Congrats to ALL Competitors!

Jordan and I had to stay home this year, but we wanted to send out a BIG congrats to ALL the skaters who went to Nationals this year.

We Missed You!

Jordan and I are no longer skating together, but we are still the best of friends. I ended moving across the state and life has taken a fork in the road. We miss each other and the ice badly, but there is not rink in my new town! Argh! We may one day skate again. In the meantime, we will keep cheering everyone else on!

Here's what I am doing now.
Portland & Bend Portrait Photographer Julia Radlick at www.jewel-images.com

The Last Hoorah!

So, Silver dance ends with a Gold Medal for Portland. Bob Raemer and Marilu Cmapbell swept all four dances looking absolutely divine, and we are all so proud. Shnnon Conroy and Bill Cloran, another Portland team took the bronze and Lauren Zell and Mike Barsotti EASILY took gold in Cenntennial dance. They were marvelous! After it was all over, we headed to downtown Chicago and celebrated with authentic stuffed pizza! YUM! We pigged out and had a blast exploring this great town. Here's on of the group:

Jordan and Me!
Cityscape....along Millenium park and Michigan Ave.
Sears Tower. It really is that tall....
Um....excuse me? I wanna go that high! Um dear....you're a bit heavy for that! LOL
Ah....the Silver Dance gold medalists! Marilu....feels good doesn't it! LOL.

The Silver dancers checking out the final standings.
Me and my new buddy Lexi Rohner from US Figure Skating. What a cool gal!
The Centennial Dance podium. Lauren and Mike....we are so proud!

Championship Dance: Mike and Julie nabbed the title easily. Liz and Carl took the silver. Gorgeous teams. Fun Tangos. Next year, Folk/Country? ...should be spectacular!
The competitors party. Mike and Lauren cutting it up on the floor! Woohoo!
Kia with Lauren: Man that guy's got the moves!
Paul and Liz: Mr. Harvath and his uncanny ability to make every girl feel like a million bucks!
Our coach Anthony: Trust me. We had NO idea he danced like this! LOL. It is now permenantly engrained in digital imagery and videotape for future blackmail use! LOL. Just kidding.
The social ice dance session takes place this morning and then it's time to go home. Some of the Portland dancers don't leave til later today, so we hope to be able to head back to Chicago and hit one of the art museums.

This compeition was one of the best Adult Nationals. It was so organized, so smooth and a joy to be at. The Portland Ice dancers had a blast and we are tickled to all be going home with a medal. It truly was a week to remember.

Thank you, everyone for your support, your love and your thoughts. The people behind the scenes are the silent heros who make us who we are and enable us to do what we love. We appreciate you more than you'll ever know.

WOW....this is it! My last entry for US Nationals. Stay tuned to http://jjicedance.blogspot.com for more on Jordan and I as we start next season and look forward to another year of dancing on ice!

See you in Lake Placid, NY 2008!

Until Next Time,

---J

Who Said It's Friday The 13th?!

Another rockin day at AN! Gold dance was a tight race and everyone performed great programs. The Harvaths....after years of vying for the gold medal....grabbed it and deserved it. Their tango was sexy, divine and seeing this sweet married couple dance such a dance is enough to make anyone believe in love. Gorgeous! Molly and Kia skated gorgeous too with tons of expression and grit even though Molly has been battling injuries all week. Way to go Molly! Jordan and I ended in with a SILVER medal! We are thrilled! With thte obstacles we have overcome and the hoops it took jumping through to get here and hte way this prorgam looked three weeks ago....we are so happy...we can't wipe the smiles off our faces! Molly and Kia ended with third and Walter and June skated a lovely OD and finished fourth.
KATU -TV called me in the middle of it all asking how we did and we made the 6:30 pm news in Portland! Here's the link!http://www.katu.com/news/7021152.html

Of course the celebration afterwards was the best part!:

The Annual Dancers Dinner:
Michelle Harvath and Jordan Johnson.

Terri Levine and Paul Harvath:

Michelle with a camera: What dya expect?

The podium Gold Dance:

The dancers dinner. Dave Gaultier and Paul Harvath got serenaded !! LOL
The Dancers Dinner: At Angelos Ristorante
Molly and Kia at the Dancers Dinner
Terri and Tim after winning their Silver medal in Pre-Gold Dance!

The Pre-Gold Dancers:
Pre-Gold Gold MEdalists Kyomi and Neil: So cute!
Jordan and me after the best performance of OD ever!
Marilu Campbell performing her Interpretive "Spider" number: She got 4th! Whoohooo Marilu! What a sit spin girl!
Pre-Gold dancers Deb and Dave Gaultier:

Kelley Ann and Bill: Pre-Gold OD

Terri and Tim: Pre-Gold OD.
Kyomi and Neil: Pre-Gold OD:
The Pre-Gold division was sooo competitive too! So many great OD's and such variety of music. It was so fun to see everyone's interpretation.

Final notes for this morning: I can't believe how much fun AN is. I am honored to be here and so blessed to be among such giving and caring people. Silver dance FR is this morning in about 20 minutes and Cenntennial final is right after. Tonight is Cahmpionship Dance FR and tomorrow is the Social Dance! Still so much more to go. Stay Tuned!

Until Next Time,

----J

PS Thanks so much for everyone's support and for your kind words and comments. I can't believe how generous people are with their thoughts and well wishes. It means the world to everyone here and you are appreciated....greatly!

Another Rockin Night In Dance!

Check out these beaming faces! You're looking at the leaders of the IR in Silver dance, Marilu Campbell and Bob Raemer (Our coach Anothny Darnell is there too. Oh and that's Marilu's mom!)!



The results "wall" right after Silver dance:
Bob, not believing what he's seeing....you deserved it Bob! You skated great!
John and Kathi Gatti: In 2nd place Silver Dance. They were shocked as heck too! What's up with the surprises? You all looked fab!
Thursday night's Portland teams with coach Anthony Darnell:
Bob and Marilu after their winning Foxtrot!

Portland's own Shannon Conroy and Bill Cloran before their Tango. Bill looked divine in his red sash! They are currently tied for 3rd place in Silver Dance.
Marilu and Bob in the Tango!
Sherri Martinelli deciding that the stuffed toys were soley thrown to her and NOT her partner! You are so cute! (Mine! Mine! Mine!)
Cenntennial dance IR winners Lauren Zell and Mike Barsotti---they rocked the house last night! No one can Rocker Foxtrot quite like Lauren!

Bill and Shannon! Go Portland!

Shannon and her sister. Aren't they just the most adorable siblings? I think they are communicating telepathically at this moment.
More Silver Dance!
Margaret and Jim: So lovely. Margaret ALWAYS has a smile on her face no matter what!


Silver & Cenntennial Dance:

Six teams, all very nice. The dances: Foxtrot and Silver Tango. Marilu and Bob won both of them! The crowds in the stands loved this event and even though Silver Dance and Cenntennial Dance stretched beyond the 10 pm hour, the spectators stayed to see all the action. Cenntennial dance was spectacular. To watch Lauren and Mike sweep the IR of the event was so fun. They really did deserve it too. Portland is soooo proud of everyone!

Championship Dance:

Mike and Julie---need I say more!??!! They blew the competition out of the water as always and skated a HUGE Blues! Their end pattern came out a good 15 feet from the boards! No joke! I have no idea how she hangs on to that swing roll! Great edge, Jules!

Liz and Carl are in second place with a great blues and a fun Quickstep. Molly and Kia are in third place with what Kia call "the nicest compulsories we have done."

Everyone wanted to watch Championship Dance and the stands were packed. Her's some pics Michelle Harvath sent to me to post.

I just love that girl! She has got to be the coolest, funniest and hippest skater, photog, friend/person around. She also blows me out of the water when it comes to shooting pics! I wish I had your talent, girl! Thanks for the contribution. OMG! I have a real "Harvath" works on my blog!

Awwww...aren't they cute?
Me and Mish!
Me and Jordan watching Champ Dance! Jordan is so sick of me and a camera! Can you tell? LOL. Poor guy. Just one more day, my friend! One more day. And I won't take your picture for another year! I promise!
Tonight, we skate our OD. The race for Gold Dance is sooo TIGHT! The hope is to just have fun, and skate the best we can. We've overcome injuries and personal strife to get here and just getting through a clean prorgam will be a blessing. Think good thoughts for us please!

Any comments you want to leave...please do so. I LOVE reading them! It really does inspire me to post more and do more! Can you believe this blog has had over 1500 readers these past few days??? And they are from as far away as England and Russia! Wow!I was shocked! Thanks so much for your support everyone! Adult skating rocks!

Ok we are off to go watch the Pre-Gold Final Round. Good Luck to Tim and Terri!

T and T are dynamite!!!! We Love you!

Until Next Time,

---J

PS I'll post what I can about Pre-Gold as soon as I can!

Pictures!

Jay and his cookies! Gotta love the cookies!

He has "boy" coookies and "girl" cookies. The "boy" cookies have nuts..... "girls" don't. {giggle}

The results "WALL":
Oregon's Marilu Campbell and Stephen Trzaka. He's doing pairs! She's doing Silver dance with Bob Raemer tonight. Good Luck!
We all know this awesome gal!!

True ambassador of adult skating and we love her! (I'm just kinda in the way, there. Sorry.)

Some baaad news. I have misplaced my little point-and-shoot camera. I am sick about it because I had some great fun shots on it, and I hope it's not lost forever. I hunted all morning for it, but to no avail. Maybe it will turn up in the lost and found. {hopeful!}

Disclaimer: These are all shot on with my Nikon, but I have NO experience with shooting fast-moving skaters and I'm almost embarrassed to even try to show the shots (Paul and Michelle: I am so not worthy!) , but I know you guys LOVE pictures, so here they are. These are straightout of the camera, as us photogs like to say SOOC and no Photoshop work has been done at all cause I have NO time! Argh! Also: please forgive any mis-spellings of names. I know. I know. I'm a journalist. I should get names right, but well, so be it.

Ok lots to show.

Mike and Nancy: currently in third place in Pre-Gold Dance.

Deb and Dave Gaultier: currently in fourth place after Pre-gold IR: Gotta love those free legs! Yummy! I can only wish !
Kyomi and Neil....In First place after IR Pre-Gold Dance.
Terri and Tim: Currently in Second place after Pre-Gold IR. Go Portland, OR!
Carl and Liz: Championship Dance contenders. IR's are tonight! Good luck! Nice Quickstep!
Ok...so I'll try to hunt down my point-and-shoot. We took so many fun, pre-competition pics with it! I'm so bummed. If I find it, I'll post more tonight. In the meantime, Silver, Centennial and Championship IR's are tonight. Jordan and I have an "off" day, so I'll cover as much as I can. Once again, let me kow what you think and if you have any requests!

Still working on the video thing and if my Point-and-shoot is truly a goner, then video will be rough. So sorry! Thanks for reading everyone. Your comments are awesome and they really are encouraging everyone! Many people here are reading the blog....we've had over 1000 hits in two days! Whoohoo! Some keep the comments and cheer-on section going! We LOVE it!

Until Next Time,

---J

What a Way to Start!

Holy Sheep!

We're in FIRST place! I can't even believe it! It is sooooo close though. All four teams in Gold dance are awesome and it is a TIGHT race. With the new IJS in place first and second place are separated by only 0.07 points! It's ANYONE'S game Friday night.

Paul and Michelle are behind us, then Molly and Kia and then June and Walter.

The Quickstep was a bit shaky, nerves.... but we let it rip in the Argentine Tango. I nailed that twizzle and was so excited! So fun. No asthma, no nothing! It was a great night and we are riding high for the moment (key word...for the "moment").

Pre-Gold is COMPETITIVE too! But Terri and Tim are standing in Second place right now. whooo hooo! Go Portland, OR! They WON the Starlight Waltz. It was gorgeous and they deserved it whole-heartedly. Kyomi and Neil are in first place overall, and Nancy and Mike are in third. I think that's how it is. Not totally sure, but that's the most I can remember right now. It's super late and I am exhausted. I took a TON of pictures today, so I will post them all in the morning, when I am not so tired (speaking of which....please ignore any typos to which can be attributed to my sleepy state....Michelle H. !!!! LOL).

Oh, and Oregon Public Broadcasting called me today. I did a telephone interview with them and they broadcast a 2-3 minute piece on the Portland, OR dancers all across Oregon this afternoon. Neato! Here's the link: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1065812

Wow, what a night. Exhausting, exhilerating, adrenanline rushed...high...low....anxious, excited, apprehensive, and all smiles. I am beat.

Oh...one pic: Terri and I celebrating with DESSERT! Yeah boys, you WILL lift us Friday! We deserve chocolate after all the hard work today! (They were secretly across the table from us saying "please push the plate away....please push the plate away!" LOL)

Good Night!! I love this competition. It is the most fun you can have.

Until tomorrow,

---J

Moment of Truth...

Ok...today is the day. Nerves? Not yet. They'll come. Dance doesn't actually begin til tonight. Although, I have to admit breakfast was a challenge to get down.
We'll get to the rink at 11am this morning, perhaps slightly earlier. I'm going to snap more photos and hunt for skate "news" before we actually take to out practice ice.

Feel free to leave comments at the bottom of each post. I love reading what everyone has to say about the blog. Or put in special requests for info. I'll do what I can to accomodate!

BTW, it snowed last night...about 1.5 inches and it's still coming down. I hope that's a good sign?

Until Next Time,

----J