The Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships, now in their 81st year, have played host to a number of top-level North American teams in their developing years. In this century alone, such competitors have included Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir as novices and juniors, Meryl Davis & Charlie White most recently testing the waters as incoming seniors in 2007, Maia & Alex Shibutani from juvenile through junior, and, with their previous partners, every other U.S. and Canadian national senior dance medalist of the last two seasons — and a few National Team members and pewter medalists besides.
Unfortunately, video of most of these particular skaters is not exactly at hand. But a few of this year’s top couples can be seen in some long-ago skates.
Overall senior free dance leaders from this year’s event, Lynn Kriengkrairut & Logan Giulietti-Schmitt, debuted a tango free dance at the 2007 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships, a skate that would put them in fourth place at that event:
This year’s junior competition was dominated by Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker, beginning their second season together. And with previous long-time partner Joylyn Yang, Baker skated some solid intermediate pattern dances at the 2006 competition, including this Ten Fox:
Finally, twins Danielle & Alexander Gamelin, raised in New York and training in Wheaton, MD, are Lake Placid mainstays, this year finishing with the fifth best score overall in the senior free dance. And as another pair of participants in the 2006 competition — at the juvenile level — the team presented this free dance to Latin selections: