Please join us in congratulating Alice Graham & Andrew Poje for winning the Bronze Medal at their first Canadian Junior Ice Dancing Championship! Their event will be broadcast on TSN (Total Sports Network) on March 12th in Canada.

The Canadian Skating Championships conclude tonight with the Men's Freeskate event with Jeffrey Buttle in the lead, ahead of defending champion, Emanuel Sandhu.


Photo credit: Scott Grant/Skate Canada

Pictured to the left are Andrew & Alice performing their Original Dance to Foxtrot & Quickstep rhythms, and to the right, performing their Free Dance to Samba & Rumba rhythms. Alice & Andrew were featured in the Sports page of The Record over the past few weeks as up-and-coming talent to watch.



Pictured are part of the "A Team", from left to right ... DanceScape founders & Ballroom coaches for the A Team, Robert Tang & Beverley Cayton-Tang, with Karen, Alice, Andrew, Tania, Bill, and Bernie. Alice & Andrew are trained by Skating coach, Paul Macintosh & principal Ice Dance choreographer, Rebecca Babb.


Pictured above is former World & Canadian Amateur Ice Dance Champion (with Shae-Lynn Bourne), Victor Kraatz, with our own DanceScape Founder & former North American & Canadian Amateur Standard Ballroom Champion (with Robert Tang), Beverley Cayton-Tang.

Wow, that's great! You must be really proud of them!

Here's a question: I've been trying to get the local ice dancers to come watch ballroom competitions, but in several years of trying have had absoultely no luck. Any suggestions? I know one popular ice dance coach around here's mother used to ballroom dance, but that's the only incident of crossover I've seen.

Thanks very much, Laura! We almost missed their competing, because as we were driving to the venue (took almost 1 1/2 hours to get there!), an accident had happened on the highway, where we were just about to exit. I had to drop Beverley off at one of the gates to the John Labatt Arena, and then had to try to find parking! After practically "running" for 1 block from the parking lot to the box office, I then had to wait in line ... only to have to show ID for the tickets that were being held. Then, running into the arena, I was looking for the gate number, ran into what I thought was the entrance ... but it turned out to be the entrance to the washroom ... then ran out again into the next entry way and ... came right to the side of the judging panel area. Just setting up on the ice were Andrew & Alice. I scanned around the arena to try to find Beverley and saw her in the top tier, but couldnt' get to her. Needless to say, we were both relieved that we didn't miss their performance.

We can appreciate the challenge to get ice dancers out to competitions. Their training schedules are so intense -- they get up so early in the morning before school starts to practice, off to school, then after school for more training and/or practice; as well as on weekends where if they aren't practising, being coached, they're competing, or travelling to see other coaches, or working on new choreography. We really do admire the discipline it takes to compete at the national or international level in competitive Skating. Of course, whether it's Skating or Dancing, we all share a common passion to be the best that we can be.

Laura, one thing that might help is to invite a high profile Ice Dancing team (e.g., if they are top ranked in the country or in their area, and have been covered a lot by the media) to the event as a guest of honour, and to present trophies. One organizer we know did this and it really made the evening.

Another suggestion is to contact their coaches (and/or their parents) directly and perhaps invite them and their teams out, probably the championship level events (especially Youth, Juniors) where there could be the most impact and best impression, especially if it is their first time! Again, this can be difficult especially when so much of the coaches' time may also be spent on training their teams, so they really have to see the value of attending if they are to take their time away from their coaching and training.

It may take some time, but even if only a handful come out the first time, hopefully their positive experience will help spread through word-of-mouth to the other skaters! It probably won't happen overnight, unfortunately, but even by letting them know consistently over time about upcoming events would at least help increase awareness in the long-term.



(BTW, for Skating fans, Jeffrey Buttle won his first national title in Men's Figure Skating! Of course, no one is counting Emanuel out at the World Championships, especially with the Quad which unfortunately wasn't there for him last night.)

Thanks for the tips, Robert.

I love both these guys, although if I had to pick one I'd go with Sandhu on a good day. Can't wait to see him at worlds!!

It was a fun week. We are happy Robert and Beverley made it in the nick of time for the Free Dance.
Observing Beverly cut a path through the crowd as she moved in on Victor Kraatz for a picture was rather impressive.
She showed definite ballroom prowess as she used her forearm to maneuvered herself and Victor into a wonderful picture position!
It was a hoot! The title of the picture of Beverly and Victor should read - "And you would be Victor?"

Thanks for all your help.

Hi Bernie,
Welcome to the Forums! It was definitely a HOOT, especially when she initially thought that Victor was going to take a photo of the group ... without realizing who he was. And then when she did, those ballroom elbows definitely helped.

Bill had emailed a beautiful photo of the Medal Ceremonies:

Photo credit: Scott Grant/Skate Canada

We've juggled our schedule so look forward to seeing you all at the fundraising showcase.

This is open to other DanceScapers ... we're brainstorming on concepts and music for the next season. Some of the dances will include Merengue, Mambo, Cha Cha and Samba. If you have come across any "new" music (or even your "Favorite" pieces of Ballroom or Latin music) that you feel might be interesting or innovative to incorporate into Ice Dancing, please share.

Just a quick note that tonight (Saturday) on the Total Sports Network (TSN), the Canadian Junior Championships will be aired on television.

The Ice Dancing will be shown in the evening, from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Click here for TV Schedule ...

It probably won't happen overnight, unfortunately, but even by letting them know consistently over time about upcoming events would at least help increase awareness in the long-term.
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