Meryl Davis and Charlie White hungry for gold, ready for drama

Meryl Davis and Charlie White have recently annouced their music selections for 2012-2013 season. For the pre-olympics year they have chosen Giselle for the short dance (the well known ballet contains a village part perfect for polka, as Zoueva says) and a free dance set to the musical Notre-Dame de Paris. 

According to White, this free dance might be the best we have seen from them.

"It's really a departure for us from all of our [past] programs, because we've really started to connect on the ice more than ever before," White said on a teleconference last Thursday. "The last few seasons we've really focused on getting that on-ice chemistry, and this season you're really going to see it pay off."

"[Notre Dame de Paris] is a piece of music Meryl found first and just fell in love with; I love it, too. It's really easy to get into and feel. We're excited to be able to show more growth. As well as we've been skating the last few years, we haven't peaked yet."

"Almost all of our elements are totally fresh for this program, and we've worked to make sure [those elements] are part of the story and evoke the feelings of the music." Davis said, also excited for the new program.

Marina Zoueva, their only coach now after the break with Igor Shpilban, points out the great departure from last year's Die Fledermaus.

"Last year was light and easy; this year, we will bring to the world audience drama," the coach and choreographer said at this summer's U.S. Figure Skating Champs Camp. "Not [depressing] drama but something uplifting, about how you can go through drama yet get stronger and make your life better."

Davis and White stated that they had seen Anissina and Peizerat's gala performance to "Danse mon Esmeralda" and tried to take inspiration from that, still creating a different mold to it.

"What's so great about Anissina and Peizerat's [version] is they were really able to let go, and I think that's something they did really well with all of their programs over the years," Davis said. "I think that is what we're enjoying most so far, the ability to let go emotionally and just kind of take on everything the music embodies." 

Davis and White almost dominated the dance scene last year, but missed the most important goal, getting the silver medal at worlds.

"We have to be on top of our game if we want to be world champions," White said at Champs Camp. "Last year, we skated great and we came away with the silver, which was disappointing -- we wanted the gold. It just makes us hungrier.

The US dance team is in the running for the gold medal at Sochi Olympics in 2014 together with team mates and defending olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada.

"This year is going to be another battle; Tessa and Scott aren't going anywhere, they're fantastic skaters. We have the luxury of seeing how hard they train, how good they are, and we're going to keep pushing ourselves. That's the only way we're going to get back on top."

Sources: icenetwork