If patience is a virtue, then (Tessa) Virtue must be more virtuous than most. Not only has she endured surgeries on both of her shins – twice over the last 3 seasons – requiring lots of time off the ice to heal, but she has also been playing GOLF in her down time!! (As if she hasn’t suffered enough? Kidding.) Patience and grace and the ability to keep her eye on the prize is what defines Tessa Virtue for me.
The Free Dance is a nod to the romantic Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire movie classic ‘Funny Face’. Tessa had put the suggestion forward on a couple of occasions over the years but the timing wasn’t right until now. “It’s fun for us to get into character roles playing an exact story. The other time may have been our Umbrellas (of Cherbourg) maybe but we had our own take on it. For this Free Dance Scott has gotten so into it. It has a Broadway feel to it with a little more theatrical style with definite highs and lows and a really jazzy contemporary piece in the middle. It (Funny Face) has always been one of my favourite movies. I love Audrey Hepburn and have seen most of her movies.The only struggle was narrowing down the music. The program is a good fit for us and there wasn’t much debate about that once we heard the music.”
Aside from developing programs this summer, Tessa and Scott were in Korea for Yu-Na Kim’s shows: “A great way to get back in front of (10,000!) people and a real testament to what Yu-Na has done for skating!” Just the kind of humble comment I could expect from this Olympic champion who has also left her mark on figure skating. Then again anyone who admits to keeping their Olympic hardware in their underwear drawer and says that their life is basically the same except for their own parking spot at the rink clearly has their priorities in order. Staying grounded: another of Tessa’s Virtue(s).