Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron "Find Me" Free Dance
Wow . . . This Soaring, Spoken-Word Ice Dance Is Like Something Out of a Dream
Maybe it's because the 2021 Figure Skating World Championships were last weekend, maybe it's because I'm a sucker for spoken-word poetry, but I have not been able to get Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron 2019-2020 "Find Me" free dance out of my head. Ever since stumbling upon the performance last week, I keep finding excuses to sneak back on YouTube and watch it again. (Writing about it for work = the best excuse yet.)
This routine, which Papadakis and Cizeron performed last season, is as weightless and free-floating as a dream. It's set to "Find Me" by Forest Blakk, a goosebump-worthy spoken word and piano performance which is the perfect soundtrack to go with Papadakis and Cizeron's flowing, contemporary dance-like movements. It's like nothing we've ever seen, and that's the point: as Cizeron told The Olympic Channel last year, "We're not really interested in doing things that we've done before or that have been done before." The four-time world champions are forging their own trail.
The "Find Me" performance, here recorded during practice, helped the pair win first place at the 2020 Grand Prix Final and French National Championships, and was good enough for silver at the European Championships. (The 2020 World Championships were cancelled due to COVID-19.) And while Papadakis and Cizeron withdrew from 2021 worlds, citing lack of competitions, pandemic protocols, and the need for mental rest and recovery, this program makes us even more excited to see what the Olympic silver medalists whip up for the Games in 2022.
"What they are doing is art," said one commenter on YouTube, and I can't put it any better than that. Watch the routine for yourself above.
