Category: Ice Dance

Ice Dance and the Off-Season: A Summer Fling?

The earliest ice dance events of summer — Lake Placid and its championship and international competitions, Minto Summer Skate and the Championnats québécois d’été, or Quebec Summer Championships — are, by near definition, starting points for the long September-March international…

TFTI’s Ask the Expert: Building a Short Dance

The first question in Two for the Ice’s Ask the Expert series turns to the process of short dance creation, with ice dance coach and choreographer Carol Lane — an element of whose 2015-16 short dance with Juris Razgulajevs for…

2016-17 Grand Prix Draft: The Aftermath

With the dance field expanded to 10 couples apiece for the first time since the 2010-11 season, competitors saw additional opportunity — though some absences for those guaranteed at least one spot are also worth noting. Pairs, which remains at…

Previewing the 2016-17 Grand Prix Draft

The ISU figure skating powers-that-be meet this Wednesday and Thursday to set out the coming season’s Grand Prix assignments across six events — this year, in a minor shake-up of schedule, Skate America, Skate Canada International, Rostelecom Cup, the renamed…

Time and Life Shape Return Perspective for Arnold and Williams

by Jacquelyn Thayer One could say that the reports of Canadian ice dancer Thomas Williams’s retirement were an exaggeration. “I planned on continuing—that was my original plan all along,” said Williams, who split from partner Nicole Orford in early 2015.…

With Past as Prologue, Paul and Islam Carry On

by Jacquelyn Thayer It was a classic quote of much-debated origin — “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts” — that concluded the ice dance team’s reflective Facebook post, a season…

Canadian Nationals a Coming of Age for Mariposa Dancers

by Jacquelyn Thayer This week, senior dance at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships will include a pair of training mates with a history of their own. In 2012, Mariposa School of Skating’s Lauren Collins and Danny Seymour became Canada’s…

PCS: Connecting the Dots #6. GOEing Somewhere

In this PCS series as in all analytical articles, it has generally been TFTI’s aim to provide some deeper insight into the numbers presented — related or not to on-ice performance. But in the matter of Grades of Execution in…

Road to Nationals: Weaver and Poje, Chock and Bates

For reigning Canadian dance champions Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, next week’s Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Halifax marks a full circle moment — the couple made their national, and senior, debut together there at 2007’s event, capturing a…

TFTI’s Top 10 of 2015

In recognition of the Year That Was, Two for the Ice highlights ten of its favorite 2015-16 programs from the U.S. and Canada’s senior dance and pairs couples — and we invite our readers to share their own favorites by…