12th and 13th December - Spanish National Championships All three couples did extremely well in this year's National Championship. With six couples in Junior Ice Dance (2 from France, 2 from Italy and our own 2 Junior couples) Adria and Sara came in first place with a lead of more than 11.97 points between them and the French couple who came in second place, with Luis and Maria doing well in fifth place. Rory and Sandra won the Novice Ice Dance section. The points achieved can be seen by clicking below.
6th December - Luis & Maria, Rory & Sandra The first gold medal for Spain in Ice Dance! Rory and Sandra won 1st place in Pre-Novice at the Santa Claus Cup in Budapest, Hungary today and Luis and Maria came 8th in Junior. A fantastic result for the team - we only wish that Sara and Adri had been there, but they had to withdraw because of an injury. Now we have 6 days until the Spanish Nationals - keep watching to see what happens.
Adri & Sara, Luis & Maria, Rory & Sandra
We are delighted that everyone did really well in Dortmund, enen though they are all suffering from colds, flu etc. In Junior, Adri & Sara came 6th and Luis & Maria came 18th then Rory & Sandra came 4th in their very first competition in Pre-Novice. Well done to everyone and we are looking forward now to them competing again at the start of December in the Santa Claus Cup in Hungary.
Adri & Sara, Luis & Maria, Rory & Sandra
Our three couples are competing this week in Dortmund at the NRW Trophy 2009 for Ice Dancing. Adri & Sara and Luis & Maria are competing at Junior level and Rory & Sandra are competing in the pre-novice level. We wish them all the best in this busy event.
Sara & Adri
A fantastic start to the Junior Grand Prix season - Sara and Adri have finished in 10th place in their competition in Lake Placid in the United States. They were sitting 12th after their Compulsory Dance, but finished 10th after skating beautifully in their Original Dance and Free Dance. Well done to both of them, we look forward to them being back in Spain on Monday (which is also John's birthday).
Firstly, apologies to everyone for falling behind on news, but things have been so busy.
Sara & Ruben
After a break of a few weeks, Sara and Ruben are back training with us regularly and we are delighted to see them.
Work in Progress
All the couples now have their full compliment of programmes for the next season and are working hard on bringing them up to John's exacting standards.
Choreography
We were lucky enough to have Roman from Lyon here a short while ago to work on the Sara & Adri's Original Dance which is folk dance for the next season. He has created a marvelous Flamenco programme that they both love skating.
Summer Ice Dance School
We finished a week long ice dance school here last weekend with a fantatic turnout of attendees both from Spain and farther afield. John was capably assisted by Alessandro DiPietrantonio and Adri and the rest of the team joined in to demonstrate. Details for next year's school can be found at http://madridicedanceschool.webs.com.
Junior Grand Prix's
With the season nearly upon us, Sara and Adri are getting ready to travel to Lake Placid and Istanbul and Luis and Maria are going to Dresden. ou can check out the entries and results on our competition page.
Laura & Simon
Both John and his wife Joanne Conway-Dunn are available to choreography all levels of both artistic and dance skating. If you are interested please click on the Choreography page and send us your details.
29th - Choreography
Both John and his wife Joanne Conway-Dunn are available to choreography all levels of both artistic and dance skating. If you are interested please click on the Choreography page and send us your details.
28th - Laura's new partner
The day has finally arrived, Laura's lovely new partner, Simon, has moved from Canada to Spain to join her and the team here in Madrid. We look forward to seeing him here every morning bright and early and wish them both the best of luck with their future partnership together at Senior level.
9th - 18th - ISU Ice Dance Development Training Seminar
Sara, Adria, Maria and Luis had a fantatic time at the Isu Dance Seminar. The whole seminar was extremely successful and both couples learnt a great deal from the coaches who attended as well as making some great new friends from around the world. New pictures have been uploaded in the Photo Gallery
20th - New Partner
Rory now has a lovely new partner, her name is Sandra del Valle Velasco and she has been free skating in Valdemoro until now. We are delighted to welcome Sandra to the team and she and Rory will represent Spain as the Novice couple in this year's international competitions.
10th - Partner Tryout
We have some very exciting news. Rory will be trying out next week with a young girl from Spain. He has been dancing alone since the unexpected departure in January of Emma Garcia, his previous partner, through a previous non-skating injury.
9th - News from Laura
Laura is having a fantastic time in Canada with Simon and his parents. They are training 3 days a week in Toronto in the same rink as ice dance couples Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier and Nikki Georgiadis & Graham Hockley. Laura will be back in Spain on the 19th of April and we are looking forward to having her and Simon back.
6th - Private Ice Dance Classes
John has some spare ice time for people who would like either private one-to-one classes or group lessons at the Ice Rink in Majadahonda on Sundays between 12.30pm and 3.00pm. If you are interested please click on this link John's Email
5th - ISU Ice Dance Development Training Seminar
Adria & Sara and Maria & Luis will be attending the above Seminar from 8th to 19th April 2009 in Oberstdorf. Some of the best coaches in the world will be at the Seminar and it is a fantastic opportunity for all of them.
Laura leaves for Canada
Laura leaves on Tuesday (3rd March) to stay with her new partner, Simon, in Canada whilst we wait for Simon to finish his University studies. They will return together to train full-time here in Spain in April. We are really going to miss Laura for this period of time and can't wait to see her and Simon train together with us soon.
World Junior Figure Skating Championships, Sofia, Bulgaria
Disappointing results for Sara & Adria meant that they did not qualify to take part in either the Original Dance or Free Dance section of the competition. We are glad to have them back at home and can't wait for the competition next year.
Results (Part 3)
The final dance (Free Dance) was held on 19th February and Sara & Adria came 7th giving them an overall position for the competition of 7th place. This is a fantastic result for this young couple who have not only been skating for just one year together, but have only been learning ice dance for one year. Congratulations to them both, but no time to breath - they are travelling back to Madrid and then 12 hours later travelling again to the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Results (Part 2)
An update on Sara & Adria who are currently at the 9th Winter European Youth Olympic Festival. They came a fantastic 5th place in the Original Dance which has moved them up to 6th place overall with the Free Dance left to go tonight (19th February) all our love and best wishes are with them.
Results
Sara & Adria are currently at the 9th Winter European Youth Olympic Festival and are sitting in 7th position after the Compulsory Dance. The Original Dance is on Wednesday so we are all wishing them the best of luck.
Partner Tryout
Coming to Majadahonda on Sunday is Simon Gagnon from Canada. He is here to tryout with Laura as her potential partner. Simon is a very experienced Ice Dancer and we are very excited about his arival.
ISU Ice Dance Development Training Seminar
Maria and Luis will be attending the above Seminar from 8th to 19th April 2009 in Oberstdorf. Some of the best coaches in the world will be at the Seminar and it is a fantastic opportunity for them both.
Private Ice Dance Classes
John has some spare ice time for people who would like either private one-to-one classes or group lessons. If you are interested please click on this link John's Email
Boots
All the Ice Dancers now have Graf Dance boots. They're all very excited and we're stockpiling plasters and gel pads in preparation for the moaning.
***ALERT***ALERT***ALERT***
It has been a Red Letter Day in the rink today (11th February), Laura had her first EVER day without falling on the ice. We would all like to congratulate her on this amazing achievement and think she should buy us all a round of drinks as a celebration (only joking Laura - we'll make John buy us a shandy and 8 straws).
Luis
Great news, Luis came back to Madrid on 10th February and is feeling much better and will be back on the ice just after Sara & Adria return from Junior Worlds. Maria is really looking forward to him being back as she has had to skate with Rory for the past few weeks.
Upcoming Competitions
The next couple of weeks are unbelievably busy for Sara & Adria. On 14th February they fly to compete in the European Youth Festival in Poland, then return to Madrid for a whistlestop 12 hour turnaround before flying to compete in the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. They are hoping to qualify for the Freedance section of this competition which would be an amazing achievement for a couple who have only been doing ice dance for one year.
Getting Better
Luis has recently had a large piece of glass removed from his leg (the result of a previous injury that was overlooked). Everything has gone really well and we look forward to him being back on the ice in March 2009. We all wish Luis lots of love and a speedy recovery.
Bavarian Championship, Oberstdorf, Germany
Sara & Adria performed two compulsories (Starlight Waltz and the Paso Doble) plus their Original Dance on the first day. They finished 6th with the Starlight Waltz, 5th with the Paso Doble and then late into the night at 10pm they performed their Original Dance in which they finished 3rd, but with 2 of the Judges putting them in 1st place. This left them skating their Freedance on the following day and achieving a fantastic 4th place final position and missing 3rd place by only 1 point.
