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Tuesday, May 13th 2008

Paola Mezzadri, Fede, Massi, Luigi Bonino, Pasquale Camerlengo.

As usual, quite some time has passed since we had our last update, but we can assure you that it was some well-used time!
After Worlds and a well-deserved holiday, Fede and Massi came back to Milan to start building the basis of their new programs with Paola Mezzadri. It was a long research work, to find the new musics, and lots of ideas and themes were selected and examined - and even if we're not giving out the details yet, we are really satisfied with the choices we made.
In the photo above, a ritual group photo at the end of a great work session with dancer Luigi Bonino. For a couple of othe rphotos... keep reading!
Fede and Massi flew back to Detroit yesterday, bringing programs and musics - and now it's the beginning of a long period of training to perfect all the programs!

Before leaving, it was again time for Federica to sit down to write a message for us all....

"Hi to everyone!!
Finally we can sit down to write some news for you!!
First of all we want to thank you for the emotional support that all of you have given us this past season - a season that have forever a special place in our hearts. We are very happy and satisfied with how things have gone, but the thing that is most important for us is that we know we shared our emotions with our skating and this was our main goal.
After Worlds we took two weeks of well-deserved holiday to spend some time with our family and friends, but then we immediately went to work on the new programs. We stayed in Milan as usual, and with our coaches Paola Mezzadri and Pasquale we chose the musics and we started creating.
We are very happy of our choices and of the work we've done so far, and even if we are just at the beginning of the job, we are very enthusiast of what you'll see in a few months. Coosing was quite difficult, but we knew that we could count on our emotions and on our coaches, and we can't wait to start this season even better than the past one.
We'll be leaving for the US soon, where lots of people are waiting for us - people that like you do love us and can't wait to see us again! You all can imagine that the moment of leaving is always difficult, but wait for us and be ready for lots of new emotions - we'll do our best to make this possible.
We will miss you all very much, but we know you are close to us even if there's an ocean between us all.
A big hug with all our love!"

quick photo for a lovely dinner... impossible to skip the gathering of friends!

........................................

some quick words for the technical aspect of the site:

you might have noticed the first big news - with a quite string decision we chose to close the Russian and French version of the site, opting to concentrate more on less version to keep them updated a lot more frequently.
As every summer, we've ditched the look we've used for the whole season, for a quick change that will accompany us all through the summer, until we will be ready to show you all the new version dedicated to the new programs... in the meantime we hope you'll like this one!
More substantial updates will follow in the next few weeks - we'll get back to all the photos we've been saving for quite too long...

For now... two pics just to tickle your curiosity (and we swear that the other ones are not out of focus... we had fun with these two only!)

it's a moment from the... hm... could it be the fd? the od? I can't remember... but we surely were feeling very "artistic" in the dance room...

and another pic that is making the writing webmaster laugh a lot... Massi's flying, but is it work or just having fun at the end of the session? only time will tell....

see you all soon!

 

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".

 

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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

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

 

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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

 

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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)

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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!!

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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!!