Above: Caroline Green and Michael Parsons display their unison and chemistry.
By Rachel Lutz
The veteran ice dance team of Caroline Green and Michael Parsons know all about adversity and perseverance. They need to look back no further than last season when things seemed to go south for the team based in Canton, Michigan.
They placed fourth at the 2024 U.S. Championships, after earning the silver medal the year before. The duo finished sixth at the Four Continents Championships after being fifth the season prior.
“It feels so cliché to say, but I feel like you learn even more from the difficult moments than the times when everything seems to click and you’re experiencing success,” Green said while reflecting on last season. “Within the past year, we’ve learned so much about ourselves and grown so much as people. Having a strong foundation in our partnership and respect for each other goes a long way in being able to work through moments that are tough.”
It’s a sentiment understood well by Olympic champion and coach Charlie White.
“It’s always going to be how do you learn from it? How do you bounce back from it?” White said. “They’ve done a magnificent job of finding themselves, righting the ship, and going about doing things the right way. I think that’s going to show in their skating.”
To prep for the upcoming 2024-25 season, Parsons spent April to June at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado rehabbing a hip injury, while Green worked on her own at their home base in Michigan.
“A lot of [that time] was taking the time to reconnect with my own love for skating, outside of our partnership,” Green said. While it wasn’t something she had been previously struggling with, she added, “I’m in a much better place now than I was toward the end of last season.”
Green and Parsons had fun developing their 1960s rhythm dance to a remixed version of “These Boots are Made for Walking” from Nancy Sinatra plus Quincy Jones’ “Soul Bossa Nova.”
But they were more eager to talk about their process working with choreographer Jean-Luc Baker for their free dance set to “Spiegel im Spiegel” by Arvo Pärt and “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Douglas Dare. The team had toyed with “Spiegel im Spiegel” a few years ago, but abandoned the idea when they couldn’t find a second piece of music to accompany it.
“Funny enough, I had always really loved this piece of music for myself,” said Baker, who only two seasons ago was competing with partner Kaitlin Hawayek against Green and Parsons.
Baker began by asking Green and Parsons a question: If you were to watch yourselves at the World Championships, how would you want to see yourselves? He borrowed the method from his own coach, which inspired a few adjectives that provided the shape and direction of the choreography.
“I like to ask a lot of questions rather than say, ‘Do this step, do that step,’” Baker said. “I challenged them to dive into more of who they are and who they want to become on and off the ice. And how they want to be perceived and how they want to leave themselves in the sport whenever they decide to depart. I think that allowing their truest self to come through is my biggest attribute into what they’re performing.”
For Parsons, it was easy.
“There are moments in your career as a skater where you’ll hear a piece of music and you think ‘Yes, that will be perfect,’” he said. “Sometimes it goes back and forth with you and your team, or you and your partner, but when Jean-Luc played this song, we were like, ‘Yes, this can definitely be us.’”
It’s the belief in their ability to present their authentic selves on the ice that is bringing a renewed sense of optimism and anticipation for the season.
“It’s no longer about how are we going to get through this?” Parsons said. “I think this choreography is much more personal. It’s genuine Caroline and Michael. And we already feel so much better than we did at this point last season — or at any point last season.”
In 2023, Green and Parsons were sixth at the World Championships. In 2024, they were not named to the team. So what about 2025, when the World Championships take place in Boston?
“As far as proving themselves, I don’t feel like they have much to prove,” White said. “People know that they bring something special to the table, something that frankly I don’t think anyone else in the world can do. … The main thing for them is to go and show what they’re capable of. I think that if they do that, their chances of making the World Team will be quite high, unsurprisingly.”
And considering where the team wants to be competing in a year, and in two years, making the World Team is important to them, Parsons said.
“We’re super, super excited to show our programs this year,” he said. “Excited to have a rebound year where we feel like we can put our genuine selves on the ice and enjoy it. Not just survive, but thrive in what we love to do.”
Don't miss Caroline Green and Michael Parsons compete at 2024 NHK Trophy this week. For a full schedule, results and more, visit the Grand Prix Series Competition Central.
