#ts text

The work began with Montreal-based hip hop dancer Samuel Chouinard, with whom they’d previously worked for show programs. “Over the years, we’ve done various styles of hip hop,” said Virtue. “And that was deliberate because we wanted to test how different types of hip hop transferred onto the ice and how they worked for us.”

With Prince’s popular “Kiss” selected as an energetic way to open the three-song program, they went to work with Chouinard, who presented the team with some unorthodox combinations.

“I was surprised to see waacking being one of the choices, but pleasantly surprised, because I think it is unexpected,” said Virtue. Indeed, the opening moments highlight the sharp style, with nods in the section as well to other club-derived dances like vogueing. “It’s interesting to sort of bring the femininity and the masculinity and that mixture of both that Prince embodied so well. I think that particular style of dance is well-suited to Prince and just the sort of style he had in general. We wanted to sort of find that fine line of that strength and whimsy.”

Ballroom coach Ginette Cournoyer was tasked with honing the team’s blues, set to the more obscure “5 Women” — the program as a whole concludes with a soaring riff of “Purple Rain” — while coach and choreographer Marie-France Dubreuil was the “glue” responsible for uniting the program into a cohesive whole.

“[The styles] are very different and it is a challenge, for sure, to try and mix those two together,” said Moir. “But we tried to welcome that challenge, and I think for us it’s a little bit easier because at least it’s the same artist. So, you know, we’re trying to do a little bit of a tribute to Prince and if anything, it just shows his fabulous range of how freaking talented he was — he could just go from one thing and then quickly to something completely different.”

Surprisingly, over the team’s twenty-year tenure together, they’ve only tackled blues in a significant way once previously — in the Midnight Blues compulsory dance, as teenagers and junior-level skaters. Approaching it anew, as adults tasked with a choreographic exercise, means more than just mature expression or smoother execution.

“With the technical side of the pattern dance and the partial step sequence, it’s working around that because they’re worth so many points and it’s really hard to incorporate different position holds and things with the required rules,” said Virtue. So I think that will grow and evolve as the season progresses, but it’s just finding that balance, trying to make the technical side of things interesting.”

It’s a concern that transcends blues or any genre of hip hop.

“Prince was all about glamour, right, and he made a statement no matter what he did, but he brought such elegance and class to it,” continued Virtue. “So, you know, it’s finding that edge of pushing the boundaries and the shock value with the classic, timeless sort of iconic poses and movements and sound.”