NHK Trophy Marks Last Stop of the 2012-13 Grand Prix Series

by Jacquelyn Thayer | Photo by Liz Chastney

The Grand Prix series draws to a close with the sixth event, NHK Trophy in Sendai, Japan, featuring a full field of eight. It is the last event before next month’s Grand Prix Final. Sendai last hosted the competition in 2007, but this year its participation has a special significance: Sendai is the capital of the Miyagi Prefecture, which was at the center of 2011’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. This year’s NHK Trophy is the first major skating competition in the region since that tragedy. 

No team has seen more time pass between Grand Prix events than Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White, who kicked off their year at the first event, Skate America. In the past few weeks, the team has maintained possession of the season’s best scores in both short dance and free dance. They have also worked to improve their own quality of movement in both programs, spending a few days with So You Think You Can Dance favorite and ballet dancer Alex Wong in early November. His influence might be particularly apparent in their balletic short dance to selections from Giselle. The American champions have been one of only a handful of teams this season to achieve a level 4 on one Yankee Polka pattern, but their second took only a level 2 at Skate America, indicating some room for improvement. Skate America also saw the team facing a couple of bigger technical issues, including an extended lift deduction for the closing rotational lift in their short dance, and off-balance level 3 twizzles in the free dance. While their chances for a third NHK Trophy gold are secure, the bigger emphasis here will be upon preparing themselves for the Final, particularly as Canadians Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir have had the edge of two additional weeks of pre-Final preparation. Whatever additional feedback Davis & White receive here will be key.

Silver medalists at Rostelecom Cup, Russia’s Elena Ilinykh & Nikita Katsalapov are likely here to qualify for the Grand Prix Final; while a medal will guarantee the team a slot, tiebreaker rules that favor a single second-place finish over two bronzes would still permit them a finish as low as fourth. However, on this roster, they are expected to take their second Grand Prix medal of the season. Where the team’s central concern at this event may lie is with their free dance, a theatrical piece set to selections from Ghost: The Musical. While the program has been received to decidedly mixed reviews, the bigger issue is its reception by judges as a rhythmically-appropriate selection: rumor suggests that it was one judge’s vote from incurring a deduction at Rostelecom Cup for its lack of a discernible beat in its spoken-word portions. Most recently, however, the team has been said to be working with choreographer Yelena Matveeva, which, if true, may point to changes to prevent running such a risk here and in future events. Even with Ghost’s challenges, Ilinykh & Katsalapov saw very strong scores at Rostelecom Cup, achieving a new personal best of 65.70 with their Andijan short dance and 92.76 in the free, despite a one-point deduction for a fluke fall at program’s beginning.    

For Maia & Alex Shibutani (USA), Rostelecom Cup offered a less than desirable start. The central story of the event was the quadriceps spasm that hindered Alex midway through the free dance, bringing a temporary stop to the program and making his subsequent efforts in the dance all the more impressive. While that injury ended their chances of moving to podium position, the team was also challenged by a relatively new short dance, a program to Andean folk selections—pieces best-known for their use in Isabelle & Paul Duchesnay’s 1989-90 “Missing” free dance—that was a late change from an originally-announced Mary Poppins program. The approach offers an unusual take on the Yankee Polka, a tactic which may prove risky if too far removed in spirit from the short dance’s current season requirements, or canny in allowing the team to stand out from those with more traditional programs. Certainly the first key will be to improve their technical performance: while their PCS in the short dance at Rostelecom Cup ranked third, level 2s on most elements placed the team seventh in TES. With a week between events that has included extended training time in Japan, the Shibutanis should be on track to present a sharper performance here.       

Japan’s Cathy & Chris Reed (pictured, right) are competing in their first and only Grand Prix event of the season. Last year’s NHK Trophy was marked by misfortune: Chris injured his leg in a collision during the free dance warm-up, leading them to a last-place finish. The ill luck would continue with a foot fracture for Chris, removing them from competition until the 2012 World Championships, where they failed to qualify for the free dance. The team is making a new start this season, taking silver at NRW Trophy behind France’s Pernelle Carron & Lloyd Jones with a short dance to selections from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and a free dance to music from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Before last season’s misfortunes, the Reeds placed 13th at the 2011 World Championships and earned their personal best scores there. With that previous success in mind, they may be able to gain some renewed momentum with a good performance here.

The Grand Prix debut for Nicole Orford & Thomas Williams (CAN) at Rostelecom Cup resulted in an eighth-place finish, though not one without its positive takeaways. The couple achieved level 3s on both Yankee Polka patterns in the short dance, making them only one of three teams to avoid a level 2 on the element. However, they also received negative GOEs on both, suggesting room for improved polish on the pattern. Their free dance earned level 4s on all lifts and twizzles, but faltered towards the program’s end with mistakes in the diagonal step sequence that contributed to a level 1 on that element. With the nerves of that first senior international experience behind them, though, Orford & Williams are capable in Japan of presenting a set of performances more in line technically with those they offered on the international junior scene last season.

Penny Coomes & Nicholas Buckland of Great Britain finished seventh at Rostelecom Cup, just ahead of Orford & Williams. There the elements proved their biggest obstacle, with the team earning the lowest technical marks in each segment, including negative GOEs on twizzles in both programs. However, their total score of 126.66 was two points ahead of that of Orford & Williams at the same event, and six and twenty points above those from China’s Xintong Huang & Xun Zheng and Xiaoyang Yu & Chen Wang, respectively, at Cup of China. Given the field, and given a little more polish after completing their first season event, Coomes & Buckland can improve on that Moscow finish.   

Two Chinese teams who last competed at Cup of China return here with the aim of improving upon their own prior results. Huang & Zheng finished seventh at that event, receiving several negative GOEs in the short dance and level 1s on a Yankee Polka pattern and on their diagonal step sequence in the free dance. However, the couple’s total score of 121.01 was nine points below their personal best as earned at the 2012 World Championships, indicating that they may be able to rise here. Yu & Wang placed just behind them in eighth at Cup of China, with the Yankee Polka patterns and no-touch step sequence a particular issue in the short dance, and only their spin and a rotational lift achieving level 4s in the free. Like Huang & Zheng, they too are capable of attaining stronger scores in both segments, and will work to boost their technical efforts here. 

The competition opens with the short dance on Friday, with the free dance slated for Saturday.