#team profiles

The reigning junior world champions are making their senior debut in their ninth season together and are a talented upcoming team that many are keeping their eyes on, and for good reason. They're actually junior eligible for one more year but have chosen to forfeit it as they're already prepared to make the move to seniors. The decision of when to move up very much comes down to each individual team, but we feel Lajoie/Lagha have developed a lot of maturity over their four year junior career, particularly during this past season.

Their strong, matching skating technique and easy, familiar partnering style forms a strong foundation that would make them a formidable team regardless, but their talents don't remotely end there. Lajoie/Lagha are a fast, agile team that uses their relatively compact stature to the fullest, darting through elements and choreography that their leggier competitors would struggle through. 

Another skill of theirs is the strength and stability of their rotations across elements. They move in and out of elements like twizzles and spins with great speed and ease, even with tricky transitions for the entries and exits to rack up points. The opening stationary lift to their free dance last season was a true highlight and one that a lot of top teams would find difficult.

They've always been energetic, committed performers from a young age, especially her. Marjorie's enthusiasm and love of skating can be quite infectious, and as she matures she is getting better at keeping her joy from leaking through into decidedly non joyous programs. They have an interesting contrast of styles that they are developing on utilizing to their greatest advantage as they strengthen their connection to the audience and each other, playing different roles while staying in the same emotional time zone.

Lajoie/Lagha received two Grand Prix Assignments, Skate Canada and Rostelecom Cup, and we look forward to seeing them there and at all other competitions this season. Definitely keep an eye out for their senior debut-- we promise you won't want to miss it.

Watch List:

2015/16 SD Gramophone/Furioso

2015/16 FD Don Quixote

2016/17 SD "Shoppin' For Clothes"

2016/17 FD Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

2017/18 SD Bla Bla Bla Cha Cha Cha

2017/18 FD "Dream"/"Nemesis"

2018/19 SD Otros Aires

Ice dance is a discipline that's all about playing the long game, but Fabbri/Ayer unfortunately have to take on the challenge of skating at the senior level in only their second season together. Luckily they are more than up to the task despite the less than optimal conditions. They have an incredible glide over the ice together, perfectly matched from the very beginning, and an emerging elegance as a team. It's easy to see from watching them why they teamed up even though it meant they would only have a year of junior eligibility together. They already have an instinctive feel for partnering each other and have quickly developed good synchronicity.

Alicia has always been a mature performer beyond her years, and Paul is such a strong partner. They already play off each other and complement each other well, a great give and take in their performance style. These qualities showed through even in their roughest beginning competitions, and they were able to push through their early growing pains. Quality skating shines through even in performances with the common stumbles of brand new partners getting used to competing with each other, and Fabbri/Ayer have already shown how they can bounce back as a team.

We look forward to seeing them develop their identity as a team more, as they already have great building blocks and just need more time to explore. Programs for new teams have to fulfill a laundry list of tasks, and we have barely begun to see what they're capable of. Based on their former partnerships, they each have a versatility of expression that will serve them well as they tackle a variety of styles in the future. While it's hard to say just what direction they'll choose to go in, they have a great many options.

Fabbri/Ayer have taken their move to the senior level quite seriously, being the latest of...several teams to squeeze into the Gadbois rink. While we grow increasingly astonished that anyone can move in there anymore, the in-rink competition and experienced coaching staff should be very helpful in their move to the senior level. They didn't get to compete for the host pick, but will be making their debut at the Quebec Summer Championships and hopefully will get some Senior Bs to start making their mark on an international level. It's never easy to break into the senior dance ranks in such a deep field, especially when you train with most of your competition, but Fabbri/Ayer have all the skills necessary to become extremely competitive in the future.

Watch List:

2018/19 RD A Evaristo carriego

2018/19 FD Quand on na que l'amour(timestamp 2:09:00)

Fabbri/Pietrantonio

2016/17 SD You And Me

2016/17 FD Any Other World/Over My Shoulder

2017/18 SD Historia de in amor/Sweet Like Cola

2017/18 FD Moulin Rouge

Che/Ayer

2016/17 SD Just Want to Make Love to You

A fixture of the international junior circuit for four years, an impressive feat for a team whose age difference meant they could have four junior international seasons at most, the reigning Junior World Bronze medalists are preparing to start making their impact on the senior level. Shevchenko/Eremenko might be aging out, but they’re more than ready for the challenge of skating at the senior level. Their speed and performance quality are senior level, and they’re already developing and owning a unique, modern style that sets them apart from the rest.

One of Shevchenko/Eremenko’s strengths is their ability to perform and own their programs. Sofia has always been such a diva, and Igor is just as committed to their programs. They have a strong emotional connection that only amplifies their performance quality, particularly in more dramatic programs. They have been trending toward more abstract FDs but that has in no way meant programs without emotional engagement. And even if the story is less obvious, they make the program just as captivating for the audience.

Historically they have struggled with levels, but have worked hard to improve their depth of edge, cleanliness of their turns, and overall precision and made huge strides this past season, to the point where they actually won JGPF on the strength of their TES. Their slimmest margin victory was a definite highlight of their last junior season and a huge accomplishment and redemption for past events where low tech scores had kept them from higher placements.

They’re a unique, creative team that always pushes their limits, learning the distinctive sit twizzles at the same time as training mates Stepanova/Bukin. They’re great twizzlers in general, with interesting and difficult variations and transitions. There’s nothing like the power move of making twizzles even more difficult, such as sit twizzles late in a program or a backspin exit directly from the last set, and still executing them at a high level. Their use of difficult variations and transitions extends to their other elements as well, Sofia’s flexibility has lent itself to some really interesting and impactful lifts. They are also great at making the most out of each moment in the music, which their choreographic step sequence last season showcased.

They received two GP assignments, Skate America and NHK, and we’re delighted to see them get two assignments without a host pick. Patience will be important as their national field is significantly more crowded than some others and also more than it has been in recent seasons, but we have high hopes that they will continue to improve while showing off their skills because they already have all they need to make a splash. 

Watch List:

2015/16 SD Les Valses de Vienne

2015/16 FD Pink Panther

2016/17 SD Seven Nation Army

2016/17 FD Barra Limpa/Chanson D'Amour/Samba in Your Casa

2017/18 SD Cha Cha Slide

2017/18 FD “Heart Cry”/ “La Boulange”

2018/19 SD La Cumparsita

We watched these two grow up from their JGP debut in 2015, when they were too tiny to be believed. “How did these little sweepers get left out on the ice— oh this is going to be a team to watch in the future!” And for a given, somewhat limited definition of future, that was true, and you could see it all here. Eliana is giving it her all, and Ian's a tiny bean who can magically lift an entire person. They were so young but had already achieved such fluidity over the ice and ease of partnering with each other.

They charmed quite a few people with their incredibly entertaining blues/hip hop SD set to New Kids On The Block and The Backstreet Boys. It's still a joy to see them lip synching along, having the time of their lives. What really garnered approval from fandom was just how unabashedly fun it was without overtly trying to market them as older. Some found the use of a song whose lyrics predominantly feature talk of how hard it is to be faithful to be a little odd, but the sheer joy and energy with which they skate and sing completely overshadows that. (Plus, possibly incredibly appropriate foreshadowing? Jokes!)

They made great strides the next season with their flamenco FD, in which they finally looked old enough to have graduated off the kids menu. They displayed a fierce sort of elegance and a newly developed maturity that made a number of people look at them with fresh eyes. We're not normally ones to get the vapors over posture, but the precision and placement that they've always had in their movements got a chance to really shine here, in a way not shown in the past.

Going into this past season, we didn't know it would be the last hurrah for Gropman/Somerville, but they at least left us with some good memories. Ian finally hit that long awaited growth spurt, and their Argentine tango made great use of their somewhat lengthier lines and increased maturity. This was a program that really showed off their matching edge work and flow, although apparently not a matching outlook on their future career? JOKES. Ian has such a good frame in this dance, and shows off Eliana's detailed interpretation and dancing. Also her dress is pretty neat.

Their final free dance together is a quirky, offbeat delight, set to selections from Mozart l'Opera Rock. It begins with the soft, sweet, whimsical Bim Bam Boum as Eliana tenderly lifts Ian's face to look at her, the way he very much did not when he ended the partnership(JOKES!!!). The floaty, dreamlike atmosphere moves to something darker and more intense when the music changes to Le Bien Qui Fait Mal(French for "the good thing that hurts" which ALSO translates to "the loving junior ice dance experience"). The drama and tension builds quite well as they hurtle through the powerful second half without ever seeming frantic or having a limb out of place, ending climatically with them separated once more, with Eliana reaching out desperately across a gap only an email could bridge, amiright?

Jokes.