by Anne Calder | Photo by Robin Ritoss

The last 2024 ISU Grand Prix event, Cup of China, was held from November 22-24 at the Chongqing Huaxi Cultural and Sports Center in Chongqing, China. Ten ice dance teams from eight countries competed. Two teams qualified for the remaining open spots at the Grand Prix Final.

Rhythm Dance

The Rhythm Dance was the first discipline competed. Two groups of dancers were introduced to the audience at center ice. After a five minute warm-up, the teams skated programs to music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri (ITA) danced into first place with selections that included “Land of 1000 Dances”, “For Once in My Life” by Stevie Wonder and “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real”.  The twizzles and lift earned level 4. The Choreo Rhythm Sequence received a 5.36 GOE. The total segment score was 84.84.

The reigning European Champions referenced their Grand Prix experience in France competed a few weeks earlier.

“Compared to the performances we had in France, today was much easier, and we performed much better,” Fabbri said.

“The confidence came day after day. In the first practice we had two days ago, I was not really confident. All the bad memories from France came back to me again, so I was not really calm, but then yesterday’s practice was a little bit better. Today I managed to avoid all those bad memories, all those bad feelings, and I could focus just on my performance. Everything made me feel at ease today, and so it came naturally.” 

Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha (CAN) gave a salute to the 1960’s Austin Powers film series with “Soul Bossa Nova” by Quincy Jones and added two 1970’s Earth, Wind & Fire songs as closers. The Step Sequences and Lagha’s twizzle were level 3; Lajoie’s twizzle and the rotational lift earned level 4. The program scored a season best 81.53.

Lagha explained how they faced challenges in their performance, particularly with his twizzles.

“We’re happy, but this performance was very much like a mental fight, so it wasn’t easy, but I’m very happy that we were able to stay on our feet and stay solid and just get through it,” he said.

“It was difficult because before the last week of training I sharpened my blade at a new place, and I was not able to do a twizzle since, At this competition I repeated a lot of twizzles. I’m the kind of guy who needs confidence, but then I gave the disease to Marjorie because she was thinking a lot about the twizzles. Hats off to her! She still stayed solid.”  

Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko (USA) combined the blues and rock genre of Etta James’ “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” to score 79.22 points.The twizzles were level 4 while the Midline Step Sequence and rotational lift earned level 3.

“We were very happy with today’s performance. We felt more relaxed than in Japan and really like the energy in the arena,” Carreira said.  

Ponomarenko added: “We were in fourth place in seven Grand Prix events in a row. Finally breaking that top three in Japan, was incredibly special. We’re going to carry that momentum on to this Grand Prix and further in the season.”

Finland’s Julia Turkkila & Matthias Versluis (77.80) and Spain’s Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck (76.96) were fourth and fifth respectively.

Free Dance

At all of the Grand Prix competitions, the athletes were awarded points according to their placements. The top three teams on the leader board after the Rhythm Dance were each second at their earlier Series events and were tied with 13 points each. Logistically only the gold and silver medalists would qualify, Guignard & Fabbri, Lajoie & Lagha and Carreira & Ponomarenko controlled their own destiny.

Guignard & Fabbri qualified for the GPFinal roster with a gold medal techno performance as robots. Their music included “Robotboys Audition” by Robotboys, “Goodbye” by Kavinsky, feat. Sebastian Teller and “DubstEpic Symph” by Robotboys. The team debuted new costumes for the program that scored 124.29 points with an event total 209.13.

“It was not the best performance ever, but I am personally still very happy since I skated really bad in France. I was a little bit nervous. I didn’t know how my body and mind would react,” Fabbri said. “We had only two weeks after France, and I couldn’t switch my mind off. We still had some bigger and smaller mistakes. Overall it was good for us in this moment.

They are now looking ahead to the ISU Grand Prix Final. 

“We made a lot of adjustments to the Free Dance between France and here. Now we just keep working on being more solid in everything,” Fabbri said. “There was not enough time for the changes to become solid. We are not going to change a lot now, but we’ll try to improve the speed a little, make everything a bit smoother and feel more confident especially for the Free Dance.”

Lajoie & Lagha landed the other GPF open spot with a dramatic interpretation of Paul Simon’s “Sound of Silence” by Disturbed  and “Murky Solitude” by Karl Hugo. The segment scored a season best 123.63; the silver medal program totaled 205.16.

“We’re very happy,” Lagha said. “I think I speak for everybody when I say that it was very, very stressful. It’s always very stressful, and it’s a big mental fight to go out there and to skate. I’m just so happy that we got through it.”

Carreira & Ponomarenko’s fourth place 118.96 score to Carmen Suite by composer Rodion Shchedrin did not keep them off the podium. Their 198.18 total points secured the bronze medal.

“I think it was a very stressful day,” Ponomarenko said. “This event was very intimidating. There were a lot of amazing teams and people putting up really amazing scores and having amazing programs. 

“Going in, we wanted to do our best, but we wanted to stay consistent, be in that top three that we solidified in the short (Rhythm Dance). Overall, we did our job, but I feel like we have a lot more to give in this free. I feel like there’s a lot more that we can improve and work on, and we have a lot of time to do that.”

Smart & Dieck earned a season best 120.56 third place segment score for their dance to the Dune soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Peter Gabriel’s “The Feeling Begins”. The total 196.52 points moved them up to fourth place and ahead of Turkkila & Versluis who finished fifth with a 192.57 score.

Coming Attractions

The 2024 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series concluded with the Cup of China. The top six ice dance teams have now qualified for the GPFinal and will compete in Grenoble France, December 5-8.

Ice Dance Qualifiers:

Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson, Great Britain
Madison Chock & Evan Bates, USA
Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, Canada
Evgeniia Lopareva & Geoffrey Brissaud, France
Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha, Canada
Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri, Italy