2020-2021: LA SEASON BLANCHE
NEW RHYTHM DANCE TO MUSIC FROM “THE ARTIST” – AND A SHORT STORY TO GO WITH IT
It was June 2020.
Leaving behind the full three months of lockdown, the staff and skaters of Ice Academy of Montreal finally reunited on the ice – while trying to find the (new) rhythms of a life lacking sure things, and clear, fixed reference points.
They kept in mind their usual benchmark at that time of the year – the season to follow – and worked accordingly.
“At the time, we expected a full season – not only a World Championships”, Romain says.
“For Gaby and Guillaume we did two programs, we re-did the rhythm dance as well. Because «Fame»… they had success with this program, but they wanted to change it. And even us, the coaches… we all agreed that we couldn’t push this program forward”.
A new rhythm dance was put together, to the music of Ludovic Bource from the movie “The Artist”. And there’s this nice little story accompanying the choice, a familiar connection created, apart from the obvious quality of the score itself – and Romain will share it with a smile.
“Marie-France and I, we discussed the possibilities – and, of course, all the teams had used a lot of musicals already… And Nathalie [Péchalat] had become the president of the federation, and her husband is the [leading] actor in «The Artist», Jean Dujardin, so we said: Ok, Nathalie will be happy, maybe, if we use that – and it’s a good music! Mainly that, it’s a good music – but it was fun to create this connection…”
Coach to both Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat from 2000 to mid-2008 in Lyon, and to Gabriella and Guillaume, Romain seems pleased to have found this little something connecting the two teams – and Nathalie’s post-competitive life as well.
That new rhythm dance didn’t get to see the light of a skating event though – and the coach doesn’t know if the program will somehow have a life of its own, as a part of an exhibition, gala, or something related.
“It was a very nice and very classical program – I think it would have been a very good program for them. And I don’t even know if I have a single video of it, if I have any footage. Because we work every day, and I erase a lot of videos from my phone…”
JALOUSIE TANGO TZIGANE
Step two: creating a new free dance.
In an interview for Inside Skating, Guillaume remembered: “As a transition program, before the Olympic year, Gaby suggested that we would do a tango, because we liked doing that tango short dance, and we thought we never really got to do a tango free dance”.
Remember their (teal) tango at 2019 Europeans in Minsk, and then at 2019 Worlds in Saitama? It was definitely a hit.
Romain puts things into context, while taking everything into consideration.
“So it was the preparation for the pre-Olympic season. And, you know, after this burn-out, they wanted to pick something strong, I wanted the same thing – and the tango helped for that. In terms of character and everything – a tango is not something light.
And we said: Ok, let’s do a tango! A tango will be good, and strong, and you were very good in your rhythm dance tango as well.
We used Tango Jalousie, that was the music, but on violin-là.
But it was a tango in Gaby and Guillaume’s style. A very free program, where they could show their strengths, their glide – it was not a program that we could have for the rhythm dance. The idea was: We do a tango, of course, but we tried to do it very contemporary, we wanted it to be a mix – we wanted to show something new, not to show what we have seen for 50 years in ice dance”.
And, about that, the coach is very much aware of the criticism his students receive, due to their lyrical style, but strongly repels is.
“This is the main thing [they get criticized about] – but, on the other hand, everybody started doing exactly that. And I think it’s not fair, because they all ask Gaby and Guillaume to change, but the others, they do what they do, and it’s not a problem! But why change? It’s their style!
Why would you ask them to change their style? It’s crazy!”
The free dance was finished, “we did it, it was good”, glimpses of it were shown during a practice session shown live by the Ice Academy of Montreal, good feedback followed, but then – as Romain puts it, as we all know it – “the season never started”.
Rightly so: 2020-2021 can be remember exactly like that, as the season that never started.
“GABRIELLA COULDN’T TRAVEL”
The Junior Grand Prix Series was the first one to get cancelled, in July 2020. And, afterwards, the events kept disappearing from the schedule, or being adapted to the new normality, where pandemic made the rules, with the skaters being assigned to the senior Grand Prix events mainly based on geographic reason, to cut any unnecessary travelling.
There were constant efforts to keep up with the changes and the challenges, with the situation as a whole, but all efforts resembled that game when you’re supposed to remove a stick from a pile, then another one – without collapsing the whole pile.
Uncertainty was the key word, the key feeling of those days.
In the midst of everything, Gabriella Papadakis, alongside other non-Canadian skaters living and training in Montreal, had a problem: if she left, for one of their scheduled events, she just couldn’t come back.
“The main problem was that Gabriella couldn’t travel, she couldn’t leave. Because Canada closed the borders [to non-residents] and Gabriella was under a tourist visa, like most of my skaters. Because they don’t work in Canada, so they can’t have a working visa”.
Guillaume, on the other hand, could travel outside Canada, and return. “At the time, his boyfriend worked in Canada – and you can apply for an open working visa just to join your partner. So Guillaume didn’t have this problem, but Gabriella, yes. The Spanish team [Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz] also couldn’t travel. With the Americans it was different, it was easier. But not with the Europeans”.
So they had a problem. And they first faced it when they had to decide whether to go to their first scheduled event: Masters de Patinage, in Villard de Lans, at the beginning of October 2020.
Romain retraces the whole line of thinking back in the day: “We said: We can’t go to the Masters – because if you go, you can’t come back. And they didn’t want that. And for Masters it was worthless to take any risks.
And it was like that during the whole season”.
Remember: after 2020 Internationaux de France got cancelled, Gabriella and Guillaume announced they would skip the French Nationals and 2021 Europeans in Zagreb as well, with the same travelling issue on their mind. The Europeans were eventually cancelled.
►►► Gabriella, in November 2020: “With the COVID situation, they only let residents come back to Canada. Since I’m not a resident, I can’t take the risk of going to France and not being able to come back. I had to choose between not seeing my family and taking the risk of not being able to return to Canada. It was a difficult choice, I miss my family. My grandfather died and I couldn’t go to his funeral, my grandmother is in lockdown and I can’t see her”.
Later on, with the uncertainty surrounding the final event of the season, 2021 Worlds in Stockholm, Sweden – Will it happen? Will it not? –, they decided beforehand to withdraw, out of fear of jeopardizing their Olympic preparation.
Listening to Romain, and knowing how things eventually unfolded, you realize: it was a smart decision on their part.
THE MEETING
“Before they announced World Championships would happen, we had a meeting and they said: Ok, what do we do? We still have the visa issue, now we are closer to the Olympic season and… [Gabriella:] Imagine I can’t come back”.
None of them knew at the time for how long the Canadian borders would be closed to non-residents. And so, throughout the season, there was this permanent question mark hanging above Gabriella’s head – one too big of a risk not to take it into consideration.
“Plus, they said: What is our goal? Our goal is to be Olympic champions.
It was stated – it’s the goal.
[During those times] everybody had a lot of time to think, and to plan the goal, the real goal – and it was very good for them to have the time to think about what’s important to them. I think in terms of maturity they grew a lot.
So the visa, plus their goal, plus everything, we said: Ok, it’s very clear. And we all took the decision that, basically, competing at the World Championships in Stockholm was, maybe, not very high in the list of priorities and goals.
It was very clear that it was not necessary”.
RISKY? NO, AND YES
But this decision, of skipping Worlds to focus on their Olympic preparation, was it a risky one, in retrospect?, we’re asking Romain, months after it happened. Did his students risk anything by not being present in Sweden to defend their title? To have someone else fight for the World crown?
“No”, Romain says. Then, taking the time to really think about it, he finds a nuance: “Yes… and No”.
“Yes, I take that into consideration, but I don’t think Gabriella and Guillaume have to prove who they are in their career. If they are not present, I don’t think they lose something.
But, of course, when you are not there, you give the opportunity to another one to shine as a World champion – and we all know that being a champion, World or European, or a Grand Prix champion, it gives confidence. It builds, it’s normal.
But they decided to focus on the Olympic season.
And I’m very happy they did, for the visa problem – or… they would have had to stay in Europe until September, and it would have been very tough.
Which was the case, because I had some students, Lithuanians, Chinese, Japanese, they came back in September in Montreal. After Worlds, they were not allowed to come back in Canada – so it could have been the same for Gabriella!”
Rewind, for better processing: some of the skaters training at Ice Academy of Montreal left for Worlds, in March 2021 – and they were only allowed to enter Canada six months later, in September.
►►► Gabriella: “Deciding not to go to Worlds was a choice that was empowering to us, because it just got us out of this unknown – and we started putting all of our efforts and time into thinking ahead to the Olympic season, and start preparing the new programs”.
FROM ONE SEASON TO ANOTHER. FLUID BORDERS
And, just like that, with the decision not to travel to Stockholm for the Worlds and focus instead on the upcoming Olympic season, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron’s 2019-2020 season turned white. They hadn’t entered any competition throughout.
La season blanche.
Looking in retrospect, the coach feels the need to emphasize that everything happened gradually.
“At the time, it was not a big picture like that – it was, basically, day by day”.
And that doesn’t mean Romain didn’t have in mind a particular kind of competition for Gabriella and Guillaume at the time of Worlds. One that, in a way, almost signaled the beginning of the Olympic season for the two.
“NATHALIE, I PROMISE YOU ONE THING…”
“They continued to train, while I spoke to the French Federation and said: Ok, we took that decision [of not going to Worlds].
Of course, the federation is never really pleased with that, particularly when their stars withdraw from a big championships – which is totally normal. But they accepted it – Nathalie accepted it, and understood the reason.
And I said: Nathalie, I promise you one thing… – because she was worried, she’s not there, in Montreal, and she was worried that because they decided to withdraw they would stop working, training properly.
I said: Yes, you are right to think that, but I will never let that happen.
And what I propose to you is that they are going to train and, one week before the World Championships, or two weeks before, they are going to do a simulation in Montreal.
Not of the new rhythm dance, because we stopped working on it, it was useless to keep skating it, but of the free dance – they are going to show you the free dance.
I want you, and a few judges in France to see it, and we can decide altogether, and me too-là, and Gaby and Guillaume too, watching themselves, if that’s a material that, maybe, we would consider for the Olympic season.
Because it was a choice made for the pre-season, this tango”.
ROMAIN’S TAKE: “LET’S REVERSE THE PRINCIPLE”
Eyes on those particular moments, Romain continues:
“And it took us maybe a few days after our simulation to make a decision, because it’s a process, a discussion. And they liked the tango a lot, Gaby and Guillaume, they wanted to keep it at first.
And it’s not that it wasn’t good… but my point to them was: Ok, I want you to think: if there is a possibility to stop your career after this Olympic cycle – which is a possibility today, they don’t know it yet – do you want this to be the last program that you skate?
And that was a good question – because it’s different, the two situations are different.
And they re-watched it and, finally, they said: No. But we all liked the idea of it” – Gabriella and Guillaume doing a tango.
And they kept walking around that line.
The coach is carefully retracing the coordinates of those days that brought a fresh new perspective on the table. A bold perspective, even.
“I suggested to reverse the principle: Let’s try to find a music which is not a tango – and do some tango-section [in it]. It could be very interesting to do that. If we find this music, some section could be a tango, or at least use the expression of a tango – the expression of the relationship between the two partners – and use that strength”.
►►► Guillaume: “[For the pre-Olympic season] we choreographed a tango which we liked a lot. But, actually, more than the music, we liked the feeling of the program, the attack and the passion.
And then, later on, trying to create something for the Olympic year, we considered keeping it – but then we kind of felt it wasn’t rich enough. Like we needed something that had a little bit more layers to it. But we wanted to keep a part of the tango feeling and some of the elements, so we tried to choose a music where we could have all of those colours that we like”.