.jpg) Shae-Lynn Bourne in 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1976-01-24)January 24, 1976 (age 50) Chatham, Ontario, Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Figure skating career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skating club | CPA Brossard Granite Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Shae-Lynn BourneMSC (born January 24, 1976) is a Canadianice dancer andchoreographer. In 2003, she and partnerVictor Kraatz became the first North American ice dancers to win a World Championship. They competed at threeWinter Olympic Games, placing 10th at the1994 Winter Olympics, 4th at the1998 Winter Olympics, and 4th at the2002 Winter Olympics.
Since retiring from competitive skating, she has become a renowned choreographer, choreographing programs for Olympic championsYuzuru Hanyu andNathan Chen, andWorld Champions includingEvgenia Medvedeva andIlia Malinin. During the 2020, 2023, and 2025 ISU Skating Awards, Shae-Lynn was named Best Choreographer.[1][2]
Bourne was born on January 24, 1976, inChatham, Ontario.[3] She has an older brother, Chris, a younger sister, Calea and younger brother Sean.[4] She married her skating coachNikolai Morozov on August 12, 2005,[5] but the marriage was short-lived, and they divorced in July 2007.[6][7] She is currently married to Bohdan Turok with whom she has a son, Kai, born in June 2012.[8][9] She worked as a coach and a choreographer atthe Granite Club inToronto,[10] then moved to the Carolina Ice Palace inCharleston, South Carolina in 2019.[11]
Bourne began skating in 1983.[3] Early in her career, she competed inpair skating with partner Andrew Bertleff.[3] She stated that she enjoyed pairs "but I was dropped a lot, there were a lot of head injuries, and I finally said, 'No more, I'm not going to last much longer if I kept doing this.'"[12]
Interested in switching to ice dance, Bourne traveled toBoucherville,Quebec in 1991 after a coach, Paul Wirtz, suggested that she try out withVictor Kraatz.[3][12] Although at first Kraatz did not see himself with Bourne, they skated together for a week and a week after she returned to Ontario he asked to form a partnership.[12]
During their career, Bourne and Kraatz were coached at various times byTatiana Tarasova,Natalia Dubova,Uschi Keszler,Marina Klimova andSergei Ponomarenko, andNikolai Morozov.
According to figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum, their performance emphasized the athleticism of ice dance instead of the traditional ballroom style approach.[13]
In 1993, Bourne and Kraatz came in 14th place at theWorld Championships. A year later, at the 1994 Winter Olympics, they came in "a respectable" 10th place. In 1995, they came in fourth place atWorlds.[14]
For the 1996—1997 season, "in response to suggestions that they increase the complexity and danciness of their free skate",[13] they used music from the 1956 movieHigh Society, in which they used a mostly athletic and non-narrative approach with mostlyquickstep andswing rhythms that emphasized the soft knees they were known for. Kestnbaum also stated, "Only their costumes and the occasional reliance on traditional dance holds suggested any gendered identity for each partner".[13] Their choice of rhythms allowed them to continue to emphasize their technique and athleticism while following the sport's rules and guidelines, but without depending upon "the erotic narratives attached to other ballroom rhythms".[13] As a result, both partners were able to present themselves as athletes capable of executing positions and able to support each other's weight, while following the ice dance traditions of "male-female couplehood".[13] in this way, along with their choice of dance holds, rhythms, and costumes, they were able to establish their performance within the sport's ballroom dance traditions.[13]
For the 1997–98 season, their free dance was modeled afterRiverdance, with footwork instruction provided by Riverdance lead dancerColin Dunne. Bourne and Kraatz became known for their deep edges and soft knees. They were credited with perfecting and popularizing thehydroblading technique.[citation needed] The program included a great amount of up-and-down hops in place on their toes and side-by-side footwork.[15] They won theGrand Prix Finals in 1997. At the1998 Winter Olympics, they came in fourth place.[14]
In 1999, they won the gold medal atFour Continents.[14] In 2000, Bourne and Kraatz choreographed their own free dance program; it was first season vocal music was allowed in ice dance, so their music was set to vocal selections byHarry Connick, Jr.[16] They missed the2000 Four Continents and2000 World Championships due to Bourne's knee surgery.[17] In spring 2000, they changed coaches, moving toTatiana Tarasova andNikolai Morozov inNewington, Connecticut.[18] They returned to competition in 2001, and came in first place atFour Continents and fourth place atWorlds.[14]
Bourne and Kraatz withdrew from their 2002 Grand Prix events due to Bourne's injury.[3] They won their tenth Canadian national title and their third Four Continents title.[citation needed] They competed at the Olympics for the third time in2002 and came in fourth place. They also won the gold medal at theGrand Prix Finals and came in second place atWorlds that year. Bourne and Kraatz went on to win the gold medal at the2003 Four Continents and become the first World champions in ice dance from North America, winning gold at the2003 World Championships inWashington, D.C.[14] They retired from competition at the end of the season.
On October 21, 2003, they announced the end of their partnership; while Bourne enjoyed show skating, Kraatz said he wanted "to experiment with other things and follow up on other dreams that I have".[19] In January 2007, they were inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame.[6]
Bourne has skated solo in shows and tours around the world, such asStars on Ice,Champions on Ice inNorth America andJapan,Art on Ice inSwitzerland, the 2009Ice All Stars and the 2010Festa on Ice, held inSeoul,South Korea, and inYuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata, a commemoration event of the2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami led bytwo-time Olympic championYuzuru Hanyu.[20] She has also competed on figure skating reality shows likeBattle of the Blades (paired with formerNHL star playerClaude Lemieux, finished second overall) onCBC andThin Ice onABC (paired with American pair skaterJohn Zimmerman, finished second overall).
Bourne formerly coachedKaitlyn Weaver /Andrew Poje,[21] andCathy Reed /Chris Reed. She has choreographed programs for:
Jeremy Abbott[22]Mariah Bell[22]
Michal Březina[22]
Jun-hwan Cha[22]Kate Charbonneau[23]Alaine Chartrand[24]Nathan Chen[22]
Chen Yudong[25]Vaughn Chipeur[26]Wesley Chiu[27]
Michaela Du Toit[28]Sarah Everhardt[29]Stephen Gogolev[22]
Yuzuru Hanyu[22]Wakaba Higuchi[22]Rika Hongo[22]Jin Boyang[30]Yuma Kagiyama[31]
Livia Kaiser[32]Rika Kihira[22]Kim Chae-yeon[33]Alexa Knierim /Brandon Frazier[22]Misato Komatsubara /Tim Koleto[34]
Kiira Korpi[22]
Alena Kostornaia[22]Annabelle Langlois /Cody Hay[35]Lee Hae-in[36]
Yi Christy Leung[22]Ilia Malinin[37]Katie McBeath /Daniil Parkman[38]Evgenia Medvedeva[22]Kao Miura[39]Riku Miura /Ryuichi Kihara[40]
Andrea Montesinos Cantú[41]Nicolas Nadeau[42]Yuka Nagai[43]Alexandra Najarro[44]Kosho Oshima[45]Kaetlyn Osmond[22]Pang Qing /Tong Jian[22]Camden Pulkinen[46]Elena Radionova[22]Kevin Reynolds[22]
Matteo Rizzo[47]Joannie Rochette[48]Andrei Rogozine[49]Kaori Sakamoto[22]
Sofia Samodelkina[50]Julianne Séguin /Charlie Bilodeau[51]Hetty Shi[52]Koshiro Shimada[53]Rion Sumiyoshi[54]Akiko Suzuki[22]Daisuke Takahashi[22]Lindsay Thorngren[55]Kazuki Tomono[56]Andrew Torgashev[57]Elizaveta Tuktamysheva[22]Shoma Uno[58]
Deniss Vasiljevs[59]Ashley Wagner[22]Rinka Watanabe[60]You Young[22]Kara Yun[61]Show choreography
Bourne has used her celebrity to speak out against child abuse. She and Kraatz skated in numerous charity shows such as "Dreams On Ice". Bourne was the honorary chairperson for the "Every Life Counts" campaign for Chatham-Kent. Bourne and Kraatz received theCanadian Governor General's Meritorious Service Crosses for speaking out about unfair judging practices.
(with Kraatz)
| Season | Original dance | Free dance |
|---|---|---|
| 2002–2003 [3] |
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| 2001–2002 [18] |
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| 2000–2001 [17] |
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| 1999–2000 |
byDesmond Child & Draco Rosa;performed byRicky Martin |
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| 1998–1999 |
byClannad | byDa Hool |
| 1997–1998 |
(fromGrease soundtrack) |
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| 1996–1997 |
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| 1995–1996 |
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| 1994–1995 |
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| 1993–1994 |
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by Igor Tuhmanov |
(with Kraatz)
GP: Part of Champions Series from 1995–96 season, renamed Grand Prix series in 1998–99
| International[3][17][18] | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | 92–93 | 93–94 | 94–95 | 95–96 | 96–97 | 97–98 | 98–99 | 99–00 | 00–01 | 01–02 | 02–03 |
| Olympics | 10th | 4th | 4th | ||||||||
| Worlds | 14th | 6th | 4th | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd | 4th | 2nd | 1st | |
| Four Continents | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||||||||
| GPFinal | 4th | 1st | 2nd | 5th | 1st | ||||||
| GPCup of Russia | 2nd | ||||||||||
| GPLalique | 2nd | ||||||||||
| GPNations/Spark. | 5th | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 3rd | ||||||
| GPNHK Trophy | 2nd | 2nd | |||||||||
| GPSkate America | 3rd | ||||||||||
| GPSkate Canada | 6th | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |||
| Nebelhorn Trophy | 1st | ||||||||||
| National[3][17][18] | |||||||||||
| Canadian Champ. | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |
| WD: Withdrew | |||||||||||
my little sister Calea.
