Shae-Lynn Bourne

Shae-Lynn Bourne (born January 24, 1976) is a Canadian ice dancer and choreographer. In 2003, she and partner Victor Kraatz became the first North American ice dancers to win a World Championship. They competed at three Winter Olympic Games, placing 10th at the 1994 Winter Olympics, 4th at the 1998 Winter Olympics, and 4th at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Since retiring from competitive skating, she has become a renowned choreographer, choreographing programs for Olympic champions Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen, and World Champions including Evgenia Medvedeva and Ilia Malinin. During the 2020 ISU Skating Awards, Shae-Lynn was named Best Choreographer.

Personal life
Bourne was born on January 24, 1976, in Chatham, Ontario. She has an older brother, Chris, a younger sister, Calea and younger brother Sean. She married her skating coach Nikolai Morozov on August 12, 2005, but the marriage was short-lived, and they divorced in July 2007. She is currently married to Bohdan Turok with whom she has a son, Kai, born in June 2012. She worked as a coach and a choreographer at the Granite Club in Toronto, then moved to the Carolina Ice Palace in Charleston, South Carolina in 2019.

Career
Bourne began skating in 1983. Early in her career, she competed in pair skating with partner Andrew Bertleff. 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.'"

Partnership with Kraatz
Interested in switching to ice dancing, Bourne traveled to Boucherville, Quebec in 1991 after a coach, Paul Wirtz, suggested that she try out with Victor Kraatz. 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.

During their career, Bourne/Kraatz were coached at various times by Tatiana Tarasova, Natalia Dubova, Uschi Keszler, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, and Nikolai 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.

For the 1996—1997 season, "in response to suggestions that they increase the complexity and danciness of their free skate", they used music from the 1956 movie High Society, in which they used a mostly athletic and non-narrative approach with mostly quickstep and swing 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". 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". 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". 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.

For the 1997–98 season, their free dance was modeled after Riverdance, with footwork instruction provided by Riverdance lead dancer Colin Dunne. Bourne/Kraatz became known for their deep edges and soft knees. They were credited with perfecting and popularizing the hydroblading technique. The program included a great amount of up-and-down hops in place on their toes and side-by-side footwork.

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 by Harry Connick, Jr. They missed the 2000 Four Continents and 2000 World Championships due to Bourne's knee surgery. In spring 2000, they changed coaches, moving to Tatiana Tarasova and Nikolai Morozov in Newington, Connecticut.

Bourne/Kraatz withdrew from their 2002 Grand Prix events due to Bourne's injury. They won their tenth Canadian national title and their third Four Continents title. Bourne/Kraatz went on to become the first World champions in ice dancing from North America, winning gold at the 2003 World Championships in Washington, D.C. 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". In January 2007, they were inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame.

Ice shows
Bourne has skated solo in shows and tours around the world, such as Stars on Ice, Champions on Ice in North America and Japan, Art on Ice in Switzerland, the 2009 Ice All Stars and the 2010 Festa on Ice, held in Seoul, South Korea, and in Yuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata, a commemoration event of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami led by two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu. She has also competed on figure skating reality shows like Battle of the Blades (paired with former NHL star player Claude Lemieux, finished second overall) on CBC and Thin Ice on ABC (paired with American pair skater John Zimmerman, finished second overall).

Coach and choreographer
Bourne formerly coached Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje, and Cathy Reed / Chris Reed. She has choreographed programs for:


 * 🇺🇸 Jeremy Abbott
 * 🇰🇷 Jun-hwan Cha
 * 🇨🇦 Kate Charbonneau
 * 🇨🇦 Alaine Chartrand
 * 🇺🇸 Nathan Chen
 * 🇨🇦 Vaughn Chipeur
 * Michaela Du Toit
 * 🇯🇵 Yuzuru Hanyu
 * 🇯🇵 Wakaba Higuchi
 * 🇯🇵 Rika Hongo
 * 🇯🇵 Rika Kihira
 * 🇫🇮 Kiira Korpi
 * 🇷🇺 Alena Kostornaia
 * 🇺🇸 Mariah Bell
 * 🇨🇦 Annabelle Langlois / Cody Hay
 * 🇷🇺 Evgenia Medvedeva
 * 🇺🇸 Ilia Malinin
 * 🇨🇦 Nicolas Nadeau
 * 🇯🇵 Yuka Nagai
 * 🇨🇦 Alexandra Najarro
 * 🇨🇳 Pang Qing / Tong Jian
 * 🇷🇺 Elena Radionova
 * 🇨🇦 Kevin Reynolds
 * 🇨🇦 Joannie Rochette
 * 🇨🇦 Andrei Rogozine
 * 🇨🇿 Michal Březina
 * 🇯🇵 Kaori Sakamoto
 * 🇨🇦 Stephen Gogolev
 * 🇨🇦 Kaetlyn Osmond
 * 🇨🇦 Julianne Séguin / Charlie Bilodeau
 * 🇯🇵 Akiko Suzuki
 * 🇯🇵 Daisuke Takahashi
 * 🇺🇸 Alexa Knierim / Brandon Frazier
 * 🇷🇺 Elizaveta Tuktamysheva
 * 🇭🇰 Yi Christy Leung
 * 🇯🇵 Shoma Uno
 * 🇺🇸 Ashley Wagner
 * 🇰🇷 You Young
 * 🇯🇵 Rion Sumiyoshi
 * Deniss Vasiljevs
 * 🇯🇵 Yuma Kagiyama
 * 🇰🇷 Lee Hae-in
 * 🇯🇵 Kao Miura
 * 🇯🇵 Rinka Watanabe
 * 🇺🇸 Lindsay Thorngren
 * 🇺🇸 Andrew Torgashev
 * 🇺🇸 Camden Pulkinen
 * 🇨🇦 Kara Yun
 * 🇨🇳 Chen Yudong

Show choreography
 * Shizuka Arakawa
 * Kurt Browning
 * Sasha Cohen
 * Ekaterina Gordeeva
 * Denis Ten
 * Yuna Kim

Advocacy
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 the Canadian Governor General's Meritorious Service Crosses for speaking out about unfair judging practices.

Programs
(with Kraatz)

Results
(with Kraatz)

GP: Part of Champions Series from 1995–96 season, renamed Grand Prix series in 1998–99