The Comeback of the Year: Pink Corsets and “I Messed Up” – An Inside Look
At the Grand Prix event in France, the season’s most anticipated dance premiere took center stage. Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry placed third after the rhythm dance – hampered by an element error – but their debut was undoubtedly successful.
Why Madonna? The Unexpected Musical Choice
Strictly speaking, the new French duo wasn’t entirely unseen – they had performed at the domestic Masters tournament in August. But with poor camera quality… and a different rhythm dance. Their original Depeche Mode program didn’t survive until the Grand Prix: judges deemed one of the song choices inappropriate.
The single “Personal Jesus” was released in 1989, while the Olympic season’s rhythm dance theme required music from the 90s. The duo received hints that if they wanted to avoid penalties for musical non-compliance, they needed to change tracks. Thus, the French team arrived at their home Grand Prix with Madonna’s “Vogue,” stunning audiences from the first training sessions with the partner’s bold costume.
The Costume and Choreography Transformation
But first – why Madonna? Such a mainstream choice seems unexpected from the always stylish and original Cizeron. The pair’s coach, Marie-France Dubreuil, explained:
“We initially liked the idea of doing voguing. Guillaume had performed solo in ice shows with this choreography several times – and had specifically worked on it with an amazing dancer from Brazil, one of the best in this genre.
I understand that to many, voguing resembles waacking (another popular 90s dance, which Cizeron performed at the last Olympics with Gabriella Papadakis). But actually these styles differ. Voguing is more smooth and flowing, while waacking is sharper.
From Depeche Mode to Madonna: The Judge’s Verdict
“But we immediately understood we didn’t want to create a straightforward dance, and we hadn’t even considered Madonna’s composition. It was obvious that if anyone else chose voguing (it was on ISU’s list of seasonal styles), it would definitely be to Madonna, and we didn’t want to repeat others. So we conceived a fusion: using Depeche Mode music, which seemed unconventional and fresh.
But the judges weren’t thrilled. We were hinted that we shouldn’t overcomplicate things: when we say voguing, we mean Madonna. So we simply found less common remixes. Time was short: we essentially had to create a new dance three weeks before the Grand Prix. That’s why we skipped the Oberstdorf tournament where we were supposed to open the season.”
“I Messed Up”: The Costly Error
So the debut at the home Grand Prix became somewhat accidental, but clearly helped the pair: the stands greeted them as if Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry had already won the Olympics.
During their performance, Guillaume momentarily lost his balance on the choreographic sequence – judges formally counted this as a fall, and the duo immediately lost approximately 6 points.
If the skaters were disappointed (they likely would have been first without this error), they didn’t show it. Smiling during interactions with journalists, Cizeron even joked about his clumsiness:
“Today we felt why we returned: that magic when you step onto the ice and feel the public’s energy.”
The French ice dance comeback story continues to unfold, with Madonna’s “Vogue” providing the unexpected but spectacular soundtrack to their return to competitive skating.
