Skate Canada International 2018 - Rhythmic Dance - Top 5 Highlights

In my opinion, the scene stealers of the day were Spain's Smart & Diaz

The top 5 ice dance couples at the end of the Rhythmic Dance were not quite whom I expected. The big disappointment for me were Gilles & Poirier finishing just outside of this group, but the exciting part is having two couples I haven't seen much before in it.

Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue are slowly, but surely heading towards the Grand Prix Final. They finished the Rhythmic in first place after winning the gold at Skate America exactly one week ago. They changed their costumes, or at least Madison did (sorry, can't remember his tango outfit very well 😅, and I have to say, I like the new red dress more. Score: 80.49.

Victoria Sinitsina & Nikita Katsalapov came second, with an intense and sharp tango set to Verano Porteno. Really good rotational lift, with the girl starting very high and then making her way down all the way to the ice. Score: 74.66.

In my opinion, Olivia Smart & Adrian Diaz had the most authentic tango of the day. It really came alive during the circular step sequence when they didn't shy away from expressing the passion that comes with this dance. Their twizzles were incredibly fast. Score: 72.35.

Marie-Jade Lariault & Romain Le Gac truly were a pleasant surprise. Skating for France, they had very difficult entries into both their twizzles and their stationary lift. They're also a very expressive couple - we saw so many expressions during their reenactment, one could say, of Chicago. Score: 68.90.

If there was one couple I didn't expect to see in the top 5, it was Shiyue Wang & Xinyu Liu. The Chinese couples in general are known for struggling to put the emphasis on the expressiveness you need to make it big in ice dance. However, they have improved so much. Her costume really fit the music, but his could perhaps be improved to look more fit for Pirates of the Caribbean. Score: 66.96.

These were the top 5 performances of the day. I think one of them is in danger of losing their spot if Gilles & Poirier come swinging their skills hard today, but at least the American and Russian couples are pretty much guaranteed a place on the podium at this stage.

Quote of the competition is:



Want to know what else happened at Skate Canada International 2018?
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