The future looks bright for Canadian ice dancing.

Dear faithful reader:  Not much to report here at diarist central.  Still chipping away at the dreaded Mohawk. Making glacial progress. Coach A. and I have added other foundation skills to work on to break up the monotony.  After all, one can only do so many Mohawks during a 30 minute lesson.  To that end we've been working on back chasses in waltz hold (makes my lower back and Achilles tendons ache in v. short order!), two foot turns (much to my embarrassment I still can't do back-to-front two foot turns without losing all momentum), forward cross rolls with an emphases on making them more progressive-like  (seems like everything is supposed to become more progressive-like, i.e. skimming the ice with the advancing foot rather than lifting the blade), back cross rolls with deeper edges and stronger push, etc. etc.  Anyway, that's life at present.

What's more fun to talk about is the  state of ice dance, particularly in Canada.  There's been a lot of gnashing of teeth over the prospect of Tessa and Scott retiring in between Olympic cycles.  I say, not to worry:  Marjorie Lajoie & Zachery Lagha are the ticket.  I've been watching them for the past three years and they get better each year.  Above is a video from a novice competition in  2015.Click on full screen for the best view.

  

Here is a pair of videos from the current competition at the Junior GP at Richmond: 

 By 2022 this will be the pair to beat.  See if you don't agree.  If I watch these videos a hundred times I won't see everything.  The foot work and edges happen much too fast for this old geezer.  Thank God I'm not a technical analyst or a judge.  How do they keep the choreo in their heads?  I struggle to remember a 14 step pattern dance.