2017-2018: A ROLLER-COASTER OF EMOTIONS
“NOW I WANT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MUSIC”
Going into the preparation for the Olympic season, and having the experience of the preceding year’s struggles, Romain Haguenauer knew what he wanted for his students: “Now I want the most beautiful music [there is]”.
He would turn into the role of the mastermind again, and replicate what he had done in the Mozart season: find the music himself, introduce it to the skaters, and stick with it.
And so he brought the idea of Moonlight Sonata to Gabriella and Guillaume.
And he had an array of arguments to back up his choice: “It was like coming back to the Mozart style – but the idea was absolutely not to do the same. It’s like a better Mozart: now you are better, more mature, you can do something better”, and the coach will continue on a low voice, almost as a confession: “And it was ten times better than Mozart, but, anyway, that’s not a comparison…”
The skaters themselves were on the same page, as Guillaume told Inside Skating in an interview post-Olympics: “We always knew we wanted to skate to a classical piece for the Olympics, so we knew what we were leading towards, but we didn’t know which piece”.
But when it comes to choosing the piece, it all started, like in all good, genuine stories, with a misunderstanding.
BEETHOVEN… OR DEBUSSY?
Romain recalls the moment he suggested the music: “It was funny, because I said: Ok, we need Moonlight Sonata – in French, it’s Sonate Au clair de lune, everyone said Yes… and I went on a short vacation.
And when I came back, they were on the ice, starting, playing on the choreography… on Clair de lune by Debussy!
And I said [really confused]: But what do you do? What’s that music? You changed it?? They said: No, it’s Clair de lune! I said: No, no, no. It’s not this one”.
Romain laughs hilariously: “In French, they are very similar: it’s Sonate Au clair de lune by Beethoven and Clair de lune by Debussy. It’s practically the same name.
And, this time, I said No. No, it has to be Beethoven. Marie-France said: Yes, Beethoven is very nice…
And the days after we all agreed on Beethoven. But it was close to have been another choice – and maybe it would have been a good program, we will never know – but, at the time, I didn’t see that at all”.
He adds jokingly: “Maybe, one day, I have no idea, we can come back to it”.
Time proved Romain right: Gabriella and Guillaume’s blue dance, blue dream, to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, has been one of the highlights of the Olympic season and the Olympics itself.
A free dance that was quiet, and serene, and generous. “La conversation délicate”, Catherine Pinard, their performance coach, would call it. And the very essence of Gabriella and Guillaume’s skating, the precious core of their experience by then, their own “anthem” at their first Olympics.
►►► Guillaume: “[The free dance at the Olympics] has to represent really who you are, as a skater, as an artist. It’s like an anthem – it’s your experience that you bring. It’s not just one program, it has to take the last three programs, take everything that’s good on those programs, and take it into a new program, still [showing] improvement, still new”.
As for their Ed Sheeran short dance, “Christopher Dean did it, and it was fun, it was very good for them – it brought them to a different place”, Romain says. And it almost replicates Guillaume’s words, when it comes to that particular program: “[Christopher Dean] gave us confidence, and pushed us to have fun with it, and not be scared of it. And we really did. Like it’s one of my favorite short dances so far, and we really had a lot of fun dancing to this song”.
ROAD TO OLYMPICS, PAVED WITH VICTORIES
A couple of years apart of 2017-2018 season, we ask Romain Haguenauer what he sees looking back. What kind of memories he kept.
“I won’t say PyeongChang is a good memory, but I think the season is a good memory. And for them too, I think. Personally, I have very good memories: they did very good in the Grand Prix events, they skated fantastically at the Final – they were fantastique-là, they skated really well”.
Let’s just stop here for a moment: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron started their season in October, at 2017 Finlandia Trophy in Espoo, which they won, and continued with Cup of China, where they set a new short dance personal best of 81.10, a new free dance word record of 119.33 points, and a new combined total world record score of 200.43 points.
They would become the first ice dance team to score above 200 points.
But since records are there to be broken, the French will do just that at 2017 Internationaux de France: another short dance personal best of 81.40 points, a new free dance world record score of 120.58 points, and a new overall world record score of 201.08 points.
Things were looking great while going into the Grand Prix Final – and, showing flawless skates in Nagoya, they would win both segments of the ice dance event (82.07 for the short dance, 120.09 for the free, another world record score for the combined total: 202.16 points), defeat Tessa and Scott for the first time and win their first ever Grand Prix Final title.
At 2018 Europeans in Moscow, they’ll continue their stride of victories, perfect their showings, improve their own records, gain confidence: with 203.16 points (81.29 for the short, 121.87 for the free), they’ll retain their 4th consecutive European crown.
2018 Olympics in PyeongChang was a different story though.
GABRIELLA AND GUILLAUME’S FIRST OLYMPICS, FILLED WITH CONTRASTING EMOTIONS
You know Romain – he’s that very involved coach at the boards, head moving, hands gesturing, small, but categorical movements, making a perfect team with Marie-France in that regard, as if they too were on the ice, knowing the details, the accents, the highs and the lows of every program to perfection.
Contrary to that image, Romain tells the story of Gabriella and Guillaume’s first Olympics on a neutral tone, almost a resigned one. After all, fate – in the form of an extreme misfortune for the French – has played a big role here, and how can you fight this?
“At the Olympics… bah, she has the costume failure and that thing, that stupid thing just wrote the story of these Olympics. It’s true that they survived the short dance, but she was… And what you can do with that? So this is not a good memory. But I don’t think it’s a trauma for them – I hope not. They were able to skate at the World Championships, a month after, and win it.
Of course, they were disappointed – and I was for them too.
Because we’ll never know, had they done the best rhythm dance, how could this have impacted the final result. Even with a perfect performance, Gaby and Guillaume and Tessa and Scott, it would have been super close. So I won’t say they would have been Olympic champions – you just don’t know.
But it happened, it’s like that, and it’s not a drama, and they’re super young, and they can [continue to pursue this]. The Olympic title is important for them, I won’t say it isn’t, but what else can you say?!”
Second in the short dance (81.93 points), after Gabriella’s costume came undone at the neck seconds after the start of the program, they won the free dance a day after, with a world record score of 123.35 points. In the end, they had to settle for silver, finishing overall behind Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
►►► Gabriella: “I think it’s always like that in life: when something bad happens, you have, at some point, to move on to be able to have great things coming. But when you’re at a competition, you have to move on very, very quickly! You have to do this process in one night, because otherwise you’re not gonna be able to skate well the next day. So if you had a bad day at competition, you really wanna get pass that and do whatever you can to move on. So, you know, it was… At first, we were sad, and disappointed, and angry, then we just accepted it, and moved on”.
►►► Guillaume: “I think, looking at our career, [the Olympic silver medal] is a really great achievement for us. It’s a part of our path, and I think it really represents the work we’ve put into this, the commitment we’ve put into skating, into each other, our coaches… The medal in itself is a great object, but just the fact that everybody was so committed to make us skate as well as we could, I think this is something that not a lot of people can experience. And having such a great feed-back and support…
This thing is so big at the Olympics – and it can be consuming, but it can also be uplifting: we really felt people were involved in what we were doing, and supported us. And it felt great to feel that energy, it felt really heartwarming to feel that way”.