Davis and White lead the way at US Figure Skating Championships

MERYL Davis and Charlie White edged a step closer to defending their US Figure Skating Championships crown following a crowd-pleasing original dance to maintain their lead over five-time winners Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.

ON THE BRINK: Meryl Davis and Charlie White are on the verge of US Championship glory after original dance in Spokane (Getty Images)

Davis and White combined elements of traditional Indian and Bollywood dance, chalking up 68.11 points and taking their total to 113.53.

That gives the Grand Prix final champions a slender 1.62 point advantage over favourites Belbin and Agosto with just the free dance remaining in Spokane, Washington.

Belbin and Agosto, Olympic silver medallists, collected 66.89 points for their original dance and until this tournament, had never been outscored by their training partners.  

"We wanted to connect with the audience,'" said Davis. "That's part of the draw of this program."

"For them [Belbin and Agosto] it might be a warm up but for us it's important to go in as the top team. You garner a lot of international respect."

The original dance is designated as a folk dance this season and that has already caused some controversy.  Russian couple Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin have been criticised for their Australian Aboriginal dance and costumes.

Meanwhile back across the pond Domnina and Shabalin put the finishing touches to their second European title but made hard work of things in Tallinn, Estonia.

The duo took control of the competition after the compulsory dance.  However, their controversial Aboriginal dance was only good enough for second in the original dance and they could only manage second in the free dance.

It was Italian duo Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, who produced the best free and original performances of the competition.  They took silver for the second year in a row but were just 0.39 points behind the Russians.

Bronze went to another Russian duo Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski, who took gold last year in Domnina and Shabalin's absence.

British duo Sinead and John Kerr, despite a promising start in the compulsory dance, could only finish fifth, two places down on their 2009 bronze.