Eugene and his bike

2022-03-17

0 Comments1 Minute

Boys decided to stop by; girls got a chance to ride a motorcycle, and they are ecstatic about it. Now I have to worry about them getting bikes too, as if Eugene was not enough. God, I am afraid of these things.

Lynwood

2022-03-05

0 Comments1 Minute

Another league meet, this time in Lynwood. Everyone keeps changing their routines, there is a lot of improvements. I only took photos though: as I have mentioned before, Lynwood got decent lights. So no video, alas.

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

Aurora

2022-02-04

0 Comments1 Minutes

Girls went to Aurora for the first league meet of the season. The rink was very dark as always; all those rinks are basically barns, dark and damp. Lombard rink is a very rare and happy exclusion. Lynwood added some decent lights before the 2019 World Qualifier, but it's still a barn. I don't mind the barn-ness, but the lack of light drives me nuts. It is almost impossible to get a photo of acceptable quality.

Same routines, different judging: unlike Orlando and Nationals, league competitions are still being judged old school, so nobody cared much about results. There were no surprises though. Girls are now skating in the same event (Junior World Class Solo Dance) with Samantha and Lilian, and they both are much stronger, especially Sam. So Liza and Annie fall behind, and that is going to be a story of this season, barring some unexpected breakthrough. Hope it won't get them excessively depressed. Here are some videos:

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

Americas Cup

2022-01-19

0 Comments2 Minutes

Several firsts for my girls: first international competition, first Junior World Class level skating, first time doing Style Dance, and first time traveling without us, since I am still recovering after the surgery. That means no photos, and videos are screengrabbed from the official stream, which sucked big time. I don't want to miss their meets ever again, that stream was a real shame. On the other hand, we should be grateful even for that: they kept having technical issues, so there was a chance to end up with no video at all.

Girls skated Style Dance and Free Dance, which are parts of the same event. Besides, they skated quartet together with Isa and Caroline. Competition was much stronger than at Nationals: there were large teams from Brazil, Spain, Chile etc, and those girls were fantastic, so American skaters tended to group up at the bottom of the final results tables. Liza ended up with the 8th place, Annie got 9th. For quartet they got gold, since they were the only Youth Quartet competing.

Coaches are pretty happy with the results. Jim says both girls are "ahead of schedule". As for me, I am proud as hell: I never cared about tech points or medals, I just wanted them to dance, and boy can they dance.

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

UPD: Annie asked not to publish her Style Dance routine. She is really unhappy with it, although I am not sure why. Looked pretty good to me.

Halloween

2021-11-01

0 Comments1 Minute

Much better than last year.

Homecoming 2021

2021-09-25

0 Comments1 Minute

First Homecoming for our freshmen. Went pretty smoothly, no drama, no traumas. They were even happy with their outfits, and they are never happy with their outfits.

Nationals 2021

2021-08-02

2 Comments1 Minute

Couple of firsts: first medal from Nationals and first official photo, never did that before. Liza got third, Anne got fourth.

Anne:

Photos | Official Video | Pro Video | My Video

Liza:

Photos | Official Video | Pro Video | My Video

Regionals 2021

2021-06-15

0 Comments1 Minute

This time around we had to go to Michigan, which is always a pleasure. Regionals were way less formal than usual due to Covid, and since Nationals don't require qualifications this year, some strong skaters chose to ignore this meet. Nevertheless it was fun. Liza first, Anne second.

Videos: Liza | Anne

Girls in Arboretum

2021-03-27

0 Comments1 Minute

Christmas

2020-12-25

0 Comments1 Minute