by Anne Calder

On Saturday, the dancers returned to the ice for the final day of competition. Huge crowds poured into the TD Garden. Excitement was in the air. Again the teams were introduced with all the flair of a rock concert. Each team came running down the tunnel toward the ice to the screaming cheers and applause of the packed audience.

Twenty teams performed their free dances to selections ranging from Broadway musicals to classical to pop to rock to movie soundtracks. Free Dance scores for teams three to six – #3 (123.71), #4 (123.42), #5 (123.37), #6 (123.25) – were separated by a total .46 points..

At the medal ceremony, Madison Chock & Evan Bates (USA), Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier (CAN) and Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson (GBR) stood on the podium for the playing of the U.S. National anthem.

Chock & Bates chose the lighter, relaxed cool jazz sound of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” to highlight their dance and score 131.88 points. Their total 222.06 score and a 5.5 point lead gave the U.S. national champions a gold medal three-peat victory on home ice, where in 2016 they won bronze at the same venue.

Chock spoke about the three World titles. “This one definitely feels extra special to do it in front of a home crowd. To have the programs come to fruition like you imagine them at the beginning of the season and to execute them like that at the World Championship is a dream come true.”

Gilles & Poirier’s performance to “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Annie Lennox and “Tango on the G String” by Rob Colling scored 130.10 points. The 216.54 total score earned them a second straight World Championship silver medal.

“We are a little bit disappointed to not have won here,” Poirier said. “That was the objective that we set for ourselves, but I think at the same time we can be very proud of the way we handled the season. We had a really rocky start, and we’ve come back together through the second half of the season, so I think we have a lot to be proud of.”

Fear & Gibson placed sixth with a 123.25 score. Their Beyoncé medley was cheered on by a very supportive Boston audience that helped them hold on to third place. The bronze was the first World medal for Great Britain since Jane Torvill & Christopher Dean’s Bolero won gold in 1984, a fact that Fear declared as the “Fun Fact of the Day”.

Gibson noted, “It’s a dream come true. The crowd here was amazing and insane. They were so loud and supportive, and we are so thankful to them. On the podium I thought to myself that we actually did this, and we’re on the podium, and that’s crazy.”

Fear added, “I cried non-stop. I’m still shaking. We’re over the moon. Having the crowd involvement in the choreo step was just electric and so much fun.”

Guignard & Fabbri scored 123.42 for their Robot Dance. The two-time World bronze medalists placed fourth.

“We’re very disappointed with the final result because tonight we skated well, and we saw the marks,”
Guignard said. “Yesterday, it was more the levels we had. We lost a lot on the levels. It’s hard to accept because we skated well today, and frankly, I thought that would have been enough to to be able to move up.”

Fabbri added, “We felt we were pretty clean on the technical elements. It was one of the best performances of the season. We thought with a performance like that we could be on the podium. It hurts. We need a bit of time to get things back on track. It’s not yet time to think about next season.”

Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko (USA) scored 123.37 for their Carmen Suite program and 204.88 total.

“We came here with a job to do, and we feel we did it. Now it’s time to learn more, but it’s sad to say goodby to these programs,” said Ponomarenko.

Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck (ESP) vaulted from an eighth place rhythm dance to third in the free dance and sixth overall. The Montreal trained team performed a mesmerizing dance to the Dune soundtrack by Hans Zimmer that made Smart speechless. The total 200.92 score placed them sixth overall.

“We were looking for strong music that had an emotional effect to it that made us feel something,” Smart said. I was specifically looking for something with strong female vocals and a little bit airy vibes. I saw the new Dune movie, and it hit the spot. It was everything I was looking for. I pitched it to the coaches and Tim. Everyone was on board immediately. Our choreographer Roman Hagenauer did a great job creatively creating the shapes.”

Sunday afternoon outside the TD Garden in front of an enthusiastic crowd, Madison Chock & Evan Bates, Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck were presented their small medals for the three highest free dance scores.

Athletes shared a few thoughts about their Free Dance performance.

Caroline Green & Michael Parsons (USA)

“The biggest take away from today’s skate is: We’re back,” Parsons said. “We put down two skates we’re very proud of.”

Yuka Orihara & Juho Pirinen (FIN) earned a rousing ovation for their performance to Chorus Line.

“The reaction of the crowd made both of us very emotional,” Pirinen said. It’s a great feeling, and it doesn’t happen many times in your career, so you have to enjoy those moments. It was a standing ovation, and we are not Americans. We are from Finland, but the fact that an American audience did that for us was very meaningful.”

Pirinen was asked about his reaction to the close qualifying Rhythm Dance scores.

“About yesterday, I was in the skaters’ lounge when I saw that they [Finnish training-mates] fell. I almost started to cry. It was a tragedy. I think it never happened in figure skating that by 0.01 you make it to the Free Dance. It’s such an important competition. It’s the Olympic qualifications. All kinds of scenarios were going in my head. Then luckily for us, we were able to take those thoughts out and really focus on today’s performance.”

Alicia Fabbri & Paul Ayer (CAN) spoke about their roller coast ride during the Rhythm Dance qualifications.

“I was a little bit crying yesterday after our Rhythm Dance as I watched our names go below the qualifiers, It was tough,” said Fabbri. “It’s not fun to see people fall, but we’re really happy to be given another opportunity. So we came in today knowing we had nothing to lose and said let’s enjoy every moment.”

Zach Donohue choreographed their “When a Man Loves a Woman” program early in the season over zoom from his living room in Australia. Today in Boston was the first time he saw it live.

Fabbri shared what she loves about the program. “ I really like how powerful I feel skating it. I feel the message is pretty strong like this is a man’s world, but it would be nothing without a woman or girl. I feel like we picture that well – just like men and women uplifting each other and really being a team. It was really fun to dig into that. It was hard at first, but It was fun to see that relationship in the program evolve.”

Ayer’s memory to take home is being at the TD Garden. “It’s seeing the elevators with Boston Bruins and the Celtics on each one. Loving sports in general, it’s being in the place that has such history in the sporting world. It’s huge.”

Hannah Lim & Ye Quan (KOR) like to tell stories in their programs. This season they chose Cruella from the Disney soundtrack.

“I believe story telling is our strength.,” Lim explained. “I can channel deeper energy in me when I play a character. I enjoy playing such a villain. It’s not like me at all, but it’s easy to channel it when I’m on the ice. Today I feel we attacked it, and stayed in the program and in character.”

“We have a theater coach in Montreal, Emilie Josset who is into musicals. She’s helping us a lot. She brings the story to us with another dimension of the character. She helps with the story line and character development.”