Important Things to Remember; What the ISU Communication on judging the Tango Romantica Says
Skating Skills
Ice coverage without visible pushing; cleanness and sureness of steps; strongly curved well rounded lobes; lobe to lobe transitions well controlled; controlled body weight changes; light knee action; clean, tight, crisp footwork.
Performance
Perfect vertical and horizontal unison; good carriage and style; controlled body action;nicely matched free legs; balance in performance between partners.
Interpretation
Expression of the typical changes between the soft and strong character of the rhythm, relationship between partners reflecting the lyrical mood of this Tango. Well-defined and strong edges should be skated with a lot of character using good knee action, tight ,clean footwork with matching free leg movements. For good presentation and interpretation the body style and movements should reflect Tango rhythm.
Timing
Very precise and crisp timing, exact beat value for each step, sometimes syncopated to bring out the Tango character.
Here are some of the key players in the medal race performing their Tango Romanticas this season.
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir
Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin
Meryl Davis/Charlie White
Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali
Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte
Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski
Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat
Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder (from the 2006 Europeans, embedding is disabled on this video, annoyingly!)
I've also decided, as a point of comparions, to add in some of the best performances of the Tango Romantica from the past few years as a point of comparison.
Jayne Torvill/Christopher Dean
Oksana Grishuk/Evengy Platov
Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat
So there you have it; everything you need to know about the Tango Romantica! Hope it was helpful.
