Belbin and Agosto Hold on to Lead with Fiery Original Dance
by Daphne Backman
 (St. Louis, Mo., 1/10/05) - Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto (Arctic FSC) added to their lead with an original dance performance that moved quickly right from the start with intricate choreography and fiery expression. Near the end of the program they charged into their straight line footwork with confidence and precision, reminders of why they are the two-time U.S. champions.They lead the event with a total score of 107.8.
Despite having competed at the U.S. Championships for the past six years, Belbin and Agosto admit they still get nervous.
“I feel nervous every single time I have to compete, because ultimately, our greatest competitors are ourselves and we want to please ourselves – we want to please our coaches – we want to please everyone who has invested so much time into our skating,” Belbin said.
Agosto gets nervous even while practicing at home.
“Honestly, I get nervous before every run-through that we do back home in our practice rink. It doesn’t matter for me – I always get those butterflies,” he said.
“We are learning with more and more experience how to use that nervous energy to create a more positive performance. So, we are learning from that, but there is certainly no lack of nerves here at nationals,” Belbin added.
In second place, Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov (SC of New York), skated a sultry dance to cha cha, rhumba and mambo rhythms. Their straightline footwork sequence was fast with synchronized twizzles. They received mostly level 4s for their elements, with the exception of diagonal and midline step sequences which received level 3s. Gregory and Petukhov were pleased with their performances.
“I’m happy that we skated really well,” Gregory said. “Sometimes when you are sick I think you concentrate twice as much because you don’t feel 100 percent. I think it worked today.”
A collision after the first warm-up group took the ice between Elizabeth Palmer (Portland ISC) and Jonathan Toman (SC of Southern New Jersey), and Kate Slattery (Philadelphia SC & HS) and Chuen-Gun Lee (All Year FSC) resulted in Lee leaving the ice shortly after the warm-up began. Lee disappeared backstage and emerged just in time to take the ice with Slattery, They performed second of the 16 teams.
“We had just finished an exercise, and I don’t believe Chuen and I were connected, and his back was to another team and they were going by and the boy’s elbow hit Chuen in the face. When he got up he was a little dizzy, so I had to help him up and I got blood on my hands and stuff because his nose started bleeding upon impact, and then his nose was huge,” Slattery said, “So I warmed up alone. I didn’t know what was going on, but I just waited. Valter, one of our coaches, came out and said ‘We’re going to wait until the marks come up, we’re going to wait until they announce you, and then you have two minutes, and if he can, he’ll come.’ I don’t know how he did it because--He’s incredible.He did it! I’m amazed.”
Slattery and Lee finished 12th in the original dance and are in 12th place overall. Lee fractured his nose but has been cleared to skate in the free dance.
Morgan Matthews and Maxim Zavozin (SC of New York), remain in third place despite a fall by Matthews near the end of their original dance. Their straightline sequence was perfectly timed and the program was well skated except for the fall. Matthews and Zavozin finished fourth in the original dance.
“We felt really good in the beginning of the program and actually throughout, even though I fell down. Besides that, we felt really strong. We loved the Latin (music) – it was really fun and everyone loved it,” Matthews said.
In fourth place overall by just .09, Jamie Silverstein (Arctic FSC) and Ryan O’Meara (Coyotes SC of Arizona) finished third in the original dance. Silverstein looked incredibly happy to be back on the ice and competing at the U.S. Championshisp after a five-year absence. Silverstein and O’Meara skated a strong program with good speed to salsa, rhumba and cha cha rhythms scoring 54.46 for their original dance.
Kimberly Navarro (Santa Rosa FSC) and Brent Bommentre’s (Philadelpha SC & HS) music miscued, and they had to restart their program. Navarro took the opportunity to quickly grab her earring that had fallen onto the ice and reinsert it into her ear. Their performance to Debella Morgan’s “Dance with Me” became a playful seduction full of chemistry between the two and included clever choreography. A loss of unison on their twizzles was the only problem marring the performance. They finished sixth in the original dance and are fifth overall.
Tiffany Stiegler (Los Angeles FSC) and Sergei Magerovskiy (Arctic FSC) moved into sixth place (fifth in the original dance) despite a slight foot down by Magerovskiy in their synchronized twizzles. Their performance was otherwise expressive and captured the rhythms well.
The event concludes with the free dance on Friday night.
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