. So I am basing my comments on what could be seen on television. Seeing it live would make the analysis much more detailed, but unfortunately I was not there!

The following was written after the compulsory dance, before tonight's (amazing) original dance. Shelley asked me why Tanith and Ben were scored so low, and how the top teams differed.

"The top 4 teams are within a few points of each other, so really it's very close. None of them were scored low - these were all really high scores for compulsories. None of the top teams made (major) mistakes, so it was a matter of speed and pattern size (which you really can't see on TV), depth of edge, and expression of the tango.

My opinion, as an ice dance judge: I think the Russians and Canadians did all of those things best (they are and should be essentially tied). Meryl and Charlie in third didn't have as much tango expression - in particular, the relationship between the two of them. Tanith and Ben in fourth looked a bit less secure during the first pattern and didn't show as much tango expression. I thought also they had a few timing issues, but it's hard to tell on TV."

That's about as much as I can say without seeing it live. I think the judging was fair based on the detailed results and what I could see on TV. I definitely think the original dance tonight was judged fairly.

Don't miss the free dance tomorrow!
Terri