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Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier practise their routine at Scarborough’s Centennial Centre. The pair are set to compete together in their third Olympics next month.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are posed at centre ice when the first beats of RuPaul’s nineties dance anthem, Supermodel, come booming through the overhead speakers.
Gilles is smirking playfully towards the empty stands of the practice rink – to the spot where the judges will soon be sitting.
“Turn to the right,” sings RuPaul, as Gilles swoops below Poirier’s arm, setting off an opening sequence of deep edges, spread eagles and a lunge into an assisted cartwheel. Then they’re coming around the corner into the high-stakes twizzle section, hitting their first synchronized turns just as the beat drops.
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The program is fun, intricate and campy. There’s an extended section towards the end where Gilles’s ponytail becomes part of the choreography.
In other words: It is perfectly suited to Gilles and Poirier, Canada’s four-time national ice dance champions, the reigning world silver medalists and one of the country’s best hopes for a podium finish in figure skating at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games next month.
It will be Gilles’s and Poirier’s third appearance at an Olympics.
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Piper Gilles, left, and Paul Poirier perform during a practice session at the 2026 Canadian National Skating Championships in Gatineau, Que., on Friday.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
The beloved duo have been a staple in Canadian figure skating since 2012 when they earned their first medal – a bronze behind Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (gold), and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (silver) – at the national championships.
In their roughly 15 years of skating together, they have earned a reputation on the international scene as a team that both pushes innovation and is committed to some of the classical hallmarks of ice dance, such as skating closely together using different hand holds.
Juris Razgulajevs, one of their coaches, explained that there has been a shift in ice-dance trends in recent years, where teams are doing more side-by-side solo skating.
“But for me skating in hold, it’s way harder to do. And people who know skating, appreciate it,” Razgulajevs said.
Gilles, 33, and Poirier, 34, hope it will make the difference at the Olympics.
But first, the pair will be making their final competitive appearance before the Games at this weekend’s Canadian National Skating Championships in Gatineau.
“Nationals is really a confidence builder for us,” said Poirier.
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Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier practice at Scarborough’s Centennial Centre arena last month.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Said Gilles: “I just feel like we want to have fun. I think the last couple of competitions have been very stressful and very hard. … When Paul and I skate our best, it’s when we’re enjoying what we’re doing.”
This year has marked a tumultuous competitive season for the ice-dance discipline, with judging controversies marring the Grand Prix circuit. In an unusual step, athletes – including reigning Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron – have taken to openly criticizing some of the officials’ scoring.
In fact, Skate Canada was one of several federations to write to the international governing body for figure skating, the International Skating Union (ISU), looking for clarity on what was seen to be inaccurate and inconsistent calls that impacted skaters from numerous countries – including Canada.
Skate Canada’s chief sport officer, Dr. Shae Zukiwsky, said that shortly before Christmas, they received a reply from the ISU, which acknowledged that there were inconsistencies. He said that the sports body said those issues have been addressed and corrective measures have been implemented.
Ice dancing – like figure skating in general – has long been plagued by judging scandals. Mostly famously, at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Canadian pair skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier were initially denied a gold medal despite a flawless performance. Then evidence emerged that the French judge had been pressured to place the Russians ahead of the Canadians. The ensuing scandal upended the sport and figure skating changed its scoring system to be less subjective and more transparent.
In the new judging model, different elements are awarded levels by a technical panel and then judges grade how well each move is executed. But understanding ice dance scores can still be difficult for viewers at home.
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Piper Gilles, right, and Paul Poirier have brought back a fan-favourite routine for their free program, with Vincent – also known as Starry, Starry Night – set for an Olympic appearance.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Unlike in singles and pairs skating – where success is often determined by whether athletes land jumps or fall – many of the marks in ice dance relate to less obvious factors, such as being on the correct edge. And there is still significant room for subjectivity.
At the Grand Prix final in December, Gilles and Poirier fell to fourth by a fraction of a point in an event where they were widely seen as a lock for the podium. Afterwards, Gilles expressed frustration on social media, ruffling feathers in the skating community.
On a recent Monday morning at the rink in Scarborough, Ont., where Gilles and Poirier train, Gilles expressed regret.
“I should have listened to what my mother always says: ‘Do not make reactive comments.’ Take a day. Take two days before you put anything on the internet,” Gilles said. “Normally, I don’t do that, but we’re human. We put so much time and energy and effort into trying to be our best and when we felt we weren’t rewarded, it’s hard. It’s hard to understand where to go.”
But after returning to Canada, Gilles and Poirier, and their coaching team, carved out a battle plan. They watched their programs, analyzed the judges’ results and collected feedback from officials back home.
Gilles said one challenging aspect of the competition circuit is that the events often fall closely together, so there isn’t time to make big adjustments. Throughout the Grand Prix, they kept an ongoing list of future changes.
For the rhythm dance – their Supermodel number – this has meant layering in more wow factor and nuance. For example, on this day, the pair were playing with a moment where Poirier pretends to snap photos of Gilles.
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After missing the podium at the Grand Prix final in December by a fraction of a point, Piper Gilles, right, courted controversy by expressing her frustration with the judging on social media.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The ISU’s required theme for the rhythm dance this year was ‘Music, dance styles and feeling of the 1990s.’ RuPaul seemed like an obvious choice, Poirier said.
“One thing that we felt was really quintessentially nineties was the era of the supermodel,” Poirier said. “They really just kind of became a phenomenon and we wanted to capture that … we really like a strong sense of character.”
The pair have made more significant changes to their free program, Vincent, which pays tribute to painter Vincent Van Gogh. Those adjustments include swapping their diagonal sequence for a serpentine step sequence, to give themselves more flow.
The program – which is also known as Starry, Starry Night – is a fan-favourite that Gilles and Poirier had debuted in a previous season, but decided to bring back for the Milan Olympics.
“We felt that there was still more to develop,” Gilles said. “And it’s one of those programs that we’re constantly being told, ‘I wish I could see Vincent in person. I wish I could see that one more time.’ … It’s for our fans.”
