After the compulsory dance, the top skaters are separated by a very small margin. 2002 bronze medal winners Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, of Italy, are in the lead. Two-time world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, of Russia, are in second. Tatiana has an injured hand that she hurt while skating in the European championships last month. Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria were third.

Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are less than 2 points out of first, but they are currently ranked 6th. There are two more dances in the competition. Tonight is the original dance, which means the teams choose their own music and chorography, but it must conform to a certain rhythm— in this case Latin combination. That means dances will be a combination of cha-cha, rumba, samba, mambo, merengue and salsa. So, that should be a bit more exciting than everyone dancing the waltz to the same music.