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I agree with your thoughts on Funny Face and the concept-music-movement connection, except I wouldn't call their achievement "innovative". I feel that's what ice dance is about, at the highest level. It's what many teams are striving towards, without succeeding, and it's what Tessa and Scott have always shown, even in their early programs. It's also one of the reasons why they are already one of the greatest ice dance couples ever.
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I guess my thing is that I disagree with those who claim rooting a FD in ballroom-derived movement and choreography is a bad thing or a step back for ice dance. It seems like many people (and I'm not saying you specifically, but am speaking more in generalities) look at ballroom with a "nothing new to see here, let's move on" kind of attitude, instead seeing the route to artistry in ice dance as abstraction. Which is okay. To each his own. But IMO, ballroom is what has always grounded ice dance
in dance (hence, the compulsories) and helps distinguish it as a discipline. In other words, the dance part of ice dance is rooted first and foremost in
rhythm, not concept, theme, or even shapes. And the way a skater relates to rhythm through choreography and their movement (all coming up from the blade-edge) together with elements is what makes it a sport. Applying modern choreography is fine, but to me the genius in a program is how skaters relate to rhythm in their choreography while also maintaining a high level of technical skill.
My thoughts on this topic are why I always chuckle at people who look back at Tessa and Scott's work and claim it's all the same kind of stuff because much of it was "lovey-dovey" or however they term it, meaning Tessa and Scott have no real diversity of style. I believe Tessa and Scott have an enormous diversity of style and their past programs have shown that, time and time again. It's also why, while I agree with you that what Tessa and Scott do is what ice dance should be about at it's highest level, I also feel like the programs they've created/skated in the past have allowed them to play with a diversification of rhythms in ways that most other skaters have never done before (because they have both the musicality and the skating skills with which to do so successfully). Is that innovative? I guess it depends on one's individual definition and their interpretation of individual programs. In
Funny Face, Tessa and Scott skated a program in which the theme was schematic - it was about two people falling in love and telling that story by expressing themselves through skating to various rhythms and referencing so many different styles in a seamless fashion.
Switching gears a bit from this conversation (though I'm very much enjoying it!),
here are a few hi-res photos someone took of Tessa and Scott performing at the CNE.