Canadian Open 2000 Technical Program

Ladies:

1. Michelle- skated to East of Eden. It was a nice skate for her, though she doubled her triple (flip I think)
Tech: 5.4-5.7 Pres: 5.8

2. Sarah Hughes- I don't know the name music to this music- I'm assuming it's her short for the year though. She skated well but stepped out of her triple.
Tech: a 4.8, up to 5.5 Pres: 5.5-5.8

3. Josee (yay!)- Her program was jazzy/bluesy. She was wearing a nice navy dress (perhaps she designed it?) that had a slit all the way down the front (kind of a la Lopez but much classier). She stepped out of her lutz but managed to get the 2-toe in. Her other triple was gorgeous, as was her 2-axel, and she looked like she had a great time out there. Very cute mannerisms in the choreography.
Tech: 5.0-5.4 Pres: 5.5-5.9!

4. Jennifer- This was, naturally, her short program. She skated well, but unfortunately didn't get the combo because she hit the boards on her lutz; nevertheless, she got the 2-toe in. The low technical marks suggest to me that there's a chance she two-footed something, but I didn't catch it.
Tech: a 4.6, 4.9-5.2 Pres: 5.4-5.6.

5. Surya- She skated to jungle-type music with pipe/flute- it suited her. She stepped out of the 2-axel. Low marks probably because she skated 1st, and because her choreography is not that strong.
Tech: 4.9-5.1 Pres: 5.1-5.4.

6. Lu Chen- not a great night for her. She did Take Five, attempting a 3-loop combo but falling hard. She also turned out of the 2-axel. Other problems were the quality of her spins, and she doesn't carry a lot of speed (ie during her footwork)... Twas a shame, I like this program for her.
Tech: a 3.5, 4.0-4.5 Pres: a 5.1, 5.4-5.6.

Pairs:

1. Jamie and David- they had the best performance of the night, and brought the house down. The nuances in their short are wonderful; their eye contact, the playfulness (she not only gave him air kisses to which he reacted, but she slapped his *ahem*). All the elements were strong- their spins were out of sync for maybe a ms, and David had some trouble on the lift, but no big deal.
Tech: a 5.7, the rest 5.8. Pres: all 5.9

2. Kyoko and John- I have not seen this program before- it's dramatic music with a heavy bass. They were clean, which was nice to see (in what I have seen of them, they had seemed to be struggling).
Tech: 5.5-5.7 Pres: 5.6-5.8

3. Kris and Kristy- They wore the costumes from SA instead of the SC ones- I don't think either set particularly suits the music. Actually, I like them quite a bit but this program just doesn't seem to be doing it. Kristy made a good attempt at her triple, but stepped out. Their spins were also somewhat out of sync.
Tech: 5.0-5.4 Pres: 5.4-5.7

4. Yuka and Jason- I was excited to see Yuka skate :) They skated to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 (ie the one that gave rise to 'All By Myself'). Jason fell on his triple. Yuka was on a severe lean in the air during the throw, but saved it (to which Laboni commented, "that's singles training"). The program is very nice, they skate well together.
Tech: 5.1-5.3 Pres: 5.4-5.6

Men (!)

Here I think I'll go in order of skate instead :)

Warm-up
Background: Boni baked cookies for Kurt and had them in a green box made of bristol board, with his name on it. We decided that she should put them on the boards to catch his attention w/o actively distracting him. Actually, it turns out he was in a *very* playful mood tonight (it's really part of the program's character too). He gave kids high fives, and even let a lady take a goofy up-close shot of him. He skated by us, (really close) saw the box, snatched it, and redeposited it about 3m to the right of us and kept going. Boni ran to get it back, and we were thinking that "good, he'd noticed us, and he'd be back later"...

Brian- his program is to the same music as Kris and Kristy (can someone tell me what it is? it's driving me nuts!) Anyway I enjoy his interpretation much better. Unfortunately, he fell hard on his axel and hence had no combo. Otherwise the choreography (*footwork esp.) was great.
Tech: 4.9-5.0 Pres: 5.5-5.7 (I think this set of marks got the boo-birds out)

Alexei- did his short, which I rather like, though I'm not a huge fan. He stepped out of his quad, but squeezed in the double toe. Everything else was fine- this program's going to keep getting better.
Tech: 5.3-5.5 Pres: 5.7-5.8

Steven- don't know what the music is, but it is rather Satriani (All Alone) -ish. I can't think right now of any problems that he had, though he must have been excited about his 3-axel-2-toe combo because he nearly fouled up his sit spin (I can't think of the proper term- think the Kurt Riedell pic). The ending was cool- it was like that Toronto Sun pic of Kurt against the boards... I don't know why I'm relating Steven's number to Kurt pics :) Anyway, Kurt was next and he came on the ice, giving Steven high fives.
Tech: a 5.2, 5.4-5.5 Pres: 5.3-5.5

Kurt!
While we were waiting for Steven's marks to come up, he was teasing the flower girls, chasing one, the blocking their way off the ice, then apparently he slapped one on the butt (running theme of the Open? ;) ). He was announced, and of course, everyone went just nuts. Was in his opening position, only he wasn't still- we couldn't tell if it was just him being silly, or if it was choreography- turns out it was the latter.

This is a great program! Again, I don't know the name of the music, but it's very Jazz/Swing. Think: more 20s swing than 30/40s. He was wearing a white dress shirt w/ the sleeves rolled up past the elbows, a black tie, and ?black? pants. The choreography is fast and furious, and is kind of clowny, actually. For example, after his triple, he does a Raggy move (hard to describe: he's on his left foot, maybe the pick, and the other leg is in the air to the side, and it kicks out, causing his left foot to skip on the ice too). Also before his 2-axel, he takes a looong entry, where at one point the music is a sound like cow-bells and he bangs his forehead simultaneously. Very nice. The good news aside, he missed his combo completely. The axel was... splat :( Nevertheless, he ended really strong, pretending that he was just going to leave. Actually, he didn't come back to centre ice to officially bow. Instead, he attended to all the fans in near the kiss'n'cry, which sadly was the corner directly diagonal to us. So he never got a chance to come back for his cookies :( Anyway, he was on the ice a long time signing autographs and giving hugs to the lucky folks over yonder. Meanwhile Todd is trying to get ready to skate. Actually, he was focused, landing a few nice jumps.
Tech: 5.2-5.3 Pres: 5.8-5.9 (heh, no time deduction)

Todd- his Phantom Menace short. He also completely fell on his quad, which he must have being trying to do in combo, because there were no others. His other jumps were just fine (including 3-axel), and this program is his quintessential dramatic self, ending w/ a great spin.
Tech: 5.3-5.4 Pres: 5.6-5.7

Emmanuel- This was the first time I've seen him all season, but I'm guessing this is his short. The music begins w/ drums and cymbals only, then after more than a minute finally breaks into jazzy goodness. I *think* he got his quad, then totally missed his combo. What a shame!!! This program is pretty awesome, with all the fast furious footwork and his style.
Tech: 4.6-5.1 (and there went the boo-birds again) Pres: 5.4-5.7

Standings:

Alexei
Kurt
Todd
Steven
Brian
Emmanuel

So Kurt's in great shape to take the thing tomorrow. Overall, there seems to be this jazz trend going around... Also, the women seemed cleaner than the men. I missed the announcement about what happened to Nicole Bobek, but Kazakova and Dimitriev pulled out due to injury. That was a shame, since it left the "pro" side of the pairs competition represented by two relatively new teams- don't get me wrong, I enjoyed them, but I was looking forward to some veteran pro team there. Josee is in the same position as last year, so she could take it again, which will make some of our list members very happy :)