Chapter 48 2011 Final Free Dance
◎Tiantang, the God of Asia!◎
"Ahhh, come on Tiantang!" In the audience, powerful shouts rang out from Chinese ice fans.
"The player now playing is the bronze medalist of last season's World Youth Championship." A foreign spectator whispered.
"Really? Then the points for this race are a bit behind..."
"Well, they didn't perform very well in the previous games. We'll have to rely on this one."
"With Mia Lucas this season, it's hard to stay in the top three. The Spanish team also performed very well..."
"I also think they won't be able to make the top three. I think this Chinese pair really had a good time last season. Although they are not bad, it will be difficult for them to win medals in the future..."
"Hey, it's rare to see a pair of new Asian ice dance talents, and they are about to leave the top three."
"Come on, Tiantang!" Waves of loud cheers and questioning discussions intertwined together, making the atmosphere on the scene particularly intense.
A vague sense of tension lingered in everyone's heart.
The Chinese and foreign audiences stared at the ice surface intently. No one said it clearly, but they all understood one thing vaguely.
The free dance of the final between Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi in the theater was a key point of this season. After their competition, the top three in the youth group of this season would be determined.
At the entrance of the ice surface, Ji Tiantian gently closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Different from her initial immaturity and nervousness, Ji Tiantian is now a very experienced international competition player.
She opened her eyes, and the moment the ice blade touched the ice surface, she instantly entered into her role - Miss Rose.
She pushed lightly on the ice, sliding towards the center of the ice with Tang Yi. Her long legs moved forward at her own pace, and her crimson, shiny skirt fluttered behind her.
"Tiantang go!" The shouts from the audience became louder and louder.
Ji Tiantian couldn't raise her arms as vigorously as she used to.
She stood on the ice, gently raised her hands, and her lips decorated with deep red lipstick slowly blossomed into a gentle smile, looking delicate and elegant.
At this moment, she is a rose about to bloom on the ice.
She and Tang Yi stood back to back in ready position, and then, a selection from the opera "The Little Prince", "By Her" started playing.
Beside her
I feel a miracle that was carefully prepared
Like sunshine
Come to my planet and shine
After a dance step, the two began to spin together.
They held hands, stared at each other and began to crouch and spin. After three circles, they stood up and changed their feet and directions. Ji Tiantian performed a vertical split in the air, holding the sword in one hand and supporting Tang Yi in the swallow-style balance step with the other hand. The two of them turned three circles again and completed the joint rotation smoothly.
"This spin looks easy...but Tianmei has only been doing ice dancing for a little over a year..." Feifei, who was sitting next to Ni Chuan, couldn't help but speak up, "She didn't make any mistakes at all, she's really amazing."
On the ice, Ji Tiantian had a delicate smile on her face. They skated diagonally and started a set of diagonal steps that ran across the ice, DIST.
Ji Tiantian faced Tang Yi, put her floating foot on the sliding foot's knee and did two light twists, then changed her foot.
Her body sways naturally with the swing of her sliding legs. In order to interpret Rose's reserve and elegance, her step-by-step dance includes many leg-control gestures. Creativity and characteristics are also one of the key factors for the step-by-step dance to move up in grading.
She slowly raised her floating leg and gently stretched it out beside her. It looked effortless, but it really tested her body's flexibility and her basic dancing and skating skills.
Her slender floating legs were firmly planted on the ice like nails. Tang Yi, who was skating in mirror image with her, followed her movements.
In the fast wind blowing backwards, Ji Tiantian felt a sense of relief.
She came here and did her best. She had no regrets, so she let the referee decide the level of their step sequence.
All she had to do now was to dance to her heart's content, stepping on a pair of blades and leaving the image of a rose on the ice.
She blinked and smiled noble and wide.
After the steps were completed, Ji Tiantian naturally took Tang Yi's hand and smiled at him calmly. He looked at her with a smile in his eyes.
Then, let’s do it together.
With the melodious voice of a child, Ji Tiantian lightly jumped onto Tang Yi's body. Her movements were very fast, and Tang Yi caught her steadily. She was like a weightless rose.
Tang Yi held Ji Tiantian's legs. As Ji Tiantian bent backward, Tang Yi opened his knees outward and began to slide in an arc.
Ji Tiantian stretched out her hands and smiled in the wind, enjoying herself. In the ice and snow, she bloomed enchantingly.
The audience seemed to hear Miss Rose's cheerful laughter. They were immersed in the world of the Little Prince and couldn't help but applaud.
The 6-second arc lift is followed by a twist lift with no gaps.
Ji Tiantian stood up and hugged Tang Yi's shoulders, Tang Yi also hugged her shoulders, and the two began to turn and lift each other.
Ji Tiantian swung her crossed and tense legs backward, parallel to the ice surface.
They moved and rotated on the ice.
If Ji Tiantian was still a little nervous at the second stop, she and Tang Yi were now completely relaxed.
She looked at Tang Yi closely and couldn't help but smile brightly. Tang Yi looked at her and couldn't help but smile.
The two of them seemed to be laughing for real, and they spun happily on the ice. It seemed that this was no longer a game, but a playful chase between the rose and the little prince.
In the fairy tale world, they played to their heart's content and never parted again.
Miss Rose's petal-shaped skirt spread out, leaving gorgeous traces on the ice.
Feifei, who was beside Ni Chuan, couldn't help but have tears in her eyes.
Despite all the hardships, her favorite players still forged ahead bravely and stood firmly on the ice in the finals.
They fully release their passion for life, as if they can't feel the pain of injury or the hardship of training. Everything is just for this moment of blooming.
The music of The Little Prince is gentle and long, not grand or dramatic. Correspondingly, it gives the contestants a lot of room to perform.
Ji Tang filled the music with their silent but emotional performance.
“So amazing…”
"They did it so easily. To achieve this level...they must have very advanced skills."
"It's such a pleasure to watch them perform. They are worthy of being the finalists..."
"They still haven't done the twist yet, right? As long as there are no major mistakes, the final score shouldn't be low."
There was a buzz of discussion in the audience.
When talking about the final score, the tense atmosphere spread again, and Feifei couldn't help but hold the sweet candy goose in her hand tightly again.
Following the soft and distant singing, Ji Tang and his partner began to twirl their steps in sync.
They gently lifted their floating legs while sliding their legs, and then began to spin with beautiful smiles.
Feifei and Ni Chuan straightened their backs subconsciously.
"Don't make mistakes, don't make mistakes..." Ni Chuan heard the Chinese audience in the back row muttering nervously, and couldn't help but breathe quickly nervously. This is the last technical move. They have done well before, and it all depends on this last move!
One lap, two laps, three laps...
Together with Ji Tang on the ice, they completed the first set of twists quickly and synchronously, and then looked at each other with increasingly happy smiles.
"Wait a minute... am I seeing things?" someone in the audience exclaimed, "They turned five times?"
"Okay...it seems to be five weeks!" another audience member immediately followed up.
Soon, Ji Tang's second set of twists began at lightning speed.
"The highest level 4 synchronized twist requires two sets of four-week twists and one set of three-week twists." A foreign audience member in the audience quickly spoke up, "Normally, no contestant would do more than one twist, so they would just do a 443 combination. Because the difficulty of the synchronized twist increases with each twist. It is very difficult for two people to do so many twists in sync. As for scoring, 4 twists can get the highest basic score, and if the sync is fast, the execution score GOE will not be low. For many contestants, doing more twists is very strenuous, but it doesn't get any points, so it's a thankless task."
"It doesn't necessarily mean you won't get any points." Another spectator quickly added, "Although the technical score is minimal, the extra twists in the twist may have an impact on the program content score. Being able to complete the five-week twist so smoothly, the gliding and transition items under the program content score should be increased as appropriate!"
There was a small discussion in the audience, and everyone stretched their necks to watch Ji Tang twisting.
On the ice, Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi successfully completed the second set of four-week twists with the floating leg sucked on the edge of the sliding leg, and entered the third set smoothly.
While spinning quickly, Ji Tiantian couldn't help but recall what Clara had said to her before.
"I know you really want to improve your program content score. But so far, I haven't seen any Asian couple get a high program content score. This is also very helpless." Clara said, "But this does not mean that you should stop trying. Perhaps, appropriately increasing the difficulty of technical movements can save the situation. Tiantian, you and Tang seem to trust each other very much, and your tacit understanding is also sufficient. This is a very powerful advantage in ice dancing. Among the technical movements, there is a movement that can fully demonstrate your advantage. Maybe you can try to improve it."
During the one-month training period, Ji Tang not only refined the details of the short dance, but also focused on improving the synchronized twist steps in the free dance.
On the ice, Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi performed the third set of twists with their hands clasped above their heads.
As the dress twisted forward quickly, the petal-shaped skirt blossomed.
So, this is the final blooming of the rose.
After the third set of quad twists, Ji Tiantian looked at Tang Yi with joy in her eyes.
They increased the default routine of four weeks, four weeks, and three weeks of synchronized twists for most athletes to five weeks, four weeks, and four weeks.
Perhaps their tacit understanding was stronger than they thought, or perhaps her spinning skills were solid enough that such improvements did not seem particularly difficult to overcome in practice.
Next, it depends on how the judges score.
There was loud applause from the audience and some people whistled.
"This is the first time I've seen someone in the youth group do so many twirls!" A Chinese audience member exclaimed, "I was originally thinking that it would be good as long as they didn't lose their nerve, but I didn't expect this to be an Easter egg at the end!"
Ni Chuan and Fei Fei didn't react for a moment. They stared at Ji Tang on the ice. They didn't want to miss every second of their contestant's free dance.
After all, they don't want to miss any surprises.
The song on the ice changed to another soundtrack from the opera "The Little Prince" - "Because She is My Rose".
Like the short dance, the free dance usually consists of two or more pieces of music cut together to complete a complete program. In order to avoid destroying the theme of the free dance, the two pieces of music usually come from the same source or have a certain connection.
"Because She Is My Rose" is more sad than "Beside Her".
Along with such singing, the free dance performance was coming to an end.
Tang Yi's floating leg touched the ice, and his sliding leg half-knelt on the ice. Ji Tiantian spun lightly and gently fell on Tang Yi's sliding leg.
Under the protection of the little prince, Miss Rose is about to fall into a beautiful dream.
The original ending action was for Ji Tiantian to lie sideways on Tang Yi's legs. But Ji Tiantian suddenly remembered Clara's words - if you can feel Tang Yi's emotional fluctuations from his sliding, just make some small responses.
"Because that will be the highlight of your show."
The reason why people love ice dancing is that they love the emotions and feelings it expresses.
Technical movements are only a part of ice dancing. They are used to set off emotions and complete the work.
Ji Tiantian looked at Tang Yi's face closely and couldn't help but smile.
Yes, I feel it.
I can feel your persistence and love for this world of ice and snow. Thank you for your protection and guidance all the time.
In the future, we will also face strong winds and huge waves together.
Ji Tiantian subconsciously raised her hand and gently stroked Tang Yi's cheek. Tang Yi felt Ji Tiantian's emotions and was led by her. He almost bowed his head devoutly and lowered his long eyelashes.
Puisque c'est elle que j'ai abritée
Because she was the one I protected.
Puisque c'est elle que j'ai rassurée
Because she was reinforced by me
Puisque c'est ma rose
Because she is my rose
The music stopped and the two ended their free dance with their foreheads touching.
The audience was silent. Jiang Lin and Xu Chi standing nearby were also somewhat dazed for a moment.
Many players will slightly adjust their transition movements or starting and ending poses depending on the situation at the competition site.
In this free dance, Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi also slightly changed their ending poses. This change was like the finishing touch.
The little prince's piety and silent protection, Miss Rose's elegance and caress that seemed to say "I forgive you" were all vividly expressed in the last ending action.
Only they can perform the final action so perfectly.
Dance is a form of expression, and they have expressed everything they wanted to express.
The music ended, but the steadfast tenderness and the faint sadness still remained on the ice, making it difficult to recover.
This is the story of the little prince and the rose.
This is also the story of Tang Yi and Ji Tiantian.
Jiang Lin felt her nose getting a little sore, and at the same time, there was a burst of warm applause, cheers and whistles from the audience.
"That's so great!" Ni Chuan and Fei Fei, with tears in her eyes, shouted excitedly.
On the ice, Ji Tiantian was unable to break away from the role of Miss Rose for a while. She rested her head on Tang Yi's legs, feeling a little dazed.
Tang Yi reached out and helped her up, and then the two of them held hands and saluted to the audience.
When Ji Tiantian knelt down to salute, she felt her legs were extremely weak.
In the free dance just now, she almost exhausted all her emotions, which was very tiring.
"Tiantang is the best!" The Chinese audience screamed with joy.
A lot of stuffed toys landed on the ice, including a lot of sweet candy geese and a lot of pink My Melody dolls.
Ji Tiantian's eyes couldn't help but become moist.
What moved her was not only the love of the audience, but also the fact that, listening to the applause and cheers around her, she knew very clearly that what she wanted to convey had been accurately conveyed to the audience.
As a dancer and a performer, having her dance performance accepted by others means far more to her than getting a satisfactory score.
Away from the role of Miss Rose, Ji Tiantian showed a sincere smile to the audience.
Ji Tiantian picked up Melody and a pair of sweet geese nearby, and Tang Yi also picked up a pair of sweet geese. Then the two of them slid to the exit one after another and put on hard knife sheaths.
As usual, Jiang Lin and Xu Chi gave the two players who performed well a big hug, and then the four of them went to wait for the next division together.
The finals were unprecedentedly grand, with many cameras stacked in equal parts.
Ji Tiantian also knew in advance that the finals would be broadcast by domestic TV stations, and her every move in the waiting area would be seen by the audience watching on TV.
"Thank you, coach, thank you, Clara and everyone who helped us with our training, and thank you to our friends who have always supported us." Ji Tiantian waved the candy goose in her hand towards the camera lens, curved her eyes and showed a bright smile, "Thank you also to Feifei, the designer of this doll, it's really cute."
As they were talking, Bing Tong brought over the remaining pile of dolls. The two coaches thanked him and took the dolls for Ji Tang.
After Ji Tiantian finished her post-match speech, she fell silent. Although it was good to be accepted by the audience, she still became nervous as a conditioned reflex after sitting in the waiting area.
She couldn't calm down when she thought that this ranking also involved foreign training and Xu Chi's appointment.
She felt that she had performed the technical movements of this free dance well, but it was hard to say how she would score for the content of the program, and it was impossible to predict.
How many program content points can the 544 group's twisting win them?
She had never seen a competitor who spun so many circles in a youth competition, so everything was unknown.
From the beginning, they were like flying in a dark cave. They didn't know when they would be able to fly out of the cave. They didn't know when the light would shine upon them.
Tang Yi turned around and found Ji Tiantian tightly holding the candied goose in her hand. She was probably nervous, and the necks of the two geese were a little deformed by her pinching, and they looked very miserable.
Tang Yi thought it would not be good for the children in front of the TV to see this scene, so he reached out and tried to pull the goose upwards, letting Ji Tiantian pinch the goose's body so that it would not be easily deformed.
Ji Tiantian didn't care what he was going to do, or rather, she didn't have the time to care. It was almost a conditioned reflex for her to grab whatever she had. Tang Yi stretched out his hand, and she held his arm tightly with both hands, very hard.
Tang Yi paused for a moment, and then did not move again. On the bright side, at least the two geese were fine.
Soon, the results of Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi's free dance of "The Little Prince" came out.
Technical score 42.35, program content score 43.75, free dance score 86.10
Including the short dance score of 59.08, the total score was 145.18.
The Spanish combination, which surpassed the silver medalists of the last World Youth Championship with a total score of 139.20, is currently ranked first.
This is the highest score Ji Tang has ever achieved.
“Oh my god, this is the first time that Tiantang has received such a high score for program content…” Feifei looked at the results display screen with an expression of disbelief, and then she couldn’t help sobbing, “Wow, their efforts have been noticed…”
Her voice was quickly drowned out by the overwhelming applause and cheers.
Many Chinese audiences stood up and cheered, hugged each other and celebrated.
"Ahhh! The bronze medal is saved!"
"Ahhh! Oh my God!"
"Tiantang, the God of Asia!"
"Sweet sugar!"
There was a deafening roar.
The moment the scores came out, Ji Tiantian's nervousness disappeared. She looked at the results on the display, smiled, and tears welled up in her eyes.
This technical score shows that both of their steps have been rated level 3. Judging from the scores, the free dance steps of the finalists who appeared earlier should have only been level 2.
Their other technical moves are all at the highest level 4, and their execution scores should not be bad either. Their hard work is worth it.
More importantly, their program content scores have gone up.
This result is enough to show that as an Asian group, they can also have considerable program content points.
Today, all impossible things become possible.
Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi stood up and hugged the coach.
"Old Xu, congratulations, you can continue to serve." Tang Yi spoke in Xu Chi's ear with a faint smile on his face.
Xu Chi thought about it, but in the end he didn't say anything. He just sighed and said with a wry smile: "You are really terrible."
Not only has his skills improved rapidly, but his ability to adapt to changing circumstances on the field is also amazing. His ability to control emotions on the ice is unparalleled.
Ji Tiantian and Tang Yi are ice dancers born for ice dancing.
On this day, at this moment, Xu Chi believed that no one would dare to question this anymore.
The Chinese audience in the auditorium were still partying.
Ji Tang's total score not only surpassed the Spanish group, but also left the American group that had once copied them far behind by 8 points.
Unlike the gap of about 4 points in the second stop, in this final, the score gap between the Chinese group and the American disco group nearly doubled.
Some of them had worried before about what would happen if Ji Tang was copied again.
But Ji Tang's performance today told them that there was no need to worry about it.
"Come and copy the quintuple twist, come and copy the combined lift, come and copy the final, magical finishing move, come on!" some audience members shouted excitedly.
Of course, no fans from the American group dared to respond.
When you become strong enough, you no longer have to worry about the things you used to worry about.
Next up is the Canadian giants group.
Their background music was "MEMORY" from the opera "Cats". Mia wore a small dress with cat fur stripes, and Lucas wore a matching shirt. The two danced to the melodious and loud singing. Compared with the playful and lively Mia, Lucas's performance was relatively less tense, and he still had a stern face and a domineering style.
In the games after Ji Tang’s outstanding performance, Lucas’ shortcomings in performance became somewhat obvious.
In the end, the duo scored 42.65 in free dance technical points, 41.35 in program content points, and 84.00 in free dance points.
Their technical moves were impeccable, and their edge technique was at the top level in the youth group. Their step sequences were all at level 3. Their twists were still the regular 4x4x3x combination, but the finish was very good.
Including the short dance score of 60.30, the Canadian team scored a total of 144.30, ranking second, behind Ji Tang.
"Ahhhhh!" Feifei and some excited Chinese audiences in the audience couldn't help but scream when they saw the current ranking shown on the display.
The Spanish team surpassed the British and American teams with their free dance, while Ji Tang surpassed the star team of this season, Mia and Lucas, with his free dance.
You won’t know how many unexpected things will happen in the finals until the last moment.
The last to play were last season's World Youth Championship champions, Katerin and Ilic.
Their soundtrack this season is from the famous opera "Moulin Rouge". Katerin plays a beautiful singer in a red dress, while her partner and boyfriend plays a poet pursuing her.
This time, the Russian couple did the same as Ji Tang, doing a combined lift by putting two short lifts together.
Katerin flipped from behind Ilyich to his body, completing the arc lift while standing on his partner. Then she and Ilyich began to turn and lift.
Like Ji Tiantian, she also held her male partner with both hands and performed a difficult posture of turning and lifting with her body parallel to the ice surface. The difference is that she was sideways, and it was not easy to maintain this posture. Katerin's posture showed the charm of the most beautiful singer in Moulin Rouge.
As Ilyich spun quickly, she smiled brightly and even extended a hand to the audience in an invitation.
There was applause from the audience.
When the twist and lift was about to end, Katerin and Ilyich kissed deeply before getting off the ice to do the next move.
Ji Tiantian stood at the edge of the ice, watching the two people skating happily on the ice, and applauded passionately with the audience.
I have to say that Katerin is Katerin. Her performance is always so stable and she is very passionate.
It is hard to say whether this kiss was pre-planned or improvised. In short, this kiss can push the audience up again when the audience's emotions are at their peak.
“Ahhhhhh!”
Some Chinese audience members screamed crazily in the audience. They were already very excited by Ji Tang's good performance, but after watching Katerin's free dance, they were so excited that they couldn't get down.
Ji Tiantian couldn't help but think of Ning Huai who had a nosebleed at the World Youth Championship last season. If Ning Huai was there this time instead of recuperating in the hotel, he might have bled more.
Afterwards, the Russian team went to the equal area to wait for their results.
Soon, their results came out.
The technical score was 43.01, the program content score was 45.52, and the free dance score was 88.53.
The technical movements were impeccable, and both sets of steps were at level 3. In terms of program content, the performance was also perfect. Their program had unparalleled on-site driving force, and there was a lot of tension between the partners. They could easily get high scores without having to worry about the twists and other technical aspects.
Including the short dance with 61.31 points, the Russian team scored 149.84 points in total for both programs, ranking first. Their total score is not only the highest in their careers, but also the highest score this season.
The youth ice dance competition came to an end amid applause and almost uncontrollable screams.
The top three combinations are shown on the display.
First place, Katerin Ilyich of Russia, total score 149.84
Second place, China's Ji Tiantian Tang Yi, total score 145.18
Third place, Mia Lucas from Canada, total score 144.30
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