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Bourne and Kraatz ready to unveil new free dance
Figure skating fans will see the new number for the first time Sunday when they unveil it at Skate Canada.
"We knew we had to come up with something that could top Riverdance, which was such a crowd-pleasing program," Bourne explained after practice Wednesday. "We've selected new age dance music.
"It's sort of something that's in nowadays. It's fun. It's fresh. It's something the crowd can get into. Last year we came up with something that no one had done on the ice before, and this year we're doing the same. It's completely different than last year's program."
The 25th Skate Canada International will see 64 skaters from 17 countries going after $264,000 US in prize money.
Competition begins tonight with the compulsory ice dance and the pairs and men's short programs.
Elvis Stojko, the three-time world champion from Richmond Hill, Ont., who was fourth at Skate America in his season's debut last week, has to contend this time with 16-year-old Russian whiz Evgeny Plushenko, who won world bronze last March.
Christopher Dean, the former Olympic and world champion ice dancer, helped choreograph the new Bourne and Kraatz free dance. The only people who have seen it are visitors to Lake Placid, where Bourne and Kraatz train, on excursions to witness the brilliant display of autumn colours in that New York resort community. They wander into the arena and watch the Canadian champions train.
"The leaf people -- busloads of men and women -- would be watching us practice, moving their heads and dancing," Bourne said. "It's a good sign when people want to dance."
"It was really neat to see the response," said Kraatz.
After the disappointment last February of missing out on Olympic medals -- in a competition coach Natalia Dubova charged was rigged, Bourne and Kraatz won world bronze medals for the third year in a row. It was a mentally draining season as they fought for the judges' acceptance of Riverdance.
"You can't help but have it affect you in some way," Bourne admitted. "It got to us at certain points."
Then they went on a Stars on Ice tour and skated their Riverdance routine in 10 Canadian cities.
"The moment we stepped on the ice in our green costumes, people were standing," Bourne recalled. "For me, it was kind of a healing thing, seeing how the crowds were with us.
"It was a nice ending to the season that way."
In Edmonton, fans presented them with gold medals that Canadians from coast to coast had contributed towards, believing Bourne, 22, of Chatham, Ont., and Kraatz, 27, of Vancouver, should have won Olympic medals in Nagano. But quitting the main competitive scene was never a serious consideration.
"We still have more in us to give, more to learn, more to grow," Bourne said.
The new free dance, performed in part to Meet Her at the Love Parade, will show as much.
"We wanted something that has never been done that might excite some young kids to get started," Bourne said. "It's nineties music."
Being placed third in the world three years in a row has not diluted their competitive drive.
"Never," Bourne replied when asked if she and her partner had become disillusioned. "We're always striving to be No. 1.
"We've never felt as if we've hit a wall because we've always been growing. So many people thought Riverdance was our signature program, that was it. But this new dance feels even better. We'll never feel as if there is a wall there."
Added Kraatz: "There are skaters who have won medals who have done absolutely nothing for the sport, and there are skaters who maybe have not won the medals they deserve but who will go down in history.
"You have to look at what you're in it for. Are you just there for the cash at the end? Or are you in it to be creative and to change the sport?
"It really comes down what you're really after."
What they'll be after in their new free dance is a chance to catch their breath.
"Riverdance was a lot of footwork and very linear," Kraatz said. "This is a lot of footwork, too, with no slow part, and a lot of movement that goes with the music throughout the whole body. It's non-stop.
"Last year was footwork, footwork, and then something where you had a breather. Now, it's go, go, go to the end."