BIANCA BUTLER & JOSEPH JACOBSEN: In their own words
(December 2007)
The most memorable moment for us [this JGP season] was our performance in the long program at Lake Placid. We had taken a nasty fall on a lift the day before the competition leaving Bianca with a sore hip for the remainder of the week. Despite this we skated well in the free skate and placed third. To make it even more memorable it was Bianca's birthday. Bianca told me that morning that her birthday didn't officially begin until after the competition; she didn't want to be distracted.
Bianca had a great time in Japan [of all the countries in which we've competed so far]. She says that she liked how advanced their culture is in terms of technology. She says that she liked how busy and chaotic it was, but only for a couple of days. I liked Japan too, but mostly for the food. My personal favorite was Andorra. It's a beautiful country. I also enjoyed the Spanish culture. There's a sort of relaxed, easy going vibe. To make the trip even more special, it was our first JGP and we won.
We've been lucky when it comes to travel so far. We always have too much luggage, however. Bianca packs a lot of shoes, and recently her little brother has come along. So all of our bags are overweight and I'm stuck carrying around two strollers and Bianca's makeup.
Bianca and I didn't have the best season in terms of placement [4th in Lake Placid and 5th in Chemnitz, Germany]. We are entering the [JGP Final] competition as underdogs and would like to turn some heads. We've added some more difficult content, such as new footwork and more difficult connecting steps. We hope to improve our artistry. Our coach Angela [Nikodinov], has helped us to improve our overall performance.
Ivan Dinev choreographed a new footwork sequence which we hope will get a high level. We've worked on a lot of new elements but we're not sure what we're going to put in. In training, we often mix it up so that we can adjust to the competition.
We appreciate everything that Todd [Sand] and Jenni [Meno] did for us, but Bianca and I both felt like we needed a change. Training with Angela has been very beneficial to our skating and we love working with her and Ivan.
