Alicia Fabbri and Marko Jevgeni Gaidajenko are another new ice dance team who will represent Canada. The idea for them to skate together came from Marie-France Dubreuil, a coach at the Ice Academy of Montreal, where both Fabbri and Gaidajenko are based.
The school is also home to a large number of ice dance teams, a few of which split earlier this year, so they hosted a ‘mix-and-match’ day for the partnerless skaters.
“We had seven girls and five guys and we would do the exercise five times differently to try out with everybody,” Fabbri said. “We were switching partners every one minute,” Gaidajenko added. “It was the first time we had a tryout in this type of [space]. It worked pretty well with Alicia and we arranged a tryout at the end of the same week. Since then it was like ‘boom’, it works.”
Fabbri skated with Paul Ayer for 8 years, and announced their split in March 2026. “It wasn’t my decision [to split]. It kind of happened suddenly for me. I was hearing about it here and there from people at the rink, and then it got to me at some point,” she explained.
“It was pretty hard but I think we knew that the partnership was better off alone. We were two very different people, our communication was not the best, and working together was hard sometimes. I think at that time I was struggling just because I thought I wouldn’t find someone. I knew there were a lot of splits happening but there was nobody that I really saw myself skating with. I’m tall for an ice dancer so it’s hard to find a tall guy. For me, that was what was hard. I had kind of accepted the fact that maybe I wouldn’t compete this season and that I would take time to work on my own skating. But then [Marko] showed up!
“We’re two really similar people in the way we work and in the way we are generally. It makes understanding each other really easy and communicating is amazing so far. Of course, it’s new, but I think after all the experience we both had in [our] previous partnerships and restarting a new one, at this time in our life, I think I’m very grateful for that.”
Gaidajenko echoed Fabbri’s compliments about their partnership so far. “We’ve found this way of communicating, and we’re both trying to be adults and grown up. We’re trying to manage this supportive and very caring atmosphere between each other, so that really helps. Sometimes she sees me struggle, we all struggle, there are days when it’s harder than others, and then she’s just rock solid. It helps me out of this state and on the ice especially. I think that’s what really helps us maintain this healthy relationship on the ice.”
Gaidajenko previously competed for Estonia with Solène Mazingue and last competed in 2024. He remained in Montreal, looking for a partner. “I had a couple of tryouts here and there but nothing really worked. I had one in France and another in the U.S., I was still open for any other tryout but with Alicia everything worked so well, it was magical.”
For their programs this year, they worked with Dubreuil with help from Samuel Chouinard. The rhythm dance includes the Golden Waltz, and, not wanting to do a classical waltz, led them in the direction of a Billie Eilish medley. “We felt like adding some Hip-Hop into this season, because I’m sure there’ll be a lot of similar ideas throughout the season, just because there’s so many couples now.”
For their free dance, they’ll be skating to Caught Out In The Rain. “It’s a great free dance to show the connection that we have. We’re building a storyline around it and it’s been amazing. It’s super powerful,” Fabbri described.
As both partners hold different passports, there was an option for which country they could represent. Ultimately, they chose Canada.
“Estonia is very, very close to my heart and I really love my country. Skating for Estonia would mean a lot to me but skating for Canada is also something I wanted to experience because we have a good field of ice dancers in Canada right now,” Gaidajenko explained. “It’s going to be pushing us to get better, because the competition is very high. I feel like this sparks a fire inside of us even more.”
“For Estonia, there would be no one except us, we would be national champions straight away and there’d be open doors anywhere – which would be great, but at the same time I think it’s way more rewarding to achieve it for Canada.”
“Our plan is for 8 years and in 8 years, a lot can happen. We’re gonna try and show a better result every year and build something beautiful, not only for us but for the future of Canada. We wanna sustain this ice dance [field] and keep it competitive.”
The team will debut at Championnats québécois d’été in August. “Everything’s working amazingly. We want to show the potential that we have [there] and hopefully be able to compete internationally this season. Obviously, we would love to go to Worlds for Canada this year, so we’re gonna do everything we can on the ice,” Fabbri said.
