News Archive

March 23rd, 2008

The exhibition gala is the official closing of the world championships 2008, and for us it is a great satisfaction to see Fede and Massi taking part to it thanks to their fifth place!
Now it is time for some holidays... straight home to spend some quality time with family and friends, and then we'll be waiting for them, back on the ice, to start building the new season... but first we'll let them enjoy this well deserved break!!

 

March 21st, 2008

Another great performance from Fede and Massi: their FD is executed simply perfectly, with a fabulous interpretation which really shows off their acquired maturity. The program is valued as the 4th FD of the evening, but unfortunately this is not enough to prevent a little slip to 5th place... but with a great satisfaction even like this! Fede and Massi have scored the 2nd technical score of the night, and are the only one of the top skaters earning all level 4s...

the FD:

1 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 105.28
2 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 104.96
3 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 103.29
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 101.21 (53.84tes + 47.37pcs)
5 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 99.29
6 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 96.03

and overall:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 212.94 1 1 2
2 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 208.80 2 3 1
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 203.26 3 2 5
4 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 203.00 5 4 3
5 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 201.91 4 5 4
6 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 191.19 7 7 6

Looking at numbers...

Also in this part of the competition, Fede and Massi are earning their Personal Best - a constant in this competition where they've marked a new PB in every single portion of the event and in the overall score. It is the first time they finish an international competition with more than 200 points; to make a comparison, their total at the 2007 worlds was of 170,75 points, 31,16 less than this year... in one season it's an enormous jump ahead.
And still looking at numbers... last season we were 24.68 points away from the third step of the podium... this time it was 1.35points away!!!

A commentary... as usual from Goldenskate.com

Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy finished fourth in the free dance after a mesmerizing performance to Papa, Can You Hear Ne? in which all their element received level 4. It allowed them to gain the highest technical score of the evening, quite an achievement for the team who, in the past, often dropped several places in past competitions after making major mistakes. The team appeared a bit tense in the beginning, but relaxed later as they got into the mood of their dance. They improved both their personal best for a free dance and personal total score as they received 101.21 (53.84/47.37) and 201.91 points in total to finish fifth.

"I have no words for it," said Scali about their performance. "I think this was our best performance of the season in the free dance. We tried to be emotional and we have worked a lot on that. We knew that we had high levels, so we have tried to work on interpretation. Well, we cannot say that we do not care about the medals; of course it would have been wonderful if we got a medal at Worlds, but that was never our goal for the season."


March 20th, 2008

For the second portion of the dance competition, it's time again to plunge in the variegated world of the Folk ODs. It is the last time this season we're seeing the funny "Pizzica" from Fede and Massi.

Their performance at these World Championships keeps being of the highest level, and this performance too is clean and exciting. They are only fifth in the OD, but they remain in fourth place in the overall standing:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 67.25
2 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 65.99
3 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 64.81
4 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 64.69
5 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 63.55 (34.16tes + 29.39pcs)
6 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 60.67

overall:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 107.98
2 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 103.97
3 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 103.52
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 100.70
5 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 99.71
6 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 95.49

Again, we turn to Goldenskate.com for a commentary:

Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali placed fifth in the OD with strong, yet playful Italian folk dance, earning a new personal best of 63.55 (34.16/29.39) points. The highlights of the dance were the connecting moves which suited their music perfectly, but while the difficulty was there, the quality of execution wasn't as strong as that of higher-ranked teams. With a total score of 100.70 points, they are still in fourth place overall.

"It's five points more than in the European Championships," said Scali, of their new personal best. "We are so happy. We felt really confident and comfortable on the ice. We came to Worlds to fight and to enjoy our experience and we like to perform on the ice. We do not like to think on the marks or our position. We do not really care. We just want to enjoy ourselves and have a good time. We were kind of reborn after our previous bad season, so for us it is important to enjoy our experience."

March 18th, 2008

The world figure skating championships start today in Gotheburg, Sweden, with the CD (this time it's the Argentine Tango). Fede and Massi have a great skate, performing a precise but intense tango, placing fourth. this is the ranking so far:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER 40.73
2 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR 38.71
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI 37.98
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI 37.15 (19.45 tes + 17.70 pcs)
5 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO 35.02
6 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT 34.82

This time we have no spies in place... so we'll rely on the commentary form Goldenskate.com:

Federica Faiella (27) and Massimo Scali (28) also set a new personal best after they scored 37.15 (19.45/17.70) points for fourth place. In a dance where all couples are supposed to execute the same steps in exactly the same manner, the Italian champions made some subtle changes in their arms movements in order to enhance their excellent and expressive tango. The team left a strong impression with their sharp and passionate style, and were among the best teams in terms of expressing the character of the dance properly.
"We love to skate and to have a strong interpretation of the music with strong emotions in the compulsory dance," said Scali. "We felt great today. We skate the best we can. We know it is hard competition for us, but the marks today were unbelievable and we are very happy with our performance".

 

 

January 25th, 2008


foto (c) Silvia Palotta

One more photo straight from Zagreb's mixed zone, from our spies! The FD just finished, and our guys were able to keep the fourth place they occupied for the whole event. They skated a good program, getting good levels (in details, waiting for the official PDFs, this is the text message I got from my official spy: roli4/sp4/mistnt4-seli4-stw4-slli3+culi4-sest3-slli4) and a final score of 95.29 for the FD, which gave a total of 190.95 - this is the final top ten:

1 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 207.14
2 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 205.92
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 197.06
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 190.95
5 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 185.26
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 182.06
7 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 172.64
8 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 171.70
9 Pernelle CARRON / Mathieu JOST FRA 170.62
10 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 168.87

From our "reporters", we get another audio clip (in Italian)... this time it's Federica who speaks: HERE

And before signing off, a quick hello from one of our beloved friends, never missing an event: in the tribunes with Sara, here isToponiglio Franklin...


foto (c) Silvia Palotta

January 24th, 2008


foto (c) Alessandro Raineri - Nazionali Italiani 08

With a briliant interpretation of their OD, Fede and Massi maintained their fourth placement in the rankings. The program was judged with almost all elements of level 4 (only the step sequences were awarded a level 3), and with very positive GOEs.


foto (c) Silvia Palotta

Before the rankings, a little extra: HERE is an mp3 file with their comments... straight from Zagreb's mixed zone (just like this picture!) - note: the file is in Italian!

Top ten in the OD:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 62.72
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 61.90
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 60.03
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 58.79
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 58.54
6 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 56.97
7 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 54.07
8 Pernelle CARRON / Mathieu JOST FRA 53.52
9 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 53.31
10 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 52.07

and Overall after two events:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 103.97
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 102.15
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 97.40
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 95.66
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 92.09
6 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 91.55
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 86.43
8 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 85.09
9 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 85.04
10 Pernelle CARRON / Mathieu JOST FRA 83.67

January 22nd, 2008


photo (c) Yahoo News

The European Figure Skating Championships started today in Zagreb, and as usual the 26 dance couples were the first skaters to take the ice for the CD on the notes of the Yankee Polka.
With a flawless performance, Federica and Massimo placed in fourth position, with a score of 36.87 (new PB for this part of the competition).

This is the top ten after the CD:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 41.25
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 40.25
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 37.37
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 36.87
5 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 34.58
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 33.55
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 33.12
8 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 33.02
9 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 31.28
10 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 30.97


foto (c) Yahoo News

 

December 21st, 2007 - Italian Championships 2008


foto (c) Alessandro Raineri

The last day of competitions sees Fede and Massi perform their FD. The execution is clean and powerful, and it guarantees them once more the National title with a total score of 107.90 for the FD and a total of 216

1 Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali 107.90 tot 216.31
2 Anna Cappellini/Luca La Notte 89.84 tot 1719.43
3 Alessia Aureli/Marco Garavaglia 80.36 tot 161.90

December 21st, 2007 - Italian Championships 2008

The folk ODs take center stage during the second day of the Italian Championships. Federica and Massimo gave a thrilling performance of their Pizzica confirming their lead with 66.53 points ( total 108.41).

1 Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali 108.41 1 1
2 Anna Cappellini/Luca La Notte 88.79 2 2
3 Alessia Aureli/Marco Garavaglia 81.54 3 3

December 20th, 2007 - Italian Championships 2008

The 87° Italian National Championships opened today at the Agorà Ice Rink in Milan. Fede and Massi skated the CD (Yankee Polka), capturing the lead with a good performance which earned them 41.88 points(21.43+20.45).

1 Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali 41.88
2 Anna Cappellini/Luca La Notte 32.73
3 Alessia Aureli/Marco Garavaglia 31.33

November 11th, 2007 - After Cup of China

Yesterday saw the end of the Cup of China 2007, the second GP assignment of Fede and Massi.The guys skated cleanly in all phases of the competition, finishing in 3rd place (but with the 2nd FD) with all level 4s and their new seasonal best.

These are the final results:

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 195.11 2 2 1
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 188.66 1 1 3
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 181.10 3 3 2
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 161.86 4 4 4
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 152.99 5 5 6
6 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 150.18 7 6 5
7 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN 139.09 6 8 7
8 Zoe BLANC / Pierre-Loup BOUQUET FRA 132.96 8 7 8
9 Jiameimei GUO / Fei MENG CHN 112.69 10 10 9
10 Lu LIU / Bin SUO CHN 108.78 9 9 10

and here is, step by step:

Compulsory Dance:


(photo Yahoo! News)

1 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 38.77
2 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 35.89
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 33.54
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 30.81
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 29.52
6 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN 27.05
7 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 27.04
8 Zoe BLANC / Pierre-Loup BOUQUET FRA 24.79
9 Lu LIU / Bin SUO CHN 20.25
10 Jiameimei GUO / Fei MENG CHN 19.59

For this competition, we're looking for the comment from Goldenskate:

Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy showed good expression in their tango, earning a new personal best of 33.54 points for third place. The Italians were happy with their scores, citing that the Argentine Tango was a new dance they haven't skated before in competition. "We are really pleased with our marks, too," said Scali. "They were much better than at Skate America."

Original Dance:


photo by Getty Images

1Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 62.20
2 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 60.81
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 56.94
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 52.26
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 48.93
6 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 47.51
7 Zoe BLANC / Pierre-Loup BOUQUET FRA 43.36
8 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN 41.01
9 Lu LIU / Bin SUO CHN 35.14
10 Jiameimei GUO / Fei MENG CHN 35.07

Again from Goldenskate:

"Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy maintained third overall (90.48 points) after placing third in the OD. They also received level fours on all elements except for their circular step sequence. The 2007 Skate America bronze medalists executed a rotational and curve lift, two midline step sequences, and a very good level three circular step sequence in their Italian folk dance, earning 56.94 points to match their personal best from 2004 Cup of Russia".


Free Dance:


photo by Yahoo! News
more photos here from Yahoo! and here from Getty Images

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 98.41
2 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 90.62
3 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 87.69
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 78.79
5 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 75.63
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 74.54
7 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN 71.03
8 Zoe BLANC / Pierre-Loup BOUQUET FRA 64.81
9 Jiameimei GUO / Fei MENG CHN 58.03
10 Lu LIU / Bin SUO CHN 53.39

Again from Goldenskate:

"Faiella and Scali put out a solid free dance to selections of music from the Yentl soundtrack which featured four level four rotational lifts, a level four midline step sequence, a difficult level three serpentine step sequence, and synchronized twizzles. The Italian champions placed second in the free dance (90.62 points) and third overall with 181.10 points. "We did a great job," commented Scali. "Not just today, but in all the dances. We felt very confident. We had a little mistake at Skate America, but today everything was good, and we're especially happy about our second place in the free dance."

October 29th, 2007

The last part of the competition took place yesterday, and Fede and Massi managed to keep their third place, even if the program was interrupted by a sudden fall by Massi after the rotational lift - but its consequences were limited as the fall didn't involve any required element. We heard from them via-web (a susual!) and they were quite serene anyways, satisfied with the levels recognized by the technical specialist (they got the second technical score of the FD). The final ranking is the following:

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 97.68 (final 192.95)
2 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 90.33 (final 181.84)
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 86.29 (final 172.28)
4 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 85.79 (final 168.79)
5 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 85.38 (final 167.805)
6 Kimberly NAVARRO / Brent BOMMENTRE USA 80.90 (final 159.93)
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 79.17 (final 157.85)
8 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS 78.93 (final 151.58)
9 Cathy REED / Chris REED JPN 72.37 (final 142.63)
10 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN 69.96 (final 135.29)

October 28th, 2007

The OD was skated today, and Fede and Massi kept their third position. This is the new ranking:

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 59.24 (cd+od 95.27)
2 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 56.95 (cd+od 91.51)
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 54.56 (cd+od 85.99)
4 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 52.84 (cd+od 83.00)
5 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 51.23 (cd+od 82.42)
6 Kimberly NAVARRO / Brent BOMMENTRE USA 51.13 (cd+od 79.03)
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 51.12 (cd+od 78.92 )
8 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS 45.46 (cd+od72.41 )
9 Cathy REED / Chris REED JPN 43.79(cd+od 70.26)
10 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN 43.19 (cd+od 65.33)

Even if this time we managed to follow the competition on tv, we'lll still look at ice-dance.com's blog to see what the foreign public thought of the "pizzica"... today the keyboard is in Daphne Backman's hands:

"There were several cool elements including a move where she kind of flips him around. Their lift is stunning, with Faiella holding onto Scali's foot and her legs in the air like a sail" (this lift)

The starting order for the FD (tonight at 8) follows the rankings:

Group 1
1 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
2 Cathy REED / Chris REED JPN
3 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR
5 Kimberly NAVARRO / Brent BOMMENTRE USA
Group 2
6 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE
7 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA
8 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
9 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA
10 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA

October 27th 2007

The season has begun: yesterday night (or actually, this morning veeeery early as it was close to 1am here!) it was time for the CD (Austrian Waltz) to be skated at Skate America. Fede and Massi are currently in third place:

1 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 36.03
2 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 34.56
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 31.43
4 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 31.19 1
5 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 30.16
6 Kimberly NAVARRO / Brent BOMMENTRE USA 27.90
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR 27.80
8 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS 26.95
9 Cathy REED / Chris REED JPN 26.47
10 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANGCHN 22.14

Having been unable to see it on tv, we rely on Michelle Wojdyla's comment, which she made for ice-dance.com's blog of the event:

"Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali skated a joyful waltz to place third. The rapport between these two is always warm and engaging, and they intertwine so effortlessly throughout the turns of the dance. They kept their speed throughout, bodies close together."

and here is a photo by JB Mittan for Skatetoday.com

This is the starting order for the OD:

Group 1
1 Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
2 Cathy REED / Chris REED
3 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER
4 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI
5 Kimberly NAVARRO / Brent BOMMENTRE
Group 2
6 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE
7 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN
8 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI
9 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT
10 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO

 


June 10th, 2007

Fede and Massi have been back to Detroit for a month now, but thanks to Internet we can easily keep in touch. Their practices are going well, and the morale is high. But between one work session and the other, there is also time for some exhibitions... just as Federica tells us by mail:

"The show we skated in on Saturday, June 2nd, was in Taylor, 40 minutes from Bloomfield Hills. It was called "Skating stars benefit for Aleison Kowalski' - and all the kids from that rink skated, with us, Yuka Sato, a young pairs team and a senior man from the Detroit Skating Club... Aleison, from what we understood, is the granddaughter of the coordinator of that rink, she's 5 and suffers from leukemia... "

But it is not all. This weekend too (June 8/9/10) they are skating in some more exhibitions... and we discovered that they have created a new number for these! We really hope we can get some photos or videos soon! It is once again Federica who writes us something about these exhibitions:

"The show starting today and that lasts until Sunday, with two shows on Saturday, it is quite important for this rink... they have put up lots of lights and the ice is a little smaller because on one of the short sides they will put some tables with people eating and drinking. We will be doing the shows of Friday, one on Saturday and Sunday... and I can add that we also created a new exhibition, on a song from the "City of Angels" soundtrack. Yesterday we did the dress rehearsals (after our skating and the gym, I was really dead) with all the lights and everyone liked it a lot..."

The GP Entries

Finally the ISU has announced the entries for the various events of the Grand Prix 2007. Fede and Massi will be at:

25 - 28 Oct 2007 - Skate America (Reading, PA, USA)
8 - 11 Nov 2007 - Cup of China (Beijing, China)


May 4th, 2007

Once again quite a lot of time passed before we came around to updating the site, but finally here we are! In the last few weeks we followed their work to get ready for the new season pretty closely, but now, right before their new departure for the US (which will be on Monday 7th), we let them do the talking again, to update us on their latest news. This time it is Federica who, pen in hand, sits down at our table to tell us...

Here we are once again! After the experience that the last Worlds were, we came back to Milan to finally enjoy a little, well deserved holiday after such an intense season, filled with emotions that sometimes were good and sometimes not really, but which surely helped us grow up a lot.
We were saying... holidays till Easter, and then bacl at work to start preparing in the best possible way the new season!

We started from the Free Dance, as we already had lots of defined ideas and we did not have too much trouble in choosing the music; with the help of Pasquale, Paola (Mezzadri, note) and Anjelika we managed to find what we called "our" music, perfect for "our" style.
So with lots of videos and creativity, and with the help of Corrado (Giordani, dancer who's been working with them for years, note) we started this work that, though we can't say it's finished, has already reached a very good point.

If the work on the FD was intense, we can say the same for the OD, which had left us a little perplexed at the beginning... tarantelle and folk music are not really our style, and so... what could we do? We were really unsure until, totally by chance, our dance coach of the old days when we lived in Milan and skated at the Agorà rink, Barbara (Melica, note) told us about a very peculiar rhytm from our country, which she had studied with passion... we agreed to listen to it, and we instantly fell in love with it: there was a great feeling from the beginning! Full of enthusiasm, we started creating the OD too, and again we can't say we are behind schedule!!

And here comes now the sad part: we're leaving again on Monday for Detroit, where lots of friends are waiting for us... but it is alwasy difficult to leave Italy and our loved ones, even if we know that those who loves us and care for us are always close to us with their hearts.

a great big kiss to all of you!

Federica

what can we add to this? We wish the guys a safe trip to Detroit, and a good summer hard at work. Thanks to the internet, we'll try to stay in touch as much as possible, to keep you all updated on how things are going, while waiting to hug them again in September back here in Milan...

See you soon, regà!!

A little space for the technical notes too...

As you must have noticed, the site has undergone a little of "cosmetic surgery", starting from its new look (on the theme " summer is the time for serious training and little glitter") till a lot of new content...
in the video section of the fan area, there are some practice videos we had had in store since this winter, and in the backstage there are a lot of photos that Fede and Massi gave us to share...
in the media section we put up a bunch of scans of old newspaper articles (which unfortunately are in Italian only, for now)... we got those by fax so they have not a spectacular quality, but we still thougth they were interesting....
we also updated lots of details here and there...
and in the photo galleries we have lots of photos from competition, practice and show coming up very very soon!!

March 25th, 2007 - Kings on Ice... by voice

TV channel Italia 1 will air on the afternoon of Sunday, March 25th, the "Kings on Ice", the skating show which took place on January 28th in Torino. At the time Fede and Massi had no chances of being there because still in Warsaw for Euros, but this Sunday, while our guys will still be in Tokyo waiting to come back from Worlds, their will somehow took part to it anyways: the commentary of the show will feature journalist Lucia Blini, and our Massi, who, before leaving for Tokyo, gave us the news with this comment::

"I have more than once been referred to as a future face of Italian TV (which I do hope might come true!), for now I I'll be on the small screen, but only with my voice doing a little commentaru for the "Kings on Ice" on Italia 1... Jokes aside, I was really happy of being contacted last week by Mediaset (note > the production company) but I am also a little nervous for this new experiment... I'll surely tell you about this new and interesting adventure later!"

for sure, we're curious to see how he'll do in this new role!!

March 23rd, 2007 - World Championships

Wit the Free Dance the 2007 World Championships came to their end in Tokyo, and Fede & Massi closed their competition by keeping the 9° place in the overall ranking, with a total score of 170.75.


photo (c) Caroline Paré

March 22nd, 2007 - World Championships

The 2007 World Figure Skating Championships are being held in Tokyo, and the Ice Dance competition already saw the Compulsory (Rhumba) and the Original Dance.
In the compulsory dance Federica and Massimo placed seventh, with a score of 33.29 points (TES 17.04, PCS 16.25)

In the original dance, with a little stumble in the twizzles, Fede and Massi ended up in ninth place, with a score of 53.32 points (TES 27.81, PCS 25.51)

On Art On Ice (in Italian) you can find the interview that Fede and Massi gave to the RAI commentators after their performance.

This is the overall top ten ranking till now:

1 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI 99.52
2 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON 99.50
3 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO 99.02
4 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN 97.63
5 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER 96.02
6 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI 89.20
7 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR 88.56
8 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE 86.97
9 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI 86.61
10 Melissa GREGORY / Denis PETUKHOV 83.98

Tomorrow afternoon (in Tokyo)it will be time for the free program.
This is the starting order:

Warm-Up Group 1
1 Katherine COPELY / Deividas STAGNIUNAS (23)
2 Grethe GRUENBERG / Kristian RAND (21)
3 Olga AKIMOVA / Alexander SHAKALOV (24)
4 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE (22)

Warm-Up Group 2
5 Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG (20)
6 Nelli ZHIGANSHINA / Alexander GAZSI (18)
7 Anastasia GREBENKINA / Vazgen AZROJAN (19)
8 Nozomi WATANABE / Akiyuki KIDO (16)
9 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO (17)

Warm-Up Group 3
10 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN (15)
11 Sinead KERR / John KERR (11)
12 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE (14)
13 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI (12)
14 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT (13)

Warm-Up Group 4
15 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI (6)
16 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI (9)
17 Melissa GREGORY / Denis PETUKHOV (10)
18 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR (7)
19 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE (8)

Warm-Up Group 5
20 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON (2)
21 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO (3)
22 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER (5)
23 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI (1)
24 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN (4)


(c)P.Occhipinti

March 2nd, 2007... where we are

A little surprise...
this time the website update (as you can see from the photo above) comes straight through Fede and Massi's words, who, sitting in front of one of the webmasters' laptop, told us a little of what happened this last month...

"We left you on Feb 3rd, telling you that after Sofia we would go back, after almost two months, in the US.....
As for leaving, we did leave, but we never made it to our final destination! After a first stop in Philadelphia, we were stopped at the passport control for immigration, and, without too many compliments, we were sent back to Italy in no time....

The problem lies in the fact that, in total good faith, we still had not requested a visa for athletes, because all the bureaucracy and the paperwork required need a quite long time and a relatively quiet period to prepared all the requested documents which, believe me, are really, really a lot!... our webmaster knows something of this, having helped us putting together a lot of papers!

So we arrived back in Milan, with great happiness of our fans and friends (but don't hate us, we were not really thrilled!) and we are training for the Tokyo Worlds dividing between Agorà and Forum, and we will leave for Japan from Milan on March 16th.

Before closing the subject, I want to let you have a laugh with the image of me and Fede locked away in a prison cell with who knows whom, which could have easily happened in case there had not been an immediate flight back to Italy... can you picture that??!! We'll cheer ourselves up by thinking that things could have gone a lot worse than they did!"

But it is not all here! We asked Massi a comment on the voices of the removal of "that" lift from their program, after the fall in Warsaw... and on the fall itself!

"My head is still in one piece even after that headfirst dive you all saw during the FD at Euros... I hava a very hard head!!!!!!!
What else can I say, it's a thing of the past now! Unfortunately the ISU won't allow us (unofficially, because there is no communication actually forbidding this) to repeat the reverse lift that until Euros characterized, even more that the other years, our free dance.
There won't be, unfortunately then, any reverse lift in our competitive program, all the complex rules and the different problems I was telling you earlier, made us think that it would be better to take no risks, also because - this is a little polemic - we feel that the risk was never rewarded as it should have been...
It would make us extremely sad, though, if the reverse lift were to be forbidden in all competitions... this would be one more step towards the general flattening that we feel has been happening - especially in ice dance - to the programs of many athletes that we feel should be dancing, creating, inventing, moving... and not just merely executing...!!!!"

One last comment for the tango, that we will see deeply revolutioned at Worlds :

"There will be a lot of news in our tango: when we got back to work after the exhibition in Sofia - where we performed out FD, with a perfect reverse lift (;p) - we decided to change our music with something that was equally beautiful but more melodic - it is a music that immediately draws you in, and we felt immediately it was "ours"!!!"

With this substantial update, we leave you, giving appointment for... as soon as possible...
thanks to Fede and Massi's unplanned stay in Milan, we found time for more photos and videos, and, as a little treat, we have lots of photos from Nationals, Euros and Bulgaria that Massi gave us to share... soon!!

 

February 3rd, 2007: Sofia

Europeans have just ended and before setting off for the US again, there's time to pay a visit to Bulgaria... Fede and Massi have been invited to skate in a show which will be held on Sunday Feb. 4th, in Sofia...

February 1st, 2007:
Happy Birthday Federica!

All our best wishes to Federica, who is celebrating today her birthday....
we love you, you know it!!

January 26th, 2007: Free Dance
.

The Free Dance didn't turn out as we all hoped, and a bad fall in the reverse lift influenced severely the final result:

FD - TES: 42.98 - PCS: 42.34 - ded: -2.00 - total 83.32

in the overall standings, Fede and Massi have lost two placements:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 199.47
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 199.16
3 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI BUL 193.73
4 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 175.76
5 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 171.90
6 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 170.26

To reassure all those who wrote us during and after the final - do not worry, Massi is ok. As a proff, a "backstage" picture of us all making our way through water and snow on saturday morning, in an improvised tour of Warsaw.
To everyone we still wish to say thank you for the encouragement and the support shown for Fede and Massi... remain with us!

January 25th, 2007: Original Dance

Fede and Massi have skated the OD this afternoon, and they successfully maintained the 4th position in the overall ranking:

OD: TES:26.40 - PCS: 26.01 - total 52.41

overall:

 

January 23rd, 2007: Euros take off


Fede and Massi in practice
©Caroline Paré

Fede and Massi skated today in the first event of the ice dancing competition of the European Championships that started today in Warsaw. Skating for 22nd, they performed a good Golden Waltz which earned them these marks:

TES:17.67 - PCS: 16.86 - Total: 34.53
they conquered the 4th position.

This are the standings of the first 10 couples:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 39.57
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 38.99
3 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVISKI BUL 38.56
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 34.53
5 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS 33.46
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR 33.44
7 Nora HOFFMANN / Attila ELEK HUN 30.64
8 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 29.69
9 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA 28.92
10 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR 27.49

Thursday 25th they will perform in the Original Dance, skating as second of the last group (this is the full starting order).

and about the site...

in the video section you'll find the vid of the Free Dance at Nationals 2007, and in the photo galleries also the phhotos from that event! (thanks to Katia!)

coming soon, news & updates from Warsaw... look for them on the message board, the site, or (for fan club members) the yahoogroup!

January 7th, 2007: Italian Champions 2007

On Saturday, January 6th 2007, Fede and Massi skated the last section of the dance competition, which brought them to their fourth Italian national title. They performed a fresh and intersting program with lots of changes especially in the lifts, and received:

TES 50.53
PCS 47.03
tot FD 97.56
overall total 192.15

congrats to our champions... and see you all soon on the site again for the photos and video!!

January 4th, 2007: National Championship

Today, Fede&Massi skated the compulsory dance and the original dance....and now results:

Results after thecompulsory dance, Golden Waltz:

1. Faiella/Scali 36.16
2. Cappellini/La Notte 30,87

Results aftel the original dance, Tango:

1. Faiella/Scali 58,43
2. Cappellini/La Notte

January 1st, 2007: Happy New Year!!!!

Here we are, already at the beginning of a new year... and more than ever ready to welcome it, with all the surprises and emotions it will bring. From everyone of us in the Web Team, the best wishes for a fabulous new year for all the friends and fans of Fede and Massi.. stay with us this year too!

Nationals
In very few days we'll all move to Trento to follow Fede and Massi at the Italian National Championships ( CD&OD on January 4th, FD on the 6th, exhibition on the 7th), and then, after a couple of weeks, we'll be ready to fly to Warsaw for the European Championships: it will be a busy period!!

Galas and TV
Fede and Massi have flown back to Italy right before Xmas to spend the holiday with their families, but of course they've been super-busy as usual: on the 26th they were in Torino for the Lancia Ice Christmas Gala (the New Year's Eve show on canale 5... quite incredible for Italy!!), on the 27th and 28th they were in Courchevel, and on the 29th they were in Bolzano for the Ice Gala (on TV on Italia1 from 22.55 on Friday 5th) and finally on the 30th they were at a gala in Alagna.

December 5th, 2006: photos and news!

In the photo section you can find lots of images from Trophée Bompard (and more are coming soon, thanks to our Canadian friend Dave!), and among the videos there are the press conferences after the OD and FD and the medal ceremony, - and there's also the new photo of the month!

Let's talk about Xmas Galas now... Fede and Massi will be on December 26th in Torino for the Lancia Ice Christmas Gala, and on Dec. 28th in Courchevel (France) for another show. On December 29th they'll be in Bolzano, for the new edition of the Ice Gala.
Both the show of Dec. 26th and 29th should be broadcasted on TV... we'll post the details as soon as they're confirmed!

November 21st, 2006:
coming back from Trophée Bompard!

As announced, we have been silent for a while, because a good part of the web team was in Paris... but now we have lots of photos, videos and stories to share!

Let's start with the facts: Fede and Massi finished the competition in third place, behind world champions Denkova/Stavisky and home favourites Delobel / Schoenfelder. They skated well in all segments of the competition, receiving good levels - the only negative things being the spin which was valued level 2 in both OD and FD, and a deduction for an excessively long lift in the FD (for the lovers of these details, we've updated the results page with all the pdf documents from their first seasonal competitions - and while we were at it, also the program/musics page!).

We'll also soon have all the photos that our photographers took during the event (but they are so many that they need a little time to organize them!) and we can also announce a few video extras, like the OD and FD press conferences... and then off-ice photos, and on their fan club site (but not in the restricted area) also a report of these three 1/2 fabulous days!

Also the photos from Skate Canada are coming soon... even for who didn't sign up for the fan club (members have already seen those!!)

come back soon!!

November 5th, 2006: welcome to the new season!

As you may have noticed, something has changed: new colours, new images, new style: Fede and Massi's site has been renewed to follow the new skating season which is starting these days (Fede and Massi are competing at Skate Canada, and are in 3rd position after the Original dance). Here is where you can find all the new things:

  • In the Photos - Competition section there are lots of new photos from the First National Ice Dance Competition of mid october;
  • in the Fan Area - Video section: all the videos of that same event
  • in the Fan Area - Download section: the new wallpapers
  • in the Backstage: Massi's photos from a fitting at the atelier of their seamstress;

keep checking on their MB and yahoogroup for news and updates from skate canada, and soon here on the site for all the results and images we can find! Next appointment: Paris, for the Trophée Bompard!

November 1st, 2006: Skate Canada

Fede and Massi are heading for Victoria (Can) for their first international event of the season: they're skating this upcoming weekend at Home Sense Skate Canada International 2006, their first Grand Prix assigment of the year.

The CD will be on Thursday, Nov. 2nd, from h.13:20
The Original Dance will be on Friday, Nov. 3rd , from h.13:20
The Free Dance will be on Sunday, Nov. 5th, . from h.11:50

Fingers crossed for Fede and Massi, for a great start of their season!! Of course we will all be following closely the event, and there will be reports and images to share (check their message board on Absolute Skating, and the fan club yahoogroup!).

November 1st: the site is almost ready for some big changes!

This weekend will also be full of news for this site too: we will debut a brand new look, and we will upload all the photo and video galleries from the First National Ice Dancing Competition and Massi's backstage photos from their seamstress' fittings, plus some new wallpapers with this season's images. While waiting for all of this, you can start checking out the photos of the Oct. 14th show - "Golden Celebrities on Ice" from a couple of our photographers, and the new photo of the month... see you here this weekend!!!

October 27th, 2006: photos!!

Surprise! We are back with a few new photos! After the Golden Celebrities on Ice show of October 14th, we met a great new photographer that accepted to give us a few pics from that night... come and see....


wow!!!
the photos are by Francesco Lotta - www.francescolotta.com

and also... still talking about photos, but not of this quality.... go to the "backstage" to find the photos we took at dinner with Fede and Massi on the evening of October 15th!

Now we'll have to wait just a few more days: with the new month we'll have the new look of this site, and some more news, the photos and videos we're preparing.. and Fede and Massi will be heading for Skate Canada, their first international competition of the season!

October 18th, 2006: see you soon!

Fede and Massi went back to the US on Tuesday, and we're still gathering all the memories, photos and stories of this beautiful week where we have finally been able to spend some time with them...
Apart from the videos and photos of the competition (coming soon!) we're also going to have funny photos from a dinner we had all together, and of the first official fan-meeting of their Fan Club (the report and the photos will be on the fan club website soon!)... their parents have been especially touched by all these initiatives (even some tears were shed!) and we'll try to keep in touch with them to involve them in our crazy plans! (and you, did you sign up already? go here).
On Monday 16th, Fede and Massi have also skated again under the guidance of the same tango dancers they worked with in June - a backstage report is coming soon as well!
Next appointment for them - their seasonal Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada (November 2/5)...

October 15th, 2006: First National Competition

Fede and Massi took part to the First National Ice Dancing Competition which was held on October 14th and 15th at the DatchForum in Assago (MI). It is useless to say how much we all were waiting to meet Fede and Massi again and to see the new programs that they built in the US... and all this waiting has been rewarded! They are both in fabulous shape, very confident and positive, and the results on the ice were evident.
Saturday 14th, after two good Compulsory Dances (the Golden Waltz and the Westminster Waltz had been drawn) we are finally discovering their new OD: a Tango full of technical difficulties, yet passionate and full of emotions... good job!
After a sneak preview in the saturday practices, we have to wait til Sunday for the FP. Fede and Massi have chosen a music which is dramatically different from last year - they're dancing a latin/techno program on the notes of "Pantera en Liberta". The technical elements are again very complex, the lifts spectacular as usual (not to miss: the new "reverse" lift, in which Massi is upside down for a moment!).
These were the marksi:

NAME POINTS CD (1) CD (2) OD FD
Faiella/Scali 192,63 19,76 18,87 57,91 96,09

We'll have a very rich photo and video gallery for this event -
you'll need to be patient for a while though, because we need some time to organize that much material!

October 14th, 2006: Golden Celebrities on Ice

If a day of competitions wasn't enough (with two compulsories, the OD and some FD practices), on the evening of October 14th Fede and Massi have skated in the show "Golden Celebrities on Ice" which took place that evening in Milan.
Fede and Massi skated on "Dancing" by Elisa, capturing the audiences with their elegance and spectacular lifts. For this show too, we're expecting photos soon!

October 1st, 2006: Music

as they have now been published by the ISU website, we can report here the musics Fede and Massi have chosen for this season's programs:

Music Original Dance as of 2006/2007 season
Tanguera performed by Sexteto Mayor

Music Free Dance as of 2006/2007 season
Pantera en Liberta by Monica Naranjo

no need to say that we're waiting anxiously to see the new programs - the first competition is every day nearer!!

October 1st, 2006:
welcome to the Faiella & Scali Fan Club

Friends and fans of Federica & Massimo, brought together by friendship and passion, to thank Fede and Massi for all the emotions that they give us, and to gather even more of their fans around these two very special persons.

Why join a club like this one? Of course there are the news, previews, mails, greetings, gadgets and surprises... but this is not all! Knowing fans from all over the world (what's better than meeting new friends who already have a big interest in common?!), meeting up at competitions and shows, organizing meetings and fun moments together, also with our favourite ice dancers... sounds like a good plan?!!

come and see everything HERE

September 08th, 2006:
a visit to Italy in October?

While waiting for the very last confirmations (as soon as we get them, we'll update here!) - we can start preparing to meet again Fede and Massi who are planning a trip to Italy...
The weekend of October 14/15 appears to be very rich for the ice in Milan... in addition to the First National Ice Dancing Competition which is going to be held at the forum in Assago (we're waiting for the schedule!), on saturday Oct. 14th there will also be a great gala at the MazdaPalace, in which Fede and Massi will be skating too.
The announced cast is memorable:

EVGENY PLUSHENKO
TATIANA TOTMIANINA & MAXIM MARININ
VICTOR PETRENKO
IRINA SLUTSKAYA
STEPHANE LAMBIEL
ELENA GRUSHINA & RUSLAN GONCHAROV
BARBARA FUSAR POLI & MAURIZIO MARGAGLIO
PHILIPPE CANDELORO
RADKA KOVARIKOVA & RENE NOVOTNY
SURYA BONALY
ALIONA SAVCHENKO & ROBIN SZOLKOWY
VLADIMIR BASEYDIN & ALEKSYI POLISCHUCK
FEDERICA FAIELLA & MASSIMO SCALI
SILVIA FONTANA
VALENTINA MARCHEI
ANNA CAPPELLINI & LUCA LANOTTE


from the official dépliant
For the tickets: TICKETONE:
Sector - - - - - - Price
Tribuna 1 Intero € 45,00
Tribuna 2 Intero € 40,00
Tribuna 3 Intero € 30,00
Tribuna 4 Intero € 22,00

and also on VIVATICKET

The MAZDAPALACE is in Via Sant'Elia 33 in Milano - more info on their site: MazdaPalace

September 5th, 2006: photos from the USA!

A treat for friends and fans... Massi just sent us some photos from their new adventure in the USA... here they are, with Massi's own comments (translated, of course!)...

The first official photo in the USA, we just landed at the Philadelphia airport, maybe you can tell from our tired faces... but we're ready (more or less) to start this new adventure.....
This has become an usual picture of our daily life.. when both Pasquale and Anjelika are working (which means every day!)... we take care of the kid for a few hours- we feed her, play with her, put her to sleep, change her diaper... after two months we've become really good! Stella is an adorable child and we have become really attached to her....
This photo is from our first move from Philadelpia to Detroit,10 hours of travel by car with one only stop to have something to eat and drink, get some fuel... here is Fede with a very packed car, full of things to be brought to Detroit...
This, as you can see, it's me, after 9 hours in the car, getting really close to madness... after listening to at least 15 CDs, some of those more than once, I started taking pictures of myself.... and then you're telling me you are the crazy ones...
A few moments after taking my own picture, I come to the side of the car with Fede and Pasquale (because the freeway was closed for a part, we had been forced to cross a city and we had of course gotten lost)... as you can see, they are showing evident signs of psychological distress...
Finally we have reached our destination and the family has reunited again (Anjelika and Stella travelled by plane) - it musyt have been well past midnight, we had just finished eating, we were simply exhausted... can you tell??

September 1st, 2006: even more international

The website continues to expand! Thanks to the enthusiasm of various international friends who have joined the group of the webmasters, we are proud to launch the French and Russian versions of Fede and Massi's website...

From a mail of late august...

While we are still impatiently waiting to see Fede & Massi's new programs, we are happy to hear from them that they're very busy and enthusiast of the work that they're doing and how things are going. This is a translation of a little part of a mail that Massi wrote us at the end of August...:

"We are fine, we are working a lot on the ice, on both the programs and the compulsories as well. We're very serene and very happy of the work we've done, we can't wait for the first competition to arrive..."
"Now we are back in Philadelpia, we'll be here till mid-september when, thank God, we'll definitevely settle in our own apartments in Detroit... I can't wait to go in there, and start setting up a home just like I like it..."

August 1st, 2006: Tango!

Next season's Original Dance will bring the skaters to perform on a Tango rhythm, and to prepare for this challenge Fede and Massi have decided to work with two fabulous Italian ballroom dancers. In the very last few days before leaving for the US, they have danced both on and off-ice under the guidance of Alberto Bersini & Nicoletta Pregnolato, two very prestigious teacher: mid-july, in Seefeld (Austria) they have won their second consecutive World title in Argentine Tango, and we also have to add to this result five national titles and an European crown to count a very impressive palmarés!
You will find a broad photo report in the Backstage.

August 1st, 2006: Message Board

Fede and Massi used to have their official forum on an Italian skating message board, but that was hardly a place for their English-speaking fans to meet! This is why today we can announce the début of their international message board on Absolute Skating!

A message board for and by the skaters and their fans. Participants to the forums include fans, webmasters, skaters, coaches and more from all over the world.
Absolute Skating is the joint venture by many enthusiastic volunteers joining hands to create a project consisting of bringing official sites of skaters, their webmasters and fans together, along with additional information and special features about figure skating, and of course a forum.

 

July 1st, 2006: The new website is born

Welcome!
The idea for this website was born as a present from a big group of friends to Federica and Massimo, with the goal of sharing them and their adventures with those who don't know them, or want to know more; it has been planned and written together with Fede and Massi, who have decided to tell their story in first person, talking about the beginning of their career, their evolution, their partnership, what they've achieved so far, why they've chosen their musics and programs...
Throughout these pages there will be a lot of space for them to tell everything about themselves, sharing their life on the ice as well as the moments of fun off-ice, parties and dinners with friends, etc.
But we don't want this site to be just a monologue in which to tell you about the life and adventures of Fede and Massi: we want this place to be a meeting point for those who love and appreciate them, and we will be happy if you'll want to share your memories and emotions, having your thoughts, messages, photos, ideas and everything else published here: in lots of places around the site you'll see we'll be welcoming your participation! (and who knows what the next months will bring!)

We hope that this site will make you fall in love with skating and with two truly special people like Federica and Massimo!

but let's move on to the real news...

June 26th, 2006: Grand Prix Entries are announced

ISU announced today the GP Entries for the next Grand Prix of figure skating.

Federica and Massimo will skate in Skate Canada (november 2/5) and Trophée Bompard (november 16/19).
Main rivals they'll meet: in Canada home-favourites Dubreuil/Lauzon and Lithuanians Drobiazko/Vanagas; in France national champions Delobel/Schoenfelder and current world champions Denkova/Staviski.

June 16th, 2006: leaving for the United States

Federica and Massimo moved to the U.S. mid-June: they'll be staying in Philadelphia first, and will move to Detroit later.
This choice was motivated by two main factors: their coaches Paola Mezzadri and Roberto Pelizzola, after years of collaboration, have decided to pursue separate coaching careers, and though Federica and Massimo have worked very well with the Pelizzola- Mezzadri- Vlasova team, they have had to reconsider their position after the end of their coaching partnership.
In the meantime, Fede and Massi have received a prestigious offer from a Detroit club, willing to welcome them on their ice.
So... Faiella & Scali have decided to leave for the US, finding a new coach and choreographer in Pasquale Camerlengo - known now as a choreographer of several high level athletes, and with a past of Italian dance champion with former partner Stefania Calegari. "This is a golden occasion" say Massimo and Federica, leaving in the pursuit of the quality jump they need to get closer to the top of the rankings.

In the days immediately prior to their departure, Federica and Massimo have worked with Nicoletta Pregnolato and Alberto Bersini, World Professional Champions in Argentine Tango, in order to start preparing the original dance of the next season, based on this rhythm.

Here they are in a group photo, at the end of the last practice:


Pasquale Camerlengo, Federica, Nicoletta Pregnolato, Massimo, Alberto Bersini

in a moment of pause, we took the chance to gather some comments from Pasquale on the new adventure they were about to begin.

"It is only the first day that I'm working on the ice with them, so it is too early to make any promise, but I can say we are starting from some very good basis for this relationship.
There has always been a very good feeling between us, since we shared the ice in Rome for six months when I was still skating and I practiced at the rink in Mentana. Then we had the chance to work together for some ten days in Berlin, right before Worlds in 2004, and back then we immediately found the old relationship again. So, I'd say that our relationship is first born on an instinctive understanding at the human level, before the technical and professional level.
Talking about the ice, for me Fede and Massi are a couple of fantastic skaters, dancers of rare talent which is hard to find, and I also know that they are very hard workers, so we can start with a lot of enthusiasm and positivity. Next season will be very important, and we want to be as ready as possible".