by Anne Calder

The 2024 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships was held July 27-31 as part of the U.S. Figure Skating National Qualifying Series (NQS). Competitors ranged from pre-juvenile through seniors. The Lake Placid Ice Dance International (LPIDI) for juniors and seniors was held simultaneously at the same venue.

The NQS awarded medals for the top four scores (gold, silver, bronze, pewter) in each level. The International top three junior and senior scores (gold, silver, bronze) received medals.

The Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships is the oldest ice dance event in world. The 2024 competitions were held at the newly renovated Herb Brooks Arena (1980 Olympic rink).

JUNIOR COMBINED DANCE

The teams began the competition with their Rhythm Dance on Tuesday, July 30.

The theme and music selected for the Rhythm Dances for both Junior and Senior for the season 2024/25 is “Social Dances and Styles of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

The Rhythm Dance for the 2024/2025 season takes inspiration from the high energy and entertaining dance styles from these decades. These dance styles originated as a couple dance and due to their contagious, up beat rhythms, they became an invitation for others to join along in social settings and mass gatherings, becoming crowd pleaser favorites. (ISU Communication 2630)

The Free Dances were performed on July 31.

The following Junior Championship teams were awarded medals after the Free Dance: Michelle Deych & Ryan Hu (gold), Emily Renzi & William Lissauer (silver), Annelise Stapert & Maxim Korotcov (bronze), Effie Chen & Kenny Eckert (pewter).

IDC spoke with each of the dance teams following the Free Dance performance.

Michelle Deych & Ryan Hu (133.69), who train at the Novi Ice Arena in Michigan with Igor Sphilband’s group, made their Junior debut. The 2023 Lake Placid Novice Combined was their first event after the partnership was formed fourteen months ago.

“Today was a great skate, beyond what we could imagine,” Deych said. “The score was great. We are so happy. It was so much fun.” Hu added, “We came here not thinking about the scores; we just love to skate.”

Deych & Hu have been assigned to the first Junior Grand Prix in Riga, LAT, August 28-31.

Emily Renzi & William Lissauer (133.45) are in their third season as a team and second in Juniors. The team trains with Kristen Fraser Lukanin and Igor Lukanin in Montclair, NJ.

“It was the best score we’ve done so far,” Renzi said.

“There’s room to grow, but we definitely did the best we could.” Lissauer added, “This is way better than Chesapeake and Dallas.”

Renzi & Lissauer have been assigned to the second Junior Grand Prix in Ostrava, CZE, September 4-7.

Annelise Stapert & Maxim Korotcov (127.51) train at the ION International Training Center in Leesburg, VA with Elena Novak and Alexei Kiliakov. The team made it’s Junior Lake Placid debut.

“We’re really really happy about our skating this week” Stapert said. “We feel we’ve grown a lot since last season. We definitely have to work on our speed, but I think we did very well.”

Korotcov added, “We’ve been practicing a lot and starting to get even better. We want to keep working as hard as we can. There were definitely a few mistakes, but I’m happy with it overall. I feel we’re doing our best to just perform and give a good show.”

Effie Chen & Kenny Eckert (113.48) train in Novi, MI with Igor Sphilband’s group. The partnership is only about six weeks old.

“We’ve had our program only a short while,” Eckert said. “It’s nice to get it out there to see where it’s at, but we know there’s a lot more we can do for sure.”

The team withdrew from the Dallas Classic in mid-July due to Eckert’s donation to his dad’s successful stem cell transplant. His father was recently released from the hospital and is doing well.

Anaelle Kouevi & Yonn Homawoo (111.49) are the third team in the group to make their Junior LP Championships debut. The cousins train at the ION International Training Center with Elena Novak and Alexei Kiliakov.

Kouevi described her dance. “It was a bit terrifying, but honestly a really good learning experience for me. It helped me grow with my skating.”

Homawoo added, “It was pretty nerve wracking. It’s our first season in juniors. We’re also some of the youngest junior skaters. It was a very good experience. It showed me what we could skate as a team together.”

When asked if both felt comfortable with their skate, the unison response was an emphatic, “YES!”

FREE DANCE PROGRAMS

Deych & Hu:  Romeo & Juliet 2013 soundtrack
Renzi & Lissauer: “Warriors” by League of Legends Music, 2WEI and Eddie Hayes and “Attack on Titan-Warriors” and “The Call”
Stapert & Korotcov: “We Will Rock You” and “Under the Same Sun”
Chen & Eckert: Music from the motion picture Moulin Rouge
Kouevi & Homawoo: Faolan – “Princess of Persia”  [Middle Eastern Music]

SENIOR COMBINED DANCE

The following Senior Championship teams were awarded medals after the Free Dance: Rafaella Koncius & Alexey Shchepetov (gold), Amy Cui & Jonathan Rogers (silver), Grace Yi & Danila Savelev (bronze) and Emilia Ziobrowska & Shiloh Judd (pewter).

IDC spoke with each of the dance teams following the Free Dance performance.

Rafaella Koncius & Alexey Shchepetov (159.60) train with MIDA in Canton, MI. The team spoke about the program and working with choreographer Jean-Luc Baker.

“We’re really happy,” Koncius said. “We really connect with this program. It’s a lot of fun skating it.”

“We just trusted the training and trusted ourselves,” Shchepetov added. “Working with Jean-Luc was very special because of his style.  Before choreographing the program, he asked what we wanted to get from it. We told him, and what he did was awesome.”

“We have very similar skating styles. The way he choreographed the program is the way we would want to skate it,” added Koncius. “We picked the program and the coaches picked the music. I heard the music a few years ago and now that we’ve had a full season with our new coaches, I wanted to use it.”

Shchepetov previously used hockey skates with ice dance blades due to the irritation caused by a dance boot. He now uses special dance skates. “They’re not skin tight to cause the problems, but offer a lot of support. It was an adjustment the first month or two getting into regular figure skates again. I’d been in the hockey skates since 2016.”

Amy Cui & Jonathan Rogers (158.70) who formed their partnership in March 2024, train in Novi, MI with Igor Shpilband’s group. The team skated only the Rhythm Dance at the Dallas Classic.

“First time out, so not bad,” Rogers said. “We’ve been making some small changes up to leaving Novi, so it’s been nice to get out there and see especially how the costumes feel,” noted Cui. “We just got them the day before we left. We hadn’t done anything (with them) until we just skated.”

[We’ll be working on] making improvements,” Rogers explained. “We had such a big jump from Dallas in the Rhythm Dance…(61.58—>67.05),  so just getting more comfortable with everything. One thing at a time…day by day.”

Grace Yi & Danila Savelev: (143.14) train in Colorado Springs, CO with Elena Dotstatni. The partnership is one year old. Yi spoke about the performance.

“The program is a work in progress,” Yi said. “We’re pretty happy about how it went. Obviously it’s the beginning of the season. We made some mistakes here and there that we need to clean things up, maybe our lifts. We’re trying something new this season, so we’re trying to make sure we’re really good and consistent.”

Yi spoke about the Rhythm Dance. “With the RD, there are a lot of things we want to work on choreography wise. We’re on the right track and need to work on our stamina.”

The team trains a mile high in the Rocky Mountains, so it’s usually easier when competing at the lower altitude. However, in Lake Placid the team had difficulty with the temperature inside the rink.

[The altitude change] “probably does help,” Yi explained, “but the problem here is this rink is a lot hotter than the one where we train, so we’re really sweating. We like warm rinks, but we’re just not used to this.”

Emilia Ziobrowska & Shiloh Judd (125.53) represent Romania. The team has been skating together since October 2023. The Lake Placid Championships is their first event together. They train at the ION International Skating Center in Leesburg, VA with Alexei Kiliakov. Judd has previously competed at Lake Placid, but this is the first time together. They began training their program in January.

Judd discussed their performance. “I feel like we haven’t been skating together for a long time, so this kind of just shows where we need to improve in that area – getting to know exactly where we’re going to go and track each other at an event like this. Over all, I’m really proud of what we could do.”

“We’ve been doing our Rhythm Dance to Donna Summer – “Walk Away” and “Last Dance for three months.”

Michela Melillo & Karl Schapfel (109.06) is a ten month old partnership who train in Connecticut with Svetlana Kiliakov. Schapfel, who is from Lexington, MA, described his prior ice dancing experience.

“I’ve been ice dancing about 6 years. I started getting into Ice Dance in High School. I had a slew of partners who I would skate with for about three months or so, but then when it came time to dig in and get some work done, they couldn’t commit the time that I wanted. Then the Pandemic hit.”

Melillo continued. “We’re introducing us as a new team. We came to perform the best we can. I feel we’re definitely making a lot of improvements in both programs. I’m very excited to be skating with Karl.”

Marin Hessel & Daniel Klaber (68.53) finished in sixth place. Klaber is the 2012 U.S. novice dance champion and three-time U.S. junior pewter medalist (2013-15) with Holly Moore.

“Marin is my student,” Klaber said. “In March 2024, Marin’s parents came to me and asked if we could do competitive ice dance. That was short notice. I said that If I was not able to find her a partner, I’d take her out myself.”

“I am also an ex-synchro skater on the senior and junior level,” Hessell added. “I’m relearning a lot of things. I love the process of it. I feel I fit in even though this is my first time being here. It’s an honor to be here. I’m very thankful to be afforded these opportunities.”

Hessel spoke about the performance. “It wasn’t really our best. We’ve only had the program together for about three weeks. I’m still proud of being out there as is. I’m excited for what we have more in store for the future for sure, but to be able to perform a Free Dance and the Rhythm Dance before it, it’s like my dream. I just want to get all the feedback to see what we can do better.”

Hessel & Klaber’s partnership is unique as it is a coach skating with a student.

“It’s a very different experience,” Hessel explained. “Having your partner choreograph and coach you at the same time is a lot, but you definitely get to know each other well. I get a completely different view than most people get, and I’m very thankful for that.”

This is Hessel’s first ice dance competitive experience and introduction to the ice dance community.

“At first it was definitely a little rough for me,” explained Hessel. “I felt a little bit out of place. It’s like, ok, do I really belong here? I said, “Yes, I do.” I really belong here. I know who I am. I know what I want to do. I kind of turned it into this, I’m thankful to be here. As long as I just breathe and I don’t think and I skate with a blank slate, no negative thoughts come in, and I’m able to be me and do what I want to do. That’s when I started fitting in a little bit more. Also it was so cool to just see everybody else skate.”

FREE DANCE PROGRAMS

Koncius & Shchepetov: Romeo and Juliet (1996 movie dramatic score soundtrack) and “Kissing You” 
Cui & Rogers: Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20: I. Scene 1 by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Yu Simonov
Yi & Savelev: “Je Te Laisserai Des Mots” Patrick Watson; “Wild Side” Roberto Cacciapaglia   
Ziobrowska & Judd: “The Most Beautiful Boy” (Felsmann & Tiley Reinterpretation) and “In this Shirt” by The Irrepressibles
Melillo & Schapfel:  ”El Mariachi”, “Siente Mi Amor”, “Malaguena Salerosa”
Hessel & Klaber: Frank Sinatra medley: “Ring A Ding Ding”, “Young At Heart” and “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)”