Photos by Melanie Heaney

Welcome to IDC’s New Team Series! For this series, we interview athletes who will enter the upcoming 2024-25 season in a new partnership, or debuted last season. In this interview, we meet Gabriela Palomeque & Tanner White, senior ice dancers who represent Ecuador. 

Tell us about your individual skating journeys, including any early special memories.
Gabriela Palomeque (GP): I found out about skating when my parents took us to a sports complex in Amaguaña (south east of Quito, Ecuador). We went to the pool, slides, soccer fields but on our way back to the car we found a very unique building so we were curious to know what it was.

I remembered watching a few skaters taking lessons in an 21 x 15 mts of ice, mesmerized by the idea of how they can glide and dance on a thin blade underneath them.

My older sister (Ana cris) decided to ask about how can we take lessons. The rink only opened on the weekends so we were taking lessons on Saturdays and skating on public sessions on Sundays.

Tanner White (TW): I started skating when I was about 4 years old at my local arena in the learn to skate program. My earliest memory on the ice I have is from around age 5 when I told a coach I was going to do a double axel and then I jumped, and faceplanted. I was never the most talented with jumps, but I loved skating from a young age. I began my journey in competitive ice dancing at the Minto Skating Club in Ottawa, ON, coached by Darryl Vanluven, Marie-Josee Cloutier and Siobhan Karam. I competed at Eastern Ontario sectionals and Skate Canada Challenge from about 2006-2010 then in 2011, I moved to Michigan to train and compete with a new partner from the Netherlands. I then moved to Toronto to train at the Ice Dance Elite program at the Scarboro Figure Skating Club, coached by Carol and Jon Lane, and Juris Rasgulajevs.

What drew you to ice dance?
GP: Since I was little, my sister always encourage me to get out my shell, that’s how I started to improvised and create my own routines.

I struggled to be consistent on my jumps so that was taking a toll on my mental health and I knew I didn’t want to quit skating so changing to ice dance gave me an opportunity to enjoy skating again.

TW: Initially I had wanted to become a pairs skater, as I was so impressed by the lifts and throws from that discipline. My family and II spoke to my coach about the idea of going into pairs skating and he suggested I started out in dance so I could learn how to skate with a partner while I continued to work on my singles skating. Once I started ice dancing, I fell in love with the discipline. I looked up to skaters such as Shae-Lyn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Meryl Davis and Charlie White throughout my early years in dance.

Tell us how your partnership started. Describe the tryout.
GP: A Canadian coach and a very good friend, Jan Calnan, knew that I was transitioning from single skater to ice dance so she contacted Tanner asking him if he is willing to represent Ecuador in ice dance.

TW: Our partnership, for me, started completely unexpectedly. I had initially retired from competitive ice dance in 2014, moving home to Ottawa from Toronto where I had trained at Scarboro Skating Club’s Ice Dance elite program coached by Carol and John Lane, and Juris Rasgulajevs. I then competed in university figure skating with Brock University in men’s singles and was injured in my third year, I tore my labrum and had FAI syndrome in both hips. I had hip surgeries to repair both of my hip joints.

I returned to the ice, coaching in April of 2022, and later that summer a fellow coaching colleague of mine, Jan Calnan came up to me asking me if I was interested in making a comeback to ice dancing, as she had a skater (who is now my partner) from Ecuador and was looking for a partner to compete with. At the time, I had only been on the ice doing very minimal activity as a coach, I had thought I wouldn’t be able to skate again after my injury. After initially turning it down, I thought it over, I had flashbacks to when I left the sport in 2014, my last day at the rink in Toronto leaving for the last time when I felt like I wasn’t finished, but needed to move on with my life. I thought to myself, I better give this a chance, I owe it to my younger self who dreamed big and put many years into this sport to give it a chance. The worst that can happen is it doesn’t work out.

In September 2022,  we had a tryout, doing basic stroking exercises on our own. Pretty quickly, things came together. I was able to finally realize that I was fully recovered and able to skate again,  although I was out of shape. We seemed to be a good match, despite our height difference and we began training together. 

What is it that you already like most about dancing with your new partner?
GP: As this is my very first ice dance partner, it has been fun to learn from Tanner and trying out different things like lifts, spins, dance holds and steps. 

TW: I like our willingness to try new things most of all. For me, at 32 years old and after almost 10 years away from ice dancing, I’m doing more challenging elements than I ever did before. The sport has changed immensely over the past 10 years, and I am very much enjoying learning new things with Gaby. I appreciate Gaby’s ability to pick things up quickly, as this is her first dance partnership, she puts in 100% effort every day. I like how she pushes me to be a better and more dedicated athlete. 

What experiences do each of you bring to the partnership? 
GP: Even though I don’t have previous experience in ice dance I think for me is the drive, the motivation and the ‘no giving up’ mentality that helps us focused on our own journey. I also have a really good visual memory, so whenever we have lessons with a choreographer I was able to remind Tanner his steps.

TW: I competed in the Canadian competitive dance scene from around 2006-2011 training in Ottawa at the Minto Skating Club, then I moved to Michigan where I trained and competed with Auvikki DeBoon in Junior Dance at the 2011 National championships of the Netherlands in Tilburg, NL. After our partnership ended I moved to Toronto to train at the Scarboro Figure Skating Club in the Ice Dance Elite program coached by Carol Lane, Jon Lane, and Juris Rasgulajevs and ended part one of my competitive career competing at Skate Canada Challenge in 2012. I then went to Brock University and competed in the Men’s Free Skate discipline at Ontario University Athletic Championship events. 

What has been the biggest adjustment for each of you so far in the partnership?
GP: Finding ice time hasn’t been consistent throughout the season. Our biggest adjustments is aligning our schedules with the ice time we are offered.

I have a part time job as an early childhood educator and an ice figure skater coach.

TW: For me, it’s been the comeback after a long time away from ice dancing and skating in general. I went from having about 3 years off of the ice waiting for and recovering from my surgeries, to training full time at a high impact level, and competing at International events. The physical conditioning side of things has been the biggest adjustment. It’s also been an ongoing challenge to keep up with the demands of our training and my work schedule and allowing for adequate recovery time between training sessions. 

Tell us about your training site. 
GP: We skate the most at the Nepean Sportsplex, few early mornings at the Gloucester skating club, and weekends in Aylmer, Gatineau.

We have had few opportunities to train in Montreal with Mylene Lamoureoux, Shawn Winter and Elise Hamel.

TW: We train at the Gloucester Skating Club, CPA Asticou, Rideau Skating Club and the Nepean Skating Club. We are the only ice dancers at most of the clubs we skate at and have limited access to ice time, as most of our local clubs are focused towards singles skating. We skate on ice wherever we are welcomed and appreciate the clubs who allow us to train on their ice very much.

Who are your coaches? Did either or both have to relocate? If so, tell us about the move(s).
GP: Michael Coreno has been helping us since spring of 2024. It has been a bit challenging adjusting our schedules with him as well. Our other coach is Dylan Harries, he specializes more off the ice like conditioning and mental training but he also has a great background on turns, presentation and little details that makes a difference on our training sessions.

TW: We are coached by Michael Coreno, we also are coached virtually over zoom by Nick Buckland, and Mylene Girard and her team.  We have also been coached by Justin and Chantall Bell and have spent some time training with Shawn Winter, Elise Hamel and Mylene Lamoreux. We also work with Dylan Harries for our off ice training.  

Neither Gaby nor I are able to relocate permanently at this time to a larger dance training centre, as we are both working adults in Ottawa, so we do our best to work with local coaches, short trips to larger centres and bring coaches from far away to us through virtual coaching. It is a challenge aligning our work and training schedules with our coaches schedules, however we do the best we can. 

Who is choreographing your programs. Is someone else arranging your music? If so, please share those experiences.
GP: The choreography has been a team effort between many coaches and our own ideas. Few times, we have gone to train in Pierrefonds with Mylene Lamoreoux for choreography, Elise Hamell and Shawn Winter for technique lessons.

TW: Our programs have been choreographed by a team of several coaches, and our own choreography. We started our free dance with Vanessa Chartrand, and since then we have worked with Mylene Lamoreux, Michael Coreno, Justin and Chantall Bell, all of whom have made their mark on our programs. Our rhythm dance was predominantly choreographed by Justin and Chantall Bell, with some alterations made by Michael Coreno and Mylene Girard. Our free dance music was edited by Rob Collins “The Skating Music Guy” who also did our 80’s rhythm dance from last season. 

If you could have a lesson with any ice dancer past/present, who would it be? Why?
GP: It’s hard to choose but I’ve always looked up to Tessa Virtue, Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron, Kaitlyn Weaver for their artistry, humility, and passion for skating.

TW: I very much would like a lesson with Charlie and Tanith White, and Scott Moir. I went to watch the free dance event at the 2009 Skate America event in Lake Placid to see Tanith and Ben in person. I also was in awe of the top two teams in the world at the time, Tessa and Scott and Meryl and Charlie. It would be an honour to have a lesson with them. 

What is each of you looking forward to most this skating season? What will be your biggest challenge(s)?
GP: Even though we are working hard on getting the technical score higher. I’m looking forward to see a higher mark on our program components, get our names out there and impress the judges.

The biggest challenge for me is during competition to stay focused on our journey. Being a new team and having less experience than other teams, I feel the pressure that I’m not good enough, but everything fades away when I step on the ice. I remember all what we have worked and all the hours of training and the confidence starts to grow.

TW: I am looking forward to the experience of it all, traveling the world, doing what I love the most. Competing internationally was something I dreamed about as a kid and after retiring in 2014. I never thought I would get the chance. The Lake Placid International this past summer was a dream come true, and everything since has been such a blessing.

Tell us about your debut competition this season?
TW: Our debut was a little rough, we competed at a local event in Ottawa, ON. It was our first ever competition together. It was Gaby’s first competition in ice dancing, and for me it was my first competition in well over 10 years in Ice Dancing. We were nervous, and our goal was simple: get from the start to the finish of both programs.

Our international debut was at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International event this past summer. We had a great experience there, it was such an honour to have the chance to represent Ecuador on the International stage for the first time in ice dance. We learned a lot from all of the technical feedback and since then we have continued to improve.

Please share anything you would like our readers to know about you as a team?
GP: Being the first Ecuadorian ice dance team means a lot to me. And we will work very hard to get us to Four Continents Championships and eventually Worlds. 

TW: I would like the readers to know that we are both working adults, Gaby is an Early Childhood Educator, I am a full time coach. We work to support our own skating and we make the most of what facilities and training opportunities that we have access to in our city. I want readers to know that sometimes opportunities come up in life when you least expect them, and if you are willing to put the work in, nothing is impossible. It is the opportunity of a lifetime and a huge honour to be able to represent Ecuador Internationally and we will do our absolute best to achieve our goals.