With a little help from renowned Canadian choreographer Sandra Bezic, Chinese pair skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo are hoping to relive the crowning point of their careers this weekend at the Grand Prix Final in Lyon, France.
After a bumpy road earlier this season, just managing to qualify for the final, Shen and Zhao finally triumphed yesterday, winning the first long program of the event.
In a surprising result, world champions Elena Berezhnaia and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia finished fifth of five couples. Promising Canadian pair Jamie Salé of Red Deer, Alta., and David Pelletier of Sayabec, Que., finished fourth with their Love Story routine.
Skaters must next skate a short program and then a second, different long program today.
Shen and Zhao have plenty of fancy credentials. Last March, they came within one judge's vote of winning the world pairs title in Helsinki with an explosive performance that earned them a standing ovation.
They also upstaged Berezhnaia and Sikharulidze to win the Grand Prix Final last year.
But the dramatic couple, with some of the best tricks in the world, wanted more. The skaters went to Toronto's Bezic to find it.
Bezic was amazed at how little the highly ranked couple knew of choreography and music. They needed her. What was missing from their routines was a sense of oneness. They were like two singles skaters without an emotional bond.
Although they have some of the most spectacular moves in the world, you couldn't tell they were on the same mission when, for example, they were executing a dangerous lift.
Bezic had a difficult task ahead of her. For one thing, Shen and Zhao don't speak much English. For another, Bezic was in a bit of an emotional haze last summer as her husband, Dino Ricci, underwent triple-bypass heart surgery.
She was supposed to meet with the Chinese pair in early July, but because of Ricci's health problems, they didn't get together until late in the month. Bezic called in former U.S. ice-dancer Michael Seibert, who works with her on Stars on Ice tours, to help. She couldn't have survived the 10-day experience without him, she said.
"It was a very difficult time for me," Bezic said. "It was very hard to concentrate."
Shen and Zhao brought a Chinese interpreter with them for the 10-day stay in Toronto, but she eventually had to leave before the work got serious. After that, Bezic and Seibert had to rely on Chinese coach Bin Yao, who speaks English well enough to get by.
"But they had never gone through anything like this before," Bezic said. "They were very sweet. They worked very hard. But it was difficult for them."
Bezic and Seibert would spend an hour working with the Chinese pair on a section of their program that would ultimately make up only 10 to 15 seconds. "They would look at us, as if to say: 'What are you doing? Let's get on with it,' " Bezic said.
But Bezic would insist: They must hold their feet exactly so when they finished a lift or a twist. "They had never learned this," she said. "They had very little work on the subtleties and nuances of skating."
Bezic had seen enough of the skaters at Olympics Games and world championships to know exactly what kind of music to choose for them. She saw them as strong, powerful skaters, with amazing elements. "I wanted to do a short program that would be classical, but in-your-face and powerful," she said.
That led her to Stravinsky's Firebird,music that is almost a cliché in skating, but for long programs. Bezic doesn't know of many skaters who have used it for a short program.
"I just felt the music reflected their skating," Bezic said. "He [Zhao]has a dramatic flair."
The long program had to be completely different. For this, Bezic wanted something more lyrical, but with a Chinese flavour. It would be a real test of what they would learn about nuances from her.
Because Bezic had already done choreography for Chen Lu, the first Chinese figure skater to win a world championship and Olympic medal, she already had a repertoire of Chinese music. She found a Chinese violin concerto that was perfect.
Costumes were another problem. Geoff Billings, who designs costumes for Stars On Ice, created some fresh designs for the Chinese, too. But it was difficult for him to work on them, without opportunities to get fittings.
All around, it had been a hard year for the splendid Chinese pair -- until now. They've made a lot of fumbles, and in one early pro-am event, finished last. Some say they've struggled to get a handle on the new choreographic challenges Bezic has presented them.
Their coach says an accident last summer, in which Shen broke her nose after another female skater ran into her on the ice at their training centre in Harbin, has set them back in their training. They're still playing catch-up.
Another observer says their timing had been off earlier in the season and they had appeared nervous all fall; and the choreography won't work unless they roar through their elements with the confidence they've had in the past.
Yesterday, it all worked.