US Nationals 2016- Dance

The Shibutanis surprised I think just about everyone by winning the national title. I am absolutely thrilled that they won, because I think realistically, they definitely deserved to win here. I'm still not a huge fan of the short dance, I think the theme of the dance is far too young for them. For seniors do be doing a doll dance is less than stellar. They skate so well, and they finally have a vehicle that can support that in the free dance but unfortunately, they don't have that in the short dance.

The build of their freedance in the twizzles in fantastic, and I love the changes they've made to the program over the season. They are excellent skaters, and their issue with projection of emotion is not a problem with that free dance. If they can have two vehicles like their free next year, they're going to be a force at worlds. For this season, they may do very well, but I don't see them on the podium.

Chock and Bates had a surprising loss at nationals. Despite the fact that I personally don't think they are the best team the US has, they have been doing exceptionally well, and I expected that to continue here. They did win the short dance, even though I honestly think that Hubbell and Donohue should have had the short dance in the bag. Chock and Bates have two programs that don't have a whole lot of impact for me. I find their programs this year kind of forgettable, and they don't have the same technical prowess to back up a program that may be lacking a little. A lot of the details in their program are sloppy, they don't bring their feet back together, like ever, which is a simple detail that can make a program look cleaner and more appealing. To be honest, they're really not my favourite, and for me, I would've put them in third, behind Hubbell and Donohue.

Hubbell and Donohue have such an amazing short dance. I think their short dance is my favourite program this season, in any event. The choreography has the perfect balance between the difficult technical elements and a beautiful simplicity. They have wonderful lines, and this is the one short dance that I feel actually has emotional impact. They have the technical ability, and this short dance should be enough to put them at or near the top at most competitions, but we're not seeing that. It is really not being well represented in their PCSs and unfortunately, I think that has a lot to do with them not having the base reputation points to prop them up.

Their freedance is good, but I don't think it is anywhere near as good as their short. It lacks some of the emotional impact, and the music and the costuming don't help them. I think that with a better freedance, they could've been a top team this season, but unfortunately the freedance just missed the mark. Overall though, I'm thrilled they made the choice to move to Montreal, because even if the freedance isn't the perfect vehicle, it is miles ahead of last year's freedance.

Cannuscio and McManus made a step up into fourth place, ahead of Hawayek and Baker, who I think many assumed would be the fourth place US team. Overall, I think they're fine. They don't have some of the refinement some of the other teams have, their Ravensburger was a little heavy and so didn't have the same flow as the other teams, but they do have the technical ability, and they sold the material they had.

I'm not the biggest fan of their freedance. To me it feels a little too much like they're trying to be Papadakis and Cizeron, and it comes off a little tacky. The grabbing of the ear is much too much, and other than that, they don't really have something in either program to make them memorable.

Hawayek and Baker didn't have a great weekend at nationals, they managed to hold on to fifth, but that doesn't bode well for them for the rest of this season or next season. It's beginning to feel like they've settled for what comes easy. They're not making an attempt to push the envelope with the themes of the programs or the content. We've seen this pretty people skating to pretty music far too many times from them, and the novelty of their nice lines and good skating skills has worn off. It was one thing when they were brand new seniors, but it's time to find something else. They're going to need to push themselves really hard if they want a shot at getting back on that world team next year.

(Side note: I really don't get the new FD costumes from Hawayek and Baker, like they look fine, but they don't make sense with the music they're using)