by Anne Calder

The 2025 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships were held in Seoul, Korea, February 19 – 23. The event was established in 1999 to provide non-European countries a competitive opportunity similar to the European Figure Skating Championships.

The continents include the Americas (North and South), Africa, Asia and Oceania – four of the five represented in the Olympic rings, excluding Europe.

Fourteen ice dance teams representing eight countries (AUS, CAN, CHN, JPN, KAZ, KOR, MEX, USA) competed in both the Rhythm and Free Dances.

RHYTHM DANCE

The season 2024-2025 Rhythm Dance theme is “Social Dances and Styles of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s”. It  takes inspiration from the high energy and entertaining dance styles from these decades.

The five highest scoring teams after the Rhythm Dance included: Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, Madison Chock & Evan Bates, Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha, Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko and Emilea Zingas & Vadym Kolesnik.

Gilles & Poirier (CAN) chose a 1960’s Barbie and the Beach Boys theme that included “I Get Around” and “California Girls” plus “Wipeout” by The Surfaris. The duo has been switching off four sets of “surfing” themed costumes all season. In Seoul, they wore pink and yellow beach outfits. The twizzles and lift earned level 4; both midline step sequences were level 3. The program scored a season best 87.22 points.

Gilles explained the choice of these themed costumes for the event. “We and our coaches have clearly two top favorites of the group. We felt confident in these since they’re really easy to skate in. We wanted to be comfortable and calm here at Four Continents. These bring that out in us, and they’re also just so cute.”

“We put a lot of care and attention into the program since the Grand Prix season because we felt there were a lot of places that didn’t have the exact feeling that we wanted to capture,” Poirier explained. “We put a lot of time into really developing each moment and each movement creating the power and the feeling that we wanted to create.”

Chock & Bates (USA) performed their Dance Through the Decades program to seven musical selections from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. The married couple opened with the Hawaii 5-0 instrumental theme and closed with “Last Dance” by Donna Summer. The twizzles and lift earned level 4; the midline step sequences were level 2 (W) and 3 (M), and reduced the base value for the element. The total segment scored 86.21.

“We’re going to always hope for the season’s best, which today we were a little bit short,” Bates said. “At the Final we skated really well and really free. Today I think maybe there were moments where we could have attacked a little bit more.”

Lajoie & Lagha (CAN) danced to the Austin Powers theme song, “Soul Bossa Nova” by Quincy Jones and his Orchestra, “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind & Fire and “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind and Fire & The Emotions. The twizzles and lift were level 4; both midline step sequences earned level 3. The team received a personal best 82.86 score.

“The personal best feels very good,” Lajoie said. “Today we were able to keep calm and skate the rhythm dance [well]. We made a lot of changes, and it felt really good. It almost feels like it’s not the same program as before. I think it was our best rhythm dance of the season.”

Carreira & Ponomarenko (USA) used “I just want to Make Love to You” by Etta James and “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard to earn a 79.30 segment score. The twizzles and lift earned level 4; both midline step sequences were level 3.

“The rhythm dance was definitely a goal for us because nationals was tight,” Ponomarenko noted. “The nerves got to us a bit, so this one was more free. There’s a bit of technical work that needs to be done before Worlds, but we’re happy overall.”Carreira added, “It was a step in the right direction, but we want to continue to grow.”

Zingas & Kolesnik (USA) danced a Bee Gees medley that included: “Jive Talking”, “Stayin’ Alive” and “You Should Be Dancing”. The twizzles and lift earned level 4; the midline step sequences were level 1 (W) and level 2 (M). The segment scored 74.63.

Zingas shared her disappointment in the performance. “We had some high expectations because we performed pretty well in last year’s Four Continents. I felt particularly shaky, so definitely not the best I can do. I had some little mistakes here and there that added up.”

“I think we were expecting to do better in terms of scores, but it’s the jet lag. I’m ready to go to bed,” Kolesnik confessed. “We could have definitely done better, so we’re just going to forget about it and move on and do our best in the free.”

FREE DANCE

Except for a mid-day practice session, the athletes had a day off between the Rhythm and Free Dances,

At the end of their competition, the following athletes stood on the podium: Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier (gold), Madison Chock & Evan Bates (silver) and Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha (bronze).

The defending champions Gilles & Poirier (CAN) danced to “Air on the G String“ by LIBERA, Robert Prizeman, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Annie Lennox, “Tango on the G String” by Rob Colling, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Annie Lennox. The second place program scored a season best 131.24. The gold medal total was 218.46.

“We were completely exhausted afterwards, but that’s because we gave it our all. We’re proud of what we accomplished here,” Poirier said. “Now we have a nice chunk of time to go home, review the programs, see where we still feel like we can expand them, grow on them, develop the character more and squeeze little moments out of the program.”

“We’re just going to focus on giving ourselves the training that we know we need so that we can go into Worlds feeling confident. I think that’s the most important thing – carry this over to the World Championships.”

Chock & Bates (USA) combined “Round Midnight” by Miles Davis, “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck  “Take Five” by Juju to win the Free Dance with 131.72 points. The reigning World Champions totaled 217.93 and earned the silver medal.

“Evan and I are really happy with how we performed our free dance today,” Chock said. “The audience was so supportive that we had the best time performing for them. This is a great stepping stone for the World Championships. Our free dance is right where we want it to be. We’re going to go home and do some technical work and just keep improving our programs to get them to their full potential by the World Championships.”

Bates shared his thoughts on the their dance. “Definitely our best performance of this program. I felt like we were dancing and not so consumed with all the technical elements. We were able to dance, enjoy the music and the atmosphere. It was a really, really great experience.”

Lajoie & Lagha (CAN) sandwiched Karl Hugo’s “Murky Solitude” in between bookends of Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence” performed by Disturbed to score 118.18 program points. While the team’s total 201.04 earned the bronze medal, the dancers were very disappointed in their performance.

“I hate doing mistakes, and I did a mistake today (stumble in the twizzle), so I’m not very happy about my performance,” Lajoie said. “In general, it was a very, very, very good weak. We did a very good rhythm dance, and all the practices were super good, so I think overall it was good. Mistakes happen. It’s just very upsetting.”

Lagha continued. “It was okay. We trained very hard to come here, and it’s still a good experience. It’s also difficult to skate in the evening in Asia. We were very tired, and it was a challenge to skate today, but we did it.”

Carreira & Ponomarenko scored 117.78 points for their performance to Carmon Suite by Rodion Shchedrin. Both programs totaled 197.08. The team discussed convincing their three coaches, Scott Moir, Madison Hubbell, and Adrian Diaz, to let them skate to Carmen.

“Actually Scott (Moir) was the easiest to convince of the three, but we wanted to be kind of ready and mature enough for it, so like we all knew we had to wait to do it,” Carreira said. “But last year when we came back from Worlds and came into the rink the next day, Madison (Hubbell) asked what we were thinking. We said we like Carmen; that’s all we want.”

“Since day one of the off season that’s all we’ve been pushing for, and we’re happy that we decided to choose it and pursue it,” Ponomarenko added.

Zingas & Kolesnik earned 113.92 points dancing to Benoit Richaud’s choreography to “Epilogue” by Olafur Arnalds and “Lost It To Trying” by Son Lux. The total score earned 188.55 points.

This program is really special to us,” Zingas noted. “Throughout the season, I think it’s evolved, and it’s grown. It means more to us now. Even though the result wasn’t exactly what we hoped, I feel proud of what we did today and feel excited to start a new season with a good momentum.”

EVENT EXTRAS

What Rhythm Dance theme would you like to have for next season?

Paul Poirier:  “It’s fun to be forced to tackle a very specific style and to learn from that and grow from it and do something that you’ve never done before. Over the last few years, there’s been a big focus on using a lot of popular music from different decades, and that’s been a lot of fun to explore those different periods of time. We haven’t done a ballroom-based rhythm dance in several years, and that’s something that we really enjoy doing, especially having grown up competing compulsory dances so much. So I think that’s something that we would enjoy doing.”

Evan Bates: “At my first Olympics, at our first Olympics with Paul, we did Folk Dances. I felt like for an Olympics that worked well because people could bring out their home culture and put it on the Olympic stage. I think that was kind of cool for an Olympic year, but we’ll see what happens next year.”

Zachary Lagha: “I like the ballroom idea. I say bring back [the] compulsory.

What costume changes have you made this season? Why is your costume special?

Piper Gilles: (CAN) “For the Barbie and Beach Boys we have four and a half costumes. Technically, I have five.

Piper Gilles: (CAN) “I have three for the free dance. One I made with fabric that didn’t work. Then I made another one that was too restrictive with the long sleeve. The structure was a bit stiff. I felt going into the second half of the season, I wanted something that I was really comfortable in. You can see that out there. I’m not stiff at all. I’m really happy with it. It feels good. I think it just kind of brings another new life to this program.”

Marjorie Lajoie: (CAN) “Zachary’s Austin Powers costume was not in the Rhythm Dance theme of the year which is social dance. We have to follow the rules, so that’s why we changed it. Also it has a better shape. The previous costume looks okay if you know the movie, but when you don’t, you cannot get it. Now the costume is more mature.”

Christina Carreira: (USA) “We came back from Cup of China and wanted to give our free dance a fresh look for the season. We all wanted a different look. This is what we came up with – a bit more of a classical look.”

Hannah Lim: (KOR) “Our theme is social dance. We wanted to have the dance theme of jive and swing on the ice. We made changes to the Rhythm Dance music and costumes.”

Madison Chock: (USA) “I was inspired by the Chrysler building. Our program is very jazzy. I imagine it as like a night out in New York on kind of a rainy day, and we’re just enjoying the Art Deco feel of New York City. Like old films and obviously the beautiful architecture in New York City, it’s inspired a lot by Art Deco, it’s just where the music took us.“

Which teams will be competing at the 2025 World Championships in Boston, Massachusetts USA?

(AUS) Holly Harris & Jason Chan
(CAN) Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier
(CAN) Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha
(JPN)  Utana Yoshida & Masaya Morita
(KOR) Hannah & Ye Quan
(USA) Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko
(USA) Madison Chalk & Evan Bates