Photo Courtesy of Justine Chiu
I don’t know if I was more excited to have Kaitlyn Weaver join my Skating Warrior Princess group (total members: 3) or if I was simply catching up with them. I hadn’t clapped eyes on them since their 5th place finish at the World Championships in Moscow this past Spring. I reminded them that prior to Worlds, Kaitlyn told me that they wanted to finish n the top 5. Mission accomplished.
Getting to the top is one thing; staying there is another and Kaitlyn and Andrew have come up with a plan for this season’s programs to accomplish just that. “We know that in the top group that success is in the details: the emotion and connection. We want to work at going from a good to a great team.” says Kaitlyn. An addition to their support team this season is Kathy Johnson whose specialty is helping skaters learn movement with purpose and intent. According to Andrew this has brought about “a whole new dynamic about how movement is created whether a crosscut or complex footwork. Kathy is helping us on an emotional level from a dance perspective.”
Their short dance is ‘Una Historia de Uno Amor’ with ‘Batacunda’ as the Samba’ choreographed by Pasquale Camerlengo, who, along with wife Angelika Krylova and Shae-Lynn Bourne provide the core coaching for the team. Weaver and Poje are also working with Massimo Scali, Elizabeth Swallow and Natalia Annenko-Dellar and comment on the well-roundedness of their coaching team.
The story of how they came to select their free dance music is an interesting one. Listening to hours and hours of music, the team was tempted to capitalize on the success of their SD from last year and maybe use ‘My Fair Lady’ but were still mulling over the idea when Kaitlyn heard an through a fan on their website (www.weaverpoje.com). The fan suggested that with Worlds in France in 2012 she listen to a Lara Fabian version of ‘Je Suis Malade’ originally written for and performed by European chanteuse Dalida. Kaitlyn was so taken with the music that she texted Pasquale immediately who told her that it was one of his all-time favourite songs. The upshot is they decided to do it and also decided to have a piece composed by Karl Hugo to create musical changes not originally found in the piece.
In an interesting story about partnership, the choreography was provided by both Pasquale and Shae-Lynn Bourne who continues to offer mentorship and ongoing coaching support at least once a month. Shae-Lynn started her work on the piece in Toronto before the composition was finished and the music was still in its’ original state. Pasquale, in Detroit, added to that and when the music was finished, Shae-Lynn was the first to work with it. Pasquale provided the finishing touches and ‘added more meat’ as the skaters explained.”They both had the same vision” explains Andrew which is the magic in this collaboration.
With great humility, the team says that they could not do what they do without the love and support of their parents and families.”We are really lucky to have parents who ‘make it happen’ if we need something. We try to make wise choices about what we can afford.”
The skaters who finished top 6 in the world were offered the chance to skate in 3 Grand Prix events this Fall and Kaitlyn and Andrew decided to go for it competing at Skate Canada, NHK and Cup of Russia which will mean 4 competitions in 7 weeks if they make it to the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City in December. “We think we can medal at every competition” says Andrew and both skaters agree that they seem to always improve over the season.
Slow and steady wins the race and Weaver and Poje are still on the climb 🙂