Skate Today ~ The Inside Edge

Belbin & Agosto look towards Skate America

Publish On 10-14-2008 , 2:52 PM

Next week, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto will enter the 2008/09 season looking to erase the pain of their fouth-place finish at the 2008 World Championships in Sweden. Belbin and Agosto will compete at their seventh Skate America event, October 24-26 in Everett, Washington, USA.

Following the World Championships, Belbin and Agosto made a coaching change moving from Detroit to begin training under Natalia Lininchuk and Gennadi Karponosov in Aston, PA.

“We felt we needed to achieve the highest level of skating we can. It’s been go go go since we arrived,” Belbin said.

The new training facility has been a real motivator for the dancing duo.

“Ice Works is a great facility with four sheets of ice including an Olympic sized sheet. We were used to the NHL sized rink and now everything is much larger and stronger. The competitive atmosphere is great too,” Agosto replied.

“It has been a very exciting few months. Skate America will be a great debut for the ‘new’ Tanith and Ben,” Agosto exclaimed. “Everyone will have a crowd pleaser this year for the original dance. This year we are doing a tap number. It is something we have never done before.”

“This genre has added more class and polish and we will take the energy and make it run from our toes to our fingers.” Tanith added.

For their free dance, Tanith and Ben will use Tosca.

“With Tosca, we wanted to take our program in a more dramatic and passionate direction. It is a very powerful program, nothing like we have ever done before. We have increased our speed and power from pervious years,” Tanith stated. “I really hope this will be the best free dance we have ever done,” she added.

With new programs come new costumes.

“My mom is making all my costumes again this year. She has gone above and beyond everything she has done before. They will be revved up this year – loud, bright and sparkly,” revealed Tanith.

Don’t miss Skate America next week, as Tanith and Ben will look to add to their two gold medals from last years Skate America and Cup of China as well as their silver medal from the Grand Prix Final.

Skate Today’s Brett Barden will be providing photography from the 2008 Skate America event in Everett, Washington. Watch the site for more details!

Also competing in Ice Dance at the Skate America event will be:
Kristin Fraser & Igor Lukanin – AZE
Allie Hann-McCurdy & Michael Coreno – CAN
Pernell Carron & Mathieu Jost – FRA
Isabelle Delboel & Olivier Schoenfelder – FRA
Sinead Kerr & John Kerr – GBR
Katherine Copely & Deividas Stagniunas – LTU
Ekaterina Rubleva & Ivan Shefer – RUS
Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates – USA
Jane Summersett & Todd Gilles – USA

-- Brett Barden, Skate Today.com

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