A TOUCHING TRIBUTE
Canadian ice dancing pair Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje pay homage to slain colleague in free dance,
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje skated in a show last season in Astana, Kazakhstan, and on the flight home and for days afterward the Canadian ice dancers couldn’t get a particular song out of their heads.
“SOS, d’un terrien en détresse,” a Luc Plamondon song that was made popular in Kazakhstan by Dimash Kudaibergen, was the song Denis Ten skated his free program to last season. The Kazakh skater had just stepped off the ice as Weaver and Poje were about to go on.
“And then we just couldn’t get it out of our heads, kept humming this tune over and over,” Weaver said.
They played the song for their coach Nikolai Morozov, and his response was quick.
“He said, ‘This is it,’ ” Weaver said.
The reigning world champions will debut their free dance to “SOS, d’un terrien en détresse” — they chose a different version by Los Angeles: The Voices — at this week’s Autumn Classic International in Oakville.
Weaver and Poje couldn’t have known the emotional wallop that would come with picking this piece of music. Ten was stabbed to death in July by a couple of men reportedly trying to steal his car mirror.
Ten was the best skater to come out of Kazakhstan, winning bronze behind Canada’s Patrick Chan at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. His murder rocked the close-knit skating community.
“We were saying, ‘Thank you, Denis, for bringing this music to us.’ And then following that tragedy it’s with a heavy heart that we say we are now making this piece a tribute to him. It’s our way of saying thank you to him,” Weaver said, fighting back tears. The Autumn Classic is the only time Weaver and Poje will compete this fall. Following the event, they’ll join the Thank You Canada Tour, a cross-country show featuring Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, plus Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond and others.
The 29-year-old Weaver and Poje, 31, who will pick up the ice dance mantle from Virtue and Moir — Canada’s two-time Olympic champs are expected to retire — initially said no to the Thank You Canada Tour invitation. They’d been keen to compete on the heels of their bronze medal from the world championships in Milan. But then they performed alongside Virtue and Moir & Co. on the Stars on Ice exhibition tour last spring.
“And we realized how special this group is, to perform with and to travel the country with, and I have to say that that was a mind-changing moment, and luckily our spot was still there,” Weaver said. “It’s also a chance for us to expand our boundaries, to practise our programs not two or three times in front of an audience, but 30 times.
“We’ve gotten pretty used to sharing the ice with Tessa and Scott, and this season will be no different. It’s nice to be surrounded by the world’s best. Literally the world’s best.”