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Bourne, Kraatz find golden beat
One year after bringing a Celtic theme to the ball, the Canadian ice dancers debuted their new techno free dance yesterday to rave reviews from the judges at Skate Canada. The sporty, athletic program, which emphasizes their uncanny sense of balance and ability to hold long, clean edges while leaning over at near-impossible angles, was clearly the class of the 12 dance teams.
The gold medal was the fifth straight at Skate Canada for Bourne and Kraatz.
"I think the crowd really liked the program," said Bourne, "and that was the biggest challenge this year, finding something that they'd like as much as Riverdance."
Even with a misstep by Kraatz midway through their skate, to Da Hool's synthesizer composition Meet Her at the Love Parade, they earned marks of 5.6-5.8 for technique and, with the exception of one 5.7, all 5.8s and 5.9s for presentation. The stamp of their new choreographers, ice dance legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, was also unmistakable.
He coined the program "Heart Attack," hence a small graphic on the chest of their basic black-and-blue costumes that resembles the paper chart graph of a heartbeat. It flatlines at the end, but the program didn't.
"(Dean) had a lot of input initially when we were putting the program together," said Kraatz, who said they then worked with coach Natalia Dubova on refining that outline. "They gave us the product, said here it is and now you can be creative in making it work for you."
The other Canadian dancers, Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe, finished ninth.
Bourne and Kraatz's gold was the third medal won by Canadian skaters during the four-day event. In addition to Elvis Stojko's silver Saturday night, the new pairs team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier completed their stunning international debut with a bronze medal. Skating to music with a more serious, romantic theme than their bouncy short program, Sale and Pelletier didn't have the same verve and energy but their unison was excellent for such a new pair, and their strong technical ability was enough to earn them the $10,000 third prize.
The Grand Prix Series resumes with the Sparkassen Cup in Germany this week. Canada's entries include Jeff Langdon and Jean-Francois Hebert in men's, Jennifer Robinson in ladies', Valerie Saurette and Jean-Sebastien Fecteau in pairs, and Bourne and Kraatz and Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon in dance.