Why are we repeating folk/country on the original dance for two consecutive Olympics?

Samuelson & Bates: Dixie Chicks almost enough to make up for the cowboy hat. And chaps! Seriously, honey, nobody should skate in pretend buckskin chaps. So very very wrong. Also, the number itself is cute, but not particularly country. They match each other really well on footwork especially, though.

Delobel & Schoenfelder: Errr... A can-can represents the country, but it's always been done by professional performers. Isn't that the opposite of folk? Is it me not understanding the point of this theme, or the skaters? Either way, this one just didn't grab me.

Kerrs: I love you guys, but Daisy Dukes? Really? Memo to North Americans and others borrowing North American forms: It doesn't always have to be the cowboy thing! We have other folk traditions, honest! That said, this one reads much more clearly as country swing.

Domnina & Shabalin: Ah, the controversial "Aboriginal original dance" we've been hearing about. Pretty much the sum total of my knowledge of Aboriginal movement vocabulary comes from Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" video, so I can't really speak, but this is looking a little tack- OH MY GOD YOU DID NOT JUST MIME GRABBING HER HAIR LIKE A CARTOON CAVEMAN. TWICE!! I am embarrassed that this program exists. *facepalm* And then she nearly fell on the flippy thing. Not enough to affect their scores all that much, though. Which I understand intellectually, but, just, ew.

Davis & White: Oh, hey, somebody who made an effort to study the tradition they're adapting! What a novel concept! And it's a nice synthesis. They've got some classical Indian elements in there that I would not have guessed to be physically possible to adapt to ice dance. Also just damn good as ice dance -- super-close partnering, dizzyingly intricate footwork, edgework edgework holy crap. Wow!

Pechalat & Bourzat: And yet more cowboy-ness. Everyone knows Vancouver is not ranching country, right? O_o And another one that seems like a generic pattern with some cornfed moves pastede on yay. A meh program performed well is still a meh program, guys.

Zaretskys: Interesting concept, but in an event where the rules require contact between the partners, perhaps a little at cross-purposes? The hanky flailing around instead of connecting them (I think I spotted both of them holding it once, for about half a second) just pointed that up more.

Virtue & Moir: Flamenco is all about back carriage. About 85% there, I'd say. Much trickier program than it might appear (though it also appears.) NAILED it. Wow!! (Though I'm glad I'm not skating after him with those "heel strikes"!) And I really didn't think anyone was going to pull in front of Davis & White tonight. Yowza.

Belbin & Agosto: Wow, Tanith, those are some sleeves you got there. (And oh, never mind about those "heel strikes." They'll never notice with all the step work they're doing.) I'm so sick of (*$&# twizzles, but they actually work in this number. That end lift sequence got a little weird, but overall, SO much fun.

On to the free dance. We shall see what we shall see...