Ice Dancing: News on Sinitsinia & Katsalapov, Hubbell & Donohue
By Isobel Moody
Sinitsina & Katsalapov speak ahead of Russian test skates; first look at Hubbell & Donohue.
The U.S. and Canadian skaters have all gathered and skated their programs for their federation officials, and this week it’s the Russians’ turn. Russian test skates happen this weekend in Sochi. The test skates themselves are closed to the public, but there will be a pair of shows over the weekend as well, and we’ll likely get first look at a program or two then.
The Russian test skates aren’t accompanied by organized interviews or meetings with the media, but it’s not unknown for the skaters to do interviews on their own before them. This year, for instance, top ice dance team Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov did an interview this week during them. We got their music choices out of it. Their short will combine blues to Duke Ellington with swing to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s version of “If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” It’s probably still a little daring for any Russian team to use Lady Gaga. But then again, reigning world bronze medalist Anna Pogorilaya has skated a show program to Conchita Wurst, so in all probability they’ll get away with it. Their free is to tango music by Astor Piazzolla. That’s a little cliche for dancers, but they do say they’re using some of the famous Argentine composer’s less-known pieces.
More intriguing, in fact, is the news that they’re going to be spending the rest of 2016 in Moscow. Katsalapov is currently rehabilitating a shoulder injury, and that’s where his specialists are. This will keep them away from their coach Marina Zueva and the rest of her team in Canton, Michigan. They’re going to Skype with her and send her videos of their practices for comment, but that’s certainly not the same thing. She’s had to work hard with them this last season, getting them to their current success after their disastrous debut season together. Making this arrangement work and continuing their improvement under it will be a new challenge for all three. Day to day, they’ll train under Oleg Volkov, whom Katsalapov and his previous partner worked with when they were younger. One hopes for their sake his guidance doesn’t clash too much with Zueva’s.
First glimpse of Hubbell & Donohue
Noted podcast The Skating Lesson is currently in Montreal. They’ve got footage of both programs from U.S. dance bronze medalists Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue. Their facebook still has a 60-second clip of their short dance(scroll down), among other Montreal videos. It also originally had extended footage of their free dance, but that was soon pulled. In its place is an Instragram snippet:
In theory, a short dance that illustrates the evolution from Nina Simone’s blues to hip hop is an interesting take on this year’s allowed short dance styles. In practice, that minute sounded pretty cacaphonous. Perhaps the rest of the program will sound better. The free dance seems a lot like what the rest of the Montreal ice dance teams are doing. It’s a style Hubbell & Donohue can pull off fine, but it doesn’t showcase all their strengths; they can get more creative than simple hipster poem romance.
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Meanwhile, when this is supposed to be the top new school for dance, the sameness of all the free dances coming out of it is starting to get alarming.