Ice dancing 2014

Despite the NBC Olympics website's best efforts (can we please just put everything on YouTube already instead of these buggy proprietary players?), I managed to catch a great deal of the ice dancing competition over the last two days. I continue to be surprised by how much I enjoy it, at least the performances of the really good skaters. I used to like the pairs competition but this year all I really care about is the ice dancing. I was reminded of how boring ice dancing can be/used to be when I saw a few of the less-skilled dancers perform. But when you get to the cream of the crop, WOW. Enchanting.

My favorites are still Davis/White and Virtue/Moir. I mentioned four years ago that White sometimes seemed to be skating along with a huge smile pasted on his face as if to say, "I am ice dancing!" while Moir seemed more intense. White has fixed that - both couples are such a joy to watch. I think Virtue/Moir are still the better skaters, but not by much. I don't think I'm alone in that opinion, either - the commentators on the version I watched seemed to think the same.

Other thoughts on what I saw of the ice dancing competition:

TWO Michael Jackson programs? TWO?

One of the two (the non-US couple) included tasteful (???) pelvic thrusts as part of the choreography.

Techno Swan Lake was kind of awesome.

White's hair is like the third member of that team.

The Shibutanis have done so much to dispel the ick factor of them being brother and sister. I'm hardly squicked out by it anymore.

But still, except for them, these people are crazy for not kissing at the end of each routine. How is it possible to invade your dancing partner's critical distance so many times and not kiss?

Now enjoy this replay of Virtue/Moir's performance from Vancouver four years ago. So lovely.