Sofi Karapetyan, a figure skater from Armenia, sits in the Kiss and Cry with her coach. Sofia is a teenager wearing a black costume with gold embellishments and one purple sleeve. She has a white jacket draped over her lap and is looking upward. Her coach, a man in a black jacket, is leaning towards her with as if they were just speaking. They are sitting on the rightmost two of a set of four avocado green chairs with a square modern shape. A white table with legs coming from the center is place in the middle in front of all four chairs. The background is light blue and purple with stylized dark purple designs of a building at the bottom and a large white stylized torch in the middle. White text across the top reads DENIS TEN MEMORIAL CHALLENGE '23 and underneath it are several other lines of text written in Cyrillic script and some sponsor logos.

Denis Ten Memorial Challenge—GOE 3.4

I'm SO taken by this design. It's so clean & bright w/out being overwhelming. LOVE the green chairs & the modern table & the soft colours on the background, plus the text arrangement!!

#DenisTenMemorial #KissandCryGOE #ISUChallengerSeries

Maxime Deschamps & Deanna Stellato-Dudek, pairs skaters for Canada, sit in the Kiss and Cry with their coach. Maxime, a white man, wears a white flowy blouse & black pants, & waves both hands. Deanna, a white woman, wears a sparkly black & red costume & is smiling & holding a pink plushy. Their coach, a white woman with a very short blonde haircut, wears a black & white checkered jacket & is facing them, smiling. The background is bright red on the sides with the logo for Skate Canada/Patinage Canada visible, The middle is pale purple, a picture of the sky over the city. The Skate Canada International/Internationaux Patinage Canada logos are prominiently displayed, along with the ISU GRAND PRIX logo. The skaters sit on a white bench that looks like it's made of ice cubes, with the red Skate Canada logo, an ice skate in front of a maple leaf, on the front of each cube. On either side of the bench is a doric column with a colourful display of flowers atop it, at about shoulder height.

Skate Canada—GOE +2.5

The theme! The colours! The lines! The flower arrangements on columns!! I'd go higher but those ice cube seats look so uncomfortable, even though they *are* charmingly thematic. Delighted by this situation.

#SkateCanada #KissandCryGOE #GPFigure

Amber Glenn, a figure skater from the USA, and her coach sit in the Kiss and Cry. The camera angle is quite close, so they take up most of the frame. Amber is on the right, with her hands just in front of her, as she has just blown a kiss to the audience. She is wearing a blue team USA jacket zipped all the way up. She has a round plushie of Todoroki from BNHA on her lap and a large plushie of Pikachu on the bench next to her. Her coach is a middle-aged white man, who is smiling widely and dressed all in black. His hands are interlaced over his knees. They are seated on a curved white backless couch. The background is blue with large red and dark blue circles spaced randomly across it. The Skate America logo, those words in an outline of the shape of Texas, is visible right behind them.

Skate America—GOE +1.3

It's fine? I like the white curved couch, and that background is clear and easy on the eyes. Not a lot else happening here....

#SkateAmerica #KissandCryGOE #GPFigure

Aleksandr Selevko, a figure skater from Estonia, sits in the Kiss and Cry. He is centered on a blue couch with a smooth sweeping shape. He's wearing a black team vest unzipped over a black mesh shirt and looking up at the crowd. The background is white with pink and blue designs sweeping across it like waving ribbons. In the left side of the background, much of the space is taken up by a logo which is the minimalistic pink outline of a figure skater with a blue shadow and trailing a green and yellow star centered over the words BUDAPEST TROPHY 2023 - ISU CHALLENGER SERIES - FIGURE SKATING. There are also two potted trees just visible on either side of the seating area.

Budapest Trophy—GOE + 2.3

It's simple, it's well executed, the colours are great! I like the big focus on the logo and the clarity of the background. Potted trees delight me, and I love a long couch.

#BudapestTrophy #KissandCryGOE #ISUChallengerSeries

Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen, ice dancers for Finland, sit in the Kiss and Cry with their coaches. The coaches are sitting on either side of them, and are both middle aged European men with facial hair, wearing winter coats. Juho, a Finnish man, sits in the middle next to Yuka. He is wearing a black team Finland jacket and smiling slightly. Yuka, a Japanese woman, sits next to him in a red team Finland jacket, holding a black plushie. Behind them is a background with Finlandia Trophy at the top in a pink circle and many uniform white ovals with sponsor logos in them underneath, arranged in a grid. Two very large potted plants are visible on either side of the seating area.

Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen mid-skate. They are striking a pose with their right arms up and excited facial expressions. The boards say Espoo and Esbo. The kiss and cry is visible behind them. There is a tan couch centered under the background, whichi is grey. There is a pink circle at the top that says Finlandia Trophy and many uniform white ovals with sponsor logos in them underneath, arranged in a grid. Two very large potted plants are visible on either side of the seating area, and one smaller one is visible to the right.

Finlandia Trophy—GOE +1.3

This is a nice, if somewhat basic Kiss and Cry. The background is typical, and the couch is a dull color. But the plants are nice! There's nothing wrong with it, it's just not really to my taste.

#ISUChallengerSeries #FinlandiaTrophy #KissandCryGOE