Winter Olympics preview: Ice Dance

Object Of The Game

Take ballroom dancing, add skates. It’s all about the beat in ice dance, where skaters pair up for spins, lifts and holds in two dances to a specific rhythm. Unlike pairs skating, ice dancers don’t throw or jump, and are meant to stay within two arms-lengths of one another.

Until the end of the 2009-10 season, Ice Dance competitions involved three dances. Now, the two-program format more closely resembles that of the Pairs competition.

Details

• 24 pairs compete in the short dance, combining elements of the now-defunct Compulsory and Original dances; where a required pattern is performed by skaters (selected by the ISU), with original choreography implemented into the two minute and 50 seconds program

• The best scores qualify to skate the four-minute free dance, encouraging creativity along with its one spin, two step sequences, one twizzle sequence, and four-to-five lifts.

Schedule

All times EST.

Most Likely Podium

1. Meryl Davis / Charlie White (USA)

2. Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (Canada)

3. Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev (Russia)

2013 ISU World Championships

1. Meryl Davis / Charlie White (USA)

2. Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (Canada)

3. Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev (Russia)

2010 Winter Olympics Podium

1. Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (Canada)

2. Meryl Davis / Charlie White (USA)

3. Oksana Domnina / Maxim Shabalin (Russia)