Joe Druar is sitting in a plastic chair in an interview room at the Salt Palace, facing several radio and television microphones and a couple of notepads. Suddenly he points at the notes, where a reporter has written "Suzy/Joe," and corrects the mistake. "It's `sie,"' he says, friendly-like but to the point.
Druar and his ice-dancing partner Susie Wynne have been together for nine years now. Obviously, he looks out for her."We're friends, like brother and sister," says Wynne.
Druar agrees.
They began skating together in his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. They had different partners then, but judges suggested they get together.
"We have similar skating ability, the same knee bend," explains Druar, who remembers then having to tell his other partner goodbye because the judges' suggestion was a good one.
"I'm a homewrecker," Wynne laughs.
By 1983, they'd made the national senior-division scene, finishing fifth at Pittsburgh, and, with little change above them, they were fifth again in 1984 in Salt Lake City.
In 1984, Wynne and Druar faced few mirophones and notepads.
"Six years ago," says Druar, "we were just starting in seniors. Fifth for us was so great.
"But now," he says, "we are at a different level."
They are first.
Or at least they were first in the '89 Nationals in Baltimore, which makes them defending champs and favorites as they take the ice tonight at 7 in the Salt Palace for the compulsory section of their competition.
Ice dancing has changed since it was last performed in the Salt Palace, in 1984. Then it was staid. Unusual, music - even classical - was frowned upon. It was static. "As soon as compulsories were over, nothing would change," says Wynne of the old rigidity. Nobody moved up or down then.
"Now there's more creativity," says Druar.
"It's more permissable," says Wynne.
Wynne began skating at age 11. Her home is near Syracuse, N.Y., but she's attending the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, interested in acting, writing, movies and aerobics.
Druar, a St. Joseph's University graduate who now also lives in Colorado Springs, started skating at 3. He made it to the sectional level in singles, pairs and ice dancing.
An injury took him out of pairs, but then he had to choose between singles and dance. "The thing I did not like about singles," he says, "was the compulsory figures." And dance challenged him more. "Dance, for me, was actually harder," he says.
They skate two more times in the 1990 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in the Salt Palace - the original set pattern Thursday at 9:15 p.m., and the free dance Saturday at 7:30 p.m.