The French couple’s free skate in Beijing was a marvel of interpretation, both physical and emotional, to Gabriel Faure’s hauntingly beautiful “Elegy” for cello and piano. It includes phrases of lingering melancholy and nostalgic happiness, but the underlying theme is one of anguish.
Conveying that on skates requires command of making the blades flow effortlessly, the skill to handle inventive variations on the basic movements of ice dance and the emotive quality to highlight them.
There were broad strokes, like Cizeron, 27, carrying his partner across his knees, as if to bear the weight of her emotional pain. There were subtle gestures, like Papadakis, 26, brushing a hand past her face, as if covering a troubling memory, while doing an ice dance pirouette known as a twizzle.
Making all those movements meaningful is critical to success in ice dance, which has no jumps with which to easily differentiate teams. Its impression demands a togetherness only time can create.
"Ice dance is one of the most complex sports I know," Cizeron said. "You have to be a great skater, a great team, a great dancer in pretty much every style of dance that exists and very athletic as well."