This week Battle of the Blades had two guest judges: Bryan Trottier and Brian Orser. They joined Sandra at the judges table, a table that was missing Jeremy Roenick. This week, the Battle theme was "Canadian Songbook". I guess CBC needs to get that Canadian content somehow ;). The performances were the best of the season, and it was reflected in the marks that were given. In the end, the difference between first place and last place was .3 points. This was going to mainly come down to how the audience voted, and boy did they vote! They actually broke the Facebook vote application. But first, the skates.
Taking the top was Cale Husle and Violetta. "She's So High" by Tal Bachman was their chosen song and off they went. They had some beautiful lifts, and great flow and chemistry. What made this impressive is the fact that Violetta was fairly injured and her foot couldn't fit in the skate one day and the next it took her over 45 minutes to put it on. But you couldn't tell when they preformed and they earned a 17.2.
For the first time Curtis Leschyshyn looked like he was enjoying himself out there. Before, he always seemed to be thinking about what to do, this time he just seemed in the moment and confident. He and Elena performed to "Let's Go Higher" by Johnny Reid. My favorite thing about these two is that the lifts, jumps and tricks seem completely effortless. The judges rewarded the pair with their highest mark thus far: 17.1.
David and Tessa took on the Tragically Hip's "Long Time Running". The performance was good, but the end was a little awkward. The skate earned them a 17.1.
Tanith and Boyd skated to "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles. It was an entertaining skate that earned them a 17.0. Some of the audience seemed upset with this grade, but it seemed fair.
Anabelle and Brad May skated to Michael Bublé's "Come Fly With Me". The pair was told that lifts and jumps were good, but that they needed to work on their transitions and improve on their footwork. There was a nifty little move when the duo was skating side by side and Anabelle blindly jumped into Brad's arms sideways. The skate earned them a 16.9.
The dissapointment for me was in Marie-France's and Bryan's skate. These two are usually some of my favorites performance-wise. He seems to be the most comfortable with the idea of putting on a "show" and goes out there to entertain. This week they skated to Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" and it seemed like they were trying to be the song a little too much. They matched Brad and Anabelle's 16.9 to round out the bottom.
Monday night came and the 6 pairs were knocked down to the two bottom ones. Curtis, Boyd, Tessa and Bryan were all safe leaving Brad and Cale to have a skate-off. The two pairs re-skated the previous nights performance. Both went off without a hitch, although I did notice that the audience was cheering rather loudly for all the lifts and tricks that Cale and Violetta did, and were not as vocal for Brad and Anabelle.
When it came time to eliminate the bottom pair, all three judges decided to eliminate Brad and Anabelle, however, they decided to use their "save", so no one is leaving Battle this week. All six competitors will be there next week, however, the judges aren't able to save anyone else for the duration of the competition.