{"id":2004,"date":"2012-07-08T22:54:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T22:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/2012\/07\/08\/catching-up-with-piper-gilles-paul-poirier\/"},"modified":"2012-07-08T22:54:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-08T22:54:57","slug":"catching-up-with-piper-gilles-paul-poirier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/catching-up-with-piper-gilles-paul-poirier\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jacquelyn Thayer <\/em>| Photos by Melanie Hoyt<\/em><\/p>\n

\"12CdnNat-SrDPod-1373-GP-MHCanadian national bronze medalists Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, who last season competed only within Canada due to Gilles\u2019s pending release from the USFSA, are now preparing to embark upon their first international season together, which will include stops during the Grand Prix at Skate Canada International in Windsor and Troph\u00e9e Eric Bompard in Paris. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had quite a bit of time since Nationals, so I think that\u2019s going to be our biggest advantage this year,\u201d says Poirier. \u201cWe just had so much extra time to just train, and I think that was really important for us, because last year we started together so late. We didn\u2019t have a lot of time to prepare; we kind of had to just jump straight into competition season. So it\u2019s really given us a lot of time to just go back to our basics, work on a lot of stroking, work on unison, and get our choreography done really early.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team was one of the first to announce program music for the new season \u2013 selections from Mary Poppins for the Yankee Polka-centered short dance. \u201cIt was funny, because we were playing with a lot of different music, just to find out what would work best for the short dance,\u201d says Poirier. \u201cI think we almost played Mary Poppins as a joke, just because it was cute and it technically fit the rhythm requirement\u2026and then it kept growing on us, and growing on us. And we thought to ourselves, \u2018Oh, maybe it\u2019s a little bit too childish,\u2019 but we kept on playing with the music to try to see if we could put together a skeleton of a program, just to see if it went together.\u201d And, they found, it did.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While the pair received the choreography for last year\u2019s \u201cPure Imagination\/Sweet Dreams\u201d free dance from Christopher Dean, this year\u2019s free dance was crafted by primary coaching team Carol Lane and Juris Razguljaevs. Gilles & Poirier did, however, return to Colorado Springs for two weeks of work with Dean in May, where the choreographer, according to Gilles, \u201cpretty much just tweaked [the free dance], really made all the accents shine.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so happy working at Scarboro. The whole team here, Carol and Juris and Jon, are all such great coaches,\u201d says Poirier. \u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s always good to be having different sorts of input because every coach or choreographer has something different to give to each team each year. And I think it\u2019s nice for us to just have a different perspective every once in a while.\u201d  <\/p>\n

The trip to Colorado Springs was also a personal one for Gilles, whose family resides in the area.  And, in light of the challenges faced by many teams at this year\u2019s Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, Poirier\u2019s observation that a spell there provides \u201cgreat altitude training\u201d seems an additional plus.   <\/p>\n

\"12CdnNat-SrSD-4894-GP-MHMost recently, Gilles & Poirier presented an abbreviated version of last season\u2019s free dance at the ninth annual Skate for Hope charity show to raise money for breast cancer research, a show which included a few members of the Gilles family. \u201cLast year my sister [Alexe] ended up doing Skate for Hope, and our family just built a good relationship with [founder Carolyn Bongirno],\u201d says Gilles. This past winter, she and Poirier received an early invitation to perform in this year\u2019s show, with all three skating siblings \u2013 also including ice dancer brother Todd \u2013 and singing sister Shelby ultimately included in the affair. \u201cWe know a lot of people who have suffered cancer and battled it, so it was a really great cause and everyone who\u2019s done it has said the show is amazing, so it was really cool,\u201d concludes Gilles. <\/p>\n

When asked to describe their style, Gilles & Poirier have a few points of focus. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go safe, we don\u2019t want to do things people have done before. We don\u2019t want to have that sort of classic, long-lined, beautiful balletic ice dancer look. That\u2019s not who we are, I don\u2019t think,\u201d says Poirier. \u201cAnd obviously we realize that unison is important and lines are important, but at the same time we need to sort of strike out as individuals having our own style.\u201d That style, Poirier notes, is still under development. But the team sees two aims: “We are super-bubbly people and we love to show people that,\u201d says Gilles. \u201cWe enjoy skating and we like to push the boundaries a little bit. We like to throw a little bit of our tricks in there, but we do like to make things still dance-y.\u201d And Poirier concurs: \u201cI think the important thing for us is really, one, to show how much we enjoy performing and two, to really push the boundaries.\u201d <\/p>\n

While their focus remains on the season to come, the duo has some thoughts on future programs. Gilles notes an interest in the styles of the 1920s and \u201830s. Poirier adds that the team initially considered something in a 1930s and \u201840s swing vein for this season and may revisit that idea in the future. \u201cBut I think for both of us,\u201d he continues, \u201cthere are just so many styles we would love to explore, and in one career there\u2019s not enough time to do every sort of dance. So we\u2019ll just have to see where we are every year and how we choose exactly what direction we want to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Gilles & Poirier, work comes down to a balance. As Gilles concludes, their aim is \u201cto always keep skating fun. It\u2019s very important to us that we go out and enjoy every performance that we do. We like to keep our lives fun and entertaining, but also get down to work and do our business each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jacquelyn Thayer | Photos by Melanie Hoyt Canadian national bronze medalists Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, who last season competed only within Canada due to Gilles\u2019s pending release from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-interviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"by Jacquelyn Thayer | Photos by Melanie Hoyt Canadian national bronze medalists Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, who last season competed only within Canada due to Gilles\u2019s pending release from […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-wk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}