Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron explain their quirky ice dance choice

Ice dance duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are out to make the figure skating judges sit up at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Their rhythm dance routine will be based on a dance style known as waacking.

The style originated in underground gay clubs in 1970s Los Angeles, but became something of a social media craze on TikTok in recent times.

“It’s a dance style we’d never heard of and which we learned in a few months,” Cizeron told franceinfo.

“You have to make people see what they hear,” said Tyrone Proctor, the legendary 'Soul Train' dancer who was a pioneer of waacking the first time around, in an interview with the New York Times.

“You have to make people feel that emotion in the movement.”

The French combo, who star in the Olympic Channel Original series 'On Edge', will dance their routine to a John Legend song.

“We don’t know if we’ll be capable of getting to grips with this dance and mastering it,” said Cizeron.

The style does sound tricky.

And now for something completely different. For their free dance, the four-time world-champion ice dancers have chosen L’Elégie by classical French composer Gabriel Fauré.

“Looking at what has been done in different art forms in the world by talking to other people and looking at things online is something that’s part of our job,” said Papadakis.

The twosome, who have also won five European Championships, are missing only Olympic gold.

They missed the chance to measure up against their great rivals Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov at the 2022 European Figure Skating Championships in January due to Covid concerns.

But they have recorded the best score of the winter in the run up to Beijing 2022.

“We’ve been preparing little by little with higher and higher stakes in competition, mentally and physically,” said Cizeron.

“We have found a certain level of comfort as competition has gone on.”