Susan Wynne and Joseph Druar tapped into a strictly American style as they debuted their all-tap-free dance Saturday night and got a unanimous first-place endorsement from the judges to repeat their U.S. Figure Skating Championship title in the Salt Palace.
"When you're thinking out things at the beginning of the year, you're trying to think of something that suits you, that's fun to do," said Wynne, "and trying to think of something that hadn't quite been developed before."Other skaters had done soft-shoe tap in routines, "but we wanted something more athletic," Wynne said.
"We wanted to go with something more Americana," Druar said, "and set our mark, and once we said tap, we said, " `Wait a minute, that hasn't been done before.'
"It's nice defending a title," said Druar. "That's what we came here to do.
"I like this nationals even better than last year's," said Wynne. "We skated well last year, but we weren't very excited about our free dance."
This year, they chose another American theme with the tap.
"North American," noted Druar, conscious that the World Championships are next month in Canada.
They'd already won the compulsory dance and original set pattern on Tuesday and Thursday, and no one challenged them Saturday as they skated first in the final group of five and drew a standing ovation.
Finishing second unanimously were April Sargent and Russ Witherby, with Suzanne Semanick and Ron Kravette third - just as they stood going into the free dance.
Jeanne Miley and Michael Verlich moved into fourth and got the night's other standing ovation.
To prepare for the number, Wynne and Druar studied with tap dancers and had original music composed and taped for them so there were no breaks in continuity. It centered completely on a tap theme, although there were actual tap steps in only a couple of sections, linked by skating, but Druar pointed out that a lot of tap steps are integrated into the skating as well.
"A lot of tap movements don't look good on the ice," said Wynne, "and we didn't want it to be like Chinese water torture with tap, tap, tap.
"It's going to improve tremendously. I'm pleased with it for the amount of time we worked on it," she said, adding they will work hard to refine between now and the Worlds.
"Maybe make it more difficult toward the end," said Wynne.