by TESkateFan
Okay - I thought I'd take a moment to give you all the complete Masters review - including pairs and scores... As usual, I didn't take many notes, only while waiting for the scores... so, if I'm in error somewhere, my apologies up front.
Men's SP:
Todd drew to skate first. This is Todd's new SP for the upcoming competitive season. The elements here won't be those used throughout the season, they were changed due to boot and jump problems and the quad will be put in the future. Also, the footwork is some of the most complex that I've ever seen from Todd and he's still working on getting comfortable with it. I really think that as this program develops, it's going to be wonderful. And Todd's really good with swing music.
Music: Medley from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy includes "Jumpin Jack"
Elements: Swing Dance Moves
Triple Axel/Triple Toe combination - Todd just squeaked out the landing of the toe
Double Axel
Sit/Back Sit spin
Circular Footwork Section
Camel change Camel Spin - (bobble in the change, very unusual for Todd)
Triple Lutz out of footwork (again, better footwork)
Final Combination Spin - ends with a scratch spin as usual.
There's also lots of dance moves throughout the program that are hard to describe.
Costume: Todd wore his "NY/NY" costume with the black and silver metallic, checkered vest, sparkly shirt and black pants. Jeff Billings (costumer for SOI) was there at the Masters and met with Todd concerning his costumes for the upcoming season - Jeff has been commissioned to do Todd's costumes for this year - both the SP and his new LP (Band of Brothers). Jeff's done some great costumes in the past - hopefully Todd's costumes for the upcoming season (when finally debuted) will be the best we've seen in several years. With Jeff involved, there is at least that potential.
Scores: Technical: 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.7
Presentation: 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.8
Ilia Kulik was up next. I haven't seen Ilia skate live in the past few years for various reasons so I was instantly reminded how light and effortless his jumps seem to be.
He tried for a quad/triple combination and stepped out of the quad, thus not completing the combination. He took a deduction for the lack of a combination within the technically required SP. I don't know this for sure, but the moves looked like Christopher Dean probably chorographed this program, I'm trying to verify that. He had lots of contact with the audience and you could tell that he's been on the pro-circuit for a while.
Music: Average White Band's "Pick up the Pieces"
Elements: Quad/Triple - failed attempt (see above)
Death drop
Triple Axel
Footwork - had a little slip during this section
Triple Lutz
Spins to close program - Camel/sit/back sit then dance section with sit/back sit combo to finish.
Costume: Blue Polyester Paisley Shirt (yes, think retro 70's disco)
Scores: Technical: 5.1 5.1 5.2 4.8 5.0
Presentation: 5.5 5.8 5.5 5.5 5.5
Steven Cousins skated third. I absolutely love Steven - he is one of the busiest pro skaters around and is a great competitor at these events. He comes knowing that it's not likely that he'll win, but he still gives it a shot. The technical short program is his nemesis (as Roz would say) and it didn't help that he had hurt his back during Kristi's show and was suffering back spasms. He had hardly practiced at all during the day before and he was probably skating in pain. His normal smile and the Cousins' "charisma" wasn't there during the SP - I think he may have been concentrating on the elements too much.
Music: Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
Elements: Double Axel
Triple Axel - fell
Double Lutz
Sit/Back Sit Spin
Spiral
Combination Spin
Costume: Black pants with a black, shimmery, form-fitting, short-sleeved T-shirt
Scores: Technical: 4.4 4.6 4.8 4.7 4.6
Presentation: 5.1 5.5 5.3 5.3 5.4
Final men's competitor was Alexei Yagudin. He was the clear winner of the SP. He skated his competitive SP for this season ("Winter") with total fire and abandon, lots of emotion. It's a beautiful program with lots of special effects, like throwing ice chips to imitate "snow". Although it's not my all-time favorite, Tarasova has definitely come up with another superlative program for Alexei and if skated well, he will be hard to beat with this one.
Music: Winter - from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi (performed by the British Band, Bond, I believe)
Elements: Quad Toe/Triple Toe combination - landed
Triple Axel
Triple Lutz out of Footwork
Straight-line Footwork section - classic Alexei footwork
Combo spins to finish
Costume: Black and White unitard costume with black gloves. It looks like a black barren tree in the Winter against a white snow background. Very fitting for the program and has a nice line/look for Alexei.
Scores: Technical: 5.9 5.9 5.8 5.9 5.8
Presentation: 6.0 5.9 5.9 5.8 5.9
Men's Standing after SP:
Alexei Yagudin
Todd Eldredge
Ilia Kulik
Steven Cousins
Onto the Men's IF section
Ilia Kulik skated first. This program is best described as a techno type of program. I heard several people say "think Gary Beacom". I recognize that this is suppose to be representative of a rubber band and so it has lots of unusual, bendy, connecting moves, but I felt that several of them were not done well or were done sloppily. For example, Ilia uses the bend down backwards move and flipping back up from his feet (think Michael Weiss move here), but he doesn't have the strength to really get the flipping up part done cleanly. He also did a very nice cantilever, but had a hard time getting out of it without falling. I didn't like it personally, and I didn't feel that it was a competitive program. I thought it might fit more for an SOI show, but even then, it wouldn't have been my favorite program.
Music: Rubber Band Man
Elements: Triple Axel
Flying Kulik death drop
Double Lutz
Spin Combination
Tuck Jump/Triple Toe
Cantilever
Butterfly
Scratch Spin
Costume: White Shirt, Black Pants, And Red Suspenders
Score: Technical: 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.4
Presentation: 5.7 5.7 5.6 5.6 5.6
Steven Cousins skated next to a program that is one of my favorites and one that he always skates with lots of emotion. It's intended to be an IF, not a technical program and he definitely feels the music. Just as a little fun story, after Steven skated, he had several beanies thrown on the ice. Steven gets so little that he was skating over to pick them all up, but one of the "sweepers" had gotten to one of them before him. She picked it up and he reached out to take it from her. He then leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek, don't you know that little girl's day was totally made - she got kissed by one of the "best looking skaters" (per Scott Hamilton) on the circuit today.
Music: Belfast Child by Simple Minds
Elements: Spirals
Death drop
Triple Toe
Knee Slide
Russian Split Jumps
Triple Toe
Russian Split Jumps
Triple Toe
Combo Spin
Butterfly
Knee Slide
Camel/Scratch Spin Combo
Costume: Jade green shirt (gorgeous color on him) with black pants.
Scores: Technical: 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.4 5.5
Presentation: 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4
Steven's scores were boo-ed loudly by the audience. Everyone agreed that his program should have placed him ahead of Ilia. Steven knows that's the way it typically goes for him in these opens, but I personally thought that he was robbed - he should have gotten marked higher than Ilia based on performance.
Todd's up next and he skated a good program, with his usual conviction. He has changed the choreography and the rolling on the ice section is gone as well. After the program he waved to the side where Fran and her group were holding the Todd banner and then skated over to the opposite side to pick up a few of his beanies/buddies that had been thrown and waved to the fans after picking up the animals.
Music: 1492 by Vangelis
Elements: Triple Flip
Camel/Sit Combo Spin
Spiral
Triple Axel - beautiful!!
Triple Lutz - clean, but iffy - landed way too close to the boards
Butterfly
Triple Axel/Double Toe
Sit/Sit Spin
Double Axel
Russian Split Jumps
Final Combination Spin
Costume: 1492 Costume - Brown pants with Pewter Top/Vest
Scores: Technical: 5.8 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.8
Presentation: 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.8 5.8
Final men's competitor was Alexei Yagudin. This was not the IF that I had expected to see, I thought he would do Overcome (Requiem), but this was a version of his LP with fewer jumps. I hope to see this as a full LP, I think it will work better than it did for an IF.
Music: Man in the Iron Mask
Elements: Triple Axel
Quad Toe - clean, but landing was a little low.
Butterfly
Triple Axel/Double Toe
Spread Eagle into Besti Squat
Triple Loop
Footwork with fencing moves (think Candeloro's Three Musketeer program)
Straight-line Footwork - looked very much like Gladiator's footwork - but quick & fast
…
Combination Spin
Costume: Black long-sleeve body suit with metallic copper (orange, not gold) 'mask' that wraps around his body with more copper on the sleeves & gloves. It's an unusual costume and I kept thinking "when did iron become florescent orange?" but I liked the general concept of it and the abstract 'mask'.
Scores: Technical: 5.9 5.8 5.9 5.7 5.8
Presentation: 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.7 5.9
Final Standings in Men's Competition:
Alexei Yagudin - 1st
Todd Eldredge - 2nd
Ilia Kulik - 3rd
Steven Cousins - 4th
There was a quick awards ceremony after the event, in which they called the winners out and they took a center ice bow and then went and received their awards.
After the competition, many fans went back to the bar at the hotel. The skaters, coaches, IMG representatives and other official people had a reception (which was held at the official hotel) to attend. All skaters were seen either heading to their room to change for the reception or returning after the reception was over. The only two skaters that stopped into the bar to talk with their fans were Ilia Kulik and Todd Eldredge but all the skaters seemed to be in a relaxed mood and were willing to talk with fans, sign autographs, etc., if asked. Tracy Wilson was there as a commentator and was also in and out of the bar talking with other television personnel. The restaurant was closed and not serving food, so pizzas were ordered and shared all around until they finally shuffled us out of the bar because they were closing. It was a great start to the skating season… Skate America is next week (I have tickets, but work may get in the way and I won't be able to attend after all - we did hear that Alexei Yagudin was petitioning to participate in Skate America, so we'll have to wait and see if he's going to actually be there after all) and Skate Canada is the following week. According to Fran, Todd is going to have a large contingent of fans at Skate Canada, there was at least 10 of his fans that were at this event that will be at Skate Canada. There are also some other fans that will be joining in that weren't in attendance at Masters. Todd will be using 1492 for his LP at both Skate Canada and Trophee Lalique - he won't be debuting the new LP to Band of Brothers until Winter Open in December.
