20 of the Best Skating Programs from the Fall of 2016

18. Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker (USA): Free Dance

Since winning the Junior World title in 2014, Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker have been trying to break into U.S. ice dance’s top three. That was always a daunting challenge, and now is starting to look impossible. That was bad enough for them. But things got worse at 2016 Nationals, where not only did the top three teams skate away from them, but they even got shocked out of fourth by a team they were supposed to beat. They came into this season needing to move fast just to keep themselves within the picture.

Luckily, they also came in armed with the best free dance they’ve ever had. When they were advised to do something more artistic than theatrical, their coach Pasquale Carlemango, with the help of Benji Schwimmer, came up with this program for them. Franz Liszt’s Liberstraum is best known as the music legendary Russian pairs team Natalia Mishkutenok & Artur Dmitriev won the 1992 Olympics with, and tends to be used more by singles and pairs skaters than by ice dancers. But with it, this young team practically float on the ice. The program is well attuned to the rise and fall of the music, allowing the two skaters to build on the feeling until its natural climax near the end, before gently bringing themselves and the audience down.

The top three like remains impossible to break into, at least this season. But Hawayek & Baker have already won their first Grand Prix medal on the strength of this program, and should return to fourth. And in the future, who knows?