Future Looks Bright for Findlay and Dougherty

Terra Findlay and Liam Dougherty

May 20, 2006
Article & Photo © J. Barry Mittan 

Canada's newest senior ice dancing team is that of Terra Findlay, 15 and Liam Dougherty, 21. The duo, which had only been skating together for five months, finished eighth in the 18-team field at Canadians, marking them as contenders for the future. Dougherty has reached the podium in dance at Canadians in prior years, winning the junior dance title with Melissa Piperno in 2003, but this was the first foray into dance for Findlay.

But the multi-talented blonde had previously reached Canadians in both ladies and pairs. She won the bronze in novice ladies in 2003 and finished 12th in junior ladies in 2004. In pairs, Findlay teamed with John Mattatall, winning a silver medal in junior pairs in 2004 and finishing 7th in senior pairs in 2005. Findlay comes from a skating family. Her mother is coach and choreographer Sandra Findlay, while her father and brother are both hockey players. "My mom took me to the rink with her," Findlay said. "I either had to sit in the stands or learn to skate." She began at the age of three.

Dougherty kind of fell into the skating life when he was eight. "My mom enrolled me in skating simply so that I could learn how to skate," Dougherty said, "and I might not have taken it further if it hadn't been for a friend of mine who was much more advanced in skating, who convinced me to go further. I switched over to dance when I was 13 and never regretted it. I really wasn't a good jumper."

But he had a natural talent for the dance, good enough to be invited to Canada's National Ballet School, which he attended for two summers. "My mother convinced me to try out for the school," he recalled. "I had never taken ballet before, but I was accepted. I always wanted to skate first, but realized that ballet would help me with my skating."

Piperno and Dougherty competed for a season in senior dance, placing 7th in 2004, but then the partnership dissolved as both went their separate ways. That left Dougherty adrift for a year and eight months. At the 2005 Canadians, Dougherty was there, but as a reporter for the Yukon News. "I trained by myself for three or four hours a day, just as I did when I was competing," Dougherty explained. "I didn't want all my training to go to waste so I improved my non-partner skills. Meanwhile, I looked everywhere for a partner except Antarctica and South Africa. I had tryouts with girls from Canada, Australia, France, and the United States. I was willing to go anywhere to skate with the right partner, but the girls wouldn't take any risks to skate with me."

"Last summer, John and I went to Montreal to train pairs with Richard Gauthier," Findlay continued. "Julie Marcotte did the choreography for our programs and she told Richard as a joke one day that I should be dancing with Liam. Julie was teaching a stroking class during the summer that her dancers and Richard's pairs attended and while there I asked Liam to do the choreography for a show program for us. We broke up before getting a chance to make it up. I had grown so much that I was getting too tall for pairs so I went back home. Richard talked to my mother and told her I should try dancing with Liam."

"A few weeks later, Terra came back to skate with me," Liam said. "It was a good session. We had a lot of fun and there was no pressure. Afterwards, Julie told me that's the kind of girl I needed. Terra told me she would do anything to make it work. She was ready to change her entire life to skate with me. I hadn't seen a girl with that kind of drive and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't take the risk."

"At first, I didn't know if I'd like doing dance," Findlay said. "It was so much different than pairs and singles. I hadn't really liked jumping that much but I loved to perform so I thought maybe I could bring some of my pairs experience into dance and do some things other dancers can't do. I want to do some new lifts and be sure all our lifts are Level 4s." They started on August 15, 2005.

"They had a month to pass the senior dance test," Marcotte said. "Fortunately, that only required a free dance, not all the compulsory dances. So we made a free dance. The next step was, could they compete? We had to do an original dance and they had to learn the Tango Romantica by Sectionals. Liam hadn't done the tango either. I thought, holy moly, what have I gotten myself into. But they did it. They worked five hours a day, five days a week, but they made it to Canadians - a year's work in five months."

"Our goals kept changing every month," Dougherty said. "First it was to pass the senior test, then make it to Canadians, then to finish in the top ten. We did all of that so we're happy." "The goal is always to achieve a personal best, no matter what that is," Marcotte stated. "We don't want to push because of what others are doing. The results are what they are. Now I'd like to get them some international experience. I hope Skate Canada will let them represent the country because they can have some big results."

"It was quite an experience," Findlay noted. "But before when I was growing a lot, it was really frustrating. I used to tell myself that I wasn't growing. Now I can grow. I grew five inches taller last year. Then I had to change everything about my skating - the blades, the length of my skirts, getting down in my knees, everything. That was the hardest. Julie kept telling me to get down, get down. And the compulsory dances were very hard and frustrating." "We didn't have any time for baby steps," Dougherty stated. "Usually, a dance team spends a lot of time stroking and getting into unison. We couldn't do that. Now we can go back to that and our skating will be a million times better."

Marcotte choreographed all of the couple's dances. "The original dance music was hard to find," Dougherty said. "We used 'Igbae' by Roberto Fonseca. Fortunately, Terra was comfortable with Latin. We wanted something sensual and relaxing. The music is typically authentic Cuban music, but not ballroom style." "I could relate to it better because I had never done ballroom dancing," Findlay added.

For the free dance, they used "Flamenco Nights". "I wanted something strong," Marcotte explained. "They skate with a lot of strength and energy. I thought the they could do the flamenco style more easily than a classical piece, especially since Terra had never done ballroom."

Findlay is in the tenth grade in high school, where she enjoys science and English. She is taking French classes in the summer and is learning more from a French family with whom she lives. She plans to study public relations in the university. Dougherty is in his second year at Concordia University studying creative writing. "There are so many things that interest me, but I would really like to become a writer," he said. "Novels, short stories, essays, anything that involves creative writing."

To relax, Findlay likes to go to the movies or hang out with her friends. On weekends, she likes to go home to visit her family and a new kitten. Dougherty enjoys, cooking, reading, and taking a break dancing class with fellow ice dancer, Anthony Evans. He also enjoys traveling to competitions. Findlay also plays baseball in the summer and used to run track in school, usually at 1500 meters.