US ice dancers Tanith Belbin, Ben Agosto increase lead at Skate America

Belbin-Agosto win original dance at Skate America

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — The last time folk music was required for the original dance, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto went the close-to-home route with an American theme.

This time, they’ve gone Moldavian.

“Our coaches told us it is not a Russian dance, it is not a Ukrainian dance, it is Moldavian,” Belbin said with a chuckle. “We love doing it.”

They did it well enough Saturday at Skate America to increase their lead after winning compulsories. The 2006 Olympic silver medalists and runners-up at last year’s world championships head into Sunday’s free dance with nearly a 14-point lead over Russians Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski, who struggled in the original dance.

Belbin and Agosto, seeking their fifth Skate America title, seemingly never had time to take a breath while they stepped and stomped all over the ice.

“This has been a challenging dance from the start because it’s so fast throughout,” Agosto said. “It’s very fast and high-energy and difficult.

“We wanted to do something new. The last time we chose (American), and we felt lucky we had the rest of the world to choose from and this is a fun dance.”

Italy’s Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte were second in the original dance with a playful routine to, naturally, Italian folk music. Israel’s Alexandra and Roman Zaretski were third, but Russia’s Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski remained second overall despite a spotty program.

“We made too many mistakes,” Novitski said.

The Italians were thrilled with their performance.

“There is a lot of variety with folk dance,” Cappellini said. “We are happy to perform music from our country.”