At the 2011 BMO Skate Canada Junior Nationals in Victoria, B.C., the junior dance field was more inexperienced than in recent years, but the young field was certainly full of talent. The event was marked by strong skating and beautiful performances.

For new junior Canadian champions Nicole Orford & Thomas Williams (pictured, left), the whole season has been packed with surprises. Since they did not team up and start training until the end of May, they had to hit the ground running. After some inconsistencies in their first few events together, the new team hit their stride just in time for the Junior Grand Prix circuit, where they picked up a bronze medal and a fifth-place finish. Their momentum carried them through a victory at the BMO Skate Canada Challenges in December, making them slight favourites when Junior Nationals came to their home province.

With clear victories in both segments of the competition in Victoria, they smashed their personal best by almost ten points, scoring 130.31 overall. Their free dance, set to strings arrangements of “How You Remind Me,” “This Love,” and “Dare You to Move,” highlights the way that they have merged their skating styles in a short time. They skate faster than the other teams in the field, but over the season, they have learned how to harness their power and present different levels in their program. With level 4s on all elements besides the step sequences, which were both level 3, Orford & Williams earned only a single base GOE. The other 55 GOEs were all +1 and +2, accounting for their free dance score of 75.81, four and a half points ahead of the next-closest team. Their protocol would make any team proud, but it is even more impressive, given that they are the second-youngest partnership on the roster.

“[The season] has been a pretty big shock,” Williams said. “It really surprised us. We were just hoping to even get one international.”

Orford, grinning ear to ear, tried to put the title into perspective. “I think we did the best we could,” she said. “We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

The secret to their dream season? “Amazing coaches,” Orford immediately said, glancing at Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe, whose students won national titles at three of the four levels in Canada this year. “And hard work.”

Victoria Hasegawa & Connor Hasegawa - “The Merry-Go-Round of Life” (waltz)
Good character, the most expressive I’ve seen them skate. Cute play on a sibling rivalry theme. Excellent twizzles (lv 4, +0.5). Level 4 on both Viennese patterns, which was something they’d been drilling prior to this event. Level 3, +1 on midline.  Great skate, maybe just work on speed in the future.
51.88, 3rd place

Jade Marrow & Allan Stoll - “Do I Hear a Waltz” (waltz)
Level 3/2 on Viennese, slow on twizzles but good unison (lv 3, -0.17), good midline steps to open (lv 3).  Very secure and polished overall, best I’ve seen them skate this program.
42.16, 11th place

Larissa Van As & Troy Shindle - “I Remember Natalie” + “Big Time” (waltz/quickstep)
Nice curve lift to open, Viennese looked strong (lv 4/3), looks like she may have missed a couple of steps at the end of the midline (lv 2, -0.17).  Good “ballroom-y” character, confident.
42.22, 10th place

Laurence Fournier-Beaudry & Yoan Breton - “Chiquilin de Bachin” + “Tanguera” (waltz/tango)
Seemed a little nervous through the waltz (Viennese lv 1/2), but really settled into a very spicy tango. Level 3, +1.50 on midline. Tango was a great choice for them—they can handle it!
48.37, 5th place

Although quite a few of the teams hit some bumps along the way, the novice dance competition at the 2011 Skate Canada Junior Nationals in Victoria, B.C., ended up just about as expected. The top four teams all placed just as they did in December at the 2011 BMO Skate Canada Challenges, the qualifying event for Junior Nationals.

Madeline Edwards & Zhao Kai Pang (pictured, right), who have been undefeated since August, took the Challenge title over training mates Noa Bruser & Timothy Lum (pictured, right) by just a quarter of a point. This time around, though, their victory came a little more easily. At Junior Nationals, they won all three dances en route to a total of 96.75 points, a new Canadian record for novice dance.

"I think we've improved from competition to competition," Edwards said, "and that's what we were trying to do."

Earning level 2, instead of 3, on both footwork sequences nearly cost them the title at Challenge, so the team and coaches Megan Wing & Aaron Lowe paid close attention to the feedback that they had received and made some major changes. Between Challenge and Junior Nationals, they revamped the entire middle section of their program, set to music from "The Muppets" and "Happy Feet." Their circular step sequence switched directions and they changed quite a bit of the choreography between elements. The young team only had about three weeks to train the new version of the program, but they skated like they had been performing it all season.

The hard work paid off—with even crisper, more accurate skating than they exhibited at Challenge, they hit level 3 on both step sequences. Their spin and twizzles did both drop levels, from 4 to 3, but they made up for the technical points in GOE, where they earned 25 +2s, 22 +1s, and a lone zero. With confidence and pizzazz, Edwards & Pang won both the TES and PCS and eclipsed the Khong siblings' 13-month-old Canadian record by .25.

The two were all smiles after their skate and thrilled with their victory, but did not seem to grasp what they had accomplished. Perhaps, with so much success in their careers together, the now-three-time consecutive Canadian champions just see the title as business as usual.

"We're having a good time," Pang said.

"We're enjoying skating together," his partner added.

This morning was another early one...of course, of all events, the senior dance practice had to be first this morning!  So I was the first person in the media room at the rink this morning and then shot three small groups of senior dance from the boards. It’s strange that none of the groups have five teams, but I guess that 11 is a difficult number to group for a dance roster. With Tessa & Scott’s withdrawal, though, they are down to 10 teams, so I wonder if they will regroup the skaters into two flights. I’ll try to research this.

I also arrived at the rink before they turned the lights completely on. The first two teams, Audrey Dupont & Marcus Connolly and Anne-Chloé Bissonnette & Dylan Lockey, practiced with only half the lights on. I think they had enough light to see, but my camera had to work extra hard to find the skaters against the dim, blue ice! The lights went on for group two, though, and I got some great shots from the boards.  All the senior teams look polished and ready to compete. I’m starting to get really excited for tomorrow, especially after the junior short dance last night.

Let’s talk about the juniors, shall we?  Just...wow!  I was so impressed with how well everyone skated. Quite a few teams skated better than I’d ever seen them skate before. I was just so proud of everyone. A few teams didn’t have their absolute best skates, technically-speaking, but everyone performed well. I know the free dance tonight is going to be fantastic.

Unfortunately, it’s a little rainy today—the one day where I have the most time to go for a walk. I’m not going to let that stop me, though, mostly because I don’t eat unless I venture outside, and I’ve already made a date at the ice cream soda shoppe. Since I know how important it is to set goals in skating, I’m setting goals for each day I’m here at Canadians. Yesterday, my goal was to eat dinner: accomplished at 10pm! Today, my goal is to sit down and enjoy a strawberry ice cream soda with friends, so I’m off!