'24-'25 Main Characters: Ice Dance!

Once again, you may need to open this in your browser to see the whole thing.

And we’re back to the 2024-20245 Figure Skating Main Characters guide! Last week, we reviewed the chaotic Men. The week before, we hashed out the Pairs. This week— Ice Dance!

Oh, Ice Dance. The discipline that could be an email instead of a meeting.

Because Ice Dance is so nuanced and subtle, it’s very easy for judges to fix the scores a bit more than other events. While it has potential to be the most fun thanks to mandatory themes and campy costumes, it is also the most boring because it often seems the final finishing order is already determined. The Main Characters will almost certainly sweep any medal event they attend. But most of the interesting stuff is happening on the field right behind them.

Main Characters

Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA)

The Popular Kids. Well, popular in the sense that they’ve won almost everything the last couple of years. There are certainly corners of the Internet where they are just a popular punching bag. They got married this summer (People photoshoot included), and there is an air of Prom Queen and King about them. Or, at least, there’s an air of Prom Queen and Nerd Boyfriend about them. Madison Chock: Deanna Stellato :: Evan Bates: Deanna’s partner.

These two have competed in three Olympics together, and Evan Bates has actually competed in four total Olympics (his first Olympic berth was with a former partner). There’s a Twitter account called Evan Bates Outlives, in which the creator tracks Evan Bates’ career against other careers. (Here’s the one where he outlives Joe Biden’s re-election bid.) Evan has a reputation for being the oldest person in competitive Ice Dance, hobbling along on the ice to help Madison win her gold medal. But Marco Fabbri of Italy is actually a year older. And note what I just said— there is an assumption that Madison is the one driving them to stay in competition while Evan just goes along with it because he has goo goo eyes for her but secretly wants to retire and spend more time with their dogs. I have no idea if there’s any truth to it, but you will see people joking about it.

Their style is about as subtle as a hot pink boa. Madison is an alien, Evan is a spaceman. Madison is a snake, Evan is Indiana Jones (not kidding- they really did this). Madison is fire, Evan is ice. They like a theme the audience can really latch on to, and it works for them. They are the fun, accessible ones. I don’t understand enough about Ice Dance to know if they are technically good; figure skating Twitter would have you believe they are not and that they are wildly overscored. But they usually have innovative lifts, and they very certainly know how to work the crowd.

Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (Canada)

The Theatre Kids. Of the top three couples, this is the only one that is not a romantic partnership off-ice. In fact, Paul isn’t even into women. They’re basically Sharpay and Ryan from High School Musical, and they do all the weird stuff to prove they are the true artists.

Where Madison and Evan dress as literal clocks to ensure you know their program is conceptually about the passage of time, these two are sweeping across the ice as Heathcliff and Cathy from Wuthering Heights and staging a tribute to Hitchcock. They’re choosing the much lesser known original version of a song that Annie Lennox later made famous and doing choreographed belly flops on the ice to show that they can. They’re also choreographing their bows to the audience. Paul is growing out a mustache for the Rhythm Dance and then shaving it before the free program because facial hair is part of the Look.

So far, they’ve been a half step behind Chock/Bates since the last Olympics. At least some of this can be attributed to Piper having surgery for ovarian cancer mid-season in 2023. She seems to be at full strength again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they upset the Americans at their home Worlds in Boston next spring. I wouldn’t mind. I’d like some Olympic season uncertainty.

Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (Italy)

The Technically Good But Maybe Boring, not that you can tell from the screenshot from last weekend’s Lombordia Trophy. I know, I know— they’re dressed as robots, how can they be boring? Their costumes are not usually the problem. Last year, they wore neon jumpsuits and Charlene dared to pull her hair into a side pony for the 80s Rhythm Dance. They can certainly look like they’re in the spirit of things.

The problem I see for them: they just don’t stand out. They may have the best technical skill of the bunch, but when you put them up against Chock/Bates’ charisma and Gilles/Poirier’s Weird Kid Energy, they are Just There.

But their coach, Barbara Fusar-Poli is certainly interesting. You might remember her from this infamous figure skating moment (click on picture for video):

Barbara stands by the ice with a stopwatch to time lifts. She throws shade at other teams in interviews. She does all of the moves on the sidelines like she’s your preschool ballet teacher dancing in the wings of the stage. You get the sense she is very capable in a crisis and could change a flat tire in less than a minute. Honestly, I’m more interested in watching her than in watching her top team. And that’s the problem.

The Sub-Main Characters Who Are Almost Main Characters

This is a special category just for Ice Dance. It seems unlikely that that one of these teams will actually surge ahead of the Top Three. But they might! They would certainly like to!

Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (Great Britain)

The Fun Ones. Lilah Fear gets a lot of flack for being a rich kid buying her way to an Olympic medal, but I can think of worse ways to spend money. She also gets a lot of flack for having poor skating skills, which I can’t really speak to because I can’t really tell the difference once you surpass a certain level of skating. Can I tell that Tessa Virtue is more skilled than Lilah? Yes. Can I tell you why? No.

What I can tell you is that Lilah and Lewis are fun. They know they’re not going to be the elegant, artsy ones. And they’re not going to be the ones with the hot chemistry or the ones with the strong technical skills. But they’re gonna pick a catchy song and do something gimmicky and the casual skating fans will love them and the hard core fans will be like, “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?!” And they’re gonna ride that energy all the way to the podium. Lilah may not be a delicate ballerina, but she’s savvy. She knows her brand, and she’s leaning into it. They’ve managed to surpass Charlene and Marco at a competition last year; I wouldn’t be shocked if they pick them off again this year.

Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (Canada)

The Underdogs. Also known as LaLa. These two are just so lovely. They should absolutely be in the mix for a Top Three at Worlds, but it seems like they’re held back by a fixed scoring structure. As long as Piper and Paul choose to compete, I don’t see how they can surpass them to be the top Canadian team, unless there is a revolt in Ice Dance scoring.

For those of you who like a little drama in your skating couples: these two skated together as juniors and broke up their partnership in 2015, only to re-partner a few months later when they joined up with the coaching team at IAM. I’m sure there’s a fun story here— probably involving Marie-France Dubreuil telling Marjo that good male partners don’t grow on trees and telling Zach that partners willing to deal with his sour expressions also don’t grow on trees.

The Secondary Players

Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Sorenson (Canada): Nik is still accused of sexual assault, and I still don’t really want to talk about them. They will be a medal factor in the events they attend and there’s a good chance they place ahead of LaLa, mostly because they have been around longer.

The Czech sibling teams (Tachslers, Mrazeks) For whatever reason, both of the top Czech teams are sibling couples. Not romantic couples—Ice Dance couples. I hope that is obvious, but the world is strange. Both teams are very good and very FAST. They have a bad reputation for bringing the demolition derby during practice with other couples. The Tachslers are not quiet about feeling that their scores do not reflect what they actually do. If someone is leading the storming of the Bastille to overthrow the judges, it’s them.

The Finns (Yuka Orihara/Juho Pirinen & Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis) You would think a country like Finland would have it in the bag for ice sports, but they don’t usually factor in figure skating. However! They do seem to be having an Ice Dance moment with two teams that are pretty good. Turkkila/Versluis seem to be another victim of the rigid scoring system, though; it will be interesting to see where they factor in the pre-Olympic season.

The Frenchies (Demougeot/le Mercier & Lopareva/Brissaud) In the wake of Papadakis/Cizeron completely dominating French Ice Dance for years, these are the French couples still standing. Lopareva/Brissaud had a break-out moment last season with a club dance exhibition program that went viral and branded them as The Weird Ones. I’m talking “pretend to be marionettes” weird. Good for them! Personally, I really enjoy Demougeot/le Mercier and look forwarded to seeing which complicated hairstyle Loicia goes with this year. Last year, she essentially did basket weaving on her scalp to match the pattern on her dress.

Davis/Smolkin (Georgia): Remember how I keep saying I don’t want any hard-working athlete to be considered a villain but somehow there are still villains? Here’s your Ice Dance villain, though it’s a bit unfair to cast them that way. First of all, Diana Davis is the daughter of Disney Villain Eteri Tutberidze, and there’s lots of accusations floating around that her scores are grossly inflated out of deference to Eteri. Second of all, they represented Russia at the last Olympics, so they could be viewed as country-hopping to stay in the game. They could also be viewed as deciding to represent another country because they don’t agree with what Russia is doing. Pick your story.

Reed/Ambrulevicius (Lithuania) Allison Reed comes from an Ice Dance family; her siblings have previously represented Japan. Sadly, her brother Chris died really young, and you will often see her sharing a picture of him in the Kiss’n’Cry. She’s previously competed for Georgia and Israel, but she finally found a good partner in Lithuania, which is unfortunate for her because the country seems steadfast in not granting her citizenship. So, Alison busts her ass to earn an Olympic spot for Lithuania and then they give the spot to citizens instead, who inevitably don’t even make it to the free skate. That’s what I’m watching this year— will they finally give in and give Alison her citizenship?

Lim/Quan (South Korea) Previously competed for Canada but looked around and realized it was really crowded and really hierarchical, so they’ve swapped to represent South Korea. I think the field is too crowded for them to break out right now, but I think they could breakthrough after a wave of 2026 retirements. Hannah Lim specifically has the x-factor; you can’t really look away from her.

Smart/Dieck (Spain) Another case of the Deannas here— Olivia Smart is Everything and her partner is just Ken. She’s previously been to the Olympics with another partner who retired, so she’s making another run with this guy. He is fine! Their Dune costumes are everything you want Ice Dance costumes to be. Just trust me.

Harris/Chan (Australia): The Hot Ones. Just really ridiculously good-looking and with fantastic costumes. Cannot manage a good set of Twizzles to save their lives, though.

And then there’s a whole layer of American teams.

The United States is lousy with good Ice Dance teams. I saw someone on Twitter suggest we should try to trade some of our Men and Pairs Worlds spots for Ice Dance spots, and YES.

Bratti/Somerville: Seemed to be a dark horse team, poised to surge ahead in the US pecking order, but then they had a fluke fall at Worlds that took them out of the free dance. This season, they’ll try to prove that it really was just a fluke and they deserve to be in the Top Three. The rare Ice Dance couple where the male skater pulls more attention than the female.

Green/Parsons: The team that Bratti/Sommerville seemed to surpass. They were hampered by injury last year and seem confident that they will reenter the podium chat this year. Caroline Green has murder eyes intense energy, and I love her for it.

Carreira/Ponomarenko: Also known as CPom, also known as my current US faves. Coached by Scott Moir, who seems to have figured out exactly how to package them for maximum effect. Currently the #2 US Ice Dance team, but it wouldn’t take much to overtake them given the deep talent right behind them. Given that Christina is Canadian and still doesn’t have her US citizenship, I would not be surprised to see Team USA throw their favor behind another team if they think it will be important for the Olympics.

The Browns: Siblings, no relation to Jason. They are Junior World Champs and Very Good, but they get lost amongst all the heteronormative US couples pretending to make-out on the ice. They got a little attention last year when they went to Montreal for some coaching support and camped out instead of staying with one of the local Ice Dance teams. They want everyone to know that they CHOSE to do that; no one froze them out.

Neset/Markelov: Yet another set of Junior World champs. The child bride and her Secret Russian. They got married to each other this summer. She is 18 and born in North Dakota; he is 21 and born in Russia. You can draw your own conclusions, if you want to.

Eva Pate/ Logan Bye: Yet another married US Ice Dance couple. Very blond and rumored to be very MAGA. Also very clearly modeling themselves after Meryl Davis and Charlie White, particularly through their song choices. Their coach, Igor Shpilband, is a politically savvy in the Ice Dance world, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them moving up the ranks.

Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik: I’m not sure if these two are dating, but Emilea’s Instagram wants you to think they are. Their hook is that she just started Ice Dancing a couple of years ago and is already THIS GOOD. Early competitions this year suggest they are coming out swinging elbows to race past the rest of Team USA. And is it just me, or does he look like Miles Teller on ice?

Bella Flores/Ivan Desyatov: Part of that messy Ice Dance partner swap octagon. They’ve won the first battle of that war this year by getting the Skate America host spot.

Annabelle Morozov/Jeffrey Chen: Annabelle recently defected from Russian Ice Dance, probably under the ministrations of her father— the infamous Nikolai Morozov— who could certainly read the international tea leaves on Russia’s improbable return to competition. No worries for Annabelle; she already has US citizenship since she was born here. I find this pairing INTERESTING because she appears to be a go-getter perfectionist, a Track Flick on ice. And Jeffrey falls on Twizzles and trips his partners. I’m guessing he was the best option available to her if she wanted to hit the ground running with the US Federation. Can’t wait to make some body language assumptions if he pulls the same shenanigans with her this year.

And that’s Ice Dance! I’d love to see some chaotic placements this year, but I suspect it will be a rerun of last year.

Three Non-Skating Things:

I am so fried tonight after a wonderful but busy weekend. I cannot think of three non-skating related things to tell you that aren’t just things on my to-do list for this evening, so here we go.

• Make overnight oats. I hate meal prepping. But then I appreciate stumbling through breakfast without effort. I want to be careless, but I am doomed to delay gratification every time.

• Text someone about changing something that is scheduled later this week. It is so easy to send a text message. So easy to say, “Hey, can we do this time instead?” But for some reason, this feels insurmountable tonight. Like if I have to manage one more logistic, I will collapse like a house of cards.

• Take an Epsom Salt bath. This is the best thing on the list. This is the carrot on the stick that is keeping me moving. I’m not trying to rush you out of here, but I can’t wait for this one.

What’s Next: The Laaaaadies!