This interview transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity by Gina (@4ATwizzles), Niamh (@rivrdance) and Karly (@cyberswansp)
Karly (@cyberswansp): Hi guys, it's Karly, and I'm here with multiple time Canadian national medalist, Piper Gilles! So, welcome to In The Loop!
Piper: Thank you for having me!
We're really excited to talk to you. So I was watching an interview with GoldenSkate where you talked about your programs for this season, and you mentioned that your programs, and I think last year's Free Dance as well, were "programs for the people". [Piper: Yep.] So, what does that really mean to you in your words, and what do you hope people get from those programs?
You know, with Vincent, we felt at the beginning of the year that it was a program that I think a lot of people could relate to with their own struggles, and you know, not getting the acceptance that they want, or results, everyone could have looked at it in different ways, and I think that was one of the reasons why people loved it so much. And so when we thought about this theme for the next four years, we thought - you know the reason why Paul and I skate isn't always just for ourselves, it's also for our fans, our friends, who have been a part of our journey for our entire career, so I feel like the last quad we really wanted it to be for the people who have been there for us and I think a lot of people will be able to connect with what we're doing the next couple of years, just as an appreciation, and I think - we've done the quirky, we've done the weird, but I think these next couple of years, we're really just being us, being true to who we are, and I think the more relatable you are when skate, and how you are with your friends and fans, you become more accepting, and I think just being real for the people is kind of what we're doing.
That makes complete sense. So it's just to give back.
Yeah! It's like a thank you, you know, but it's also ways for people to connect with us, because it's relatable, you know, and seeing what the program is this year, "Both Sides Now," it's about a relationship with hope, and every relationship has hope that this could be your forever love, and then something happens in a relationship, and there's - you kind of have to accept that they're not your person. And at the end, it's just life, it's an acceptance that there's hope that there's gonna be someone else or something in the future to look forward to, but you can't get there until you accept the fact that the relationship is done and I think a lot of people have gone through those times in their life, maybe not when we're kids but when we get older, relationships have come and gone, and some may have been wonderful, and some may have been kind of okay or have hurt in some way, and you know you still have hope that there's something to come, right? And I think that anyone should relate to a story like that and it's easy to draw from your own experiences and really emote that out on the ice, and I think that one of the reasons that we feel our programs for the next bit will be hopefully great in those ways is because we've been so raw and being able to connect with people on so many levels.
A lot of people can relate to that theme of "I don't really know life at all."
Yeah! And everyone goes through those moments of like, "Oh God, I can't do life right now," you know what I mean? Like, you drop a glass on the floor, and like, "What am I doing." Some days you just have days that you just get kicked around and you have to accept that okay, it's just a bad day, and hopefully tomorrow's gonna be better. I think what's really cool about life is that sometimes what you have is another day to look forward to, right? Or the afterlife, or whatever one believes in, you gotta have hope in something to get through the day, and I think this program will reflect something like that.
Yeah, "Both Sides Now" - I cried watching that at Autumn Classic, and I had heard the song once in my life.
Piper: Yeah, have you ever seen the movie "Love Actually"?
No, I haven't, but I know it's a very loved movie. Is it in that movie?
Yeah, so Paul, Carol, and I, we are huge fans of that movie, and Emma Thompson, in that, there's a moment where she finds a necklace that she's hoping her husband is gonna give to her, but it ends up being for someone else, and he gives her a Christmas gift and she's like "Oh my gosh, it's gonna be the necklace," and he gives her a Joni Mitchell CD, so she goes into the bedroom and puts this song on and just starts crying. It's so touching, you feel for her in that moment, and then all of the sudden her kids are like "okay, let's go mom!" and she just wipes her face up and keeps going, like nothing ever happened. Everyone has had those moments of "I'm fine, I'm fine!" It's relatable, and something we've been wanting to do for ages, but again with all the rules - you've gotta have the change in tempo, you've gotta change expression, it's been complicated to put together, but I think what we've done, and with our team, the skating music guy, he's done a phenomenal job and we've had things orchestrated for the program, and I think again because he's invested in us and understands the concept that these programs can touch so many people, we've created this incredible team of people on board, and both of us are extremely thankful and excited to see what else we come up with.
Definitely, after hearing about the theme "programs for the people," that's just such an exciting theme, and that you said that you're expressing yourselves, that's really exciting to hear, so we're definitely looking forward to just the future programs. Speaking of all the types of programs you've done - so your Rhythm Dance is selections from “Mack and Mabel,” and it's kind of completely different from the free dance, it's upbeat, it would be described as quirky. You guys just really have a talent for expressing multiple different types of programs. You've done upbeat and quirky, you've done emotional and moving, and you've done disco - so is that something you guys work on throughout your careers, or do you find that it comes more naturally, that ability to perform?
I think the two of us - like, the reason why we skate is because we love it, and again we also like to push ourselves in directions that we haven't gone before, so doing the disco program, and doing - one year we did a Paso [Doble] and I was a bull, we've done The Beatles, I think we're not afraid to take chances, and risk the unknown, because that's really what gets us in every single day to train, is to be able to perfect something that we've never done before. I remember the last couple of years, we've kind of made it this long-running joke and now it's kind of like a saying for us, every competition it felt like we were about to jump off a cliff, because it's like we don't know if people are gonna accept what we just created, so our joke for a long time is, we are the cliff jumpers because it's that type of feeling, and even to this day, performing Mack and Mabel for the first time it was like ugh, we've trained it so many times but again, are people gonna accept a program like this? It's very Broadway - that's exactly what they asked for, but again, who knows? Everyone has opinions, right, but at the end of the day, if we're coming in every single day and training and pushing ourselves, I think that's one of the reasons why we're able to connect and be characters, because we trust in our training and curiosity.
So, you just really like the fun of challenging yourself to do new things.
Yeah! For the two of us, I think we would get bored. [Laughs] Doing the same thing. Both of us are just curious people in different ways, Paul's very studious and very very smart, and I'm more curious in an artsy way, we both connect in that way of wanting to learn or push our bodies to random directions, and the same with lifts and creating new elements, I think we're just not afraid to try something that hasn't been done before. And obviously “Mack and Mabel” is a famous piece for [Jane] Torvill and [Christopher] Dean, but it hasn't been done in like, thirty-five years, so we also didn't want to go into this season and have people comparing the two because they're completely different, but it's kind of a tribute piece to them because we've idolized them for so many years, but this is like our own spin-off of it.
I can definitely tell you that we really appreciate it. I don't think there's been a program of yours that I haven't liked.
Thank you! That's our whole team. Carol, Juris, John, Paul and I, everyone spends hours just listening to music, like before the season even ends, Carol has the next two years already planned in her head, and it's always changing, and ideas, and she's really the driving force of creativity, her concepts are incredible how she comes up with them, and even for us, usually it comes with her idea and the rest of us do research and end up finding music and she comes up with music as well - we have this incredible team that's on board with us, never doing the same thing, and we're just really lucky that we have everything in house, and not having to travel from choreographer to choreographer each year, we've got some pretty amazing ones just at home.
So you talked about how it's really a team effort between all of your team to come up with these programs that you've performed, and you've talked about how Carol has the next few years always planned out. What's the process like, of making a program? Does it start with her idea and then you all refine it?
I mean sometimes their idea evolves. We had programs that one year, I think it was our first international season together, and we did like a gypsy program, and like originally we were gonna be gypsies, and then we were gonna be ghosts, and then it turned into wild spirits, is what we ended up calling it. But I think the process of it is when you start developing a program, it can change how you feel about it and the way it looks. You start with an idea, and then you kind of take a step back throughout the season and look at it and go, you know this isn't exactly what I originally thought, I'm gonna morph it into some other way, so then you start working with your coaches and develop characters, and I think every process is different. With Vincent, we couldn't start that program until the music was done. It was in the hands of the artist Govardo, we put a lot of trust in it and really believed in their musicality and their voices and they really took on this challenge, and we kind of had to go with their feeling, and their how their voices changed. I think you really gotta start with the layout, too, of the program, musically you want to put certain elements, and then you start putting things in between. But each year, I find that the choreography process is never, never the same. Even this year we had another choreographer, Jeff Dimitriou, come in, and Paul and I started the Mack and Mabel choreography off the ice for a week, and then we took it on the ice, and that took us about two and a half weeks until that one was done, so I think every year it's gonna get switched up, but that's sometimes the fun part, is that when you're creating something, there's so much unknown, and every day you accomplish a little bit more.
That's what's interesting about building programs, is that it's different for each program.
Mhm. And sometimes you come up with a lift, and you know that you want that lift to be a highlight so you look through the music and find a highlight, this is where we're gonna get the most bang for our buck, that's where it's gonna go, and then you develop the program around that. So it's just, it depends on what you've got, and if you've had time to work on elements beforehand, or if you have a really strong idea for characters, and sometimes the beginning of the program takes a little bit more to develop that story before you even start putting elements in, it all changes.
Speaking of coming up with lifts, something that I always noticed in Vincent was the lift where he [Paul] balances you on his head. How did you come up with that?
Well, Carol's sort of the mastermind, and Juris is the doer, so they're very much like how Paul and I work, Paul is the thinker and I'm the doer. So Carol's like, “I have this idea of Piper kind of floating across his back, but I don't think it's possible,” and so Juris kind of grabs me and is like, “Well, let's just try this. Jump and see if you can land on my back.” [Laughs] It was really Carol's idea, she had an idea of what could be at the end to give that final moment the expression and feeling that we wanted. God, that entrance took Paul and I a while to get because it was all about timing, but when you know what you want, you really put the time and effort into working on something like that, because you know it's doable, and sometimes if it's like, oh you have this idea, and it works on floor, and you bring it on to the ice it's completely different and you have to scratch it, but sometimes you really just get lucky with how some lifts work out, but I guess you just have to be committed to the process of learning something like that.
And it's really nice when it just comes together to make an amazing program, and that's what Vincent was.
Thank you. Our biggest fear was being able to top that, but again, we said that we can't top Vincent, we wanted to do something completely different. Vincent will always be on its own pedestal in some way, but now we're on to the next one, and we want to do the thing with "Both Sides Now," so we have an appreciation of what that program did for us and it really created a stepping stone for this year, so hopefully we'll be able to bring people that same feeling of Vincent, but in a different way.
Talking about how you want to perform "Both Sides Now" this year, you've already gotten a chance to perform your programs in front of an audience at Autumn Classic. Is there anything you noticed about either of your programs that you want to change or improve on?
Well, Autumn Classic again, the reason why we do the senior B's is to get the international feedback. Yes. it's good to get world ranking points, but for us, it's just to kind of get those little kinks out, because you spend a whole summer training a program just not knowing whether or not it's giving you that impact. So we really went home after Autumn Classic and we changed quite a bit, like the layout of the program is exactly the same, it's just the elements and the transitions, we wanted to make sure that the change of expression was there and the elements. We missed a few points just on technical elements, so we kind of just needed to refine those things a little bit, but right now I think our whole team is very excited for Skate Canada, because we feel very trained and ready to go, and I can't believe we leave a week from today!
Yeah, it's so crazy that the Grand Prix is starting! So speaking of the season, the Grand Prix is starting soon and the season is really starting to pick up, do you have any short term or long term goals for the season and quad?
Short term... Paul and I really have our eye on making the Grand Prix Final. It's been kind of a monkey on our back for the last couple of years, so our main focus the next two competitions is really just doing our job, being confident in what we've done during practice. I think because we've been wanting to go to the Final and prove that we're Canada's number one team, I think we made some pretty big and small mistakes that affected our goals, and I think we really just need to be confident in what we've done and take ownership of how we want to compete and what we want to show to people. So yeah, the Grand Prix Final is definitely a good goal, a little bit longer would be National Championships and hopefully medal. We've been really, really, really getting closer and closer to the Worlds podium this year, and again, the long term one would be the Olympics. Again we're looking for the podium, so we've got a lot of work ahead of us, but I think with the programs that we've been creating, we can do it as long as we mentally stay strong and physically stay healthy.
How do you go about handling injuries? Because obviously injury happens to every skater, maybe it's a bigger injury or smaller, but what is your mentality? How do you keep strong in the face of it?
Depends, sometimes injuries - there’s nothing you can do. Paul had one, broke his ankle, and it affected our results going into the Sochi Olympics, and at that point you just race against the clock and you do your best to get there. Other times you have injuries that aren't so severe but they stay a lot longer because you aren't nurturing them and giving them the time that they need during a competitive season, and that’s extremely frustrating because mentally you want to push and you know you have a lot of work to do to get the results that you want but you’re being held back by your body which is tough. You learn to manage. The most important thing is having a really good physical therapy team that are going to be able to take care of you and know your needs, and know how much they can push. And I think it’s a learning process too, the longer you’ve been with your coaches, the more they know of how they can push, and it’s the type of injury. It’s never the same, and the most important thing is that you listen to your body and give it what it needs at the time.
Kind of a different topic, but we really wanted to know. You guys have a lot of beautiful costumes. [Piper: Oh, thank you!] Vincent was just amazing. That dress was just so beautiful. What’s your process behind creating and making your costumes? How does that come about?
Some start with the concept of the program, others is like who do you want to be as a person, you think of the times. We had one that was a movie program, and we thought about black and white film and we thought of the beautiful blonde and the stunning silk dress. You think about the times, and you think about history. Even the color has a really big impact. I don’t like to do the same color two years in a row, I like to mix it up. With Vincent, that one was so easy to create because the painting is so beautiful by itself, so it was really easy to replicate. Naturally, the way that the painting is, it swirls and it moves. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to out to create that on a dress. It was actually kind of 3D. It was on top of horse-hair that my seamstress had put together and we ended up stoning on top of it to create that look. I always go back to the Paso [Doble] one, with Paso Doble you have the bull, and the bullfighter and the cape so we wanted to find a way to incorporate that without being too gimmicky. It’s just keeping your eyes open for things around in magazines, Pinterest, things that spark your interest because you never know where those are going to lead you because your brain can get very creative when you start looking at one thing. You’re like oh we can add this, or this can be this color, I think you really just have to have an open mind during that process and when that you let your brain do the work, and trust that it will create something that will be memorable for that program.
Do you usually have an input on how your costumes and dresses turn out? Do you like to have an input?
Absolutely. Ever since I was a kid, my mom always designed all my costumes and she would stone them, and I was heavily involved in that process, and then the last couple of years that we’ve worn, I’ve designed and I’ve stoned. This year is actually the first year where I didn’t do anything. It felt so strange for me. I completely let one of my costume makers here in Toronto take full force, he really wanted to tackle it. The person that designed Mack and Mabel, I’ve never used before. I used his design but got someone else to make the dress. This year was kind of a strange year for me, I’m usually stoning the dress a week before our first competition so it’s been kind of strange, but nice to have a year off. I really do like to have an input in my costumes.I think that’s something eventually I’d like to do for other skaters, is kind of package them, so the programs can be understood, and get the impact they want, because the program itself is visually stimulating but if you have a distracting costume that doesn’t quite together, it can feel a bit mismatched. I did a little bit of it in the past couple of years for some skaters which has been fun, to see your design and dress on the ice, but for now I will stick to putting in my own dresses.
That’s awesome. I agree that a costume can really make or break a program.
For me, I think I felt invested in every part of my skating. The moment I put my dress on, I’m like I created this. I had such a strong relationship with my seamstress back in Colorado, I’ve been with her for something like 15 years - she’s known my body since I was a kid. Having that trust, and knowing that someone’s going to understand your vision and bring it to life and then you add the stones and stuff like that adds that extra layer that it needs but it brings a smile to your face, and you’re proud to step on the ice every time you’re wearing them.
It adds a little bit of passion to something you’re already passionate about. We have a little bit more of a fun question. We have to mention that everyone loves what you guys list as your ISU Bio Hobbies. They’re so fun. How do you come up with them?
For Paul and I, every single year, we have to do the same paper-work and at one point it was kind of like a rebellion. Here we go, we’re doing this again, no-one really reads our hobbies, but let’s really make them read our hobbies. Let’s come up with the most extreme things we can think of. I think extreme ironing was mine, cotton-collecting, tarot cards. It was just so strange. The whole theme of it, one year I was Cinderella, the next year I was a trapeze person from the Circus. I don’t even know how I come up with them. This year mine felt very dull, I forgot the season was starting, I can’t even think of what I’m going to do. Yesterday, I came up with a really good themed one, but I have to wait until next year to do it.
Let me tell you that we get a lot of joy from them, so don’t worry!
I think it’s funny. We started it, but now there’s a trend of people just making funny mock ones, so we’re kind of like we started that, that’s cool. I like that.
You’re like “Kids these days don’t know who started it!”
We’re like the trend-setters!
Well, we’re glad you do it, it brings a lot of joy. Do you have any pre-competition routines or rituals, things you do to get yourself hyped? Songs you listen to pump yourself up?
The day of, I have to obviously do my hair and makeup and stuff like that so that’s part of my routine, but I usually like to have up-beat music, anything that's kind of happy or I’m watching one of my favorite movies, like a comedy. I’m a really big fan of Mel Brooks films, so like “Blazing Saddles,” or “Spaceballs,” or even Monty Python movies. Those things are so light, and it’s like I don’t need to focus because I’ve watched them so many times, I know the lines to them anyways. Those are just fun ones to not focus on what you’re about to do and keep you out of your head a little bit.
Any songs you would recommend?
I think one of the songs that Paul and I just laugh with is Bette Davis - “Eyes.” So random, but we were on a road trip one year - I think it was the disco year and we just got a kick out of the lyrics and anytime we hear it, it’s just kind of a good distraction and to the day it just brings a smile to both of our faces so I don’t know if we really have a song, but I know one year Paul and I asked Hugo (one of the guys who plays music in between skates and stuff), We asked him to play Blitzkrieg Bop, but there are some inappropriate parts of it, so you can’t really play it over the loudspeaker before you compete, but that song is another one that Paul and I like to hear before we compete. It brings a good memory and smile to our faces.
Moving on to more fun questions, if you could steal one skater’s abilities for the day - it doesn’t have to be an Ice Dancer, like Singles or anything - who would you pick, and what would you do?
Evgenia [Tarasova], because she is a boss. The fact that he can just chuck her, she’s like a cat. It’s amazing. I would like to experience what she experiences for a day. That would be fascinating and extremely hard.
Just find a Pairs guy and be like “Hey, can you throw me?”
Seriously! I originally wanted to be a Pairs skater, but I never had a partner at the time, so I ended up Ice Dancing, and fell in love with it and Pairs was not in my future. I would just like to experience it at it’s best, and Tarasova and Morozov - I always get the two of them mixed up, and I love the two of them - Evgenia is like the ultimate Pair girl.
So, you kind of mentioned that you started out wanting to do Pairs, but if you weren’t skating now as a career, what do you think you would be doing now? What would you like to have been doing?
I don’t even know. Is that sad?
No! It just means you’re good at skating.
I mean, originally, when I quit skating, I nearly took a contract with Disney [on Ice] and I also almost went to FIDM in LA to do Fashion Design because with skating, you’re constantly thinking about new concepts and ideas for costumes so I thought it would be interesting to learn from the best in the business, and FIDM is one of the best fashion schools in the world, so that was going to be my other option. So, I’d say fashion would be my different career path if I wasn’t skating.
Even now you are kind of doing that with designing your own costumes.
A stepping stone.
You said you almost took a contract with Disney?
For Rapunzel, actually. When they started that show, they contacted me for a try-out so I did the try-out and they wanted me. They sent me the contract, and I was about to sign it and the day I was meant to sign it, Paul called me and asked for a try-out. I took a big risk saying no to Disney because I didn’t know what the future would hold but I’m so grateful that I passed on that opportunity. But, Disney got one of us - they took my sister as Elsa. They got one twin. It would’ve been a different future, but I’m very happy with what I chose, I went with my gut and it’s been a pretty great ride so far.
Interesting. So, kind of going back, you really admire Tarasova/Morozov, are there any other skaters, or teams or programs that you really enjoy?
Oh my gosh, that’s hard. There are so many incredible skaters and incredible programs over the years, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact program. One program that Paul and I both really liked, it was the year of the Sochi Olympics. Adam Rippon did a really interesting long program and I can’t remember the name of it, it would have been the 2013-2014 season and watching the program from above. It wasn’t like the pattern of the program, it was so beautiful and the way he skated it. It’s one of those programs that I just remember, it was just so easy and it made you feel something. Kaetlyn Osmond - the whole Canadian team were like bawling before she even finished at the Olympics, that was a moment that all of us will remember for a long time, because these are the people you’ve travelled with. Kaetlyn and I had our first World Championship together in London, Ontario, so you become invested in people’s careers and to see her accomplish everything she worked hard for, she did it all in that moment and it was just wonderful to watch and experience.
Kind of speaking of the Worlds in London, Ontario - Worlds are being held in Montreal this current season, are you looking forward to having Worlds in a home crowd again?
Oh yeah. We were lucky to have my first World Championships in Canada, so if we can make the podium, it would be even more special of an experience. There’s nothing like Canadian fans. Everyone is so welcoming and supportive, and emotionally invested in every program that’s on the ice. I think everyone will have some kind of moment at Worlds because it’s just nice to know you’ve got these families and friends that have been behind you your entire career and be able to share that with them would be a great experience and moment.
Final question, the question I like to end with. If you could let the figure skating fan community know one thing about you, what would it be?
The whole community? Oh jeez. I’ll do a funny one. I recently got a lot of money in Animal Crossing.
Are you looking forward to the new Animal Crossing game?
Oh yeah. I’m now donating money to the Town Square to windmills and create paths so I’m very excited about that.
That’s amazing. I love Animal Crossing.
It’s so fun! I just learned a cheat code to get more money and I’m like “Sssh I’m paying my mortgage!” It sounds so ridiculous
How’s Scout [Piper’s dog] doing? We love her!
She’s wonderful! She’s actually sitting on my lap right now, she’s passed out. She’s great. She’s getting so big, I want her to stop growing. She’s been such a great addition to my life, it’s nice to be like a mom to something. I mean, she’ll love me forever. If you have a bad day, it doesn’t matter to her, as long as you love her and feed her. They have no agenda, they just want to be loved, and love you. At the end of the day, that’s their job, that’s their life. They bring everyone so much joy. Very blessed to have this little one in my life now. I didn’t want to take her to Vancouver, because it’s my first International, but I’m going to be so sad to leave her on Wednesday.
You’re just like “I’ll be back.”
I’ll be back. I left her for a wedding a few weeks ago and just watching her stand at the front door watching me go, like I’ll be back in 3 days.
We’re really excited for Skate Canada, I know everyone on the team who is going is so excited that they’re going to see you again, so just remember that you’ve always got supporters at In the Loop. We’re wrapped up with the questions. Thank you so, so much for sitting down with us, we wish you the best of luck at Skate Canada even though no-one knows where Kelowna is in Canada.
Wine country, that’s all you need to know!
I’ll have to tell my friends that.
Kelowna is wine country. I wish we could stay a little longer, but duty calls and it’s my job, so you know.
We’re very excited to see you there, and thank you for sitting down with us!
No problem!