Welcome to IDC’s new Team Series! In this series, we interview athletes who are entering the upcoming 2024-25 season or making their debut last season with a new partnership. In our seventh interview, we meet Summer Homick and Nicholas Buelow, junior ice dancers representing Canada and training at the Mariposa Skating School in Barrie, Ontario.
Ice photography: Junko Suzuki.
Summer began skating at the age of 4 with the Canskate program in Tillsonburg, Ontario, and worked as a solo skater until she was 13 years old. At age 13, she began pair skating, and after three seasons of pairs skating, she turned to ice dancing.
Nicholas started free skating in Bari at the age of five. When he was 8 years old, he was approached by his current coach, David Islam, and asked if he wanted to try ice dancing and continue to pursue that aspect of the sport. He continued to compete in both sports until the age of 13, when he switched to ice dancing exclusively.
What draws you to the ice dance?
When Nicholas first started ice dancing at the age of 8, he realized that he loved the performance part of skating and wanted to continue skating with someone. When Summer was a pairs skater, an ice dance coach approached her and told her she should consider ice dancing. After a few days of ice dancing trials, she became very interested in the project and wanted to continue working on it.
Tell us how your partnership started. describe try out.
Our partnership began during the transition from pas de deux to ice dancing in the summer and we were both looking for a new partner. Alison Purkiss, Sammer’s dual coach, contacted our current coach Mitch Islam to ask if Nicholas would be interested in trying out with Sammer. About a week later we had our first trial and everything went great. Even though we had never met before, we felt an immediate connection. During this tryout, we both discovered that we had similar dreams and ambitions for the sport of figure skating.
What do you enjoy most about dancing with a new partner?
What Summer loves most about Nicholas is his dedication to the sport and his work ethic. Nicholas has a positive attitude and is always willing to try new things.
Nicholas loved Summer, she was always willing to try again when things didn’t go right, and she would do whatever it took to achieve her dreams.
What experience did each of you bring to this collaboration? (International competitions, training, etc.)
Nicholas competed on the junior international circuit with his former partner for two years.
Summer spent a year playing doubles with her former partner on the national and international junior circuits. After his junior year, Summer played two seasons as a senior right.
What has been the biggest adjustment for each of you so far? partnership?
The biggest adjustment for both of us was figuring out each other’s routines during games and matching our energy levels during games. Overall, we just need to figure out what each other needs to be as successful as possible.
Tell us about your training website.
We train at the Mariposa Skate School with our lovely coaching staff, Mitch and David Islam, Kelly Johnson and James Callan. We skated at the Allendale Recreation Center in Barrie, Ontario, four hours a day, five days a week. We are also lucky to have an environment full of supportive training partners who help us get better.
Who is your coach?
Our coaches are Mitch Islam and David Islam, Kelly Johnson and James Callan, and after we worked together, Sa Summer moved to Barrie to train at the Mariposa School of Skating.
Who is programming your show. Did anyone else help you arrange the music? If so, please share these experiences.
Our rhythm dance was choreographed by Mitch Islam and Kelly Johnson, and our free dance was choreographed by Kaitlyn Weaver and Mitch Islam. When we found a rhythm dance theme for the season, “Grease” was the first choice and we were intrigued by the idea. We loved playing the characters of Sandra Dee and Danny and wanted to bring the film to the ice. Our free dance was to a piece of music from Sleeping at Last, which was very special to us because we told the story of both sides of love. The beginning is the cautious side of love, where you are afraid of losing your person, and the second part is built on the carefree side of being in love, where you don’t want to live without your person.
If you could take a class with an ice dancer from the past/present, who would you choose? Why?
Nicholas is interested in taking classes with Adrian Diaz. He seems to have an interesting perspective on how we can improve.
Summer will be taking classes with Madison Chock because she is so talented and has a unique show every season.
What are you most looking forward to this skating season? What is your biggest challenge?
We look forward to participating as a team in our first national championship. We also look forward to continuing to gain team experience and grow together as athletes and people. Our biggest challenge is adapting to this change in discipline and adapting to each other’s personalities.
Tell us about your first competition this year season?
Our first competition is Next Gen Camp this July. Initially we had difficulty figuring out how to compete together, but after the rhythm dance we were able to come back and perform a free dance that we were both happy with.
Please share anything you’d like our readers to know about your team?
We are the same age and go to the same school. We love the training environment at Mariposa Skate School, our teammates are very inspiring and we strive to inspire others around us.
