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| Quebec Dancers Have Successful Season |
| Published on May 27, 2008 |  
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Karen Routhier and Eric Saucke-Lacelle
May 27, 2008
Article by J. Barry Mittan
 Quebec dancers Karen Routhier, 17, and Eric Saucke-Lacelle, who will be 19 in June, had a successful debut season in 2007-08 on the international junior circuit. The couple, who have been together only two years, finished tenth at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in their first ISU championships. They placed fifth at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in the same city and eighth in Vienna, Austria.
"Our goal was to make it to Junior Worlds," Routhier said. "Next season, we'll stay junior and hope to improve our placements."
Saucke-Lacelle started skating when he was three. "My older sister, Amy, was skating and my mom took me to the rink with her," he related. "She threw me on skates and said, 'go'. I stopped doing singles when I was eight or nine. My coach said that my expression and skating skills were not that great and I started dance to fix it, but then I liked dance more." Saucke-Lacelle previously skated with Christina Gignac, winning pre-novice dance in 2005 and novice dance in 2006.
Routhier first went on the ice at the age of six. "My mother is a skating teacher and she took me on the ice," Routhier said. "I competed in ladies until three years ago and had up to a triple salchow, but I had a lot of injuries. So I went into dance." She competed with Nicholas Nadon, placing sixth in novice at Divisionals in their first year, but he quit soon afterwards.
"My partner quit before Canadians so I was alone for a long time," she said. "In April 2006, his coach contacted my coach to arrange a tryout. After the first three minutes, we knew we would skate together." The duo placed fourth at Canadians in junior dance in 2007, their first season together, and second in 2008.
The dancers are coached by a team that includes Tyler Myles, David Islam, Kelly Johnson and Pavel Porac in Barrie, Ontario. They skate for about three and a half to four hours a day, five days a week and do another hour to an hour and a half of off ice work each day. "I also have a Pilates class on Saturday," Routhier added. "I have a sleeping class," Saucke-Lacelle joked.
Pasquale Camerlengo and Anjelika Krylova choreographed the couple's programs for last season. For the country-folk original dance, the dancers chose "Shadistra", Russian gypsy music. "Tyler found the music for us," Saucke-Lacelle explained. "We wanted to do a Russian gypsy dance, but it was hard to find music that suited us. We didn't try to do a Quebec folk dance because we weren't sure if it would be accepted."
For the free dance, they used "My Sweet and Tender Beast", a waltz by Even Doga. "Tyler was supposed to skate to it in his last year in seniors," Routhier explained. "We liked it and wanted to skate to it."
Saucke-Lacelle is quite the musician off ice. "I've played the violin, drums, the saxophone and all kinds of guitars since I was seven," he stated. "I just play for myself. I haven't found any people committed enough to have a band." He listens to all kinds of music, but noted, "I like anything made by real musicians, no synthesizers or Justin Timberlake." "He likes weird experimental music," Routhier added. "I like every kind of music except Metallica and other heavy metal
Routhier is more of a sportswoman in her free time. "I was a diver when I was six or seven," she stated. "I like to play hockey and baseball for fun. And I like to play American football. I like to be the quarterback." "I'm no good at team sports," Saucke-Lacelle noted. "I did play hockey from when I was five to seven. I was on defense because I was the only one who could skate backwards, but I don't do anything now."
Routhier also likes to shop and watch all kinds of movies. Sometimes the dancers play video games with each other. "It's fun, but I'm bad," Routhier said.
Saucke-Lacelle is in his final year at Innisdale High School. "I've graduated from high school in Quebec but not in Ontario," he noted. "I like science because my mom is a veterinarian and my dad is a scientist, but I have no idea what I want to do. Right now I just want to ride the skating wave as long as I can."
Routhier is in the eleventh grade at Nouvelle Alliance, a French Catholic school. "There's a lot of things I'd like to do," she said. "Maybe I'll be a coach or a choreographer. I'd like to be a newscaster on television or a journalist. I really like writing and wrote for the school paper at my old high school.
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