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Goodbye, Latin Short Dance. I won't miss you.

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Well, the day has finally come. No more latin short dances this season! Or for many seasons, if I get my wish. Let's revisit some of the torture inflicted upon us (me) by the latin dances:

-Tessa Virtue trying to "break it down" in the first 10 seconds of her program

-skaters generally trying to be sexy who should not be

-alternatively, Maia and Alex Shibutani trying to pull of Latin dance but not even really trying to be sexy because, hey, they are brother-sister and that would gross people out, but they also ended up coming off like junior skaters half the time

-disjointed programs that were unsure whether they should be upbeat and happy or slow and seductive. But never slow and happy or upbeat and seductive. Hmm...

-So many ponytails. Some real, some fake. Some high, some low. Many ugly, some cute. TOO MANY PONYTAILS.

-costumes whose next gigs are as neon glow sticks at your cousin's Bar Mitzvah

I'm sure many of you love the latin dances. In real life, I LOVETHEMSOMUCH. For some reason, I could not get into them this season on the ice. But I don't like short dances in general. So it's my own problem.

But adios, Latin dances. I'm sure I'll yearn for you next year when I'm on my 35th hour of watching polkas. But the costumes alone are going to make it worth it. And the Heidi references! Think of the Heidi references, everyone.

Oh, yeah, and let's talk a little bit about the competition from yesterday.

I am no expert on ice dancing, so I cannot analyze why America's Davis and White received negative grades of execution on their rhumba yesterday. Needless to say, it was not an obvious deduction like a fall or out-of-sync twizzle would have been. But in terms of just being a fan watching, I will say it was definitely not the best they've ever performed that program. Whereas I felt that Canada's Virtue and Moir did perform theirs the best they have all season. That doesn't necessarily mean that Virtue and Moir deserve to be leading the competition, but I won't argue with it. I will, however, argue with France's Pechalat and Bourzat (whom I love and who deserve all the respect in the world for coming back from Pechalat's schnozz injury so well) being so close to Davis and White and even beating them on technical elements. Not in any other country would that have happened. I will also add that I loved Weaver and Poje of Canada. I think that's a great program for them, and they sold it yesterday. But they need to kiss their bronze medal dreams goodbye, because this is the year that Pechalat and Bourzat get on the podium.

Shibutani and Shibutani have been up and down with their not-very-riveting program all season, and yesterday they almost looked out of their league. And the judges agreed by placing them seventh. Something seemed a bit off. Their scores are still quite high and they will do better in the free dance, hopefully, but they just looked young out there.

Otherwise, I was happy to see Ilinykh and Katsalapov and Cappellini and Lanotte do so well; I enjoy both pairs. However, I do think the bronze medal has Pechalat and Bourzat's name on it. They'll need a fall or something disastrous to lose it.