{"id":35306,"date":"2024-04-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=35306"},"modified":"2024-04-01T23:56:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T03:56:13","slug":"bratti-somerville-look-ahead-to-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/bratti-somerville-look-ahead-to-next-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Bratti & Somerville reflect and look ahead to next season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Anne Calder | Photo by Daphne Backman<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We are still very proud of ourselves\u2026of the whole season.” –\u00a0Emily Bratti<\/em><\/p>\n

At the recent 2024 World Figure Skating Championships, Emily Bratti & Ian Somerville of the United States were in the fifth Rhythm Dance group – #19, the beginning of the second half of competitors. Their names were called; they skated confidently to center ice. The team had chosen music by Prince after watching Yuzuru Hanyu\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d. The audience was supportive; the dancers were smiling – suddenly a fall in the Choreographic Rhythm Sequence completely changed the mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really proud about how we approached the competition, and how we skated up to that point,\u201d Bratti said. \u201cIt was like the best we\u2019d ever skated. We felt really calm and prepared. It was just a fluke thing that happened out of nowhere. We still don\u2019t know. It just really happened. It\u2019s unfortunate. I feel from the beginning – the midline, the twizzles were significantly better than at Nationals. We were so excited toward the end of the program – so happy, and then like an explosion happened. It\u2019s just hard to comprehend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>It\u2019s not really even a technical element. I would be more upset if it was a twizzle or something,\u201d Somerville added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still lots to be proud of. All of the things we\u2019ve gone through in this competition, even leading up to it, all of our practices and training have been in such a good direction and even improving since Nationals. Meeting all the people. We connected with friends we had met before and have seen their progress. It was a really cool experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, the team was still trying to understand what happened. They reflected on their experiences back at U.S. Nationals in Columbus, where they had been selected to compete in Montreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationals was a polar opposite experience to this,\u201d Bratti explained. \u201cIt was really incredible. Nationals was the first competition where we felt we got completely rewarded for the work we\u2019ve been doing. It felt really good.\u00a0 <\/span>We felt support from so many different people in U.S. Figure Skating, the audience, our families, our coaches. We felt like it was our time to shine. It felt really special. Even though it was surprising, it felt like it was totally like the right thing to happen. It was amazing. It felt like our average skate was enough. It felt like our normal skate was enough to be putting ourselves above. It helped us to be in a competition where everybody was like the same. It\u2019s hard to compare.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into it, well like we weren\u2019t down at Nationals, but the whole season feeling like we weren\u2019t separating ourselves from the rest of the bunch – even being slightly below in average scores,\u201d Somerville noted. \u201cWe felt a little bit worried, but we really had been working hard in improving our programs. What we did at Nationals was really the result of all the training we had been doing the whole year. I think our performances were just as good as we do in practices, it it felt really cool to be rewarded for something that honestly didn\u2019t necessarily feel like we skated out of the ordinary. That\u2019s why this experience right now at Worlds is such a weird feeling because we think we skated our Rhythm Dance (here) better than at Nationals – maybe a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bratti continued, \u201cWe\u2019ve met with a lot of people who\u2019ve said that it doesn\u2019t change anyone\u2019s thinking of us. We did go out and had an amazing skate until that. Everyone saw it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get to do our Free Dance , but we\u2019ve been in practice every day this week. People have been watching that. So either way, we got a lot of really good exposure here. Other than that one tiny thing, things have been going very, very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing back to Nationals since we did so well there\u2026the overwhelmingly positive experience from the scores and the feedback and the crowd\u2019s reactions helped us work really hard going into Worlds,\u201d Somerville said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThe extra training required wasn\u2019t that bad. It was a longer season than the rest of the group, but it didn\u2019t feel that bad because we got to be here. It gave us a lot of motivation and drive.”<\/p>\n

The team had considered traveling back to their homes in Maryland after the event, but their mindset changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe honestly just want to go back to Michigan and start preparing immediately for next season,\u201d Bratti explained. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like taking a break at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somerville continued. \u201cI feel if we had accomplished the performance in both events we were planning to do, we would have been happy, been relieved for the very long season and ready to take a break. Now It really got cut short with what we wanted to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it serves as a motivation for next season,\u201d Bratti added. \u201cWe really need to make the most of it and not let the negative emotions take away the incredible experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the event, the new Rhythm Dance music for season 2024-2025 was released to the skaters, coaches and choreographers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just heard about five minutes ago that it would be the 50\u2019s, 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s music,\u201d Somerville said. \u201cI\u2019m very excited about it. Before this there was speculation about music before 2000, so I was already listening to a bunch of things in the 70\u2019s. I hadn\u2019t gone back to the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of swing in that era – maybe jive and some rock, but a lot of cool styles to pick from. It\u2019s a little broad, but at the same time it gives you a good window to look at. I\u2019m excited.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>My dad is really big into this music. He knows all the old artists. He\u2019s always playing music from those eras, so I have some ideas. There\u2019s a lot of good stuff. It\u2019s probably going to be easier to find good Rhythm Dance music than for the Free Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team likes to work on the programs themselves. Bratti is into the music and technology. She makes the original cuts on their music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the Rhythm Dance for the current season, with Hugo Chouinard making the final version,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps me get in the mindset for getting ready for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as it\u2019s amazing to be here now, I just want to go home and get to work for the new season,\u201d said Bratti. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily that we have to go home and rethink it. We did everything right leading up to here and this happened, and it was so random. There\u2019s nothing I would have done different to get to this point. We have to go home and do the same thing we did this year. Prepare programs that we really love.”<\/p>\n

Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville were already long-time friends and training mates in Rockville, Maryland prior to the new partnership in 2021. The duo left their hometowns and moved to Canton, Michigan to train with Charlie White and Greg Zuerlein. Each had worked with Zuerlein in previous partnerships in Maryland. The following year the coaches plus Tanith White opened the Michigan Ice Dance Academy (MIDA).\u00a0 <\/span>Bratti & Somerville continue to train in Canton, Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Anne Calder | Photo by Daphne Backman \u201cWe are still very proud of ourselves\u2026of the whole season.” –\u00a0Emily Bratti At the recent 2024 World Figure Skating Championships, Emily Bratti 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