Color Them Bronze

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje

May 1, 2007
Article & Photo © J. Barry Mittan 

The biggest surprise at the 2007 Canadian Nationals was the bronze medal won in senior dance by the team of Kaitlyn Weaver, 17, and Andrew Poje, 20. In the glacially slow world of ice dance, such a medal would have been impossible without the institution of the ISU judging system that allows all skaters to be judged on the quality of their skating, not their previous rankings. Incredibly, the dancers had been together only five months before Canadians.

Not even the skaters themselves imaged such a success. "It was quite a shock," Poje said. "We thought if we skated our best, we could make the national team." "Our goal was just to improve our performance from the Junior Grand Prix season," Weaver added. "We knew the Golden Waltz would be a problem since we're a new team and we would have been happy to be seventh. Our goal was just to be able to go to Junior Worlds."

"After Nationals, Skate Canada offered us the chance to do Four Continents, Junior Worlds and Worlds," Weaver continued. "But that wouldn't have been smart for training. We wouldn't have time to practice both the junior and senior compulsories. We were glad to have the time to do both Junior Worlds and Worlds and have the time to tie up some loose ends in the choreography."

The dancers found success internationally as well, winning a bronze medal at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany to help Canada gain a third dance team for the 2008 Junior Worlds. The dancers also took bronze medals in their first two competitions, the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Taipei City and Liberec, Czech Republic. Only at Worlds did they not win the bronze medal, placing 20th in their first time out.

The couple's success was made more unlikely by the fact that Weaver wasn't even born in Canada and had never competed in any Skate Canada event before the national championships. Born in Houston, Texas, Weaver initially danced with Charles Clavey, winning a silver medal at U. S. Nationals in novice dance in 2005 and placing fourth in juniors in 2006. "Charles wanted to go to Columbia University to study," Weaver recalled. "And it's very difficult to skate and go to college at the same time."

Poje began skating when he was six. "My sister was at the rink skating and I had nothing else to do," he stated. He started dancing the next year "because they needed more guys in dance and my coach thought I'd make a good dancer. Something about the footwork and trying to express the music made it more interesting to me." Poje also continued skating freestyle until he was 13, reaching the juvenile level.

Weaver started skating when she was six. "My cousin had skates and my aunt got me figure skates for Christmas," she recalled. "My mother still blames my aunt for that. I started lessons in Houston. My figure skating coach was also a dancer so I took dance lessons once a week just for fun. I even passed my first dance test when I was six. I tried singles for about two years, and then quit for a year and a half, but I missed skating so much that I came back. I couldn't jump very well but I was a very artistic free skater so when I was eleven I switched to dance. Charles was my first partner and we skated together for five years."

"I had a couple of tryouts in the U. S. during the summer, but none of them were really great and I didn't want to relocate," she continued. "I actually skated with Elliot Pennington for two months, but then he went to college too. So I thought I would just practice on my own for the rest of the season."

Poje previously skated with Alexandra Nino for nine years, reaching fourth in junior dance at Canadian Nationals in 2004. He then danced with Alice Graham, winning the bronze medal in junior dance at Canadians in 2005 and placing ninth in senior dance in 2006. But like Weaver's partners, Graham also wanted to pursue her university education and move on with her life, so the couple split in the early part of the 2006-07 season.

"I looked around Canada but couldn't find anyone right," Poje said. "I knew Kaitlyn because she would train in Kitchener-Waterloo in the summer and our coaches knew one another. So we decided to give it a try." "Our personalities clicked together right away," Weaver said. "Our skating styles are similar so we meshed well together. We fill each other's holes a little bit. Where I'm not strong, he is, and vice versa. It was quite a fluke to get together so fast, like fate."

Paul McIntosh coaches the dancers, who train at the Kitchener-Waterloo Skating Club located in Waterloo, Ontario. They practice on ice for four hours a day, five days a week, and up that to six hours a day before competitions. "The compulsories are the hardest," Weaver noted. "We had to practice all the dances for juniors and seniors. We didn't have much time to get the right feel for each other so it's difficult to be precise and in unison. It's much harder than the original dance or the free dance." The dancers also do another hour off ice training that includes Pilates, pliometrics and conditioning. Other coaches involved with the team have included Rebecca Babb, Mathew Gates, Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe, Gennady Kaskov and most recently Shae Lynn Bourne.

"We started the first week of August in Sun Valley," Weaver continued. "We got our original dance choreography from Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe in Sun Valley and finished it on our ninth day together. Their Latin original dance uses "Jeanne y Paul" by Astor Piazzola and "Verano Porteno" from "The Story of Tango" by Raul Garello. "Megan and Aaron have a knack for picking music that's emotional," Weaver said. "I want to feel the music and be immersed in the character. I really like the tango."

Mathew Gates choreographed their free dance to "One Fine Day" from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly". "A Russian coach in Kitchener had recommended it for me and Alice," Poje noted. "The programs are very different in style," Weaver said. "We wanted to see how well they suited us. Every partnership is different and we started with a fresh palette." "I like to have variety in the choreography," Poje added. "I get bored with the same thing." MacIntosh chose the music for their exhibition program, "Sunday Kind of Love" by Etta James. Rebecca Babb did the choreography.

Weaver is finishing her last year of high school by correspondence. A 4.0 honor student as a junior, she noted that the task was more difficult with no teachers with whom to talk. "I'll probably study something like English literature, history, archeology or the arts in college," she said. Poje, who is from Waterloo, is an honors general science student at the University of Waterloo. He plans to major in biomedical science and become a dentist.

Off ice, Poje enjoys hanging out with friends, watching movies, computers, cars, and water and snow sports. Weaver likes hanging out with friends, swimming and reading short fiction. She also likes to ride horses and does yoga to stay relaxed. She collects key chains from the places she's visited.