Zoueva, top U.S. teams continue on in Canton
意大利冰舞名宿，居然一边一个去当助手了
Couples remain grateful to Shpilband, but are also excited about new coaches
 
(08/10/2012) - If you're looking for a little bit of Italy the next time you're in the Michigan area, try ducking into the ice arenas.
Pasquale Camerlengo and Massimo Scali reign supreme at Detroit Skating Club, where Camerlengo's group -- also including his wife, Anjelika Krylova; Natalia Annenko-Deller; and Liz Punsalan -- train a stable of top ice dance teams. Drive about 30 miles to Novi, and you might catch Barbara Fusar-Poli helping Igor Shpilband's couples master their footwork. And at Canton's Arctic Edge, Fusar-Poli's former partner, Maurizio Margaglio, has been schooling Marina Zoueva's teams in the Yankee Polka, the required pattern in this season's short dance.
"The biggest challenge for the teams is the compulsories (pattern dances), and I called Maurizio because he has great knowledge of compulsories and has done a lot of ISU seminars," Zoueva said. "He can come only from time to time, because he also has a contract with the Finnish skating federation."
Margaglio, the 2001 world ice dance champion with Fusar-Poli, is director of the Finnish ice dance program and an ISU technical specialist. He came to Canton for several weeks in July, bringing two Finnish ice dance teams with him, and Zoueva said he will return soon.
"Working on the Yankee Polka with Maurizio has been amazing," said Maia Shibutani, the U.S. ice dance silver medalist with her brother Alex. "He is so knowledgeable about all of the technical aspects of compulsories. His energy and enthusiasm are contagious.
"During our lessons with him, he is on the ice illustrating each point with the both of us. Even though we're racing around the rink every minute of our lesson, we can't help but have a smile on our faces."
Margaglio comes by his knowledge of the dance honestly. During their long career, he and Fusar-Poli competed the Yankee Polka several times, including at the 2000 European Championships, where they placed second to Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat.
The Italian's experience and technical expertise are welcome additions to the Arctic Edge, where the Shibutanis, four-time U.S. champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and Canadian Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are hard at work preparing for the new season. When Zoueva and Shpilband, coaching partners for a decade, parted ways earlier this summer, the three teams elected to stay in Canton with Zoueva and Johnny Johns, who works with them on lifts and spins.
"The clash came about around our vacation time and we were not directly involved," White said. "I was in Mexico with [girlfriend] Tanith [Belbin] and Meryl was in the Bahamas with her family."
White added that an initial report suggesting the top Canton ice dancers had requested Shpilband's ouster was not accurate.
"Unfortunately, the first newspaper article in the Detroit Free Press was very incorrect," he said. "The author never interviewed us and we never said what was attributed to us there. We still adore Igor and we are very grateful for all of the work he did for us over many years."
Davis stressed that whatever differences Zoueva and Shpilband may have had, they remained professional during sessions with the skaters.
"We had felt before that there were tensions between them, but that did not affect our training," she said. "We made the decision to stay with Marina because she has done more of our choreography lately, and she stayed in Canton."
In addition to Margaglio, Oleg Epstein, the Chicago-based choreographer and coach, is working on a near full-time basis in Canton, helping Zoueva plan programs and elements. While he will return to Chicago on occasion, some of his students, including U.S. junior champion Gracie Gold, will visit him in Canton.
"He is great," White said. "We like the way he approaches things, and he has a lot of good ideas. He is working with us on everything.
"We have to improve our technical level this season, especially in the [Yankee Polka], because last season we did not always get the levels we had hoped for [in the Rumba]. Oleg and Maurizio are the right people to help us with this."
Zoueva points to the showing of another of her U.S. couples, Alissandra Aronow and Collin Brubaker, at the recent Lake Placid Ice Dance Competition as proof that her team's efforts are working well.
"They got very good levels for the [Yankee Polka] so early in the season," she said. "This shows I am on the right track technically."
Concerning Davis and White's programs, Zoueva stayed mum, refusing to confirm the 2011 world champions' music choices. (The team's icenetwork.com bio states they will perform their short dance to Adolphe Adam's Giselle and free dance to a Frank Sinatra medley.) She prefers to wait until after U.S. Figure Skating's Champs Camp later this month to discuss program specifics.
"We hope that this year, our first shot at the music is successful," Zoueva said. "Last year, [after feedback at Champs Camp], we had to change it [from La Strada] but found something great with Die Fledermaus."
Like Davis and White, the Shibutanis denied any disagreements with Shpilband.
"We decided to stay in Canton mainly because we like to train with the world's two best dance teams on the same ice," Alex said. "They motivate us to become stronger every day, and every day is a competition for us. We love our training environment -- both Oleg and Maurizio have brought a completely new energy into the rink. Both of them are extremely positive and encouraging."
"We are very thankful to Igor, and we experienced a lot of positive things with him," Maia said. "He was always there for us, and we're still on good terms."
The 2011 world bronze medalists, who placed eighth at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships, prefer not to discuss their new programs, but Alex stressed that this season they will project an even stronger presence.
"We want to continue to mature as skaters, and I gained 10 pounds recently, which was planned," he said. "We are happy with our overall [2011-12] season, especially with winning a Grand Prix event for the first time and qualifying for the Final. Only worlds was not as good as we had hoped, but we learned a lot from that competition."
Like their American training partners, the Canadians were surprised by Shpilband's departure.
"We were still on vacation when we heard of the split," Virtue said. "We were very sad; it was not an ideal situation for us. We had a great eight years with both of them. Our working relationship with them was fantastic.
"Marina has done a good thing bringing in other coaches. We've known Oleg for a while and we like working with him; he has great energy and a critical eye about what looks good. When Maurizio is here, we mainly work with him on the Polka. It's one of the toughest compulsory dances because it requires high speed, and the key features for the levels are very difficult to obtain."
Zoueva also refused to confirm Virtue and Moir's music choices, saying only, "This season, I want to show the dramatic qualities of Tessa and Scott more."
Reporter's notebook: Aronow and Brubaker placed third in their short dance group and fifth in their free dance group in Lake Placid with programs that were choreographed while Shpilband was still at the Arctic Edge.
"The top teams here are a great inspiration for us; therefore, we decided to stay in Canton," Brubaker said.
"Lake Placid was a good experience for us, because it was our first competition after practicing almost a year together," Aronow said. "We're happy with what we did. We skate to a French polka and a French waltz in the short dance and a Tango medley in the free. Our next competition will be in Thornhill in Canada, and then probably Pikes Peak in Colorado in the fall."
2011 Italian champions Federica Bernardi and Christopher Mior also competed in Lake Placid, placing fifth in their short dance group and fourth in their free dance group. They are training in Canton this summer. |
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