by Anne Calder

The Lake Placid Ice Dance International (LPIDI) was held July 30-31 at the 1980 Olympic Arena Rink (Herb Brooks Arena) at the same venue simultaneously with the LPIDC for the juniors and seniors venue. The International top three junior and senior scores received (gold, silver, bronze) medals.

The LPIDI junior roster included 11 teams from four countries. The Senior roster included 22 teams from 10 countries. 

Junior International Competition

The LPIDI competition began with the Rhythm Dance on 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 1970″.

The Rhythm Dance for the this 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 (from ISU Communication 2630).

The Junior LPIDI medalists were: Hana Marie Aboian & Daniil Vesulukhin (gold), Katarina Wolfkostin & Dimitry Tsarevski (silver), Caroline Mullen & Brendan Mullen (bronze). The three teams represented the USA. 

Hana Marie Aboian & Daniil Vesulukhin (155.28) are in the first year of their partnership after Vesulukhin moved from Colorado Springs.The team trains at the Newington Ice Arena in CT with 2006 Olympians Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukov, who choreographed the program. Alex at SportsMusic.com arranged their music, Clarinet Concerto in A Major by Mozart/Symphony No. 40 in G Minor by Mozart/Piano.

Katarina Wolfkostin & Dimitry Tsarevski (149.74) thought the skate went well for the first time out. Tsarevski noted they didn’t skate as well as they wanted in the rhythm dance, but came back with a better performance in the free dance.

The team will be doing a split season between junior and senior. The recent ISU increased age change allows Wolfkostin to return to the junior level, so their plan is to do Senior Nationals and maybe some others. The team has been assigned to the Czech Skate Junior Grand Prix in early September. This will require four programs, but they say they’re up for the challenge.

“Originally the plan was to go Senior again, and then I had a fracture in my leg and was off ice for almost three months,” Wolfkostin explained. “We were trying to figure out the season when the rule change happened, so it was a great opportunity for us to get more international events, compete more.”

Their free dance was set to Moulin Rouge movie soundtrack – “One Day I’ll Fly Away” and “The Show Must Go On”.

Caroline Mullen & Brendan Mullen (147.41) thought their skate was better than in Dallas two weeks ago. Afterwards they changed a few things – some elements – and a lift – and are still tweaking a few items. Their free dance is “La Terre vue du Ciel”.

“Last year and the year before we did more intense programs. This softer style we’re very comfortable with it,” Caroline said.

“We wanted something different from last year,” Brendan added.

The siblings have been assigned to the first Junior Grand Prix which will be held in Riga, Latvia, August 28-31.

Elliana Peal & Ethan Peal (145.27) revealed that Montreal costume designer, Mathieu Caron developed many of his ideas for their program set to “The Attack” from Pearl Harbor while at the Madison Chock & Evan Bates wedding in Hawaii.

The siblings shared their thoughts about the Free Dance program.

“I think it has a lot of potential. We were talking with the judges, and they agree going forward we want to work on our speed and flow and just get it faster” Ethan said.  “All the elements are there, and the program is really good, just today it got a little slow. I still think the program overall went pretty well, so I was happy that we skated relatively clean. It’s just that we want to do a lot of run throughs and get it going really fast.”

“We’re just working at going back home, running the programs, getting our stamina up,” Elliana added. “These programs are fairly new, and we haven’t had time to train them like we were for Jr. Worlds. I think just getting back to training and working on the programs we’ll make a few changes here and there, but for the most part just getting back to work.”

“It’s better that it happens now in the season rather than later. It gives us a lot to aim for. We have some time before our next event. We were making some changes leading up to Dallas and this event, so we didn’t have time to train our program. We’ll go home, make the changes, and from there, just start running everything.”

Sofia Beznosikova & Max Leleu (BEL) (142.50) finished fifth. Beznosikova is from Moscow, Russia; Leleu was born and raised in Belgium. After the performance, Sofia needed medical treatment for her scraped knee, which happened during the slide – the final element in their free dance to “Be Italian” by Fergie from the musical NINE. 

“We moved to Novi, Michigan one year ago. We came for a while and just stayed,” Leleu said. “We’re very happy where we are with our great coaches. They help us every day.”

The team has been assigned to the Junior Grand Prix in Ostrava, CZE from September 4-7.

Olivia Ilin & Dylan Cain (137.86) thought the program went alright, but not their very best. The team feels it has so much room to grow, and while it’s a good start for the season,  they’ll continue to get stronger. Dylan said he’s so proud of what they put out there. They skated to “Carry You” by Ruelle. 

Olivia explained the theme. “We’re trying to tell a story of two people who have this painful feeling, and it’s about bringing each other out of the pain and coming together. The evolution of the program is that I will help you and that at the end they come together.”

Ilin and Cain also reflected on attending the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangneung, South Korea.

“It was such an unreal experience,” Ilin said. “It was so different from any domestic competitions – just the environment, staying in the dorms, being surrounded by all the Olympic rings. It was such an honor just to represent our country and bring home a silver medal.”

“Those two weeks was incredible,” Cain added. “Going back and forth between the village and the Arena where the 2018 Olympics were held was the most fun I’ve had in my entire life.”

Sophia Gover & Billy Wilson-French (CAN) (125.37) are in the second year of their partnership and skated to music from the film Burlesque. Gover has done ice dance since she was eight-years-old, while her partner began when he was eleven. Wilson-French evaluated their event performance.

“We just came straight off a competition three days ago in Canada. We were a little disappointed in that skate. We didn’t do our best, and we know that. We made up for it with our skate today which got way higher points and was more stable and consistent. It wasn’t our strongest skate we’ve had even in training, but better than the last comp. Having skated in a competition in an environment we’re handling the nerves better, which is making us more stable for the next time.”

The duo trains with Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier under the watchful eyes of Carol Lane and Juris Razguliaevs.

“Being on the ice with them is amazing,” Gover said. ”It’s exactly what you want to be when you’re older.”

Wilson-French added, “Piper & Paul are in the rink all the time. They have great input and good advice if we need anything. Paul has the ice dance rule book in his mind. He knows so much. With just the snap of the fingers he’ll know the answers to everything. Watching them skate and having them along side us, helps with our training.”

“They are people you want to look up to – role models,” summed up Gover.

Olivia Corneil & Alexandre Emery (CAN) (115.69) train at I.AM in London, Ontario Canada with Madison Hubbell and Adrian Diaz. This is their second season with these coaches. Corneil thought their free program (“Flying” by Cody Frey) went well for their first time out. Their next competition will be in Canada on August 16.

Alexandre commented on the partnership. “I was really pleased when we got together because we get along great. We have an amazing coaching team that we love. We are very happy.”

Julia Epps & Blake Gilman (110.14) had an unfortunate fall on the twizzles, but everything else went okay. Their free dance included “Truman Sleeps” and “Something I Could Never Be” from The Truman Show. 

Gilman thought the score, while lower than Dallas, was much better than expected. Team Epps & Gilman recently spent time training at I.AM in Montreal, Quebec and London, Ontario Canada. Their next competition is the Challenge Cup in Ardmore, PA, which is near their training center in Aston, PA.

Blake will be living on campus while attending the University of Pennsylvania in the fall. Julia will go to “in person” high school as a freshman. Both will continue to train at their home rink.

Madison Tong & Michael Boutsan (CAN) (106.41) skated to selections from the Fame motion picture soundtrack and train with Carol Lane and Juris Razguliaevs at the Scarboro FSC in Ontario, Canada. The partnership is only two months old. They thought it was a pretty strong program from what they’ve been doing recently.

“The last program wasn’t as well as we wanted it to be, but hopefully we were able to show the judges we came out with a fight,” Boutsan said. “Just because you got a bad score last time, look at us now. We’re going do better than we did last time.” said Boutsan.

“This is 10 points higher for us than last time in Ottawa,” Tong added. “Next is Kitchener and after that is Challenges. All our levels should be much better than last time.”

The duo spoke about training with Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier. “The are an inspiration, someone we can look up to. We get to train side by side with them every day,” Boutsan said.

Lauren Batkova & Jacob Yang (CZE) (105.23) skate for the Czech Republic, but both were born In Canada. The team trains at MIDA with Charlie White, Tanith Belbin and Greg Zuerlein and in Toronto with Lauren’s father, Mark Batka, who is from the CZE. The team travels back and forth across the border to train. Their free dance is set to “Fix You” by Cody Frey.

Yang has been skating since he was five years old. He began ice dance five years ago. Batkova also began at age five, but she just started ice dance two years ago around the time they became a team.

Both like the performance part of ice dance. “You can perform during the whole thing, which makes it more fun,” Batkova said. “I also skate singles, but I find it less stressful to have someone on the ice with me.”

“Their ice dance journey is just getting started,” Coach Charlie White noted.  “They have a long way to go, but they have the right attitude, and and that’s so important in this sport.”