#error miiight be next

[icedanceupstarts]

Assorted Senior Dance Musings

1. What even is a score anyway?: Scores are made up of numbers that we're apparently just putting where the hell ever this year. At this rate, anyone who wants to make the FD cut at worlds will need to aim to break 70 at a minimum. Curiously enough, this so far extends more to the RD than the FD, where not only do we seem less at risk of maxing out the scoring system before the second half of the season but also where the teams putting up big leads in the RD are losing some of their edge over the next tier of teams.

2. Papadakis/Cizeron: Because when you're a four time world champ you get your own bullet point. P/C have gone for an entirely new look in their rhythm dance, taking us to a campy aerobics class that miiight slightly overstay its welcome. An entire half a Finnstep of 123 dance?? This may not be the aerobics class we’re personally rushing to sign up for, but we certainly appreciate they’ve gone for something fun here. It's kind of refreshing seeing them go for something so unabashedly silly and campy. Their spoken word FD was possibly scientifically engineered in a lab to be the most Not Our Thing program conceivable, but surprisingly there's a fair amount to like. Hearing that they were skating to a spoken word poem made your mods go blue screen of death for a bit, but the program wouldn't stand up without it, and it's a well conceived program that clearly comes from a specific vision they have for their skating. Is it a vision that we, personally, need or want to see more of? Not really, but the wonderful thing about ice dance is that there's something for everyone.

3. Assorted Front Runners: Hubbell/Donohue and Stepanova/Bukin won't be debuting until Skate America, but the other major medal contenders have shown up in some capacity already. Sinitsina/Katsalapov are continuing their highly classical approach, with a particularly charming Singing in the Rain RD(version linked from the Test skates because the Ondrej Nepela videos are barely half a step above a fancam). Their free dance is all classic Russian ice dance like last year's, if mostly more cohesive although that ending does seem to come a little out of nowhere. They actually have the lowest scores of the top teams thus far by a few points, although the jury is very much out on whether that's going to mean anything or not. In sharp contrast you have Guignard/Fabbri doing a David Bowie free dance that has a bit too much going on musically and needs another pass with the music editor, but is a really strong program for them, despite or possibly because it's such a strong stylistic departure for them. They have generally tended towards more classic programs, so this is definitely an attempt to make waves. They've got some great elements like their stationary lift, and just generally unique, interesting choreo that stands apart from any of the other top teams. In that same vein, Chock/Bates have also picked something outside of their previous wheelhouse, a somewhat controversial snake charmer FD, not linked because NBC hates us. We're going to punt to people more qualified to talk about whether it's cultural appropriation or not and focus on what we are qualified to talk about, namely that Evan needs a snazzier shirt. Regardless of anything else, we don't love this free dance, and most of the things we do like come from Chock/Bates themselves. Their lifts and expressiveness, obviously, that's just a built in feature of any C/B program, and this year's free features some of the best use of body shaping we've ever seen, culminating in a truly amazing end pose. Gilles/Poirier have followed up on their acclaimed Vincent program to deliver another highly emotional, artsy free dance as part of their #programsforthepeople. Unfortunately we are not in the segment of the population that this Joni Mitchell FD is targeting, but it's a great vehicle for them anyway. Their programs are always so intricately choreographed and feature innovations that other teams adopt years later. After Weaver/Poje announced that they would not be competing this season, Gilles/Poirier seemed to have a free pass to the national title, but...

4. Rise of the Canadanes: There have been a number of unexpected occurrences already, but one of the most notable has been the rise of Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen to seemingly major medal contention status. The former Danes are one of surprisingly many teams to have chosen Bonnie and Clyde, and they show great style and flair in this program. They always have such a sleekness to their skating, and they even found a third song in this musical that no one else seems to have discovered. We're a bit torn on the twizzles-- we admire the commitment to theme, but the placement in the middle of This World Will Remember Us is pretty jarring. We see what they're going for, but it would be smoother if those twizzles were at the top of the program. Their free dance, courtesy of Mr. Buble’s Cry Me A River, is as Canadian as their teammates Gilles/ Poirier's free dance, but far more dynamic. That extra energy and drama may help them challenge G/P for the national title, and at least help Canada keep three spots in ice dance for next season, a slightly tricky prospect. Keep watch on their marks at Skate America, where they'll face Hubbell/Donohue and Stepanova/Bukin, the two top teams from last season that haven't shown their programs yet.

5. American Bronze Battle: the lower ranks of American ice dance were tight last season, and have only gotten more so. We've already had a number of matchups, and will have a few more as the season progresses. Carreira/Ponomarenko have split placements with both McNamara/Carpenter and Hawayek/Baker, and beat the former while losing to the latter due to a twizzle error. McNamara/Carpenter are lagging behind in scores internationally thus far, but who the fuck knows what that means or if it means anything at all. Green/Parsons have also shown up extremely strongly with great matching skating technique and truly who knows at this point. Their scores have not yet been on par with the other on the Challenger series, but scores are just a collection of numbers in various orders, eliciting sound and fury from the fanbase but signifying nothing.

6. No, but really, what IS score?: It’s been frustrating watching the Challenger series and seeing scores fluctuate week to week knowing that it all counts for Season’s Bests, but this year has outsold in not a good way to the point it’s felt like even within the same competition scores aren’t reflecting decent margins or comparisons. Orihara/Pirinen made their team debut at Lombardia with decent performances, a few small bobbles, for a total score of 148.48. Just one week later they competed again at Nepela, cleaned up the bobbles and scored 166.93, an almost twenty point increase in a week. Across both programs that was a more than six point increase in PCS alone! Now don’t get us wrong, they are off to an outstanding start as a team and Finland could wind up with their own version of an ice dance battle here very soon, but just ????? We genuinely don't know how people are making predictions on how the season will go based on these early scores because we can't even tell you how the Challengers are going to go while they're underway, much less several months in the future. Nine teams broke 100 in the free dance at Nebelhorn alone, which we're pretty sure meant more just last year?

7. Why @ music editors: It's only September but look, we need to have A Talk. The music edits and overall construction of programs is already driving us to madness. We've brought up several teams already, and yet there are still more questions. Both of Smart/Diaz's programs suffer from this, with their super fun Grease RD for some reason having a final music cut after all the elements have been completed, and their Free Dance being made up of two extremely separate programs uneasily sandwiched together. Wang/Liu, for reasons we cannot yet grasp, opted to to put the Swan Lake finale in the middle of their free dance instead of at the end. We are no purists, we're all for shifting musical selections around to best fit the program, but it very much sounds like The End and then the programs keep going with a much lighter selection and it's very confusing? We can appreciate the choice to put their twizzles to the part where Odile famously does her 32 fouettes, but not where in the program they put those twizzles. Lauriault/Le Gac just have a massive shift in mood and style in the last 45 seconds. While further development of their free dance in addition to her cheery yellow dress has answered the question of whether it was a happy or sad program that troubled us so over the summer, it just changes into a completely different program right at the end without warning, and we're never prepared for it.

8. The rest of the Russians: There are just so many teams right now. And thank goodness for that third spot at Worlds but So. Many. Teams. You’ve got a seemingly clear top two and then... everyone else. Due to a combination of injuries, late changes to RD music, and Russia not sending any dance teams to Autumn Classic, US Classic OR Nebelhorn, we don’t have many competition results to discuss at this point but then again, see points #1 and #6 above. Shpilevaya/Smirnov and Popova/Mozgov both finished fourth at their respective Challenger assignments, the former with good season opener performances and the latter with an untied boot and an unexpected double splat at the end, and will be up against each other at Finlandia. Skate America will be a big event for Russian dance season debuts with Zagorski/Guerreiro putting their own unfortunate boot lace incident at Nationals last season behind them and Shevchenko/Eremenko making their senior debut.

#ice dance #season: 2019 2020 #recap #challenger series

[cjoatprehn]

BaxTale: Chapter 2-Part 2

Bax sihs as she walked through the void. Where would she go now? Underswap was very...nerve wracking. Then again she hasn’t come across the original Undertale yet. She has been to surprisingly the more known worlds like Horrortale. She’d like to have fun for a chance and not be running for her life or being sick after witness something grotesque. To just because she was exposed in one world, other worlds miiight not know about her yet. She then got to thinking to herself. What would be the most...safest yet fun route to go through?

She cast a sonar throughout the void. Scanning the terrain for any signs of enemies, lost souls, or even any worlds nearby if she was lucky. But of course she was greeted with Error’s signal, an alternative route already calculated, and a Lost Soul nearby that was snuffed out by Error. She winced. “I guess I was too late to save that one...why is it everytime I enter a world, a Lost Soul dies...just after I leave!” She kicks the ground out of frustration. She follows the route calculated by the sonar. Opposite of Error’s antivoid. She hummed a particular tune to herself as she walked through the white for a couple of hours. Could have been more but she did not care at that point.

Her stomach had started to growl, she stopped for a moment to rest and eat one of the many lunches that Blueberry had made her for her travels. One bite of the supposedly badly made lunch, she immediately savors the meal. “I honestly don’t understand why everyone says that the cooking is terrible. This is the best thing that I have eaten in awhile.” She smiles soon finishing the meal, and resting for awhile. Hearing a distant melody faintly from the west.

She didn’t pay much attention to it before, however, she would later wish she did. She packed up her resting camp and kept moving, hopefully reaching another world before she fell asleep. She continues to walk before the void then splits itself into 3 different portals. She looked at each of them and hen thought for a moment. She smelled something sweet from one, dancing music from another, and smelled the scent of dust from the third. She immediately made her choice.

Of course she ran through the center portal headfirst, already feeling her theme song change within her. Feeling the strong need to make a bold statement. To change their way of thinking. To dance like no one was watching.

UnderSwap —> DanceTale

She makes it into a world called Dancetale. She falls flat on her face in the middle of an alleyway. She felt the intense heat surrounding her. She groaned and got up, rubbing her poor tusks, that saved the rest of her face from hitting the ground. She sighs and peeks out of the alleyway, and immediately noticing dancers, varying styles, dancing in the town square. 2 squaring off against each other, with a crowd cheering for them.

She goes back into the alley. She immediately starts to sweat, not from the heat either. She was shy, nervous, and fearful. She didn’t know which dance style to start with. She couldn’t just...do anything. Something random...This was the land of heat and passion. What the heck was she going to do for her first dance. She couldn’t do something extravagant like Mettaton...nor something as daring as Grillby’s fire-dance...No. If she was going to go out there to make a statement...she was gong to have to do something simple. Contemporary? What’s the craziest matchup she could do...Something with grace....yet...she snapped her fingers. Perfect. If she was going to do this...she needed a theme song.

She then ran out into the public, wearing a strange outfit. It was graceful, simple, yet made for breaking. Everyone saw her run through the dance circle to the stage. Mettaton’s stage. She went to the band on the stage and whispered something in the singers’ ear. They seemed to like the idea. The crowd was shouting in outrage at their dance circle being disturbed.

“Eh, what’s the big idea?!” A monster shouted in the crowd, along with many other insults. A hush ran over the crowd as with a flourish of her hand, rose colored sparkles fell over her and the crowd, creating a sort of veil. Appearing in the center of the crowd, them backing up to make room, The drummer counted up to three. Before the music began, as Bax started in first position.

She moved her hands in a graceful position ready to break into fast paced dancing. She impressed the crowd with maturity, breaking boundaries that shouldn’t be broken, while maintaining grace. She then does a flip as she then makes it sort of tribal, the crowd becoming in beat with the song, soon a few monsters joined in, as the slower part of the song entered, back to contemporary. They enacted a part of war and symbolism as she ready to break the sound barriers again, she never stop maintaining her steps, sweat beaded off her brow, she then stopped with an ending pose. Roses fell from the sky. She panted as the backup monsters went back into the crowd. She was showered with gold and soon became showered in presents as the veil soon disappeared, her along with it. When Mettaton went out into the crowd, demanding answers and the dancer who had stolen the spotlight, no monster had seen where they had gone. Of course, Mettaton promptly pulled Burgerpants with him back to Mettaton HQ, saying, “we have work to do.”

Of course, Bax was trying to stifle her laughter in the alleyway where she had started from. She was blushing as well, thinks “That statement was a little bigger than I thought...” She felt hot, and her scales were sweating out of their minds. She panted, she needed to get out of there. Hotland is a dangerous place for her, due to the nature and rarity of her scales. There was no water anywhere and knowing Hotland, it was probably overpriced.

Bax chuckled to herself, seeing a steamed Mettaton pass by with BurgerPants. She made a fluid motion with her rose colored magic, making another veil before the veil disappeared from Hotland, and her ending up in Waterfall. The rain on her scales made steaming noises as they touched her hot skin and scales. She honestly needed a bath...to get cleaned up before her next dance. She went to a nearby river, and she took off the sweaty outfit she had on, and dove into the water, a cloud of steam filling the air as her hot body contacts the water. She surfaced and sighed with absolute relief, her scales cooled by the colder temperature of the water. Not too cold, not too hot. She scrubbed herself clean, grooming her scales with her claws, getting the grime from underneath them. Cleaning the gunk from her tusks from Hotland. She heard a strange laughter from the shore, before she dove under again.

Swimming around, she noticed the glowing stones at the river bed. She smiles, picking them up, Knowing that she could craft them into something, after an afterthought. THough Rose colored magic is she hoped magic for the emotions and due to her monster nature, it tends to flare when passionate or strong emotions are felt. To learn to use them in the form of normal attacking, it would drain her substantially, if used too much, could put her in a sick state, in rare cases, death.

She swam back and forth from the shore, placing the rocks at the shore. After doing so, she stood completely out of the water, surrounded in a veil of rose magic. When she had come out of the magic, she had been transformed into a red outfit with a black layerable skirt and heels. The outfit was thin and allowed her to freely move. It also exposed her purple scales and some of her fins.

“Well! What do we have here?” Bax whipped around and she saw a golden flower staring at her.

Her expression darkened as growled and bared her tusks, “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare at someone bathing?” Bax chastised him for his perverted means of trying to interacting with her. Flower or not, it’s no excuse.

The flower grinned, “Guess what, I do not care,” earning himself a scoffin growl from Bax. “You’re new here, right?”

Bax refused to let her body stiffen at that question. “What’s it to you?”

“Just checking out who was in Mettaton’s current news broadcast about a strange ‘Show-stopping dance performance’ before Mettaton’s Headquarters.” The flower seemed tos shrug and then creepily smile. “Seems like things are going to get interesting.” The flower laughed until he heard someone heading their way.

“Oops, Got to go! Wouldn’t want to disturb your next moves.” He grinned before entering the ground once more.

She heard two pairs of footsteps. She stood just out of the path’s sight, and questioned the footsteps she heard, trying to determine who was coming, a skill she learned in Dust!tale. Know your enemy. Know who’s coming. Be repaired for the knife aiming for your back.

Undyne and Alphys came to the path, walking together, giggling and talking happily. Bax smiled happily. She always liked the two of them together. They balanced each other out. POlar oppposites, but they get along so well.

In and out a breath of air came, as Bax took a step into the Echo Flowers. Her gaze down, standing in the way of two of them. Undyne placed a hand in front of a Alphys, detecting her presence. It was a presence that didn’t seem from here, she had every reason to be on guard. She seemed to scan Bax up and down, trying to check for any stats.

When barely any answers came, Undyne scowled and aimed a spear at Bax, much to the protest of the lizard standing beside her. “Who are you? Don’t look like anyone I have seen before.” She aimed the spear directly where she thought Bax’s soul would be.

Bax lifted her gaze, revealing her face. Her pure white eye, a cloth covering her tusk. She inhaled and said, “Who am I? I am a shadow that observes and listens.” Knowing and learning. However...today is a different task.” Bax started to challenge them in a dance pose that Alphys seemed to recognized. Bax’s arms flowed into position, her fins now flaring and apparent. “My task today, is t make a statement.”

She danced in a animated hip-hop style, seemingly to the appeal of Alphys, as a challenge. Her hands glowed as a field appeared below them. Undyne started to growl before Alphys placed a hand on Undyne’s spear arm, lowering it. “Let me challenge you.” Her axe not leaving Bax’s. K-Pop/Hip Hop was her dance style, she wasn’t going to allow some wannabe anime fan try to show off.

Undyne started to protest, but a look from Alphys shut Undyne up in shock. Undyne stood to the side, and Alphys stepped onto the dance floor. Alphys stepped into her starting position.

A counter appeared above the two of them, showing their stats, energy and stamina levels, and their souls.

“Dancers ready!!” A few monsters came to watch the dance off, but Bax and Alphys focused their gaze on each other. A fiery passion behind their eyes. The fire of competition. “I won’t lose.” Alphys says, shocking Undyne into a grin. “Kick their ass, Alphys!”

The echo flowers turned to face the two dancers, almost by nature. The ground beneath both of their feet began to glow.

“3!

2!

1!

DANCE!”

THe echo flowers boomed their song choices. Alphys made her first move, shaky at first, but then become more smooth as she goes on. Each step she made the ground filled with light and glowed. Alphys grinned, Ashe had only practiced with no one else except Undyne. And her favorite anime. This will be nothing to her. Alphy posed and her turn ended, her stats responding to the effort of her first turn. Her soul started to glow and beat with anticipation.

Bax waited for her cue and she grinned as she started her upbeat dance, with a somewhat dark side, starting simple before becoming passionate, the ground glowing with each step, she grinned as she increased her speed. She laughed before spinning and taunting a little. End pose.

Alphys growled, “Okay they’re good. Let me step up my game.”

“DANCE SKILL INITIATED! ALPHYS.” Undyne joined the dance floor looking at Alphys, “Just like she practiced.” Undyne grinned before they posed they same.

Their style changed, darker and intense, while still remaining upbeat. They did stunts as Undyne backed up Alphys, adding to their resonating souls. They grinned.

Bax spun and taunted again, Alphys and Undyne retaliating with a strong stomp, generating a magical beam of light to glow to the sky. Undyne growls as they competitively took the dance floor.

Bax’s soul resonated strongly with the couple. Acknowledging their strength. Lost vs Found, who would win? Alphys’s timer soon ran out for her skill, and Undyne flipped off the floor.

Alphys danced like no one was watchhhing as Bax sassily fought back, before both sides, ran out of energy and stamina, before making their ending pose. Both of them panting hard and their souls beating in their ears.

“Dance End!”

“Winner is Alphys!”

Undyne and Alphys squeal as Undyne runs and picks up the stout lizard with joy, both of them laughing. “I told you you could do it! YA CREAMED THEM, BABE!” Undyne yells as they both laugh, Alphys still in disbelief. “Did I?” Alphys wondered.

Bax laughed and clapped her hands, the floor disappearing and the echo flowers returning to normal. The small crowd cheered before heading back off to do their business,

“Here’s your reward, Alphys.” Bax tossed Alphys the latest copy of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. Alphys barely caught it as her eyes went big behind her glasses.

“h-How did you...?”

“Like I said. Observation.” Bax waved a farewell before jumping into the trees and escaping before they looked up again.

https://bax-the-hooman.tumblr.com/post/186987353650/baxtale-chapter-3-part-1

#dance floor #dancetale #alphys #undyne #haha yes #dance off

[asheewrites]

Floof! Raph and Gabe finding out she's pregnant despite her having an IUD!

My husband... likes tofuss.

At least he likes tofuss over me.

Ihad heard stories of him being calm and collected, reaching aconclusion with dignity and giving perfectly sensible orders to hiscoworkers.

Butcurrently, he was sitting next to me. With a frown. And waved to thebathroom: “You're late,” he looked like this was the end of theworld, practically a trench between his eyebrows and biting his lowerlip, “Like, really late”

“Raph,seriously. You knowit's been a little much the last semester. So I miiight be a littlestressed. You're a doctor. You knowabout these things,” it was one of the fewthings about a man with a medical degree: They had at least heardabout how the female cycle worked.

Minehad been exemplary, really. Actually paid attention and evenrestocked sometimes.

… hemade it a bit easier to put up with the hassle.

Andhey, with the IUD with progestogen it had become even easier.

Soall of this was really unnecessary. Delayed or suppressed bleeding ISone of the most common side effects. But I had told him three timesalready.

Andhe still looked like he feared death or worse.

Thatwould be the downside then. I hatedvisiting the gynaecologist.

Isighed: “It's not thatlate...”

“It'sbeen four months. And you haven't been feeling well, maybe you dohave side effects!,” hecouldn't keep his hands still. He had proposed that method himself.Most efficient, I wouldn't actually feel it... best way.

Soif it influenced me now he felt guilty.I hadn't trusted the hormones, after all.

Of course.

Goodlord.

“It'snot that bad,” I huffed, it wouldn't do much, but maybe?

“Ifit would be bad Iwould have brought you to the hospital already. Just... go to theappointment next week, alright?,” he squirmed.

“...… alright, then. If there is still reason to,” it was ridiculous.Stress was fine. Beinga professor is not always flowers and rainbows.

Oneweek later, he unfortunately had the right to drag me along. He camehome earlier. For adoctor's visit.Sometimes I was not sure what he was thinking. But fine, fine, Iwent.

Andhe stayed - like a good worried puppy - in the waiting room.

Standardtests of various bodily fluids were made and we could go homeafterwards.

Theresults would be ready in two days.

Hekissed me and made me dinner and was still generally worried, askingme how I was.

Icuddled him into silence and told him I was fine.

Yeez.

Thenext day, we were called in.

Which,admittedly, was somewhat... different. But maybe my lovely husbandhad sped up the lab results he... did that. Sometimes.

Andhe did admit to it, too, so I was back to rolling my eyes. And lethim go in with me to hear the results. It would be over sooner.

Hrm.

WhenI opened the door, I greeted the waiting doctor: “Good morning, canyou finally put my husband's worries to rest?”

Sheblinked at me: “Well. Ah. You... are right. You are – apart fromthe usual stress – in peak physical condition,” she nodded and Iturned to Raphael wit a smug smile. Hah.

“You...are also 3 months pregnant, though”

…wait. What.

Istill looked at him. And he blinked. And his eyebrows raised.

“What?!,”that came from me.

I...it was the safest kind of protection!

Shenodded, looking somewhat apologetic: “It's rather unambiguous”

Istare at my husband again: “This can't be, ri-... right?”

Andmy husband – my worried, always-fussy husband – was smiling. Evenhis eyes were smiling. He looked like Easter and Christmascame early and at the same day.

Thiswas NOT a look appropriate to this situation.

Hiswide eyes looked at me. I would have bet money on his eyes sparkling:“I... ah... you're... right. It... really should not be. It...especially with the condoms. It's... almost impossible. We really dideverything we could,” he tried to sound somber. And failedmiserably.

Hissmile didn't exactly wane either. He fidgeted again. But this time,his hands were flying all over. And... just...

Hecleared his throat, then, turning to my gynaecologist, nodding ather: “I... a second test should... make it completely certain,right? No chances of error anymore”

Sometimessamples got mixed up, it was true.

Hereasoned a little bit with her, explained how it really could not beand she agreed that it was almost impossible, so yes, a second testwas in order.

That...was... almost a little reassuring.

SoI left some samples and then we left the clinic. And he assured methat the chances are very slim. But he still... looked...bubbly. Very bubbly.

Hetried to contain it and be reasonable, but his mood had turned aroundcompletely.

Andhe stared at the baby stroller a little too long when we passed it.

Athome, he read through the IUD-package insert again. And, sure enough,99.5%. And we had done nothing wrong.

Whenwe went to bed, he told me the results would be in tomorrow and itwas very, very unlikely.

Andthen he slept in with a hand on my belly.

Whatthe HELL, Raphael!

#900 words #angeloftheeasterngate