It’s all in the details for Weaver and Poje
Ice dance champions remain the darlings of the judges
HALIFAX— Were that fancy-shmancy starburst medal not affixed to the front of Andrew Poje’s shirt, it would doubtless bang him silly in the face. Silly prop. “Details!” admonished partner Kaitlyn Weaver, swathed in costume pearls. Literally: A costume made of pearls, evocative of 18th century Vienna ball gowns.
Faux, of course. Ditto faux the medal. Unlike the many real hunks of hardware Poje and Weaver have won over a decade together as ice dancers, including—this seems so weird, given the team’s longevity – a first-ever national gold in 2015. Of course, they spent years twizzling in the shadow of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Poje’s gaudy bauble came all the way from the Stratford Festival, whence originated the design of his white tie and black tails duds, sugges- tive of something Prussian and princely, a nice sartorial accompaniment for The Blue Danube — the classy Strauss short program that replaced Elvis Presley at the start of this season and which judges have clearly adored. The Canadians haven’t lost a competition since the world championships in Shanghai last March, where they had to settle for a bitter bronze. Last year as this year, the duo went undefeated on the Grand Prix circuit and then, as in December, took the final.
They are very much the sterling standard of ice dance. And yes, details — grace notes — matter.
So Poje and Weaver — one dashing, the other soignée — inhabit the characters in their short dance, as this discipline swings back towards its ballroom dancing roots. Judges are traditionalists. Thus the duo has been richly rewarded for this routine. On Friday at the Canadian championships they brought the (semi-full) house to its feet in a rousing standing ovation, earning a commanding lead and 76.20 score.
Curiosity had driven Weaver to seek out a translation of the Latin legend on Poje’s costume jewelry chunk: “In This We Shall Conquer.”
And that was appropriate for them too.
“Maybe that’s a sign we were doing the right thing by changing everything,” said Weaver, referring to the ditch-Elvis decision.
Poje: “We were still questioning it at that point.”
It had been a lickety-split swap, undertaken on the feedback from judges. This wasn’t a couple best suited to oldies rock ’n’ roll. They were classic, waltzy, a dream wrapped in chiffon. Bye-bye Elvis.
“The goal of the season is to keep on improving, never stop learning, never stop pushing,” said Weaver. “It’s never good enough. We’ve been pretty open with the fact that this year we feel more mature, wiser I guess.”
Then she blinked heavily-shadowed eyelids and cut to the hardedge quick: “It’s knowing that we have the goods, knowing that we have what it takes.’’
Patrick Chan was brilliant in the men’s short program, with a slick, polished Mack the Knife short routine that, though not new, was certainly his best-rendered this season, from a perfect opening quad-triple to blazing footwork. Comeback Chan racked up a score of 103.58, which puts him at least nearby Japan’s skater-extraordinaire Yuzuru Hanyu.
“When I can skate that way, it’s such a blast.”
Except the seven-time Canadian champion hasn’t skated that way, much, since resuming his career after stepping away from competition for 20 months. He has been left quite bewildered by how far men’s skating advanced in his absence. He’s no longer that favored ultra-elite dazzler. Last night, though, Chan recaptured his mojo.
“This is one step forward in the right direction, finally. After I landed the two hardest jumps — quad and (triple) Axel — I could kind of start relaxing and enjoy it more.’’
Big points, even if Chan claims the numbers are irrelevant. As if.
“The rest now is just cruising,” said Chan of Saturday’s long program, which has been nowhere as vexing as his short.
That was a side-shot, if probably un-intended, at rival and defending Canadian champion Nam Nguyen. The 17-year-old fell on his opening quad and hastily ad-libbed a combination at the end of his routine, but finished a disappointing fifth with a score of 76.04. Liam Firus and Kevin Reynolds sit second and third, respectively.
In pairs, world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford appear locked into a fifth straight Canadian title, despite a couple of bobbles, with a mark of 73.03.
The most horrifying moment of the evening came on a spectacular spill during an aborted twist by Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. They were both shaken but finished with punch in fourth, even as Moore-Towers’ back went into spasm afterwards.
Her ex-partner, Dylan Moscovitch, and his new pistol-gal Lubov Ilyushechkina, were a huge hit with the audience, sitting third, just 0.23 of a point behind Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau.