Dancing Back Into The Spotlight

Sometimes, a girl's just gotta dance. And if you're Tessa Virtue and you haven't been able to do that for real for waaay too long, it feels oh so good just to get those feet moving again.
That Virtue and partner Scott Moir will win their second straight senior ice dance crown isn't the question at the 2009 BMO Canadian figure skating championships. Bank on the reigning world silver medallists standing on the top step of the podium when all is said and done after Saturday's free dance final at the Credit Union Centre.
Rather, it's all about just getting a chance to see this enchanting young couple for the first time this season. Back in October, you may recall, Virtue needed surgery on both her knees to relieve pain caused by chronic exertional compartment syndrome, an overuse injury that affected her shins. That put a halt to the fall portion of their season.
So tonight's compulsory dance, which Virtue and Moir won handily with a 39.33-point score, marked their first real taste of competition since the 2008 world championships last March in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Needless to say, they're excited just to be back at it again.
"It was really nice ... It's been a very long time," said a grinning Virtue, 19, of London, Ont. "After 10 months of not competing, it feels really great to be in this atmosphere."
Her partner seconded that thought.
"Just being back (was the big thing)," said Moir, 21, of Ilderton, Ont. "We've kind of been craving this for the last little while and we're really, really looking forward to Friday (original dance) and Saturday (free dance). To get a little taste of it tonight was nice."
CBC's crew here in Saskatoon thought so, too. Tracy Wilson, Kurt Browning and Scott Russell made a quick trip in through the evening's bitter cold just to see these rather special prodigies do their thing.
While Virtue and Moir are a virtual lock for gold, the real action is right below them. Canada has only two ice dance berths for the 2009 worlds in Los Angeles and there's already quite the battle brewing. Rising young stars Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier, the silver-medal winners at HomeSense Skate Canada in Ottawa back in November, currently stand second (35.62), followed by Ottawa's Siobhan Karam and Kevin O'Keefe (31.97) and Andrea Chong and Guillaume Gfeller (31.92). Reigning national silver medallists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (31.89) are currently fourth, just ahead of last year's bronze-medal winners, Allie-Hann McCurdy and Michael Coreno (30.95), whose golden skate blades might have made the fashion statement of the night.
But leave it to Virtue and Moir to make the biggest statement of them all. They're back and really, that's all that needed be said on this rather frigid evening.