Skate America: Ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White relish rise and U.S. performance

For 13 years, Meryl Davis and Charlie White have been evolving toward elusive ice dancing perfection.

Sunday at the Rose Garden, the Olympic silver medalists will try to nudge a little closer in the final session of Skate America.

After blowing away the competition at their first International Skating Union Grand Prix Series appearance, Davis and White have spent the intervening three weeks tweaking the free dance tango that they will perform Sunday.

In Nagoya, Japan (Oct. 22-24), they won the competition by a whopping 23 points. But their tango left some spectators a little flat. It lacked passion.

That meant some slight retooling. They changed the placement of a diagonal step sequence and split a combination lift into two separate lifts.

But more significantly, it meant flying in renowned dancers Daniela Pucci and Luis Bianchi for a crash course in tango style and attitude.

"They made such an incredible difference in how we were approaching the tango," Davis said. "They got us to feel exactly what we're portraying and how to relate to one another."

For Pucci, the tutorial amounted to a real-life episode of dancing with the stars. Davis and White are the new faces of U.S. figure skating, the duo that usurped Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto as the nation's premier ice dancers.

"Meryl and Charlie were very easy to work with," Pucci wrote in an e-mail. "They are extremely professional, talented, open-minded and humble. ... We worked with them on how to build their tango characters."

Davis and White worked on mastering their expressions as well as an assortment of classic tango movements in order to bring more authenticity to their routine.

"It's meant to look like we landed in a club in Buenos Aires," Davis said.

For all of his many years as an ice dancer, former hockey player Charlie White admits that the tango required a little extra effort and thought. It's why he has cultivated a little bit of blond stubble on his chin and wears a costume designed to showcase his few chest hairs.

"I can't just be a kid and try to portray a guy who's trying to be sexy and tango-ey," the mop-topped White said.

Davis and White, both 23-year-old University of Michigan students, have been dancing together since 1997 and their chemistry together has been cultivated by years of hard work.

They rocketed to a new level of stardom at the Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., last February when they performed to near-perfection. Training partners Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, who share ice and coaching with them in Canton, Mich., fed off a partisan crowd and narrowly won the gold medal.

A month later, Virtue and Moir won again at the World Championships in Torino, Italy, in a battle that was even closer -- just 1.40 points separated gold from silver (224.43 to 223.03). The bronze medal pair was a distant 26 points back.

This fall, the Olympic and world champions are on the sidelines. Virtue underwent surgery for compartment syndrome in October to relieve pressure in her calf muscles.

That leaves Davis and White without peer during the ISU Grand Prix Series.

But it doesn't mean they're relaxing. Virtue and Moir could resurface as soon as the Four Continents Championships (Feb. 15-20) or the World Championships (March 21-27).

Sunday's tango represents the next step on a long journey.

They handle their post-Olympics recognition and fame with the same poise and ease they perform with. They remain approachable and comfortable despite their elevation to skating royalty.

"We weren't exactly stars when we came home," White said. "We didn't have paparazzi chasing us around. But we got recognized more around town and had a few more opportunities to go to different events."

The duo, who grew up and remain based in the Detroit suburbs, will ride in the city's Thanksgiving Day parade.

More importantly, the end of the Olympics and World Championships allowed a little time to figure out what to do next.

"Basically, it was transitioning back to real life," White said. "After three years of preparation (for the Olympics), it was getting our feet back on the ground."

Now, Davis and White are back in the swing of things, competing for a place in the Grand Prix Final, Dec. 9-12 in Beijing.

Portland represents their first chance to compete in front of a U.S. audience since January -- and first since the Olympic Games.

"As a team, I think our relationship with the crowd changes year to year based on where we are," Davis said after Friday morning's practice. "It's a little different coming in as silver medalists, but we've always felt a lot of support from American crowds."

-- Doug Binder, Special to The Oregonian