Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue skated their two Grand Prix events back to back at the beginning of the season, at Skate America and Skate Canada International. They mined gold at the first stop and grabbed silver in Canada. Each time, their free dance couldn't get them higher than second. That was all the more surprising, as Hubbell and Donohue have always excelled in this segment.
"We obviously tried to give our best performance in both Grand Prixes," Hubbell explained. "Our technical elements were good, but we found out that we were losing many points with our GOEs. It seemed that we didn't have the right formula for what judges like to reward."
"Actually we didn't have much of a choice in our Grand Prixes," Donohue added. "As the National Champions, we had the honor of doing Skate America, and then the top three-seeded teams in the world can't get to compete against one another in the Grand Prix Series."
"Going to China would have given us two weeks," Hubbell acknowledged. "But skating back to back at the beginning gave us five weeks to deconstruct and reconstruct our programs after our two events."
Their "Marilyn Monroe" rhythm dance has already been recognized as one of the world's finest this season. "Our rhythm dance has not changed much from Skate Canada, at least on a composition point of view," Hubbell confirmed. "Judges seemed to like it. We worked mostly on quality and repackaged it."
The work an ice dance team has to go through is really impressive, in order to clarify both a story, a scenography and a compulsory step sequence. "We always wanted to go through Marilyn Monroe and the love of her life, which we think was Joe DiMaggio," Hubbell explained.
"Zach's costume was not giving a full vision of it and it didn't quite work. So, Romain (Haguenauer, one of their coaches, who choreographed their rhythm dance) packaged it again. Marilyn Monroe is very sexy, and DiMaggio now has a Yankee's uniform look, which gives the piece a lot more of a Broadway show flavor."
Hubbell added yet another flavor to her rendering of Marilyn in Torino, which was in fact quite an innovation. When called to the warm-up session, she appeared in a glamorous white coat over her red dress. "I actually bought this coat for me, and I thought it would be so Marilyn. I fortunately have fun coaches and they said it was a good idea to entertain the crowd and fun to debut our dance."
The team's free dance, which had been their weak segment in the early season, nonetheless rallied most of their energy during the five-week break.
"Our free dance was a bigger project," Hubbell emphasized. "We first took one week off after Skate Canada. Last year we were physically exhausted when we arrived in Vancouver for the Final. Then we had decided to change both programs, so we had to work six hours a day. It was obviously not the best thing to do, but we needed to do it. This year we thought we had grown as a team and could make the changes faster.
"During that week off, we could rest and celebrate Halloween with our families, and our coaches could think of what to do. Marie-France (Dubreuil, one of the team's other coaches) had a clear idea when we came back. Our coaches always look at us every day, but there is always a difference when you look at our programs from a live competition perspective.
"Marie-France told us that we were not showcasing our speed and power, especially in the first part. Judges didn't seem to respond to the contemporary style we had given that part. They wanted it to be more rock and roll. So we decided to put the main elements at the beginning, before the music turns to "Shallow," and to place the choreographic elements at the end. That was giving us more freedom to express them. Also, we wanted to give the judges somewhat of a break at the end of our program, once we've done our elements. They can check our key points and steps and technical elements in the first part, and then "get lost" at the end of our program."
Hubbell and Donohue have been known and loved around the world because of the incredible energy they put in their dances. That also means a higher risk than some other teams, but there is no way they are going to give their energy away. "Everyone has one's strong points and differentiating characteristics," Hubbell explained. "Ours is power and athleticism. Because of the risk we were taking, we thrived to not push as much as we had done in the past. In fact, that happened unintentionally last year at Worlds," she explained.
"My obsession there was to get Level 4s for all our elements. All season I had been performing Maria de Buenos Aires with full passion. Then I skated more careful and less risky. We did get all Level 4s, but we weren't where we wanted to be (they ended fourth of the rhythm dance). That gave me the feeling that I hadn't given myself to how far I could push it. Our skating is power and athleticism; we have a lot of strength. We have high goals. Even though we love what Gabi and Guillaume (Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the four-time and reigning World champions and their teammates in Montréal) are doing, we want to win. We will not beat them going halfway."
During their competition-free five weeks, Hubbell and Donohue could also have adjusted their programs to what they saw from their main competitors skating at the subsequent four Grand Prix. That was not the case, however.
"I've stepped away from watching skating on television," Donohue said. "In the past I was obsessed to watch as much as I could. I still support my teammates, but I have so much growth within me, that I'm really focusing on what we're doing. My mentality now is to be present to what I'm doing."
"…And I'm just the opposite!" Hubbell added. "I was exactly like that before, we've switched!
(They laughed). Living with Adrian (Diaz, her fiancé and a talented ice dancer from Spain) made me change. Adrian and I watch everything we can, Grand Prixes, Challenger Series, the Juniors. We have a future in coaching and choreographing. We do root for one another as we skate, but we can't share time on the ice, skating with different partners. So watching programs together is building our relationship with skating toward our future.
"I keep watching skating very separate from competition, however. I don't see it like 'Oh, here is my competitor and I can beat him!' In Montréal we have some of the finest teams in the world. I see a lot of their best and a lot of their worst every day as they practice. I wouldn't need television for that. But there is so much to learn watching others and how they manage to capture an audience!"
Hubbell and Donohue notched their season's best free dance score in Torino (125.21) to secure the bronze medal. The team's next stop is Greensboro, North Carolina, where they will compete to secure their third straight U.S. title.
Catch all of Team USA's Grand Prix Final performances on
Sunday, Dec. 22 at 4 p.m. ET on NBC!
