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Skate pair won't change music
There has been much pontificating this year that the pair, which opens its competitive season tomorrow at Skate Canada in Kamloops, B.C., would have a better chance of breaking through for a world title by giving the judges dramatic and overdone programs performed to classical music.
Instead, the three-time world championship bronze medallists have elected to chart a more unorthodox, and probably riskier, trek to the top of the figure-skating world.
International skating judges reward higher presentation and artistry scores for programs inspired by classical music. Last season, there were howls of protest, mostly out of North America, that the Canadians did not get the marks they deserved. Speculation was, the judges didn't fully appreciate Kraatz and Bourne's Riverdance free dance -- an international hit with skating fans.
Gutted by their fourth-place finish at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, there was speculation Bourne and Kraatz would turn pro. Instead, they'll remain in the amateur (or eligible) ranks and they're sticking to their guns in terms of charting new territory musically, even though it would have been easier just to have reached for a Tchaikovsky collection.
"They're going to do what they think is right for them," agent Nathalie Cook of IMG said. "Absolutely."
So rather than soothe the judges with Prokofiev, the Lake Placid-based dance team plans to shake up the skating establishment with a free-dance routine performed to a song called Meet Her at the Love Parade by D.A. Hool. Their original dance will be performed to Seachran.
In any event, Bourne and Kraatz finally will get some sort of an idea this week how judges will feel about their new programs, when they take part in the Skate Canada competition.
One thing is certain, look for lots of innovation as the couple's new choreographer is none other than Christopher Dean -- who along with Jayne Torvill formed a legendary British ice dance team.
With Dean -- and to a lesser degree Torvill -- on board, the Canadian favourites are packing ammunition. As well, new rules implemented by the International Skating Union for ice dancing, which are supposed to reward technically difficult routines and penalize dancers for errors, should help the pair, considered two of the strongest skaters in the discipline.
Also competing this weekend will be Elvis Stojko, fresh from a satisfying fourth-place showing at Skate America last weekend in Detroit.