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Smith: Bourne, Kraatz keep door open
| Source: |
Globe and Mail |
| Date: |
October 5, 2007 |
| Author: |
Beverley Smith |
You know when Kurt Browning's seventh Gotta Skate show breezes into
town, it's time to think about figure skating. The summer is
over.
The cast won't arrive in Toronto until next week, but 2003 world ice
dancing champion Shae-Lynn Bourne has already been here for a couple
of weeks, preparing a special duet with Browning for the show. Not
that Browning is an ice dancer, but he could be, so quick and deft are
his feet.
The theme of their routine is under wraps, but it'll have something to
do with the Motown motif, as the cast will be skating to live music
from The Temptations - yes, that blockbuster group from the 1960s -
and Boyz II Men.
"It'll be a nice little surprise for the audience,'' Bourne said coyly
of the special duet. "People will just have to wait and see.
"I'm just excited about doing Kurt's show, because it's going to be
such an energetic show because of the style of music. And anything
with Kurt is great, because he's such a great performer. When I was
asked to skate [a duet] with him, I was floating afterwards. I
couldn't believe, of all people, that I get to do a duet with such a
great skater."
Other cast members in the show include Olympic silver medalist Sasha
Cohen, Olympic bronze medalist Jeffrey Buttle, U.S. champion and
two-time world bronze medalist Evan Lysacek, Canadian champion Joannie
Rochette, two-time world silver medalists Marie-France Dubreuil and
Patrice Lauzon and Ryan Bradley, a U.S. silver medalist known for his
artistic touch.
Of all people, Bourne, skating with Browning? Suffice it to say that
Bourne shouldn't be so modest. She has the highest skating credentials
in this country, having been a 10-time Canadian champion with Victor
Kraatz, with whom she also won four world bronze medals before finally
breaking through to win a world gold medal in 2003. Frustrated by
international judging controversies that didn't work in their favour,
Bourne and Kraatz finally reached the summit after a very long, hard
road.
Bourne and Kraatz retired after their win, but their pro career didn't
last long after Kraatz suddenly quit at the end of 2003, saying he
would rather be a competitive skater than a show skater, and they just
hadn't been together often enough to continue the excellence that had
been their hallmark. He has since married, lives in Vancouver and has
a young son, Oliver.
Kraatz's decision hit Bourne like a hard rain. But don't count out the
Canadian icons, especially with the Vancouver Olympics
looming. They've talked about making a comeback before the Olympics,
not to compete, but to return something to the Canadian public that
supported them through thick and thin.
Just before the world championships last March in Tokyo, when Bourne
was in nearby Victoria to do a skating seminar, the couple got
together to skate for about an hour in Kraatz's rink, with few
spectators to see them.
Their induction into the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame last
January also brought them closer together, as Kraatz took the
microphone in front of a home crowd, then began to shed tears. The
skaters embraced, to a crowd ovation. Tears were falling
everywhere.
"It was wonderful,'' Bourne said on Friday. "I thought it was just
really amazing to be inducted with Victor, but to actually see him and
to share the stage with him, that was the most amazing moment when we
were there together. It was really emotional.
"It brought back a lot of memories. It just felt right. For him,
too. To see him emotional and to hear what he had to say, it was a
very special moment. And to be connected with the audience again
together, it meant a lot. It was something I'll never
forget.''
Bourne and Kraatz had little contact with each other since 2003,
although they'd run into each other at Canadian championships, and
then when Kraatz began coaching, at other competitions. But they began
to talk again just before the induction.
"Things were better,'' Bourne said, referring to the stiffness that
existed between them for several years. "It was kind of an odd way the
way it all finished. It was nice to reconnect with Victor
again.
"The whole thing [the breakup] was so bizarre, how it all ended. I was
fine, but I think it was hard at the beginning. I wasn't ready for
that. It was a surprise for me. That was a difficult time, but soon
after that other doors opened, and the chance for me to skate alone
appeared. I tried that and I grew so much, because I was put in that
position.''
Bourne has made a name for herself as an arresting solo skater in
shows. This is her fourth Gotta Skate appearance, but she had done
only one with Kraatz. About a year ago, Bourne said they began talking
together again, when Kraatz apologized to her and said he was
sorry. At the time, she was going through a separation with her
husband, Russian-born coach Nikolai Morozov and a friendly face was
welcome.
"Just to hear those words, it let all that go,'' Bourne said. "It was
really nice to reconnect with him. Now it's great. It's nice, because
when you spend that much time with somebody and go through all that we
went through, you want to have that friend for life and you want to
share things with them.''
Their hour together on ice was for them, and for nobody else. They
skated, just for fun, to see how it would feel.
"Some things never change,'' Bourne said. "It was bizarre, but it was
great, just stroking together. We were just messing around,
improvising, stroking and feeling the glide with one another. And we
had that conversation, what can we do [in the future]?''
It seems that Bourne's life is just beginning again. She got a divorce
from Morozov during last summer. Although she still maintains a condo
in Connecticut where she has been coaching, she recently moved into an
apartment in Toronto and intends to spend more time in Canada, close
to her family. She's working with many skaters, including promising
Canadian bronze medalists Kaitlin Weaver and Andrew Poje, and also
doing choreography for exhibition routines.
Bourne has been working with a Chinese skater, and she may be doing an
exhibition routine for the great Chinese pair skaters Shen Xue and
Zhao Hongbo. She designed the number that Rochette used during her
tour with Stars on Ice last summer. Bourne still skates on the
Champions on Ice tour. And she's also working with a U.S-born team
that skates for Japan: Cathy and Chris Reed, who had been the
U.S. novice dance champions before they switched allegiances.
"Doors are opening,'' Bourne said. "It's been great to venture out and
try new things. I'll see Victor more often now. And I'm kind of hoping
we'll do something leading into the Olympics. It would be nice for us
and also for Canada to see us again.
"We'll figure something out."
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