Montreal has become a major hub for ice dance for both U.S. teams and some of the best teams from around the world. Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker are amongst the three ice dance teams that made the move to our northern neighbor. Since their move, Hawayek and Baker have found their groove on the ice, grabbing their first Grand Prix gold at NHK Trophy in 2018 and taking bronze at back-to-back U.S. Championships in 2019 and 2020.
Hawayek finds a sense of camaraderie in sharing the rink with her competitors during practice sessions.
"We all have an incredible respect for one another and we see one another as fellow athletes that share a common goal, not only as fellow competitors, so it's a really positive environment we train in every day and we constantly push each other and encourage each other to be the best and to be better than we were the day before," she said.
Their training mates include 2020 Guaranteed Rate Skate America gold medalists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, as well as reigning U.S. champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates. The threesome also shares the same coaching team.
The pandemic caused the 2018 NHK Trophy champions to pivot in their training leading up to the 2020-21 season. Before returning to Montreal at the end of June and enduring a 14-day quarantine before being able to return to the rink, the partners spent time training in Buffalo, New York, Hawayek's hometown.
"We pretty much created our free dance over Zoom with our coach and choreographer Marie-France Dubreuil. She was in her living room back in Montreal and we were on the ice. I think the circumstances allowed us to really tap into our creativity," she said. "Jean-Luc and I have always been creative. We've always choreographed our own show numbers."
Being part of the creation of the program to "Heart of Glass (Crabtree Remix)" by Philip Glass and Blondie helped them feel personally invested. Baker originally found the classical version of this song a couple of years ago.
"I really, really enjoyed it and I thought that it was very emotional, and then Kaitlin and I stumbled across a remixed version and we thought it was so cool that it was mixed in with the song that we were talking about skating to," he said.
Hawayek and Baker have decided to recycle their crowd-pleasing rhythm dance to a compilation of songs from Saturday Night Fever for this season. Normally, it's the type of music that would get audiences on their feet, dancing and clapping along. However, this season is unlike any other. At Skate America®, athletes competed in front of cardboard cut-outs and a pumped-in clap track, while fans watched from the safety of their sofas.
"We went into the competition very conscious of the fact that that wouldn't be a source of energy that we'd be drawing from like usual," Hawayek said. "Ultimately, the main thing that drives your competitive spirit is knowing you've got one shot and you have to do it when it counts. [Cardboard cutouts] did really help not having a completely barren arena around. There were some fun takeaways that we could embrace from it. Like, you'd never usually see dogs and cats in the audience!
"Obviously, we know it could never replace a real audience and we definitely miss being able to connect with people in person, but we've also just gotten such a nice outreach and outpouring of support…over social media, [so] we knew there were a lot of people with us as we performed."
Travel restrictions limited the competition pool to athletes who train in the U.S. and Canada, making Skate America® feel like a miniature version of the U.S. Championships.
"We had some very high level judges on our panel and also on the technical panel, so that part of the event was really nice because we felt like the panel was quite strict in terms of what it would be internationally," Baker explained.
The ice dancers were thrilled to finally be amongst fellow Team USA athletes. The World Championships and Champs Camp were canceled this year, which kept postponing their reunion.
"You don't realize how connected you've become with them over the years of competing in terms of traveling to competitions together and it felt kind of sad in a way over the last eight months that we hadn't been able to connect with them, so having this event was honestly such a blessing," Hawayek said. "Obviously, there's that lack of physical connection which was giving each other hugs or high fives … It's just been such a pleasure to be able to see each other's faces in person." (Skaters were required to wear masks except for when they were on the ice.)
Beyond their competitive career, Hawayek and Baker want to keep their creative juices flowing. Hawayek is already pursuing DJying on the side and Baker admires the choreography careers of retired ice dancers such as Christopher Dean and Shae-Lynn Bourne, calling them both "phenomenal."
During this uncertain year, creativity has been the backbone of this duo's strategy to stay at the top of their game on the ice. They will look to narrow the margin and find the top of the podium when they return to Las Vegas for the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January.
"For us, it's really keeping our levels up to par as we got very good levels at [Skate America], but really honing in on the GOE," said Baker. "I believe the more consistency we create with these elements, the more GOE will happen because we'll be introducing more confidence and more unison."
The Grand Prix Series closes this week with 2020 NHK Trophy in Osaka, Japan. Fans can follow the series on Peacock Premium, your all-access pass to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series. Learn more and start your 7-day free trial at peacocktv.com/skating.
Fans can also read more about Hawayek and Baker in their cover story in the November issue of SKATING magazine.
