TFTI correspondent Reut Golinsky sat down with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker after the rhythm dance at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy.
Reut: I wanted to start our talk from two photos you, Kaitlin, posted on your Instagram: the two of you five years ago and now on the same spot in Oberstdorf. A lot has happened between two Nebelhorn Trophies for you. What would you name as the highlights of that period?
Kaitlin: So hard to say because there were so many really good memories that stick out for different reasons in every season. But I think last season was a highlight for us especially. It had a lot of “firsts” for us—we made our first Grand Prix Final, we won our first Grand Prix gold medal. We also got to go to our second Worlds. And we made a big change that was the first time we had done something like that in our career [Editor’s note: In summer 2018, they moved to train under Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon in Montreal]. I think all those milestone markers were big moments for us last year. I’d say that was probably what stuck out the most over the last five years, but there’s always positive memories everywhere.
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker after the rhythm dance at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy. Photo by Reut Golinsky.
Jean-Luc: We’re so happy to be back. [In previous seasons] it didn’t really work with the schedule that we were planning. Last season, we had planned on doing a different senior B but I had an incident in the summer; in previous seasons, we had just been given different senior Bs. [This season] we were asked which one we like and we thought it’d be a fun one for us to come back. We had really good memories from here.
Last season was indeed successful for you; you were third at Nationals, won your first Grand Prix gold. When the season has finished and you sat with your coaches to sum it up, did you have any ideas about what should be improved, what was done correctly, and that’s why you succeeded? Do you do something like this—sitting with your coaches and summing up the season?
Kaitlin: Yeah, we definitely do. There wasn’t one thing that glaringly stuck out last year; I think there were a lot of things that we did improve last year. And we weren’t satisfied with where they were yet, though, so we want to continue and work on those. It’s always a game of cleanliness in terms of levels, so that’s something we always strive for. This year we also wanted to choose programs that showcased our personality more, both in a fun energetic way and in a more unique quirky way for a free dance. I think that was one of the main things that we said—doing something different, changing it up but showcasing our personality.
How did the summer go? All was well with the health, no injuries?
Jean-Luc: Yeah, it was pretty good. Not too shabby, we worked pretty well with what we had at the time. We had a good summer of training.
How was Champs Camp? Did you receive any critical notes and suggestions?
Kaitlin: Always, but that’s what we’re there for. We don’t go to be told that we look great in August. It’s never going to be what we want it to be right in August nor should it be. That’s why we go to Champs Camp—to get the feedback and for them to tell us where they want us to improve. It’s always very useful and very insightful. And it was nice to be in California this year, nice to see some sun.
Let’s talk about your new programs. I really loved your rhythm dance. In a way it reminded me of your Austin Powers exhibition. I wonder if that was the idea, the inspiration, or this is indeed your personality, like you said before.
Jean-Luc: We wanted a strong character piece which will gives us a fun opportunity to just perform, to go out there and show characters. Not many of the other skaters are really capable of that, I think. There are very good skaters and technical things are very important, but at the end of the day it is still ice dance and we want to make sure that isn’t forgotten. We’d like the audience to have just as much fun as we do.
Translating disco to the ice — how complicated is that and did you get any help?
Kaitlin: Yes, we’ve actually worked a lot, especially with our acting coach [Emilie Josset] who once performed in Saturday Night Fever.
So it was her idea to go in that direction?
Kaitlin: It was our idea. We did a deep dive into Wikipedia and looked up all of the possible options for Broadway or the musical genre. And when we were going through all of the options, we saw that one and it grabbed our attention right away. We do have quite big personalities and it seemed like something that would fit that. I think there are always challenges bringing an off ice dance on to the ice, but it’s been interesting to explore that different side. There are a lot of similarities to Latin movement in it which we’ve had experience with. And we’ve worked with our acting coach on articulating those movements to make them distinctly disco versus Latin. But other than that it hasn’t been too difficult; it’s actually been very fun. We have a lot of detail work and polishing to do on the program still—it’s nowhere near where we want it to be for the Grand Prix yet—but in terms of the overall performance and the overall idea of the program, we really enjoyed creating it. And it’s fun to perform, it’s fun to train, which is all you can ask for as an athlete.
Hawayek and Baker compete in the rhythm dance at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy. Photo by Maria Jangbro.
Jean-Luc: I think hip hop was significantly more complicated. Unlike the disco which is really groovy, there is less groove in this one. Hip hop can be very like “stop-start” [movement] which is very hard to be perceived on the ice, I find.
Tell me more about your free dance. So far [prior to the free dance competition] I know only your music choice. I also googled the name of the performer, Marcin Patrzalek, and was surprised to see that he is a guitarist? So it’s a guitar version of Beethoven? Is he famous, how did you find this music?
Kaitlin: I believe he was on America’s Got Talent and his video become viral. Marie-France found a video of him and brought it up right away because she knew that a collective decision of ours was to do something with more personality this year. She said she loved the intensity that we had in our tango last season, but she wanted that quirky character. So when she heard such an old traditional classic but with this flamenco guitar backing she pictured someone like Marie Antoinette meeting the Spanish style. Jean-Luc is the Spanish flamenco [dancer] and I’m Marie Antoinette, and we have this juxtaposition of the old classical Victorian [style] and flamenco.
Jean-Luc: It’s a very big fusion program. Imagine Marie Antoinette, who is hosting a very big party, and I am from Spain and attending the party, and there’s some tension between us because of prior engagements and whatnot. That’s where the classical part, Beethoven’s Fifth and Paganini came in, but on Spanish guitar.
Very unusual…
Kaitlin: That’s what we wanted! We wanted something that nobody’s done before. Rhythm dance has been very fun, it’s unique because not a lot of people do it on the ice but everyone’s listened to disco music before. What we wanted for this was something completely new and we’ve had a really enjoyable process of creating the characters and building our own story behind Marie-France’s original vision for the style of the program. We’ve worked a lot with our dance coach Samuel Chouinard and with our acting coach as well.
Hawayek and Baker compete in the free dance at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy. Photo by Maria Jangbro.
Jean-Luc: It was Romain Haguenauer. It’s different for every team—some teams work only with Marie-France, some work with just Romain. We have both and it’s different based on what they feel the program permits. Probably they both wanted to do the short and the free but it just ended up working that way with us.
Is there any new exhibition program we should look forward to?
Kaitlin: Not for this competition. With the time we had this summer our focus was on preparing for this competition, but we do have a new show program in the works. It’s not Austin Powers but it does have the same personality aspect to it. We’re excited to probably debut that at the Grand Prix.
Do you want to hint about the music?
Kaitlin: Not yet, we’ll make it a surprise.
Your next competitions are Skate Canada and Cup of China. Your aspirations, hopes, goals for the coming Grand Prix season?
Kaitlin: Well, of course our goal is to make the Grand Prix Final again, and we know we have a lot of work in between now and then but we think it’s absolutely possible. And we really want to put out solid performances, focusing on the cleanliness and the levels but also amping up the personality of the programs.
At the moment all three leading American ice dance teams train together. How does it go for you? Do you train on the same ice?
Jean-Luc: I think for us it goes really well. We’re very happy to be training with both teams.
Kaitlin: They are great people.
Jean-Luc: Sometimes we’re all on the same ice. Usually we never have more than five teams on the ice and sometimes it could be us, the two American couples, Gaby [Papadakis] and Guillaume [Cizeron] and Laurence [Fournier Beaudry] and Nik [Sørensen]. We can have five of the top ten in the world. And sometimes it can be just us with the junior teams.
Does it depend on your schedule? On your coaches’ schedule?
Jean-Luc: All of the above. Patrice and the team work hard to make sure that the time that we’re given is what we need and everything is thought-out. Sometimes they’ll have us all train together to have more of a competitive environment and sometimes we’ll just have more quiet ice. It changes on a daily basis and it’s really exciting.
So you’re used to being in this competitive environment and then when you come to Nationals it’s like the same warm-up group for you.
Kaitlin: This was the same during the competition today—four couples in our warm-up group were all teams that we train with daily. There’s a sense of comfort and familiarity when we get to competition, which is really great.
In one of your relatively recent interviews you said you needed to change your state of mind and to say to yourselves: “We can win,” that it’s okay to say “we are coming to win and we are training to win.” How does this change working for you?
Kaitlin: It’s going very well, it’s a very enlightening change of mindset that we’ve had and I think the work that we’ve done with our life coach [Steffany Hanlen] and psychologist has been equally as provoking in growth as our work with our on-ice coaches. There’s that dual dynamic that we’re really growing as a team. I think the reason that we want to “train to win” is because if you’re not training in a mindset of winning then you’ll never allow yourself to get to that point. And we continue to bring this change of mindset through this season.
This life coach you mentioned is also working in your Academy?
Kaitlin: She’s always there as a resource for all the skaters, but depending on the resources available some of the skaters work with her more consistently. We were very fortunate enough to come at a time where we could get that work with her.
So it wasn’t your federation’s advice?
Jean-Luc: No, we asked for that. And our coaches, too; they are very strong on not only training us physically but also mentally as well.
Let’s move off the ice and talk about other aspects of your life. Do you study now? If yes, where and what?
Kaitlin: Last year I transferred from a school that I was previously attending in the United States. I transferred to the Penn State World Campus, which is a fully online program. And this has been great for me, considering I’m not able to study at a campus in Canada right now. I’m really happy that I’m able to continue to pursue my education. It’s something that I enjoy—I like moving and growing as a human being so it doesn’t feel like a burden or an additional piece of work that I have to do. I enjoy learning about different things, my major is in psychology right now but I’m open to trying and learning lots of different things. I’m very focused on my competitive career, but I want to make sure that I have things to propel me once that competitive career, whenever that is, comes to an end.
Jean-Luc: I actually don’t study right now, I’m going to focus on that one when I’m done with skating. When I finished my high school, I understood that I would have a really hard time balancing the two. I know that about myself, that I need to be able to give 100% and I would not be able to balance the two properly. In the future I really want to coach, that’s something I was always passionate about. Both my parents are coaches, I love teaching, I love helping the youth. So that’s something I really want to do.
I want to finish our talk with a few rapid fire questions. Answer the first thing which comes to your mind.
The song that always makes me dance.
Jean-Luc: “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone for me for sure. (Starts singing it)
Kaitlin: I listen to so much music! Probably anything by Rüfüs Du Sol.
The movie I’ve seen the most times.
Kaitlin: That would probably be The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock. I’ve watched that movie a lot. It is a true story about a football player that was adopted into a family.
Jean-Luc: Lord of the Rings.
Did you see the director’s cut, too?
Jean-Luc: No, I haven’t, that’s a commitment! I don’t have that much time. (Laughs)
A lot of people love it but I think ___ is overrated.
Jean-Luc: Avocados.
Kaitlin: Probably alternative lattes, like beetroot latte or turmeric latte. I just prefer a classic latte – espresso, milk, I’m not into all those alternative ones.
I could talk about ___ for hours.
Jean-Luc: Figure skating.
Kaitlin: Music. I could talk about music for hours, I DJ a little bit in my free time.
Yeah, I read in your profile that you DJ and you also cut music. Do you cut the music for your programs as well?
Kaitlin: No, I will do initial cuts if we need something really quickly when we’re choreographing—I can do that. But we work with Hugo Chouinard and he is incredible, he gets it just right. Maybe one day I’ll be mentored by him and he can show me, technically, how to do stuff like that. But I just love music, it’s fascinating to me. That’s definitely what I could talk about for hours.
I could sum up my life in this bumper sticker.
Jean-Luc: “Always laugh”
Kaitlin: “Focus on today”
Great bumper stickers, loved them! Thank you for the talk and good luck for the rest of the season.