[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
by Anne Calder | Photos by Robin Ritoss<\/em><\/p>\n SIBLING SIMILARITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n The new partnerships of Kana Muramoto & Chris Reed and Yura Min & Alexander Gamelin placed seventh and eight in the ice dance competition. <\/p>\n As it turns out, Reed and Gamelin have a lot in common. <\/p>\n They both skated with their sisters until after the 2015 season. <\/p>\n Cathy & Chris Reed began competing for Japan (their mother\u2019s birth country) in 2006 after winning the U.S. Novice Championship. Cathy retired at the conclusion of the 2015 season and is now working as a coach and choreographer in Japan.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Twins Danielle & Alexander Gamelin danced together for 15 years until they both retired in 2015. Alexander started going to school, while Danielle explored other interests. <\/p>\n \u201cMy sister and I had to retire because of financial issues among other things,\u201d Gamelin explained.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n The similarities continue. Both Reed and Gamelin were born in the U.S., found new partners in 2015, skate for Asian countries and train in Michigan. <\/p>\n Chris Reed partnered with Kana Muramota in 2015 and continues to represent Japan.\u00a0 They train with Marina Zoueva\u2019s group in Canton, Michigan and have high hopes for the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely need to continue working to show we are not just a new team, but we are a proud member of team Japan,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n In April 2015, just two months after retiring, Gamelin received a call from a former training mate. <\/p>\n \u201cYura (Min) was retired and back in California,\u201d Gamelin said.\u00a0 \u201cOne day she just called me and said, \u2018why don\u2019t we skate together?\u2019 We were good friends and (had) trained together.\u00a0 As long as we have fun and enjoy ourselves, everything goes well.\u201d<\/p>\n The team competes for Min\u2019s home country of South Korea and trains in Novi, Michigan with Igor Shpilband. <\/p>\n A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER<\/strong><\/p>\n On the spur of the moment, Elizabeth Paradis & Francois-Xavier Ouellette (CAN) choreographed a new ending to their program after a costume malfunction interrupted the free dance. While it is not uncommon for a singles skater to modify their program during the performance,\u00a0 it is nearly unheard of for a dance team to make such changes. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy top is attached with a clip and a button, and I suddenly felt that the clip was gone, and I only had the button to hold the costume,\u201d Paradis explained.\u00a0 \u201cI was worried because I knew the whole top would come off.\u201d<\/p>\n The team stopped and skated to the referee, who instructed them to continue. <\/p>\n \u201cWe had to improvise. We missed the spin because of the interruption.\u00a0 During the diagonal sequence we talked to each other and decided to put it right at the end,\u201d Paradis revealed.<\/p>\n The team scored a personal best 86.70 points. <\/p>\n HOLD THE MUSIC, JOE!<\/strong><\/p>\n The music started before the names of Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier (CAN) were announced.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to put these things behind you,\u201d Poirier said.\u00a0 \u201cWe laughed a little bit, and we got right back into competition mode. That\u2019s all you can do. These things do happen.\u00a0 I think an important part of being a good competitor is to ignore those things and get your job done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith this competition we\u2019ve learned to expect the unexpected,\u201d Gilles said.\u00a0 \u201cWe went for our practices, and the short dance played when we started the free dance.\u201d<\/p>\n WHO WAS IN TAIPEI CITY A DECADE AGO?<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2006, a Junior Grand Prix event was held in the Taipei Arena. Several of the 2016 Four Continents competitors were there:\u00a0 Evan Bates (with Emily Samuelson); Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje; Paul Poirer (with Vanessa Crone); and, Piper Gilles (with Tim Mckernan).<\/p>\n What do you remember Evan Bates?<\/span> Bates continued, \u201cI remember familiar faces that are here this week \u2013 Piper [Gilles] and Paul [Poirier]. It\u2019s funny because as time goes on, nothing changes much.\u00a0 We\u2019re all still skating, and it\u2019s great to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you remember Kaitlyn Weaver?<\/span> Weaver paused. \u201cWe were the bronze medalists at that event also, so we\u2019re consistent. It was an amazing event, and we\u2019re happy to be back.\u00a0 We\u2019re still here, and we\u2019re like other people. We\u2019re grown up and matured. We\u2019re having fun and doing what we love.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you remember Piper Gilles?<\/span> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Anne Calder | Photos by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_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":[6,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-interviews","category-recap-archive"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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\/16FourC-TaipeiTidbits.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 Anne Calder | Photos by...","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-1Cc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6212","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=6212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6216,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6212\/revisions\/6216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cI remember being at this venue, and it had just been built. It was my first time in Asia. I was very excited and dealing with jetlag.\u00a0 I remember going to Taipei 101 and having a team dinner.\u201d <\/p>\n
“It was our very first competition. It was very memorable and exciting. Like Evan, it was our first time in Asia, our first time in a huge, beautiful venue.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where we met. He was fifth and I was sixth. It is a fond little memory for us to come back here ten years later.\u201d <\/p>\n