Helene

I think we have to be cautious photo comparisons. Just about every dancer can be photographed in what looks like a bad position, it's hard to judge momentum and weight in most stills, and a supporting partner's position in supported adagio has impact on the alignment of the supported partner.

Facebook is its own beast. The way I use it is like using Microsoft Word as a text editor. You can see if your vote counted by going back to the page and scrolling to the video. If your vote was tallied, the "Like" button for the video should be disabled, and the text should read something like [Your Name][The Names of Any Other of Your Friends Who've Also "Liked It"), and [n=vote tally] others like this Thanks to everyone who voted!

Thank you, Alymer! Considering that she turned professional at 11, an age at and after which she'd be expected to get the harder jumps that require more upper body strength, and that many skaters much older have re-tooled their jump technique to gain additional revolutions, it isn't certain that she'd never have rid herself of the wrap and gotten the harder jumps. She clearly made a decision that skating competitively wasn't in her future, and as a professional, she didn't need the jumps, especially skating for Curry, who had already eliminated from his own skating the jumps she couldn't do. In his "Faun" for example, he did two split jumps -- may have been falling leaves -- and two single axels, which she could do with ease after not having skated for seven years. I think it's fascinating that Ashton capitalized on some of her skating technique, because Curry clearly capitalized on her ballet training.

I love his or her titles: "1997 Alina Somova Vaganova 2nd Yr Student Smallest in Class Mariinsky Ballerina" "1999 Alina Somova 4th Yr Vaganova Student Still Short Mariinsky Ballerina" "2002 Vaganova 7th Year Taller Alina Somova Very Tall Elena Vostrotina Mariinsky " and later, on another topic: "Yana Selina Ballerina ExtraordinaIre Antoinette Said Let Them Eat Cake Mariinsky Give Yana"