Gilles and Poirier defend Skate Canada title
Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier perform their Free Dance at 2022 Skate Canada on October 29 in Mississauga, Ont.
2022 Skate Canada – Ice Dance Recap
Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier defended their Ice Dance title at 2022 Skate Canada, taking their third consecutive gold at this event. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain easily maintained second throughout the event to pocket the silver, while Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha of Canada captured the bronze — their first Grand Prix medal.
Piper and Poirier delivered a masterful interpretation to music from Evita which featured level-four twizzles, lifts, and dance spin. The overnight leaders earned many high positive grades of execution (GOE) and scored 128.47 point for first place in the Free Dance. Together with their new personal-best Rhythm Dance score (87.23), the 2021 World bronze medalists placed first overall (215.70) with just over five points to spare.
“We had a blast out there today!” said Gilles. “When we started creating this Free Dance, we knew it would become something special. We loved skating in front of our home crowd and just let the story tell itself.”
Fear and Gibson put out a crowd-pleasing routine to music by Lady Gaga which was highlighted by their level-four lifts, twizzles, and dance spin. The team has made tweaks to the second part of the routine since the Challenger Series where they finished first in both events. In Mississauga they earned a new personal (125.38) for second place in the Free Dance and overall (209.18).
“We felt so empowered by the crowd today and are super proud and happy!” said Gibson.
The team’s Free Dance was inspired buy a Lady Gaga concert they atteneded.
“Especially the song ‘Born this way,'” said Gibson. “There is nothing more special than being able to be authentically who you are!” “We have dreamed of skating to this for a while and felt ready for it this season,” added Fear.
Lajoie and Lagha, who stood in fourth after the Rhythm Dance, placed third in their sublime Free Dance to “Nureyev” in which they displayed seamless choreography throughout. The team, who recently took gold at both Challenger events earlier this season, earned a level four on their twizzles, lifts, and dance spin to score 119.55 points. With a total combined score of 195.49, they moved up to third overall.
“It feels amazing to win our first Grand Prix medal, especially here at home in Canada,” said Lajoie. “It was really fun out there skating in front of our home audience.” “We finally found a piece of music that we both really like for our Free Dance music, added Lagha. “That is very special to us.”
USA’s Caroline Green and Michael Parsons finished fourth (118.06) in the Free Dance and overall (194.19). The 2022 Four Continents Champions produced a flawless routine to “Rhapsody in Blue” showing much improvement since their last event at Finlandia Trophy where they finished fifth.
Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac of Canada produced a clever routine to music from The Pink Panther with interesting transitions and originality. The 2022 Skate America bronze medalists scored new personal bests across the board at this event and finished fifth overall (189.07).
USA’s Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville finished sixth overall (179.14) in their Grand Prix debut ahead of Japan’s Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto (166.06).
Piper and Gilles will compete later next month in Espoo, Finland, while Fear and Gibson take Grand Prix ice next in Great Britain in two weeks alongside Lajoie and Lagha. Green and Parsons are slated to compete in three weeks at NHK Trophy in Japan along with Komatsubara and Koleto. This was a solo Grand Prix event for Bratti and Somerville.
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