Green and Parsons Focus on Growth

For Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, the 2022-23 season is all about their desire to improve and grow their skating.
 
The duo said this was the motivation for a surprise coaching switch last summer and has guided their approach throughout the season.
 
Green and Parsons have already accomplished many goals this season, including their best-ever finish at a U.S. Championships, their first Grand Prix medal and their first-ever ticket to the ISU World Figure Skating Championships. But they're not satisfied.
 
"There's so much more we want to do," Parsons said.
 
Last August, Green and Parsons announced their move to train at the Michigan Ice Dance Academy (MIDA) in Canton, Michigan, with Charlie White, Tanith White and Greg Zuerlein. The duo had previously spent their entire careers at the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy (WISA) in the Washington, D.C., area.
 
Green called the transition "a tumultuous period." It was a major change for Green, 19, and Parsons, 27. Green had been skating with the Wheaton group since she was 5 years old, Parsons, since he was eight. Moving to Michigan meant leaving all that behind.
 
"Every training group is different," Parsons noted. "All credit to our old coaches; they made us the skaters that we are today. It's a very, very different environment with Charlie, Tanith and Greg. It's just a different approach to almost every interaction we have on the ice. So it's been a big adjustment."
 
For Green, it's the first time living away from her parents. She also made the decision to opt out of plans to attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Instead, Green has enrolled in online classes at The University of Michigan-Dearborn.
 
"I was willing to sacrifice some of that in-person [college] experience to do what was right for us as a team, and for our career," Green said.
 
Her college plans may evolve over the next few years. Parsons, meanwhile, is sharing an apartment in Michigan with U.S. pairs skaters and rinkmates Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez. He works at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, a nearby rink, helping manage their Learn to Skate USA® program.
 
"It's fun to be surrounded by skaters," Parsons said. "Training at one rink and working at another."
 
Because the team's move to Michigan happened relatively late in the off-season, Green and Parsons were a bit behind schedule preparing for competition last fall. They finished fifth at their season opener, Finlandia Trophy.
 
"The late start hampered how we approached the season. We went to Finlandia knowing that we weren't as prepared as we wanted to be," Parsons acknowledged. "It was frustrating, but also very helpful, in the way we worked with our coaching team through the frustrations and the issues. That was a pretty good example of trial by fire."
 
Boosting their mental preparation for competitions is a big focus with their new coaches.
 
"At this level, all of the top teams are incredibly talented. So it's really about the mental approach: How we approach obstacles and problems together," Parsons observed.
 
"We've worked off the ice on mental training, but now we're incorporating it into our on-ice training," Green added.
 
The team's heightened focus on preparation yielded results at their Grand Prix events. They placed fourth at Skate Canada International, improving on their Finlandia scores, and won a bronze medal at NHK Trophy. Meanwhile, Green and Parsons continued to fine tune their programs.
 
The inspiration for their rhythm dance this season is a unique samba with vocalizations, which they heard while working with their previous dance instructor, Meredith Jones. The samba is a custom mix made by an Italian DJ.
 
"It's a really fun piece because it's different and upbeat. You just want to move to it," Parsons said. "It's a festive mood."

"We wanted to showcase how dynamic we can be," Green commented. "And, even though it's fast and demands a lot, we can still maintain sharpness and clarity with the movement."
 
Choosing a free dance theme took more time. Last season, Green and Parsons' innovative Martha Graham-inspired free dance brought a whole new style to ice dance, caught fans' attention and received high scores from judges. Their dilemma this season: How to follow it up?
 
"It was a pretty polarizing decision to go a different route. Our free dance last year really suited us artistically," Green said.
 
But after discussion with their coaches, Green and Parsons felt they needed to show variety in their artistic range, as they build toward the 2026 Olympics.
 
"In ice dance, you don't want to be repeating the same thing every year," Parsons asserted.
 
"For these next four years, we want to show growth over time. It's like an exploratory phase," Green said.
 
The team settled on George Gershwin's famous classical-jazz composition Rhapsody in Blue. They believe it was Charlie White who first suggested the music.
 
"This piece is very famous and familiar. Everyone knows it and recognizes it. But very few ice dancers have skated to it," Parsons observed. "Charlie cut the pieces exactly to show speed in parts, emotion in parts and beauty. It's an amazing piece of music. I think it showcases that we can grow with more classical styles as well."
 
Their ballet instructor, Amy West, worked with them to develop a storyline for the program.
 
"She had us write out histories of our characters," Parsons said. "With these images of ourselves in the story, it's very easy to get right into the music as soon as it turns on."
 
The program is high-energy and builds to a strong and dramatic finish.
 
"It has forced us to work on our speed and partnering," Green noted.
 
Green and Parsons followed up their Grand Prix success with a silver medal at the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California.
 
"We made a lot of changes between NHK and Nationals [U.S. Championships]," Parsons said. "The programs felt very, very good at Nationals."
 
Green and Parsons appreciated fans' support in San Jose and at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2023 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
 
"We're so grateful for the fans that have reached out through the season, and the people that have followed us through this move," Parsons said.
 
The team finished fifth at Four Continents after Parsons had a fall in the rhythm dance. The defending champions from 2022, it wasn't the result they were hoping for, but Green and Parsons are using it as motivation to improve for the 2023 ISU World Championships in Saitama, Japan.
 
"We have to give the judges the opportunity to score us higher. It's on us," Parsons said. "What can we adjust to make our turns more obvious, to make elements happen more smoothly, to show off our skating skills even more?"
 
For Parsons, in particular, the chance to skate at Worlds has been a long time coming. It's his seventh season as a senior and his first trip to Worlds.
 
"It was very exciting to put in the order form for the Worlds team jacket," Parsons remarked with a smile. "It's a huge honor, and it's been a goal of mine for a very long time."
 
"We're excited to go back to Japan," Green said. "I'd never been to Japan before this season, and it was always one of my goals to skate there."
 
With Worlds coming up, Green and Parsons haven't thought much yet about next season. Both smiled when asked about next season's proposed 1980s theme for the rhythm dance.
 
"I think there's going to be some very entertaining dances, that's for sure," Parsons said, with a chuckle.
 
"I've been consulting with my mom [about it]. She was alive at the time. I definitely was not," Green joked.
 
Green and Parsons wouldn't mind seeing the compulsory dance pattern return in next season's rhythm dance.
 
"Michael and I are both very fond of the pattern dance," Green said.
 
"I definitely miss the compulsory dances," Parsons concurred. "At the same time, I think whatever's best regarding the sport is the best answer. And, I don't know what that answer is. Our job is to take whatever technical requirements we have and make the most of them."
 
For now, their focus is on the upcoming World Championships.
 
"We want to head in with the goal of Worlds being our peak," Green said.
 
"There's no resting on laurels. We want to be better," Parsons vowed.