by Anne Calder | Photo by Melanie Heaney

Novice Combined Dance opened the 2024 NQS Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships on Sunday afternoon, July 28. The teams skated two patterns –  Westminster Waltz and Tango. Free Dances were competed the following day.

For the second season, five Novice teams from November’s Ice Dance Final will be invited to compete at the U.S. National Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Each of the teams has set that as a major season goal.

Twelve Novice teams competed in the Patterns; ten competed in the Free Dance. The following were awarded medals: Marian Carhart & Denis Bledsoe (gold), Sophia Feige & Wiles Middlekauff (silver), Grace Fischer & Luke Fischer (bronze) and Annie Huang & Simon Mintz (pewter).

Marian Carhart & Denis Bledsoe completed their gold medal Trifecta…2022 Juvenile, 2023 Intermediate and 2024 Novice. The dancers train in Estero, FL with Marina Zoueva’s team. Marian and Dennis were very pleased with their performance.  The total score was 108.87.

Sophia Feige & Wiles Middlekauff (107.69) had a tryout in mid March and partnered in mid April. Sophie moved from Florida to train in Novi, Michigan in her first partner dance season. Last year she did Solo Dance. She was happy with her twizzles after struggling with them at the Dallas Classic. Wiles noted the team had worked on the Key Points after missing a lot at the Texas event. The total score was 107.69.

Grace Fischer & Luke Fischer shared their stories.. Before skating, Grace was a little nervous, so she sang along with the music for the team on the ice.  “That’s what I do,” she said. Out on the ice, she told herself, “You’ve got this”. Grace thought the program went pretty well. Luke has been training hard to be consistent with his twizzles both in practice and competition. “Last season I got only one level 4.” He got one this week.

Coach Ben Agosto noted they’ve been working a lot on performance quality by selling it to the audience and judges. “They did a great job with their energy today. It was fun to watch.” Grace added that she always focuses on one judge to perform to. “I pick the one who is smiling.”  The team scored 101.36.

Annie Hung & Simon Minz, who train with Dimitri Boundoukin in Boxborough, MA,  teamed up only six months ago. Annie thought they skated pretty good, but noted there’s work to improve on some elements. Simon added, “Particularly the spin and twizzles. We need to get consistency in them.” The team topped their Chesapeake Open score by seven points. Simon competed  last season on the junior level.  The final score was 97.55.

Natalie Leitan & Nathan Leitan moved up from the Intermediate level this season. “I think we did amazing. We’re really improving a lot,” noted Natalie. “We went up a couple of points since Dallas,” added Nathan. “We’re going to keep on working hard.” The siblings who train with Dima Ilin in Rockville, MD. scored 89.02.

Rylen Lukanin & Patrick O’Brien had a fall on the Dance Spin. Rylan thought they did really good. “I got back up, and we stayed together.” Patrick added, “ We tried to pick it up and calm ourselves down and not to rush as fast as we could because then we’d be off the music. We tried to really push, get back up and look better than we did before.” Their training with Coaches Kristen Frazier-Lukanin and Igor Lukanin prepared them for what to do in an unfortunate situation. The team scored 85.11.

Lianne Fan & Nikolai Balabardin who train at MIDA in Canton Michigan teamed up five weeks ago. Lianne thought the performance was pretty good and felt very confident. “I really got to soak it in this year because it’s my second year in Lake Placid, and I knew what to expect.” Both competed at the 2023 event with different partners on different levels. Nikolai, the son of Canadian figure skating coaches who met while touring with Disney on Ice, added, “The results can improve, but I feel we’ve done a lot in a month. I’m really surprised how much we’ve been able to accomplish.”

Coach Charlie White added, “The competition today was for a learning experience. First competition together, five weeks in with a lot of learning opportunities, but also a good foundation. When the team skates at one of the next upcoming competitions, they’ll be even more ready for them. They’ll have double/tripled their training time.” (Coach Charlie laughed)  The total event score was 84.66.

Reese Hamilton & Ethan Darnell danced on the Intermediate level at the 2023/24 Ice Dance Final in Bloomington, MN. Reese compared their Lake Placid debut with the Dallas Classic performance a few weeks ago.  “I think it went quite well. Our presentation was quite a bit better than our last competition. Skating together, we definitely improved our connection.” The final score was also two points higher. The team trains on the West Coast. Ethan explained. “ We’re from the San Francisco area, but are training in Novi, Michigan for the summer. At home they are at the Sharks Ice in San Jose. The total score was 83.79.

Mia Aisin & Steven Moore are a new team that trains in Connecticut with Coach Svetlana Kulikova. This season they have competed at Chesapeake (78.41) and the Dallas Classic (80.32). Mia commented after their Lake Placid skate. “I think it’s better than last time. There’s a lot to improve.” Steven added, “You have to have a lot of emotion in order to really skate this program.”  The team scored 83.60.

Coach Kulikova noted, “We are trying to work on the conditioning to try to make the emotions go all the way through. It’s better every time. The next event is the Philadelphia Challenge Cup or Austin Autumn Classic.”

Vanessa Hollis & Evan Hollis represent the Skokie Valley Skating Club. The siblings made their Lake Placid debut and scored 58.34.