Hawayek, Baker reach for the stars with new free
Detroit duo to debut 'Theory of Everything' program at Finlandia Trophy
There are days when some things don't work quite right for Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker.
Twizzles aren't in perfect unison. A lift doesn't go up quick enough. Their coaches at the Detroit Skating Club (DSC) are grumpy. Frustration flares.
"Why can't we get this? What's the matter with us today?"
Then they think about the story behind their free dance, set to the soundtrack of The Theory of Everything, and they realize how good things really are, on and off the ice.
"We have long, hard days of training and by the end of the day, we might be, 'Oh, I'm so tired!'" Hawayek, 18, said. "We take for granted that we're able to do athletic things with our bodies, but so many people don't have that ability."
When Hawayek saw the 2014 Oscar-nominated film, which chronicles the relationship between renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking and his first wife, Jane, in the wake of Hawking's amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (
"I saw the movie the moment it came out on
"She told me to go see the movie, and when I did, wow," Baker, 21, said. "The music was beautiful, and I fell in love with the character. We both really wanted to tell the story and not only show our athleticism but turn it into a work of art we could be proud of."
They brought the idea to their coach, Pasquale Camerlengo, who was won over by their enthusiasm.
"Kaitlin and Jean-Luc commit to everything they do," he said. "They were so excited to do it, and did so much research. So we started building the program, the story of the movie. Little by little, I became more and more convinced we had something special. It's not just a love story or romance; they care about it and are involved emotionally."
Fans get their first chance to see Hawayek and Baker's free dance at the Finlandia Trophy this week. There, they will square off against their training partners, Canadian world bronze medalists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, as well as European bronze medalists Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia.
The team began work on the choreography in February, right after returning from the 2015 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Seoul, where they placed fifth.
"We didn't lose a beat," Hawayek said. "We wanted to get our programs ready early. Going to U.S. Figure Skating's Chesapeake ice dance camp in June was part of the strategy. We wanted to know what judges' opinions were, right at the beginning of the summer."
"If you can get opinions in June, rather than (at Champs Camp) in August, that's huge," Baker said.
The strategy worked: Officials at Champs Camp gave both programs enthusiastic thumbs-up.
Hawayek and Baker, who teamed up in June 2012, are the youngest skaters in a logjam of talented U.S. ice dancers fighting for international recognition. World silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates lead the way, followed by Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, fifth in the world last season. Hawayek and Baker's former training partners at DSC, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, edged them for the bronze medal at the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed 10th in the world.
To break through, the skaters must find ways to set themselves apart.
"We've been training with significantly more hours on the ice, and putting in a lot more time off ice, because we know our programs are more difficult this year," Hawayek said. "We don't want to be complacent and stay the same. A lot of teams can do that, get stuck in a comfort zone."
To Camerlengo, it's the intangibles -- how they present themselves, how they connect with the judges and audience -- that will tell the tale.
"The first goal is to be on the U.S. world team," Camerlengo said. "There are many teams fighting for the three spots. Of course, choreography and levels are very important, but there is always something -- that little 'plus' -- that makes a team better, more visible."
"We are working on all aspects of their skating, all the little details, even the look they must have the first moment they step on to the ice," he continued. "They have to look like champions."
The free dance was a true collaboration with Camerlengo, who heads up a coaching team at DSC that includes Anjelika Krylova, Natalia Annenko-Deller and Veronique Breen.
"We know teams who say, 'Oh, we just want to be given our programs and be done with it,'" Hawayek said. "That's not us at all. It's our favorite part of the season, creating new programs. We'll be skating around and Pasquale will say, 'I think we should do something like this here,' and we'll start playing around, things mesh well, and it's very organic."
The short dance, which includes this season's required pattern dance, the Ravensburger Waltz, was choreographed by Krylova to selections from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, including "Waltz of the Flowers" and the Nutcracker march.
"We jam-packed as much as we could into this program," Hawayek said.
"It's very unlike our previous style, which was more fluid," Baker said. "The athleticism required for our short program is very high. It's taking a lot of work to get it how we want it. We're thrilled to show what we can do with it."
All the lifts in both programs are new this season.
"We went to acrobats weekly this offseason to work on our lifting technique and different ideas," Baker said. "We really stepped it up this year, pushed ourselves. Just because we're a shorter team (Baker stands 5'7", Hawayek 5'3"), nothing stops us from being just as strong and fast as anyone else."
The DSC skaters think being closer in height has its own advantages.
"If you look at teams who have had success, many haven't had a great height difference," Hawayek said. "Ice dance is really about the entire package, and I think it's hard when you have a big height difference to show that great connection. We have a height difference -- sure, it's not that big -- and it gives us an opportunity to look into each other's eyes more effortlessly."
The skaters, who won the world junior title in 2014, think their time may be now. The meteoric rise of French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who climbed from 13th in the world in 2014 to win the 2015 world title, proves judges are willing to reward fresh ideas and young teams.
"Jean-Luc and I, not to count our chickens or anything, do see potential for us," Hawayek said. "We know how hard we work, and we know the feedback we've gotten."
Hawayek and Baker put their training aside on Sept. 26 to join the Michigan chapter of the
"We don't want to just do a tribute program to people with
