by Anne Calder

The Senior LPIDI medalists were: Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain Le Gac (CAN) (gold), Oona Brown & Gage Brown (USA) (silver), Eva Pate & Logan Bye (USA) (bronze).

Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain Le Gac (CAN) (191.19) were very happy to present their program. Unfortunately for two months the team was unable to do any lifts due to Romain’s back injury. Six weeks ago they were able to add them into the routine.  Lauriault thought it reflected the training they had done the past six weeks.

The Canadians chose the Spaghetti Western theme after listening to a lot of music, including country. They had seen some western exhibitions at competitions and both loved the atmosphere of the music. They selected “Man With a Harmonica” by Ennio Morricone, “Lone Rider” and “For the Love of God” (Spaghetti Western soundtrack) by Stephan Sechi, Hollywood Film Music Orchestra and “Devil Got You Beat” by Blues Saracen.

“We wanted something that was different but at the same time had a connection. We wanted to modernize it,  so that’s why I’m wearing pants instead of a little skirt,” smiled Lauriault. “We have such a great team [at I.AM] so the program will grow throughout the year.

Oona Brown & Gage Brown (USA) (186.01) split their time between Long Island, NY and Montreal, Canada with I.AM. Gage spoke about the advantage to training at the two sites.

“It’s good to train with other teams. Competitions aren’t that stressful. There are over 20 teams there, so there’s no lack of motivation in Montreal. On Long Island there’s motivation to keep everything fresh and all that, but it’s definitely different when we’re the only dance team as opposed to one of many.”

The siblings were very happy with the performance.”This program is a lot more high energy, upbeat than last season’s,” said Gage. “We’ve loved “Baba O”Riley” for a long time. We grew up with our parents listening to that old music. Romain Haguenauer at I.AM and our Long Island coaches, Joel Dear and Inese Bucevica choreographed it. We all had a pretty equal input into this Free Dance.”

The team shared its thoughts on their James Brown Rhythm Dance. “That one is very fun! Last night’s performance we felt good. All the songs we pick, we know the song. We love the song. We’ve play the song already. We love James Brown,” said Gage. “I grew up in a musical family, so my brothers would cover old songs like that, and we’d play together. James Brown fits perfectly with our style. His last name is a cherry on the top. Three Browns at one time.”

The team’s free dance is “Baba O’Riley” by The Who.

Eva Pate & Logan Bye (USA) (184.00) were not sure they would be in Lake Placid. “I had a cyst in my throat  and had surgery in March and was off ice for a month, then we got married in May and were off again for another two weeks. It was really kind of challenging. We had no idea what [music] to do. We were going back and forth, then this idea popped up, and we went rolling with it. We’re behind by about six weeks where we want to be. It was our goal to make it to Lake Placid and to compete. I’m so happy we made that goal.”

Bye added that It’s nice to get out for the first time. That was our main goal to show what we’ve got so far and keep the [Pasquale and Igor choreographed] program going. Some people weren’t sure about the theme because Charlie Chaplin can be considered more theatrical and more of a silly character. It can be hard to portray him in different ways that the audience and judges can appreciate.

“It was a challenge we both wanted to take on,” Bye explained. “Something we’ve tried to portray obviously in this program is more of the romance side of things – a little bit more of our story together. We just got married this year and how we bring that in is quite an adventure for both of us. It’s very exciting.”

Overall, Pate & Bye think both of their programs have a lot of room to grow and are excited to see where they go.

Leah Neset & Artem Markelov (USA) (183.75) train in Colorado Springs with Elena Dostatni. They are the reigning U.S. national junior champions – the first team in any discipline to win three straight U.S. junior national titles.

Neset spoke about their Free Dance. “It’s been a challenge getting this program together. We put in some difficult things, so I’m proud of what we showed today.”

Nikolai Morozov choreographed the program in May. There have been some small changes, but nothing significant.

Markelov added that it was definitely an experience returning to Lake Placid this season as seniors after winning the 2024 World Junior Championship. “We came to show what we’re working on this season. We were able to accomplish that. We are proud of that. It’s been an interesting experience.”

Neset & Markelov were the 2023 gold medalists as juniors at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International. Their free dance music includes “My Love Will Never Die” by AG and Claire Wyndham and “Hold Your Breath” by Astyria.

Isabella Flores & Ivan Desyatov (USA) (176.45) said that their performance was what they wanted because it was how they had been practicing it at home.

“We’ve been focusing on our skating skills this year and also pushing them together. It’s something that’s helped our skating,” Flores said. “When we began looking for the music for this season we knew that Kaitlyn Weaver was probably going to choreograph the free dance. We were looking for something contemporary. We had some ideas, but we asked her   for a recommendation. She suggested the music from the award winning movie, Poor Things. We listened to the soundtrack and loved it. We started coming up with ideas. It was a really fun program to create. Our footwork has changed, but the majority of the choreography is still Kaitlyn Weaver’s. We’ve done a lot of touchups.”

The team skated first in the rhythm dance, so they watched the remaining 21 teams perform. They were happy with their skate except disappointed that the lift just wasn’t as spectacular as in practice.

Alicia Fabbri & Paul Ayer (CAN) (176.20) chose their favorite songs for the free and rhythm dance programs.

“I’ve been wanting to skate to “It’s a Man’s World” since we partnered in 2018,” Fabbri recalled. “We found a new version that we really like. It’s a little more modern that fits with our skating pretty well. We mixed it with another song.”

“We reached out to Zachary Donohue to make the choreography,” Fabbri continued. “We made it from zoom actually. He’s in Australia and couldn’t come to Montreal. He was in his living room at 2:00 am for the whole thing because of the time difference. We were on the ice taking videos and sending them to him. [He was never on the ice at all]. We were very confident with him not being on the ice. He did our short program AC/DC last season. This program took only – two weeks – an hour a day.  He was amazing.”     

Ayer explained the process. “We had used the off season to create the elements to showcase our strengths,  then came to him for choreo. We showed him the elements; he helped us tweak them and then put them together.”

“We’d obviously never done that before,” Fabbri added. “We have so many amazing choreographers at I.AM, but we had such a fun time doing the rhythm dance last year, so why not try it.”

As for this year’s Rhythm Dance, another song we wanted to use since we started skating together, is Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock”, Ayer said. “Yesterday we did [a medley] and felt extremely locked in.”   

As for the costumes for their Free Dance at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International, Fabbri & Ayer were told at the last minute they would not be ready for the competition.   

“There are a lot of amazing girls where we train in Montreal,” Fabbri said “The rhythm dance costume belongs to Laurance Fournier Beaudry and this free dance dress was Kaitlin Hawayek’s from the 2022 Olympic Free Dance. Paul’s is from a short program a long time ago.”

In addition to “This is a Man’s World”, other free dance music selections are “You Don’t Own Me” by Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Black Canary, and Brenna Whitaker. 

Nadia Bashynska & Peter Beaumont (CAN) (170.10)  who train with Carol Lane and Juris Razguliaevs in Toronto, Canada, partnered in 2017.   Their free dance music is “The Bass” (Cache) by Watazu, Rhumba Rhythm Only (Instrumental) by Walter Laird & Nico Gomez, “Call Me Manny” from Babylon by Justin Hurwitz. 

“This was only our second time getting out with the program, and we’ve done only a few run-throughs,”  Bashynska said. “We got out there and did our best. It was generally clean. The scores have improved since the last competitions. We’re generally satisfied and know what to work on next.”

“We liked the concept of the music we got from watching the movie, Babylon, Beaumont said. “As soon as we heard the pieces of music even before choreographing it, we were dancing in the changing room, so it really connected with us. It’s a change of a program. It’s a completely different genre for us. We never experienced a program that was intense, really in a fun way. With this one, we feel we’ve captured that.”

“We stepped out of every possible comfort zone for us,” Bashynska added. “It was insane, crazy, creepy, We kind of wanted to do that, but never got to do it in our career together. We were  looking for  something just funky and definitely unseen for us as a team.”

“We know it’s not getting the best reviews, but it’s so different from what we’ve done before, and we’re just fresh for senior, so we’d love to explore every possible genre,” Bashynska noted. “I knew right away when I was listening to the music, I wanted to do something so weird, out of the box and so extra.”

“We really love the Rhythm Dance music to “Lady Marmalade” by Labelle and “Le Freak” by Chic,”  Beaumont said. “It’s sassy and has character – same as the Free Dance in a different way, more of a downside.”

“We love our short,” added Bashynska. “I will say that the costume’s leopard shirt was definitely Peter’s idea.”

Annabelle Morozov & Jeffrey Chen (USA) (163.74) are a new team that trains at MIDA in Canton, Michigan. Charlie White contacted Nikolai Morozov about a tryout with Jeffrey Chen. According to Annabelle, “It was magic on the ice.”

Her immediate reaction was, “I’m skating with Jeffrey Chen for the USA.” 

Nikolai Morozov and Charlie White created the Star Wars program. Jeffrey Chen’s mother made Annabelle’s costume.

“We have such a great team at MIDA who are so helpful,”said Morozov. “I’m so grateful to be skating with Jeffrey and working with them.” Her new partner responded. “It’s great to have someone who shows up every day. It’s nice to have someone to lean on as well when I need it.”

“I was born, grew up here and skated in the U.S. when I was little,” Morozov said. “I skated in the juvenile and intermediate levels. I definitely forgot a little bit what it’s like, but it still feels like home to me. [She competed in the U.S. from 2012-2016 and is the 2014 U.S. Juvenile silver medalist].

Coach Charlie White spoke about the new team. “I think the sky’s the limit with these two. They’ve been together for a very short amount of time, and I like the material, but it has a lot of room to grow. How exciting it is to feel there’s space to improve, and how much that will contribute to obviously some immediate success, but also long term.”

Larson & Kaplan (UKR) (162.97) are in the third year of their partnership. The team trains in Estero, Florida with Marina Zoueva’s team.

“Our program is only a couple of months old, so over all it was good,” Kaplan said.

“We’re excited to have such a strong start,” Larson added. “We definitely see room for improvement. After this competition we know the ways to improve.”

The rhythm dance music is “Rich Man Frug” from Sweet Charity.

“We wanted to find something a little different from last year and something we can have a lot of fun with,” explained Larson. “There’s a lot of inspiration to take from the choreography and dance.”

Their free dance is to music from the Love Story soundtrack by Francis Lei.

Mariia Nosovitsky & Michael Nosovitsky (ISR) (150.54) are twins who were born in the Ukraine, skate for Israel, and train with Galit Chait Moracci in Hackensack, NJ.

Mariia knew the music she wanted for their free dance this season (Exogenesis Symphony Pt.3 (Redemption) by Muse). She just forgot the name of the piece, so she went to Youtube and found it. She knew she wanted that music for sure.  Everyone on the team agreed.   

“Last year we had something usual,” Mariia said. “This season we wanted to try something new and special for more skating skills. So we tried this to see how it works.”

“There was no question. We chose it, and right away we agreed that we will take this,” Michael said.

Igor Sphilband choreographed the program.  Mariia & Michael earned 97.95 for 10th place in the Free Dance.