Competitors of COVID: Junior World Team Member's Season Cut Short

March was a month of great change in all of our lives last year, and we all have a unique way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected us personally. If you're a skating fan, you probably know that last year's World Figure Skating Championships, set to be held in Montreal, Canada, were cancelled. What you might not know, however, is that one week earlier, the final ISU championship event of the season, the World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships In Nottingham, Great Britain, took place as the world seemed to fall apart around the arena. What many people also might not now is that several of the teams planning to compete at this event ended up withdrawing. Both of the American teams, who had been practicing in Great Britain for several days leading up to the competition, were gathered into a small conference room in their hotel early one morning, where they were told that they would be withdrawing from the competition and flying home that same day. In minutes, the hopes of forty teenage girls to be among the top junior teams in the world were crushed, and for many of them, their skating careers ended in that very room.

Emilie Rennie, one of these skaters, competed for the Skyliners junior team, the first American team to ever receive a medal at the Junior World Championships. After two consecutive podium finishes at the competition, with silver in 2018 and a bronze in 2019, the team was looking for a new achievement, the gold medal. "Sky junior wanted to win worlds. That was the goal," said Emilie.

A resident of Lexington, Massachusetts, she began skating when she was in fourth grade. Her mom wanted her to participate in a sport after school, and skating was what Emilie chose. From there, she began skating at her local club, the Hayden Recreation Centre. Given that her club was the home of the country's most successful synchronized skating team in its history, the Haydenettes, it was only natural that she wanted to begin doing synchro. The introduction of the sport came from Emilie's coach, Erika Hoffman, a former Haydenette herself. "I didn't really like the idea of skating on the ice by myself, and so it definitely helped having teammates be there around me," Emilie noted.

From there, Emilie joined the Hayden synchronized skating program, and ever since she started, it was her dream to be a member of the Haydenettes someday. For seven seasons, she worked toward her lifelong goal and progressed through the ranks of the organization, winning two national championships at different levels. After her second season with the novice-level team, the I
ce Mates, Emilie was hoping to move up to the Lexettes, with whom she could compete in the junior division and compete internationally as a member of Team USA for the first time. Unfortunately, she didn't make the team. As a result, she skated with the Ice Mates, which was moved down to the intermediate level, for a third year, and won her second national title that season. At that point, she was satisfied, because she had a gold medal to mark not only the end of her season, but also the end of her competitive career. That was what she thought, at least.

While talking with a friend about how much she would miss skating, her friend suggested that she come with her to Connecticut the next day and tryout for the Skyliners junior team, a team representing the Skating Club of New York that had proven themselves to be the top American junior team in recent years.

"I don't have anything to do over the weekend. Yeah sure! I'll come tryout!" Emilie quickly responded. The next morning at 5 o'clock, she and her friend were on their way to Connecticut, and within 14 hours of deciding to come, she was on the ice, trying out for one of the top junior teams in the world. While many skaters put a lot of time and thought into a decision like this, she knew she had nothing to lose by showing up. Because of that, she, with the support from her parents, attended the tryout and took a second chance at becoming a member of Team USA.

Looking back on when she was offered a spot to skate with the nation's top junior team, Emilie struggled to identify a single emotion to properly encapsulate what she felt in that moment. The word she decided on was "awestruck."

Something she she had no trouble identifying,
however, was what this meant for her as a competitor. "It made me feel like I was worthy of being a skater, almost." As an athlete who's always been driven by the outcome, making the team made her feel as though her years of training had amounted to something big, and all the time she had put into her skating was not a waste of time. This goal-oriented mindset would continue to push her in the coming season. Going into her senior year of high school while training hours away from her hometown in her final year of synchronized skating, she knew a junior world medal would make it all worth it.

Once she began her senior year that fall, she would mostly attend her classes as any other student would. At noon of Fridays, she would leave school early in order to make the three hour drive to skate with the team in Connecticut, where she and her dad spent the night in a hotel. On Saturdays, she would take the car to make the forty-five minute to the next rink in New York. On Sundays, training ended back in Connecticut at 8 o'clock at night, after which Emilie and her dad would arrive home at about 11:30 or midnight, before getting six hours of sleep and starting the week all over again. Meetings with Emilie and her guidance counselor took place weekly in order for her to receive her work ahead of time and finish everything that needed to get done. While it was certainly a challenging schedule, she always knew why she was doing it. "It was definitely a sacrifice for the sport I love."

The challenges continued not just in the classroom, but also on the ice, as training on one of the best teams in the world was much more difficult than she had anticipated. Along with the caliber of the team being higher than what she had previously encountered, she also had to get used to a new method of coaching and a different skating style than what she was used to. Emilie describes this style as being fast and powerful, while also being very graceful.

Another new experience for her was her that fall was competing in the 2019 California Cup that November. Not only was she skating in her first international competition, in front of a home crowd full of American teams, but she also had the honor of competing in both the short program and the free skate, a privilege not many skaters in their first junior season get to have. "I definitely felt worthy of being a called a skater when I got to be put in both programs," Emilie said.

So how does she explain what it was like to continue to travel the world as a competitor for Team USA?

"Surreal."

She has fond memories of times while she was abroad when she wasn't skating, and she had the chance to walk around the area with her teammates and meet fellow competitors from countries such as Russia and Great Britain. Her standout experience, however, is when she and her teammate were chosen to carry the American flag at the draw ceremony at the 2020 French Cup, and pick their starting order for the next day's short program. It was in that moment when she realized just what it meant to skate for herself, her teammates, her organization, and her country internationally. "I was like, 'Wow, you are representing your country and you matter.'"

Going into the US Championships later that month, she would also feel what it meant to be a member of the junior team that everyone was chasing for a national title, and the team everyone would be talking about: "Sky Junior."

It was a very stressful competition, as the team had not made the larger point leads over other teams like they were hoping to throughout the season, but two strong skates at nationals allowed them to solidify their position as the top American junior team. It was a strong statement to make, as this was the team's final competition before traveling to Junior Worlds in a couple weeks.

Looking back at what winning her third national title was like, Emilie has a hard time recalling exactly how she felt. "It's honestly sometimes hard to remember. I think, not just for me but for many skaters, when you're just in that golden light ... that your memory's not always accurate," she said. While she does admit to being a perfectionist and feeling that there were things she could have done better, she felt that she was right where she wanted to be going into the final preparations for trying to get that junior world medal. "I'm not sure if that's the skate I wanted to be known for as like my last skate, but I think it was a great jumping off point for where we could have gone." she mentioned, and now that nationals was over, the team could focus on their big goal: becoming the junior world champions.

This is where things start to go bad.

It was in late February, after the annual Spring Cup competition in Italy (which Sky junior was not sent to compete at) when the team became aware of a virus beginning to slowly spread across the globe. Many of the team members did not think much of it, but the growing prevalence of the spread began to have a big effect on the team's training. The coaching team and the parents, many of whom work in the medical field, took action to keep the skaters safe. When one member of the team caught the flu, she was placed in isolation for the safety of the team. Temperature checks soon became mandatory at each practice, something that back in early March, would be an unthinkable thing to do during training.

Still, in the second week of March, the team traveled to Nottingham, fully intending to compete for a world medal. If they were afraid of anything, it was likely the possibility of not placing on the podium and not carrying on the reputation of the Skyliners like they were hoping to, whether it be because of COVID or not. What added extra pressure was the cancellation of the following week's World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, as this meant that the teams competing in Great Britain would be some of the few to represent the US on the world stage. "We definitely were in for a surprise," Emilie said.

While it was a pressure-filled week, the team was doing well in
their practice sessions that week, and their coaches and team leaders felt that they were on track for a strong showing in the competition. However, the virus was not at all forgotten that week. When her roommate became sick, Emilie had to be moved to another hotel room in case her teammate was unable to compete. Skaters also had to get tested everyday when they entered the competition arena, a process that, for a full team of 20 skaters, was very time-consuming,

Then, former President Donald Trump's travel ban with continental Europe went into place. Emilie and her teammates happened to be awake late that night when news of the order broke. Once they saw that Great Britain was exempt, they thought they were still able to compete, so they were still determined to win.

7 am. A knock on Emilie's door.

When she opened the door and heard the phrase "You need to get downstairs now," she thought it was just a regular team meeting. She and her teammates quickly arrived at the meeting floor, still in their pajamas. Soon after that, the other American team, Teams Elite, arrived too, also in their pajamas. The skaters waited for approximately 20 more minutes, not having a clue what was going on. The US team leaders soon arrived, and everyone then entered a small conference room, one that did not have the seating capacity for all of the athletes, so many had to stand. Colette Nygren, one of the team leaders, began to address everyone. "She started off saying something like, 'we are so proud of you guys for everything that you've done,' and when she said those words, I remember starting to tear up." Emilie knew exactly what was happening.

In that moment, those 40 teenage girls were told that they would be withdrawing from the Junior World Championships. Their season had ended, and for several of them, including Emilie, they would never be able to compete at their final competition.

"I remember hearing one girl start crying, and we all just kind of cried along with her," she remembered.

What she also remembers is Colette hugging her, as well as telling the athletes "We will not judge you for what happens in this room." This was a shock to the skaters, as this highly-ranked official in US Figure Skating, who judged both teams in the recent national championships, was someone that these skaters were always expected to treat with respect. Still, Colette and the rest of the US officials knew what this meant to the athletes, so they gave the teams the chance to fully process what was happening to them.

Then, the skaters were told to go back to their rooms, pack their things, and be downstairs and ready to leave in 30 minutes. Emilie moved like lighting to get her belongings together, but in that short amount of time, she knew she needed to call someone very important to her: her coach, Erika.

"She's just been my life long supporter. She was the person that convinced me to do synchro." Erika told Emilie to pack her stuff and that she was so excited to see her back home. She also looked forward to discussing what the next steps for Emilie would be. "I always loved Erika because she always had a plan."

Not long after that, Emilie and her teammates were boarding a bus that would take them to the airport and back home. It seemed as though the skaters had gotten all of their tears out earlier that morning, so Emilie's trip back home was relatively unemotional. When she arrived at the airport in Boston, however, she started crying again.

It was a tragic end to her competitive skating career, and unfortunately, Emilie took it very hard. She tried her best to feel nothing, but when the pandemic forced her school and local rinks to close, sitting at home with the thought of what happened became unbearable to her. "I know it wasn't my fault, but I just felt like I had failed." Throughout the year, she had worked with a sports psychologist, Kelsey Griffiths, to ease the difficulties of her transition from Hayden to the Skyliners. In September of that season, they constructed a goal sheet, with the achievement at the top of the sheet being "World Medal." Emilie's season, in her mind, became defined by those two words. Those weekly car rides, grueling weekend practices, trips around the world, and periods of time away from school would all be worth it if the result were a prize hanging around her neck. When that was no longer a possibility, she felt as though her year of hard work was a waste. "I shouldn't have defined an entire year of work in an award."

Like many of us, who have had many events that were dear to our hearts get cancelled, Emilie seems to have learned that instead of depending on a single week to make her whole season worthwhile, it is much better to find joy in every step of the way toward her goal.

Coming off of her end to the season, she had a very difficult time truly enjoying the sport she had spent so much of her life doing. As she spent so much of her time on the ice preparing for upcoming competitions, she lost sight of what it meant to have a connection between herself and the ice and just skate. "I'm still working on this, but I'm hoping to get it back."

Something that's brought her a lot of happiness on the ice is skating outdoors with her former teammates at a small outdoor rink in the Boston area. She's had to wait up to an hour and a half in line in freezing temperatures to get a spot on the ice, and the sessions would be packed with recreational skaters, but for Emilie, it was perfect. "I think I'm enjoying the skating part of skating a lot more now, but I think it's gonna take a while to be not to be not totally obseessed with what could've been in my competitive season."

For Emilie, everything is a step toward loving the sport again. As a current freshman at Northeastern University, she had the chance to attend a Zoom meeting with Gracie Gold through the university's figure skating club. Knowing the struggles Gracie has had with mental illness and disordered eating, Emilie asked an important question to the one person who could answer it best: "How do you repair a toxic relationship with skating?" What Gracie told her is that she has to want it, and she needs to figure out where her problem with coming back is stemming from. In Emilie's case, it was her need to win. This drive is what pushed her to continue skating, instead of a love for the sport. Instead of progressing because she wanted to skate, she went on because she felt she had to. Now, with nothing left to win, she has the chance to skate for the sole purpose of loving it. "It's nice knowing I can stop anytime I want to, and yet, I won't."

This doesn't mean that she's done with the competitive aspect of skating, however. Because of the judges who traveled with her to Junior Worlds, she felt inspired by the supportive role they filled for the athletes in such a difficult situation. Now, Emilie is looking to become a judge too, and she's currently in the process of being able to judge both synchro and ice dancing. She's also been looking forward to the idea of coaching other skaters, as well as working to develop synchronized skating in new countries, as the sport does not have the level of international representation that other skating disciplines do. She hopes that efforts such as this to make synchro more well known globally will push the sport toward inclusion in the Olympic Winter Games.

Still, her current relationship with skating is the product of an active and continuous fight. With three national titles and two international medals to her name, she's very proud of herself, but even after everything she's done, there's still a part of her that feels like it wasn't enough. There is one thing she hopes to do to find some degree of closure however: have one final skate in Nottingham, at the arena where she could have achieved her season-long dream. Deep down, she knows that she'll make it there one day. "I'm very driven and I will get there. I will go back."

Each of us has a story to tell about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives. Emilie's story is one that I've been looking to share for a while, and I'm so glad she was willing to discuss her experiences with me! She's an incredibly kind and determined person, and it was a pleasure to learn so much about her as an athlete and a person. This piece is the first of a series I'm looking to continue with that I'm calling Competitors of COVID, where I talk about the unique ways skaters have been affected by the pandemic. I can't wait to learn more about people like Emilie and share what they've been through with others!

Stay Safe!

-TJ

The Tea-Time Foxtrot: An In-Depth Analysis

The 2019-20 season in figure skating has officially come to an abrupt end, and even though this is a season that did not conclude in the greatest of circumstances, I'd like to look back at something I found particularly interesting this season: the introduction of the Tea-Time Foxtrot as a competitive pattern dance. This dance, the required pattern every junior couple had to execute during their rhythm dance, was expected to be quite the challenge, as it features many difficult turns for each partner and unusual partnering that a couple with limited experience may struggle with. It's a dance that my coaches have actually described as more of a step sequence than a pattern, partly because it is much more compact than some other dances in which the couple seems to fly down the length of the ice. Considering this dance was essentially created as a step sequence, this makes a whole lot of sense.

So, while I have the time, I thought I would take a look at how teams faired with this dance. I looked back at the scores and levels (for both sections of the dance) for every team who competed at a Junior Grand Prix event, the Youth Olympic Games, or the Junior World Championships. I'd like to see if there's a difference between how well each team did in the first half of the dance (Section 1) and the second (Section 2). I also want to see how often teams are getting each level, and the grades of execution that are being awarded to them from the judging panel. Let's see how the teams did this year with the pattern.

Background

Pattern dances are a staple in the testing and competitive structure of ice dancing, and have been a requirement for junior and senior couples to do within their short dance (now called the rhythm dance) since the 2010-11 season. After the 2014 Olympic season, a new element was introduced to the senior short dance, this being the partial step sequence. In this element, couples would essentially create their own pattern dance, staying in hold and traveling counter clockwise around the ice. While in the first season, levels for this element were based on the execution of repeated steps from the required paso doble pattern, the rules changed for the 2015-16 season so that levels would be determined largely by the execution of difficult turns and steps, choreographed by the couple. This meant that couples had nearly complete freedom to put together their own steps for this element.

That season, Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym Spodyriev of Poland performed their partial step sequence to a foxtrot rhythm, and the ISU liked it so much that they decided to make it a pattern dance that all couples would be able to do. This dance, of course, is the Tea-Time Foxtrot. This is one of three new dances the ISU recently decided to introduce, the others being Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier's Maple Leaf March from the same season and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Rhumba D'Amour from the 1993-94 season. Initially, the plan was to introduce all three of these dances at some point during the four seasons leading up to the 2022 Olympic Games, but given that the patterns from this past season are now being reused for the 2020-21 season, it's unclear how soon we'll be seeing these other dances.

Even though the Tea-Time was created for a senior team that placed 14th in the short at the 2016 World Championships, this dance was required for all junior couples to perform. This is because Kaliszek and Spodyriev are still competing, and making this dance a requirement at the senior level would obviously give them an unfair advantage. As a result, this dance became a real challenge for the juniors. There are several couples who struggled to maintain the timing of the dance, potentially finishing the pattern two to four beats later than they should, or even more. Also, given the nuanced nature of the dance's timing, it's very difficult to tell when to pick up the dance after a timing issue or an interruption, leading to even more issues with timing. While this certainly wasn't the case for every couple, it wasn't a walk in the park for anyone. Here's how it went down.

Level 4s

There were 14 couples who received a level 4 for the first section (essentially the first half) of the Tea-Time. Their scores are compared here to the benchmark values for grade of execution. For example, a score of 6.55 means the couple got an average GOE mark of +2.

For the second section, only three couples received a level 4, each of them only achieving it once.

81 couples competed across the entire Junior Grand Prix series, the Youth Olympics, and the Junior World Championships this past season. Altogether, that's 170 performances of the Rhythm Dance. Across these competitions, a level 4 was achieved in the first Section of the dance by 14 couples, an overall total of 17 times. The three couples to get a level 4 twice during the season were Elizaveta Shanaeva and Devid Naryzhnyy, Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik, and Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin. In the second Section, only three teams achieved a level 4, each of them achieving it only once. Just two teams, Shanaeva and Naryzhnyy and Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen, received a level 4 for both Sections in the same performance.

The scores of all the level 4 Sections range from 6.78 to 5.65, with all of them receiving positive grades of execution. Nguyen and Kolesnik have the highest-scored section out of these couples, achieving it in Section 1 of the of the pattern at Junior Worlds. Five judges gave them a +2 for GOE, while the other four judges gave them +3s. The highest score for Section 2, 6.70, was achieved by both Nguyen and Kolesnik, at JGP Baltic Cup in Poland, and Shanaeva and Naryzhnyy at Junior Worlds. In both cases, the couples received three +3s, five +2s, and a +1 from the judges.

Out of the 81 junior couples competing in a major international, only 14 received a level 4 on the first Section, or approximately 17.3%, and no couple achieved it more than twice. The 3 couples that executed a level 4 Section 2 make up only 3.7% of the teams. If we base these percentages off of the 170 performances instead of the couples, we would see that a level 4 Section 1 was achieved 10% of the time, while for Section 2, it is only about 1.8%.

What's interesting to note about these scores is how they compare to the scores of couples who received a lower level. For example, the highest score received by a team for a level 3 Section 1 was 5.80, which was achieved by Wolfkostin and Chen, Sofya Tyutyunina and Alexander Shustitskiy, and Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier. Out of all 14 couples who got a level 4 throughout the season, only one received a lower score than 5.80. Another couple, Ekaterina Katashinskaia and Alexandr Vaskovich, got a level 4 with a score equal to the highest level 3 score, with a base value of 5.50 and an added GOE score of 0.30. The couples with the highest score for a level 3 all got a base value of 4.75, with an added GOE of 1.05, or an average of +2s from the judges. What this all means is that even though the judging panel thought the sections performed by the couples who got a level 3 were executed better, Katashinskaia and Vaskovich were able to score equally as well by doing all of their key points correctly.

I think this is an example of the imperfections of the current system of evaluation. While the judging panel evaluates the entire pattern and watches for factors like edge depth, effortlessness, flow, holds, and unison, the technical panel evaluates whether or not small sections of steps and turns, these being key points, are executed correctly. As far as the impact on a couple's score, it seems that the key points, and therefore the level, are the biggest deciding factor. While I definitely don't mean to say "This couple should have scored higher than this other couple," I'd like to see the strength of the entire section of the pattern have more of an impact on the score for the element.

Spread of Levels

While looking at the teams who received level 4s, we could see there was a big difference in the number of times they achieved it in Section 1 and Section 2. However, there's also a similar drop for the number of times a team got a level 3. This drop goes from 33 times to 19. What I think is especially interesting is that there is a rather large increase of times a team received a level 2 on Section 2, compared to Section 1. This jump goes from 45 to 71, enough times for almost all 81 couples to receive a level 2 once. From this, we can tell that for the most part, teams had a harder time with the second half of the dance than the first, and with the requirements that have to be met to achieve a high level in the second half, this is not too surprising.

Essentially, the level of a section is determined by the correct or incorrect execution of four predetermined sequences of steps or turns. These are the "key points" the technical panel looks for. For the second section of the Tea-Time, the third key point is the lady's outside bracket. The fourth is the bracket the man does at the same time as the lady, along with his crossover, change of edge, and twizzle. These are arguably the two most difficult key points in the entire pattern, and if neither of the partners in a couple get their bracket called, their second section can not be given more than a level 2. By looking at the protocols from each of these competitions throughout the season, it's clear that the bracket was generally what kept teams from getting a higher level on the second section. In fact, out of the 18 couples who competed at the Junior Grand Prix de Courchevel in France, there was not a single skater who got their bracket called, meaning no couple got higher than a level 2. When comparing this to the levels received for the first section, where levels were somewhat fairly spread out from 1 to 4, the downward shift is obvious.

Comparing the rather evenly distributed spread of level for Section 1 to Section 2 shows a clear difference in how each half was evaluated across the whole event.

Comparing Levels By Couple

Another way to compare the execution of each section is to look at what each team got for levels within the same performance. To do this, We can subtract the level a couple gets for Section 2 by their level for Section 1 and use the result to determine the change. For example, at the Junior Grand Prix Lake Placid in the US, Nguyen and Kolesnik received a level 4 for the first section and a level 2 for the second. If we take their Section 2 level, a 2, and subtract their Section 1 level, a 4, we would have the result of -2. This means that Nguyen and Kolesnik dropped two levels from their first section to their second. Naturally, a positive result would mean that a couple improved their level between sections, and a zero means that there was no change in what their level was. For the purpose of this comparison, a Base level is considered a zero and a no value section is a negative one.

For the most part, each couple had better success with their first section than their second. On average, each team had a drop of about .218 levels within each performance. However, there were still a couple competitions where couples, on average, had a higher level for their second section, which were JGP Lake Placid, JGP Chelyabinsk in Russia, JGP Baltic Cup, and the JGP Final. It should be noted that at two of these events, in Lake Placid and Gdansk, there was one couple at each event who had an uncharacteristic fall in the first section that brought their level down to a base, even though they each received enough key points to get a level 1 or 2.

I also looked at the average change in levels for each couple across the season. Out of all 81 couples, only 38 decreased on average within the program. 21 couples generally had a stronger second section than their first, and the 22 remaining couples received levels that, on average, stayed the same. The greatest increase between each half of the dance was 2 levels, achieved by Anya Lavrova and Maxwell Gart as well as Ayumi Takanami and Yoshimitsu Ikeda. However, each of these couples only competed at one major international this season. 2 other couples, Svetlana Lizunova and Alexander Vakhnov as well as Angelina Lazareva and Maksim Prokofiev, had an average drop of 3 levels from their first sections to their second. Like Lavrova and Gart and Takanami and Ikeda, these couples only competed at one major international.

Whether it be an average increase or decrease throughout the season, most couples did not have a dramatic shift from their first section to their second. There were only 10 couples in total who had an average shift of more than one level. This means that whatever level a team got for the first section, their second section usually got a similar level, and while many teams tended to have a stronger first section than their second, it was not by an overwhelming margin.

That's essentially what I have to say! I originally had a whole lot of information on this pattern that I put together and I'm glad I could condense most of it into a much more graspable summary. What are your thoughts? Do you have a strong opinion on the evaluation of key points in relation to the whole pattern? Do you think the key points for this dance are fair for the junior level? Let me know in the comments!

Wishing all the best to you and your loved ones,
-TJ

An Interview with Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont

With the three-time Canadian Junior Dance Champions and 2019 World Junior Champions, Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, moving up to the senior ranks last season, the scene of junior dance in Canada was sure to go under a big change. With three other top five couples in the country either moving up to senior as well or splitting up, many of the top spots in the country were wide open. As a result, four couples established themselves as the top couples in the nation, and to maintain a lead over each other was no easy task.

One of these teams, Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont, showed tremendous improvement coming out of their debut junior season and achieved immediate success, winning the 2019 Lake Placid Ice Dance International and being the only skaters representing a country other than Russia to earn a medal, bronze, at the Junior Grand Prix event in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The couple trains outside of Toronto, under the coaching team of Carol and Jon Lane, Juris Razgulajevs, and Marc-André Servant. There they get the opportunity to train alongside several couples ranging from novice to senior, including Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier as well as Molly Lanaghan and Dmitre Razgulajevs.

I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking to Nadiia and Peter about the origin of their partnership, their development as a couple, and more. They're two incredibly kind people and conducting this interview was a great way to distract myself from everything going on in the world right now. I hope this can help you do the same!

*Responses have been edited for clarity.

Photo courtesy of Daphne Backman and Ice-dance.com

How did you each start skating?

N: I think I started skating because I was sick when I was younger, so my mom put me in figure skating to get better. Then, when I got older, when I was like 5, I kind of started liking performing and the feeling of competing and placing, although I never placed, but when it happened it was really nice, so I kind of stuck to it. I was doing singles skating at first, when I was younger. Then I moved to ice dance because I hated jumping, pretty much. That's just the way it is, and I kind of don't remember doing anything else except skating.

P: When I started skating, I was actually quite a late bloomer to it, so I started skating when I was 8. At first I was into athletics, so I was doing multiple sports like track and field, all that sort. The teacher for the class on one of the mornings wasn't in, and across the road there was an ice rink, so one of the receptionists said "Oh, we'll take all the classes and go skating for an hour instead of doing athletics." That's how it all started. I started in the Skate UK program, which I think still is in the UK now, gradually went my way up, and decided that that was what I wanted to do.

How did your partnership begin?

N: It was a really long process, actually. I found Peter through Ice Partner Search. It's actually a really helpful app. I found him through that and we kind of emailed him. (Looking to Peter) I don't think you ever replied to our email. (laughs)

P: I broke up with my partner not as recently as you had, so you were looking for a partner a bit longer than I was.

N: I was looking for a partner for a whole year, so I didn't know if I was going to still skate.

P: I was looking for a partner for about 4 months, and I was at the British Championships that year, which I was supposed to be competing at, but obviously I didn't. Our coach Jon was there at the British Championships with another team that he had, and he obviously mentioned Nadiia. The next year, from November to January, that January I went to a tryout, skated, and that was that.

N: I had tried out with a few guys before, and when Peter came, on the first session I was like "Wow, it's never felt so good before." It just felt like it was the right thing.

P: She's just being nice now. (laughs)

N: No no no! No, I've told you several times, it was just really cool and I had never felt that before. Right away, it was a good partnership.

P: We were saying how quick it was. I had split up with my partner that November, and I had started skating with Nadiia in January, but then we really started properly training in June, because I had my English exams, and once I had finished those, two days after my final exam, that was that, I moved over. I've been here ever since.

N: Yeah, it's been really fast.

So Nadiia, you had already been in Ontario?

N: Yeah, I had been in Canada before Peter moved for one and a half years. Almost two when he moved here, so skating with me it was almost two years. At that point before I met Peter I was seriously deciding to quit and go to ballet as another thing I was going to do, but because Peter came and it was really good, I stuck to skating.

Photo Courtesy of Daphne Backman and Ice-dance.com

You were both born in different countries, Ukraine and Great Britain, yet you're representing Canada, a country that from what I've heard, neither of you are citizens of.

P: Nope.

N: Nope.

P: You were supposed to get your citizenship.

N: Yeah, I was supposed to get it on the 31st of March, but because of COVID-19, I can't. It's cancelled, probably postponed until May, or June, or whatever, like when it's going to get better. Then, I'm going to be a Canadian citizen, but Peter is only trying to get his permanent residency.

P: I've applied for residency, so hopefully that shouldn't take quite as much time.

So how did you end up choosing to represent Canada?

N: Mainly, I think you moved because of me, and I moved because of the lifestyle. If you look into Ukraine and the history of all the skaters, there's a lot of good skaters that moved away to different countries. It's sad, but there's not a lot of potential, like these countries like Canada, America, Germany, other countries, you have a little bit more potential, in terms of funding...

P: It's like Aljona [Savchenko], right? She's Ukranian.

N: Yeah, and a lot of other teams right now, like my friends, have moved to all other countries.

P: Avonley's partner Vadym [referring to Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik] is Ukrainian.

N: Vadym! He was my best friend when I was younger, and we knew each other so well. Well, we still do, but we don't talk as much. Things changed.

P: But you were moving countries.

N: Yeah, and now he's in America, I'm in Canada. Things do change a lot.

P: And with me and the UK, the federation has been changed recently, not to my knowing, but through people telling me. It was called NISA, National Ice Skating Association, which got copyrighted for a food store in the UK, which isn't as big as Walmart or whatever you want to call a grocery store. So they had to change the name of it, because nobody had really heard of it, and they changed it to British Ice Skating, which made more sense.

The federation before was, to put it this way, they'd give you options for Grand Prixs and then you'd be a bit more like "Are we going to be able to this or aren't we going to be able to do it?" you know? We decided that Skate Canada, for us, worked better. You know, we're in the country, there's more opportunities for us here so, yeah, we decided to take that.

N: Yeah, I moved to Canada purely because my dad just didn't want to stay in Ukraine, purely because of a lot of different things that happened to my family in Ukraine. It was definitely a lifestyle change. This still feels like a dream. It's not real. It's so different to Ukraine and what I grew up in, but it was a good change, and Canada has good skating.

P: Yeah it's a big federation in skating. And especially when we decided to start skating together, there's Tessa and Scott, which were favorites for worlds and stuff.

N: Piper and Paul.

P: Piper and Paul were good as well. There's been a lot of Canadian teams that have been high-ranked in the world, so that was the main place for us, Skate Canada.

In your first season together, you competed at the novice level, winning the national championships. How did your success compare to your expectations for that season?

P: Well, we talked about it before, actually. At the beginning of the season, our coaches sat down with us. We were a really new team at that time and Carol said to us "We want you to win the national championships." You can probably imagine our expressions to each other. We were like "Okay, that's a bit of something new for us there," and until our first competition we had no idea what to expect.

N: I fell in our first competition. I forgot about that. (laughs)

P: Even with that fall, we still managed to win that competition, which was our first competition as a team together, so that really put us on a but of a pedestal, being, "Yes, we can do this," and throughout the season we went through with that mindset. I think we came second in only one competition that season.

N: Challenge.

P: Yeah, we were really blown away with how that season went.

N: It was really a good season for us.

P: To win nationals and prove our coaches right, that was something else, as well.

N: We won nationals in six or seven months skating together, and I thought that was crazy, honestly. The amount of skating experience that happened with my old partners, before we actually won anything, it was like two years. And with you in like seven months, Boom! Nationals. Done.

P: We started training in the end of June of 2017, and nationals was in January 2018. They moved it forward because it was the Olympic year. This is all in the context where we were still finding each other out, how each other skated.

N: How we both work.

P: How we work together, because was it your first year at the novice level, like advanced novice?

N: Yeah, I went from basic novice internationally to novice.

P: And I went from skating in the UK junior level going back down to advanced novice, so it's a bit of a "Let's meet in the middle. Let's do novice,"situation. It was a good season for us.

N: I mean Junior in Canada is crazy. Our first year in junior was nuts. Scary stuff.

The following year, your junior debut, your Cinderella free dance featured a costume change in the middle of your character step sequence, a brand new element at the time. How did that become a part of the program?

N: [The costume change] was so stressful. (laughs) So stressful, honestly. I don't know who came up with the idea of a costume change. I think it was like a rink idea, and our coach Carol Lane was like "Oh my God, we're definitely doing this. That's it."

P: It was just a thing that went around the rink, I think.

N: Yeah, so it was a really good idea, actually. A lot of people remember us for the costume change, which is great. Stand out with something, you know?

P: Well, first year team.

N: First year team, obviously. You want to be remembered for something, and we had a costume change. It was definitely a stressful thing, but it was really fun. You kind of miss it, you know, having different costumes.

Nadiia and Peter's Cinderella Free Dance from their junior debut and Canadian Nationals. If you want to make a splash in junior, a well executed costume change is bound to help!

After a tenth place finish at nationals in 2019, you two showed tremendous improvement from the off season after debuting your programs over the summer. What do you two owe this level of development to?

N: Teamwork.

P: Consistency.

N: I think Cinderella year was the year where we literally learned so many new things about each other, like how to work with each other, what works for me, what works for him.

P: We also put a lot more pressure on ourselves from winning nationals. We wanted to make a big impact in junior, you know, with the Carmen short...

N: It was pretty good. Pretty good.

P: We like that program a lot, actually. We also liked the Cinderella free dance, but then towards the end of the season we also sort of felt like we'd grown out of especially the free dance, I would say. We just had that expectation going into the season like "We want to be the best." We wanted to step higher than what we could achieve then at the time, because we were still a year into our relationship, if that. I'd say as we were moving into this past season, we were more prepared as to what to expect, and our goals were more realistic, so we went into the season knowing what we wanted to do and knowing what we had to do to achieve that.

N: And the way we worked off season when we were skating, just preparing the programs and the way we were working off ice just kind of benefited us more. We already knew the structure of things, and we just kind of built from there.

P: We've been more prepared.

N: Yeah, more experienced, I guess.

Your programs this year have shown your improved lines and connection with each other, while maintaining your innocent style of performance, How did you come up with the ideas for these programs?

N: The free dance [the opening piece, Caruso] just popped up on my Instagram, so we were just like "Oh, that's a good idea. Let's just keep that in mind." Then we had no other ideas, so we just kind of went with that.

P: Last year especially with how the year before had been so rocky with the results, performance, and all that, we wanted to almost stay safe with this genre that we could both portray and feel comfortable portraying. So for the free dance, we went with something a bit more elegant, showing long lines, stuff that we could both interpret easier. For the short, it was Carol's idea, our coach. She was very adamant that she wanted us to do The King and I. She said that we could perform that quite well because it was a very happy, lively performance. We were quite happy with how that resulted, all season.

N: Once she told us, we were like "Umm..."

P: Your mum hated it.

N: Oh my mom hated it, but that's a different story. (laughs)

P: Once we got used to it and got around to actually skating it, which was amazing, and with the new pattern dance as well, we really enjoyed doing it.

N: People loved it. When other people like it, it kind of makes us feel like we've done our job of performing it, and that's just kind of helped us. It was a really good program. I loved the music and everything.

How was your experience learning the new pattern dance, the Tea-Time Foxtrot?

N: It was fun, let's say that. It was a rocky road.

P: It's one of those dances that at the beginning, I think that neither of us really liked at all.

N: I was confused most of the time and didn't know what I was doing with my feet.

P: Towards the end, especially with music, you can add more character to it, more flavor to it, as I like to say. But yeah, we started to like it towards the end.

N: I think we both liked that it was different to what we've done before. It was just a new thing.

P: I'd say for everyone as well.

N: Yeah, it was nice that all of the juniors this year were the first people to actually do this pattern dance. It's nice to think of that.

P: It's like one of those dances where nobody's already had experience doing it, so it's bit of a level playing field.

Nadiia and Peter took a regal approach to this year's Rhythm Dance, carrying the theme on from their names being announced to their bows to the audience.

Did you attend any seminars for the dance?

P: We did one. It was the beginning of the season, wasn't it? It was like April.

N: We went to a seminar in Mississauga. There were definitely a lot of skaters, even from Quebec.

P: It was mainly Ontario skaters. Skate Ontario had organized it for teams that were looking at doing junior that season, so they had all sent us emails with the Polish team [creators Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym Spodyriev] that their coach [Sylwia Nowak-Trebacka] and them were in town and they were going to do a seminar at one of the rinks quite close to us.

N: They clarified arms and positions and helped with little details.

P: Little steps, if you started messing up, so it was really helpful for Skate Ontario and Canada to organize it for us. Without emailing us, we probably wouldn't have known about it, so we're really thankful for that.

The junior field in Canada has changed drastically after the 2018-19 season, with the top two couples at nationals moving up to senior and two other couples in the top five no longer skating together. Was there a point when you two began to realize you could take one of those spots?

P: Well, it certainly opened up the door for us.

N: I think we realized that we could win or place at nationals after the first competition in Minto, after we were first in the short.

P: Well looking at Minto as well, we looked at the entry list and obviously saw that there were a few teams missing that we would usually have expected. That gave us a bit of hope that we could potentially do something, and it looks like we did take that opportunity, and we actually skated well there.

N: And Lake Placid too. We won Lake Placid. For me personally, after that I was like "Oh, this season might actually go really well," and then placing third at the Junior Grand Prix I was just like "Okay,  we actually might place at nationals!" And then after challenge, we were going for first, but if I didn't mess up my twizzle and all that stuff...

P: We both had different ideas in mind. As we were doing the season, personally I was thinking about the next competition. We weren't thinking about "Oh how're we going to do at nationals?" Although that is in the back of your mind, you're always wondering what's going to happen at nationals, but because the year before had been so similar, us thinking about nationals and it just sort of went down hill, that's what we were trying to avoid, or what I was trying to avoid.

N: I feel like it's different for both of us, and we're not pushing each other's thoughts onto each other. I let myself do my thing and you let yourself do your thing. That's how we work, basically. I don't think I ever pushed it to you like "We have to place first. We have to place first." You never did that to me either.

P: It was always in the back of our minds but we never...

N: We never really spoke about it.

P: We never spoke about it.

Photo courtesy of Daphne Backman and Ice-dance.com

What was it like performing for such a big audience at your first Junior Grand Prix of the season in Chelyabinsk?

N: That was one of the best things ever. All I can remember is the free dance, finishing it, and the rhythm dance, doing the lift. We were so close to the boards. I was kind of relaxing, I mean it's kind of weird to say relaxing, but I could have some time off, in the lift. I could hear everybody cheering and screaming and kissing and clapping and yelling, and it was just so refreshing.

P: All I remember from that competition was it was over in a heartbeat. I remember traveling there was a full day, traveling back was a full day.

N: It was more than a day.

P: It was more than a day, actually, so probably not super, but walking into the rink, it was really daunting, because I think it was the same rink used for one of the Russian Nationals in previous years, so it was obviously this big arena, big venue, and you know, watching the audience with all their... I can't remember what...

N: Clapping things.

P: Noisy instruments. That was really interesting. But I think because of how our mindsets were going into the competitions before, we just sort of look at it like that again and that's how we managed to skate two clean programs, I'd say.

N: Though our free dance was a little iffy, but...

P: But they were clean. There were no errors.

N: Like big errors, there was no big errors, but there were some little mistakes, definitely. But we learned from them. It was definitely a really different experience for a Junior Grand Prix. It was almost like Junior Worlds.

P: Yeah I think there was more capacity and more people there than at worlds, so it was a good experience for us even though we didn't get to junior worlds, having that sort of atmosphere to perform our programs in front of. We were really happy to do that.

It's been a tight race to be one of Canada's top junior couples. What was your experience with being in this position?

N: (Laughs) It's a good question. It's definitely stressful because looking at this whole season, somebody goes ahead and then another team goes ahead and another and another. It's basically a race.

P: You always want to be the top team. I mean, between the four teams, that's everyone's mindset, you know, "We want to be the best team in Canada." Personally, for us, when we look back at last season after we unfortunately, did not make it to Worlds, we were really thankful for the season that we've had. We've had a chance, you know, to compete against them all, every team in Canada, and we may have done well in some competitions, maybe not so well in others, but we've managed to get so far with being one of the top four teams and we're really happy that we managed to do that, otherwise it would just be the top three, you know. They're miles ahead of everyone else.

N: The thing is, it's kind of nice knowing that we're all equal. First of all, we're all literally the same age. We're all the same, and it's literally a race. "Who's going to skate better? Who has the better program?" It's a competition. It's a sport, so it's nice that you actually have the competition. It's not like you're just one team.

P: Everyone's pushing each other.

N: Yeah, it's nice. We're all just friends, and when we get on the ice, we're competing. Yes, we're still competitors, but off the ice we're really good friends. We all have a good relationship with each other.

P: There's no competitiveness off-ice, which is a bit strange, as you probably can imagine. There's always gonna be people that are like "Oh, I'm going to be funny with you just because I want to beat you in competition," whereas with us, on social media, we send each other funny memes on Instagram.

N: Some girls get a little feisty, but it's normal. (Both laugh) It's just girls.

P: I mean us guys, we just forget about it, you know?

N: I have nothing wrong with anybody. We're all friends.

What are you looking to accomplish for next season?

P: Improve on this season!

N: It's hard, it's a really common question. In general, our coaches ask us the same thing, and it's really hard to say a specific thing. First of all you don't want to jinx it. Second of all, you can't predict what environment you're going to be put in.

P: Yeah, we just want to build on what we did from last season. Last season we put ourselves on quite a pedestal. We put ourselves in the top four teams in Canada, so we want to build on that for next season, and hopefully, we were saying we want to make it to the top but we don't want to, as Nadiia said, we don't want to jinx anything so far. We just want to have a good, clean season, improve, get judges to notice us...

N: And impress people, you know, change things up and entertain. If other people enjoy it then we will enjoy it too, the process of competing, everything like that. So I don't think we have any specific "We want to win everything. Everybody should be gone," kind of goal. We just want to do our best and improve.

What's it like training with senior couples like Piper and Paul and Molly and Dima?

P: It gives us an insight to what other couples's relationships are. We see that both Molly and Dima and Piper and Paul, their programs are very different. Their relationships are very different, as well, like Molly and Dima are obviously a couple, and Piper and Paul are seen as a couple. I've had a few people come up to me and say "Are Piper and Paul like a couple?" and I'd say "No, they have their separate relationships."

N: It's like Tessa and Scott. you want to create a chemistry on the ice. It doesn't particularly mean you have chemistry off the ice.

P: But you want the skate to make an impact so that you think on ice, they have a relationship, and off ice, they are as well.

N: It's about performance and being friendly to each other.

P: So yeah, they both have that connection that we aspire to, and with watching Piper and Paul at these big competitions, you know, like Four Continents, and all the internationals that they've been assigned to, it's good to look up to them and see, "That's what we want to do. That's how we want to skate and perform." Obviously this season as well for them, the judges have really liked their [programs]. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them at worlds, but we hope that they will get in the top five.

N: I mean, they're also great people.

P: Yeah, they're really nice people, down to Earth, you know. We have a few karaoke nights once in a while.

N: One.

P: Once in a while. We like to say that we're good friends with everyone.

Photo courtesy of Daphne Backman and Ice-dance.com

Yeah, you all seem like you get along super well.

P: Oh yeah, It's like a family, almost, I would say.

N: It is a family. It's literally a second family for all of us.

Ideally, what kind of skaters do you each want to be remembered as?

N: It's hard, because I kind of want to be remembered as me, Nadiia. My main goal is to be someone that little kids would look up to, like somebody who just started skating and they don't know what to do with their life. I just kind of want to be that person that they will look at and say "Okay, I will keep pushing myself to get there." I don't know particularly what kind of skater, I just want to be inspiring to other people. It doesn't mean specifically the figure skating community. It could be anybody out of the skating community, like anybody. I don't know if this is a specific type of skater. I just want to be inspiring, really.

P: Everyone wants to be aspired to. You want to leave a lasting impression as well on the skating community. You want to be seen as this really amazing skater. I also like the feeling of being known as being down to earth and really relatable, that people can come up and have a chat. I'd say Jean-Luc Baker, he's one of the guys that I've aspired to. I can imagine if you were to go up and speak to him, he'd be really down to earth and say hi or whatever. That's the type of energy that I aspire to, but also as Nadiia said, we'd like to be remembered as a really good team.

N: I feel that's everybody.

P: Everyone wants that lasting impression.

N: Having a good relationship with people and being friendly to everybody. That's kind of a goal for us.

Quick Questions

What music do you listen to outside the rink?

N: I listen to a lot of things. I'd say indie, alternative, classical, opera, it depends on my mood.

P: Yeah I guess with both of us, we have our different moods. We do a lot of driving together to the rink, school, and all this. Nadiia gets to hear all my music and...

N: I don't complain.

P: She doesn't complain. She's good at that, but I'm the one that's good at complaining, I'd say.

N: He's picky with music.

P: I'm very picky with music. I always have to have something that's got a good base line to it, like classic club music.

N: Rap, too.

P: Not as much rap, but something that's got a good beat to it. You're the one that listens to the lyrics.

N: Yeah, I definitely do.

P: Our music tastes are...

N: Different.

What is your dream song to skate to?

N: Oh my God, I do have one. It's not a song, but I definitely have this dream of doing Swan Lake one year.

P: I think we'd both like to do that, actually.

N: Yeah, I think we spoke about it before.

P: It's very dramatic music, but that'd be almost a year where we are hopefully senior-level and hopefully have been known to do good programs in the past. But I'd like to, personally, do Pavarotti [Nessun Dorma]. Not the original by Pavarotti, because I liked the movie The Upside, and that has the Pavarotti by Aretha Franklin, which is something a bit different, and I have to say, I really like that song.

N: Look at us, we're both going with classical music! (both laugh) But Swan Lake was in my bucket list for skating. I'm very picky with Swan Lakes when they're done in skating, so I want to make a Swan Lake and perform it so every time somebody would think of Swan Lake, they probably would mention us. That's pretty much my goal.

What is your favorite place you've traveled to for skating?

P: Personally, I would say Lake Placid. It's not the biggest competition of the season, but it's one that we always look forward to going to every year.

N: It has good memories to it.

P: We have a lot of good memories from there. We had our first junior international competition there, and we just like going to that rink every season. It's a good competition with a really great organization that does it, and the place itself needs no explanation. It's a really nice place to go.

N: I agree. I also like the road trips.

P: I like the road trip there, the four-and-a-half or five hour drive. It's nice.

N: It's fun with your parents too.

P: Yeah, it's one of the competitions where my parents will occasionally go. It just makes things more special, because it's not often that I get to see my parents. It's just around four weeks a year that I get to actually spend time with them, so it's good. A good competition for us.

What is your favorite pattern dance?

N: My favorite one to watch, and kind of do, but I've only done it for tests, was the Yankee Polka. It was fun. To do, probably so far, it was [Tea-Time] Foxtrot. It wasn't necessarily fun to do, but it's different to most of the pattern dance, which I like. It was really new and different, something to spice things up.

P: I'd say my favorite to watch is the Polka. I don't personally know the steps, but it's one that I'd like to learn, especially. My favorite to do is probably the Silver Samba, even how basic it is, because when you do it you feel like it's a really engaging dance. It's a fun one to do. You can draw people in by doing it.

If your partner were an animal, what would they be and why?

P: I think you already know what I am so I'll just get it. (leaves to grab a stuffed animal)

N: No, honestly no. He thinks he'll be that but I'll call him a ginger cat, purely because he likes to get away with things.

Photo courtesy of Nadiia Bashynska

P: (Returns with stuffed animal) I think I'd be one of these.

N: Nooo! He thinks he's that but I wouldn't call you that.

P: I think this is what I would be.

N: It's not a question of what you would be, it's a question of what I would be!

P: Yeah, but I thought this is what you should've said.

N: I think you should be a ginger cat.

P: I think if Nadiia was any animal...

N: A rat. (laughs)

P: I would say monkey, honestly. Because you have a very light personality, you know what I mean? Big movements, or whatever.

N: So what kind of monkey am I? A big one or is it a small one?

P: One of the small cheeky ones, that steal something. (both laugh) No, purely because you have a very likable, outlandish personality. You're very talkative, very approachable though.

N: Yeah for you, a cat, just because you're pretty slick with things.

P: But I don't attack stuff like ours does.

N: No no no, a kind of cat that would just sit and observe a lot of things, just sit there and watch.

P: What would you say you are?

N: Oh, that's hard. What would you say you were?

P: Something orange.

N: I think I'm a horse. (laughs) I'd love to be a horse. They're so powerful and the way they run is so graceful.

It really enjoyed doing this interview with Nadiia and Peter! I'll do my best to keep making posts like this while I can. It's something I've been hoping to do more, and I thought I may as well make something good out of the misfortune we're all facing.

Wishing you and your loved ones safety and health,
-TJ

An Interview with Théo Le Mercier

Ice dancing. It's a discipline in which change, at least in terms of the placements of teams, is rarely ever seen. A revolution such as the young trio of Alexandra Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova, and Alena Kostornaya taking the world by storm with their domination of this season's Grand Prix Series would be nearly inconceivable in ice dancing. However, in this week's upcoming Junior Grand Prix Final, we'll see a dance field that is a bit less traditional than what we might normally expect. While the participation of three Russian couples and one American couple is not anything too unusual, it's the two other couples who bring something unique to the table. One of them is a Georgian couple who've qualified for their second final in a row. The other, a French team that trains in a town populated by less than five thousand people.

In the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, you'll find the town of Villard de Lans, a place often visited in the winter for skiing and in other seasons for hiking and hot air ballooning. This town is the location of where the Maquis du Vercors, a French resistance group fighting against German occupation during World War II, was formed. It was also the host of the luge events in the 1968 Winter Olympics, officially held in the nearby city of Grenoble. Currently, it is the training location of many of France's top internationally competitive dance couples. Of the six French teams who competed on the Junior Grand Prix circuit this fall, four of them train in this town.

The couples from Villard de Lans are unique not only for their training location or quantity, but also for the one-of-a-kind style that is evident in all of their programs. Each program, created by coach and choreographer Karine Arribert-Narce, is recognizable by their sharp, isolated movements, unusual partnering, and dynamic creativity. Making up the rest of the coaching team is Vladimir Pastoukhov and Viola Zakhlyupana.

One couple currently training in the town, Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier, has seen great improvements to their skating and results in the past few years. They placed eighth at last season's World Junior Championships and have now qualified for their first ever Junior Grand Prix Final. Before they departed for Torino, I got the chance to hear from Théo on his partnership with Loïcia and their season so far, among other things. Their story is one not many people get to hear, and I am very grateful to have learned more about it and to be able to share it.

*Responses have been edited for clarity as well as translated when necessary.

Photo courtesy of Théo Le Mercier

When did you first start skating?

I first started skating when I was three years old, seventeen years ago.

How did you and Loïcia start skating together?

We first met when we were training in Belfort. We both came from Belfort, but I was training with another partner, and she was solo. I wanted to leave Belfort to train at a higher level, because in Belfort I was only training five hours a week. For competing on the national team [representing France in international competitions] you have to train more, so I had to go somewhere else, and I chose Villard de Lans. In the beginning, I was supposed to go with my old partner, but she didn't want to come.

Karine Arribert called Loïcia to tell her "I have a boy for you. I can't tell you his name, but you have to come to Villard de Lans." So, she came to Villard de Lans and the boy was me. That's how we started to skate together.

You two have been on a pretty steady incline going up the international ranks in the last few years. This season, you received your first medals, two silvers, on the Junior Grand Prix series and qualified for your first Junior Grand Prix Final. How do you feel about your accomplishments from this season so far?

I'm very appealed with this accomplishment. It's the result of all the work we did in these few years. I think we really did the principle work last year, because two years ago, we were tenth and eighth in the [Junior] Grand Prix, and last year, fourth and fifth. We've improved a lot, and I think it's just the logical continuation. We continued to improve this year, and I'm really happy for that.

The Final has been my dream since a long time ago. When I came to Marseille in 2016 [for that year's Grand Prix Final], I was like "Oh, wow. I want to do that. I want to do the final."

Do you have a specific goal for next week?

For next week, the goal is already done, because the goal of the season was to do the final. Next week, I just want to go do my best and see what happens. I don't want to be last, just that. I don't want to go to the final and just say "I don't care. I'll go to the final and if I get sixth, it's okay because it's the final." No, I don't want that. Maybe if I skate well I think we can get to the podium, but it will be really hard.

You and the rest of the junior couples had a tough task this year; you had to compete the new pattern dance, the Tea-Time Foxtrot, for your rhythm dance. What was your experience with learning the dance?

I liked it, because, for example, when you learn the Argentine Tango, you don't have to learn the certain timing on a video. You already know it, because it's a really old dance. I remember when we were beginning the new dance in March or April. We were watching the video of the Polish couple [Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym Spodyriev, the creators of the dance] and we were like "Woah woah woah, it's not easy timing." It was really interesting. I have a really good memory of that.

The timing of this dance is really hard for a junior, so it was really interesting. It changed from the standard dances we had last year and two years ago, with the Argentine Tango, Cha Cha, and Blues. It's really different, so it's cool.

Loïcia and Théo's Rhythm Dance this season shows off a fun and lively side to their skating.

Did you go to one of the seminars that Kaliszek and Spodyriev taught?

Yes. The seminar was two or three days. They came to Paris, we went, and we learned a lot from them. They explained a lot about timing and technique to do the Tea-Time. I think it was really useful. I was afraid that I would go to this and learn nothing, but that didn't happen. I learned a lot.

It seems that you and Loïcia are a couple that always does what others don't (like in your music selections, choreography, and costumes). Do you have a common approach that you keep in mind while creating all of your programs?

I think Karine's style can be seen in all of our programs. When we do rock, when we do Carmen, when we do Game of Thrones, I think there are some similar steps that we can recognize as the style of Karine. However, it's never the same. When I finish a season and start a new program, I don't want to do my old program anymore. It's like I'm tired of the program when I finish the season. When we start a new season, we have to create programs that are really different from our previous ones. I don't always want to do the same thing, because it's not interesting. I don't want to have just one style. I want to be different every year, because when we start a new season, people will say "A new program? I want to see it. I'm curious to see it."

Loïcia and Théo's rock and roll free dance from last season featured lots of intricate choreography, like this assisted cartwheel in the middle of their circular footwork. - Photo courtesy of Robin Ritoss and ice-dance.com

While you train in an area that is not super well known by people all over the world, your training group still includes many of your federation's internationally competitive teams, and you often travel with them to the same international competitions. What is it like to be so closely involved with so many of the top teams in your country?

For me, it's not complicated. Lou Terreaux (Junior Grand Prix competitor with Noe Perron, and training mate to Théo) is like my sister, so I've known her for a long time. Noe is my best friend, and I've known Marie and Thomas (Junior Grand Prix competitors and partners Marie Dupayage and Thomas Nabais) for a long time too. It's different in our camp, because we are like a family.

Contrary to other camps, we don't pay too much money to train in Villard de Lans, so that's a good thing. Our training setup is very French. For example, we are very different from other camps because we do not pay for our lessons by the hour, and we are always together in training. We all go together to competitions because it ends up being less expensive.

For the competition between us, I think we've been placing higher than the second and third junior couples (referring to Terreaux and Perron and Dupayage and Nabais, in no particular order) in France, so it's not a problem for us to compete all the time against them. For us, it's not really hard. For them, it's something else, because for Lou and Noe and Marie and Thomas, their place at the Junior World Championships at the end of the season is based on all of the competitions they do. (Note: France only has two spots in dance for this season's Junior Worlds. Assuming the first spot goes to Demougeot and Le Mercier, the second spot is likely to go to either Terreaux and Perron or Dupayage and Nabais, meaning an all-Villard de Lans junior world team is very probable) The showdown between them is harder than the showdown between us and them. For us, being in competition with them doesn't change anything.

[Training with the other couples] is better, because I prefer training with competitors. It's better for the ambience.

What do you like most about training and living in Villard de Lans?

I don't like living in the big city, so Villard de Lans is perfect for me, because it's in the mountains. There are not a lot of people who live there, so it's perfect for me. I like the calm, and I like the training style because it's different from other camps, like I said before.

Along with ice dancing, you and your training mates also compete together in ballet on ice (also known as theatre on ice, or ballet sur glace) and this past April, you and your team won the senior division at the discipline's most prestigious international event, Nations Cup. What is your personal experience with competing in ballet on ice?

We are not as involved in ballet as other places. For us, it is a requirement for ice dancers. We won Nations Cup when we were training just one hour a week. It's the same as last year when we made our programs only one week before the first competition, so we don't train so much ballet.

I think the level of ballet is improving every year. At the last Nations Cup, it was really competitive and I really liked it. The atmosphere was really good between all of the teams, and the American teams had such spirit for the sport. It was a big pleasure to meet American teams this Nations Cup, because the result was closer than ever. All the time when Villard de Lans would win Nations Cup, they would win by many points. This year, it was closer than ever. We were at a really good level, and the American team (Silver medalists Forte of Boston) finished very, very close to us. It was a good competition and I hope it will be the same in the future, and maybe we can lose! We don't take ballet on ice as seriously as American teams might. I think American teams train a lot more than us. I think a team like Hartland (Harmony Theatre Company from Hartland, Michigan, one of America's top theatre on ice programs) trains a lot. I think one day they will beat us and it will become really normal.

A picture from Nations Cup that perfectly shows the joy of skaters from all over the world joining together in a supportive, friendly environment. - Photo courtesy of Solene Mazingue

What is it like to train in two disciplines at such a high level?

With ballet, it's not as high level as ice dancing. Right now, for example, it's been about two months since I've practiced ballet on ice.

How do you think ballet on ice influences your ice dancing?

I think it's a really good exercise for ice dancing. I learned to dance in ballet on ice because of the programs made by Karine. I was not a good dancer when I came to Villard de Lans, and the ballet has really helped me on that. I think it has helped me get the feeling and timing of the music.

I noticed that your Carmen free dance was adapted from your ballet free skate from Nations Cup.

Yeah, ballet on ice has really helped me with that.

The senior theatre team from Villard de Lans (Including Demougeot and Le Mercier, Dupayage and Nabais, Terreaux and Perron, and senior couple Lila-Maya Seclet Monchot and Renan Manceau) performing their Carmen free skate. See how much choreography you can find that was adapted for Demougeot and Le Mercier's free dance!

With all of your competitions for both disciplines, you must travel more than the average skater. How do you manage such a busy schedule?

The season of ballet is not during the same time as the season of dance, so it's okay for traveling. At the end of the season for ice dancing, we don't travel so much, because there is only the world championship. We travel for the world championship, and it's okay after. When we compete in ballet, it's either in France or for Nations Cup. We don't do competitions in other countries, except for Nations Cup.

It must not be easy to compete at the World Junior Championships one week and compete in ballet the next week.

Yes. Right when I'm done at the world championships, I don't want to do ballet, but once I'm competing, it's okay. At the start, it's hard, but after it's okay.

It's a lot of work to do what you do. What keeps you motivated to do everything you're doing?

For me, what motivates me is winning. I only do sports for winning. I don't like doing sports just for doing sports, you know, for improving, etc. When I train hard and I want to improve, it's for winning. It's the only reason I do sports. The gold medal is my motivation.

Loïcia and Théo in their Argentine Tango Rhythm Dance from last season. - Courtesy of Robin Ritoss and ice-dance.com

Quick Questions

What music do you listen to outside of the rink?

I listen to a lot of types of music. I like American rap and French rap. When I like music, it can be anything. I can like some French rap music and I can dislike some French rap music.

What is your dream song to skate to?

That's a difficult question. When I listen to music, in the moment I can say "I want to skate to this." When I like music like that, I listen to it a lot of times, so one week later, I'll say "I don't like this anymore." I don't think there's anything I really want to skate to right now.

What is your favorite place you've traveled to for skating?

I liked Richmond, because we went to Vancouver, and it was really good. I think Nations Cup in Ann Arbor (Michigan) was my favorite trip, even though I was sick. I had mononucleosis after the competition, so I couldn't go to Niagara Falls. I was a bit disappointed because of that. It was a good memory, not because of the mono, but the travel was a good memory. We went to Toronto, and I really liked it.

What is your favorite pattern dance?

I like the Blues. I think I'm strong in that dance. I like the Argentine Tango too.

What do you like to eat after practice?

I like to eat something like burgers or kebabs. I like junk food. It's not good but I like it. I try not to eat it a lot but I eat food like that sometimes. When I'm really hungry after training, I love to make a ham sandwich. I also love to drink fruit juice, so I normally have this when I'm hungry after training. This year, we finish our training at noon, so when I go home after, I can't eat the same thing anymore.

Théo will take the ice with Loïcia this week at the Junior Grand Prix Final starting this Friday. Good luck to them!

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to see similar posts, let me know who else I should interview. I've been looking to start doing posts like this for a while and I'd love to continue with this type of coverage.

Happy December!
-TJ