2019-2020: BURNING-OUT. SEASON INTERRUPTED.
“FAME CAN BE FUN FOR YOU”
For the season 2019-2020, ISU requirements stated it clearly when it came to the rhythm dance: music from Musicals and/or Operettas, with Finnstep as the Pattern Dance Element.
But when Romain pitched the idea of “Fame”, a stage musical from the ’80, to Gabriella and Guillaume, well…, “they received it really bad”.
The coach looks amused when remembering his students’ reaction – the memories are still vivid – and then he goes on explaining the full context.
“You know, we have a lot of couples at our school – and, every year, it’s the same: ISU brings the theme of the year, so you have your students, and they arrive with: Ok, we like «Grease», we like this, we like that. And we [evaluate]: It’s good for you, it’s not good – but if we decide, we decide.
We respect the fact that the first who proposes the music will [skate to it]. You don’t just take the best music [and keep it] for the best skater. It doesn’t work this way. Plus: there is not a better music than other – it has to be adapted.
But Gabriella and Guillaume, they had a show and arrived a bit late. And, basically, when we got together, there were not many musicals left. With no regret, because all of the choices… for Gaby and Guillaume, I had no vision of [them skating to one of those].
But «Fame» was there, and I said: «Fame» can be fun for you”.
FROM “OH, MY GOD!” TO “IT’S FUN, IT’S COOL, IT’S DIFFERENT!”
With the action set in the ’80 at High School of Performing Arts in New York, whose students were looking for recognition, the musical “Fame” was based on a musical film of the same name, followed by a television series. A large array of songs – from the musical itself, the movie and the series – was there for the skaters to use, including the famous theme song performed by Irene Cara, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1980 and the Golden Globe Award the same year.
Amused Romain describes Gabriella and Guillaume’s immediate reaction to the music as it was, candid, not sugared in any way: “So they listened, and they said: Oh, my God!”
And not the good “Oh, my God” – the opposite one.
Coach and choreographer Romain Haguenauer recreates the atmosphere of that particular day with a smile: “I said: But, Gaby, Guillaume, you have no choice-là, it’s a theme-là! A musical is a musical! Nothing is very serious – and there are some serious musicals, in France we have a lot of them, but we can’t use them, there is no rhythm for the Quickstep, for the Foxtrot. No, you need the musical!
So they didn’t like it, and I said: Yes, you are probably right – but let’s try”.
A working session with Samuel Chouinard, the school’s off-ice choreographer, was organized, “and we said to Sam: Sam, work two hours with Gaby and Guillaume on «Fame», do some steps – but it has to be really «Fame», like the maximum… Go all in, the things that are super cheesy, super caricature – go, go, go as far as you can!
And so Gaby and Guillaume had a lot of fun doing it – and they liked it! They brought a lot of cool stuff, they liked it and said: Yes, it can be fun, it’s cool, it’s different!”
Throughout the season, Gabriella and Guillaume’s rhythm dance to “Fame” proved to be just that: fun, and cool, and different – and even got recognized as The Most Entertaining Program of the season at the ISU Awards that year. But when you’re watching it on Youtube, trying to relieve the atmosphere of the program, of the season altogether, remember that on those particular days, when rhythm dance suggestions were on the table, it could have gone both ways.
WORKING WITH MAXIME RODRIGUEZ
That was the easy part – because, later on, finding the pieces, the needed rhythms proved a challenge as well.
“For the rhythm dance we chose «Fame», that was settled, but it was difficult to create a 3-minute program going with that, with the rules, with changing the rhythm… We couldn’t find the good thing. Actually, we did a first program with another music, and then we realized that we had used the two same rhythms for the Finnstep and also for the Midline – and we had to rearrange”.
How was this done, practically?
By flying to France to work with the composer Maxime Rodriguez, “he did the music for Philippe Candeloro long time ago, he did his «D’Artagnan»”.
“He actually created the slow part [in the middle] – the slow is a composition, one that we needed to make our Foxtrot or Blues… But afterwards the sound was a bit different, because we had picked some music from the TV series, and another one from the movie… And everything had to be mixed, so it would be equal. Basically, the last part is the new arrangement, and the first two parts have been completely redone. Even the first part, it’s completely redone from the original, but in the same way”.
And the coach was stubborn enough to stick to his original idea, to have the Pattern dance element, the Finnstep, done to the famous line “One-Two-Three-Bend!, One-Two-Three-Stretch!”: “At the beginning, not everyone loved it, but I said: But it’s so funny to use the One-Two-Three to do the compulsory dance! It’s fun to show that you skate on music – you have to!”
A FREE DANCE THAT YOU FEEL
End of September 2019, Patinoire de Villard-De-Lans, France: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron debut their new programs at Masters de Patinage, their traditional competition to start the season with. The event is broadcasted live by the French Federation – and, in spite of the low quality videos, skaters wearing their practice costumes, programs being skated in front of an audience for the very first time, the quality strikes through and both dances are deemed revolutionary.
The overall impression is highly favorable, highly enthusiastic – people talk about art in the making.
Especially with that free dance skated to spoken words.
Mirroring the words of Forest Blakk, a Canadian-born artist reciting the musical poem he has named “Find You”, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron fly freely over the boundaries of ice dancing, while bringing it to a different time and place. Watching them skate, you feel – again and again – that ice dance becomes limitless.
“I was once told that walking through a doorway could cause someone to forget even the most precious memories they had
Memories of good, memories of bad, memories of love and of loss
All tucked away neatly
Stored like the worn out blankets that were kept to dress the rainy days and bad habits that happen from time to time
Or what it felt like to rest your head on a friend’s shoulder that still carries with it the creases from where you last placed your heart
Just like that
Gone within a single step
…
So here we are
And I can vaguely and strangely trace your outline
I can remember what it felt like to hold you
I can remember what it was like to stare blindly into your eyes for what felt like an eternity
How could I forget that?
I could never forget that
I could never forget you
…
As it stands
I’ve found myself in that doorway again
With both feet in and your heart on my sleeve
But I can’t bring myself to walk through this time
Not yet at least
Not until I take one last look and see that it was you
That it was always you
…
I will find you again
I will find you again
I will find you again”.
“THERE IS A RHYTHM IN THE WAY HE SAYS IT…”
People familiar with ice dancing had been going on and on for years with the idea the French could even skate to silence – and turn it into a masterpiece. If only silence had the rhythms needed for the judges to award their scores…
Somewhere in between, in between music and silence, in between allowing them to fly, but keeping them grounded with the rules of ice dancing, Gabriella and Guillaume’s coaches had been having a thought they kept gravitating around for a while.
Romain: “It’s a bit of an old idea, an idea we have had for a couple of years already: that, one day, to use not music, but something based on words. But we didn’t know what. And also, after the Olympic season, Christopher Dean said: I have an idea for Gaby and Guillaume for the free dance – it will be to use a poem, or some words. And we were: Oh, we have that idea too. But, back then, we had nothing. It’s easy to say: We want something, but we needed to find it first. It was just a concept”.
And it stayed like that, a concept – until they all had to find new material for Gabriella and Guillaume’s 2019-2020 free dance.
“Going to this season, Marie-France found a video of dancers, very nice, on a nice music… And when we had a meeting to discuss possible ideas, she said: Look at this video. Gabriella and Guillaume liked it, immediately – but it was not the poem, it was something else by Forrest Blak. And the day after, or after the weekend, Guillaume came back and said: Look what I’ve found. He has done one song – but it’s not a song, it’s a poem, but there is like a rhythm, you know, in the way he says it…
And we loved it. 100%, everybody loved it.
It was no question here – we said: We are going to do that. We have always had this idea, and it’s just the perfect material for that”.
But, to stay within the rules, the poem had to be adapted: “The rhythm of the words was there, but we needed to add something. And Guillaume had this music by Ólafur Arnalds, we tried some songs, and we said: Ok, it takes time to mix that, in order to we have a melody – and we are going to add some beat… So, yes, it worked – but with a lot of work on the mix on the music”.
Once again, the Icelandic artist Ólafur Arnalds proved a good companion in Gabriella and Guillaume’s skating journey: the French had used bits of his music in their first free dance on senior stage (2013-2014), but also in their revolutionary Stillness-Oddudua-Happiness Does Not Wait (2016-2017).
*
The full package – rhythm dance to “Fame”, free dance as a poem on ice – was ready to be shown, costumes and all, at their first Grand Prix event that season, 2019 Internationaux de France in Grenoble. And, on their social media accounts, Gabriella and Guillaume had even published some photos, teasing their followers: the colours and fabrics of their rhythm dance costumes, the colours of marshmallows, if you may, golden buckle and all.
It was going to be something else!
Romain’s old request to Samuel Chouinard when it comes to the first choreographic moves – “It has to be really «Fame», go, go, go as far as you can!” – had really found an echo in the costumes as well. With the help of the couturier Mathieu Caron, Gabriella and Guillaume were about to go all IN, 100% commitment, in the mood, the air of their “Fame” rhythm dance.
They were about to travel in the ’80, with all the needed, recognizable accessories.
ALL GOOD, UNTIL IT WASN’T
And the first part of the season has been exactly that: a colourful journey through the programs, enjoying the novelty, the innovations – a journey involving gold medals on the Grand Prix circuit, and world records, and excitement. A journey from Montreal to Grenoble, at 2019 Internationaux de France, to Sapporo, at 2019 NHK Trophy, to Turin, at the Grand Prix Final, and also in December to Dunkerque, for the national championships.
And then, at the beginning of 2020, the duo travelled to Graz, Austria, for the European Championships, entering the competition as five-time winners of the continental crown.
But in Graz, in January, not everything seemed easy.
After the rhythm dance, Gabriella and Guillaume were in the lead, but the lead was actually a tie in disguise: only 0.05 points separated them from Russia’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. Guillaume was rather reserved after the performance: “We are very pleased, technically, the program was correct and the audience was with us. We had some fear at the beginning of the season with this program, being a bit vintage, but now we feel that most people love it”.
And Romain was reserved as well – we talked about the intermediate podium on the day between the rhythm dance and the free in Graz. Eyes on the Worlds already, the coach knew what didn’t work, and what needed to be done to make things “more at the top” with the program.
“What happened yesterday, with the Russians, I don’t think it’s that close – I don’t think it’s that close, but I accept it. And for the World Championships, Gaby and Guillaume have to do more. We are going to rework, in general, everything. Not change it, but make it more at the top. We have always done that during the season, and we have time to really upgrade everything, to make it more fun, more… Because, you know, even for the jury, to have the +5… it’s not the technical. If it’s perfect, you have +4. But to go on +5, if judges are honest, you have to touch the judges, the people.
And this magical thing is not here yet, in the rhythm dance. For me.
Because we also changed the last part completely, we made a lot of changes [from the Grand Prix Final] – and for me it’s much better than before. Before it was fine, but when we started the Grand Prix [events], Gaby and Guillaume grew in the program and they were stuck in the Pattern, with the lift and everything, so I wanted more freedom, more flow – and I am happy with the changes.
But now they have to dance it more – they have to really sell it”.
THE DEFEAT: “A LESSON THAT WE PROBABLY NEEDED”
A day later, the French would be outscored in the free dance – and lose the European title by a small margin (0.14 points), finishing behind Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. It was Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron’s first defeat on international stage since their silver medal at 2018 Olympics. In the press conference after the event, they acknowledged not having a flawless outing in Graz.
►►► Guillaume: “We felt we had made mistakes during the program, so we kind of already knew the final result – we are disappointed with our results, but happy with our performance”.
►►► Gabriella: “We can’t always win and we accept that. It is a lesson for us that we probably needed. We knew the competition was very close, so yes, we knew we did not have room for mistakes… and we made them”.
