Daft punk continues to affect the world in ways one would least expect.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, a renowned US ice dance team, brought the influence of the most popular electronic music robots to the world's oldest Olympic sport. The two created a breathtaking routine structured around a medley of daft punk tracks like "Contact", "Touch" and "Within" from Random Access Memories.
The routine was performed at the Free Dance Finlandia 2021 tournament, where Chock and Bates smoothly slipped into second place. While they may not have gotten away with the top honors, Chock and Bates have received rave reviews online from figure skating fans for their risk taking: "I can't remember anything like it with so many nuances of this type of music." a fan said about her routine.
"We pride ourselves on taking a risk and doing something that may be unconventional," said Bates. "I don't think people expected us to do a sci-fi space program for an Olympic year, but we were confident we could do it."
In the two-man freestyle, participants create their routines by mixing dance and rhythm-based movements with a range of technical skills. Couples must perform a series of parallel moves (tricks that are performed separately but synchronously) along with moves performed at the same time. The tandem piece of the routine includes various classifications of lifts, spins and jumps where one partner supports the other.
Chock and Bates' careers include two Olympic appearances and medals at two world skating championships.
