“…I don’t know what this means,” Dusk says.

We sure will!

Round eleven will kick off in June or July—we're yet to pin down the exact dates, but an official announcement will be posted here on Tumblr some time in May.

I'll respond to any asks later tonight, or sooner if I feel better.

Urmanov was actually the one who chose Four Seasons for Deniss and they had begun working on it before the coaching change. Stephane and Deniss changed it to the Max Richter version to avoid having the exact same program repeated.

Deniss doesn’t have quads because he was spending this season recovering from a serious injury to his thigh, the same injury that ended Lambiel’s career. And it was Stephane who organised the doctor who fixed Deniss up because of his experiences.

Stephane is not an inexperienced coach, yes Deniss is his first international senior student, but Stephane runs the skating school of switzerland and has coached many young champions and other students before Deniss. He has also spent years as a choreographer and a ‘finesse coach’ (in other words: polishing programs with skaters in order to bring out their full artistic potential).

Who knows, maybe Deniss’ jump technique would have been better with Urmanov, but being with Lambiel has polished Deniss’ artistry, spins and skating skills to amazing levels, and he has so much room to grow as well. I would argue that the strides they have made as a coach/student team in such a short time have been incredible and now that Deniss is recovered fully, and ready for it, the improvement will increase with quads (barring any pesky growth spurts). 

He’s not wasting his potential, he’s realising it. 

Deniss Vasiljevs is a natural born performer, he has a stage presence, and energy on the ice that has truly flourished with the change in coaches. Because it took someone like Stephane, an artist on ice, to help Deniss really come into his own as a skater and performer. Yes they have similarities, many coach and student teams do, yes their similarities are quite pronounced, but that is one of the reasons they work so well together. Stephane knows how to bring out the best in Deniss and Deniss is able to find his own style. Deniss has an electric youthful energy that makes him so bright and earnest and joyous, that you can’t help but smile and clap along because you can feel how much fun he is having, how much he loves skating. Stephane doesn’t have that same energy, his style is different. 

Also Stephane is one of Deniss’ idols and it is natural for skaters to emulate the styles of their idols. 

I support this cooperation because Deniss seems to be so much happier, and he is improving so rapidly I can’t wait to see where this team up takes him.

It means that they have good extension and form. In other words, they have aesthetically pleasing ‘shapes’ they make with their body.

Stephane is an example of good lines because it looks like his body ‘continues’. It flows and doesn’t cut off awkwardly at his arms or legs.

Mao is another example of good lines, look how her pointed toe makes her leg all straight and extended and beautiful. 

Carolina is another example, look how her arms don’t look awkward. It seems as if they continue beyond her body, stretching further then herself, and her leg lines are continuous, they don’t cut off weirdly, she doesn’t hunch, it looks lovely.

Qualities for having nice lines tend to be, excellent posture, no drooping head or hunched shoulders. Pointed toes and extended fingers, no mallet feet or t-rex hands. streeeeeeeeeeeetch. It will look really flowy and smooth. They seem as though they are skating with their entire body, all the way past the tips of their fingers and bottom of their feet. 

Look at top ballet dancers, how everything is extended, the port de bras is lofty and delicate, everything looks beautiful and nothing is weird or ugly or cut off. 

First of all, love that you felt the need to make sure I could figure out who Bugs and Daffy were if for some reason I was unaware. Happily I’ve been watching Looney Tunes since I was about five years old, so I am exceptionally qualified to answer this question.

Lore is so, so very jealous of the way that Bugs and Daffy can just casually break the laws of physics whenever and however they want. He takes notes for future Dreamscape shenanigans. He also falls victim to the classic “Rabbit Season” blunder and vows to never let anyone know that he was outwitted, ever. The problem is that Lore leans into chaos, and it’s never a good idea to bring more chaos to an already chaotic scenario. It just makes a feedback loop and then whoever takes advantage first wins.

Gen, on the other hand, functions more on logic than anything else, and while he doesn’t exactly win, he also doesn’t lose. “That’s a tunnel painted on a rock wall,” he says critically. “I’ll go around, thanks.” Meanwhile Daffy slams into it head-on, as he is prone to doing, but he also pops back into shape unscathed since he too runs on chaos. Gen “wins” by virtue of suffering the least amount of accidents.