Over the past couple of years, former world ice dancing champion Shae-Lynn Bourne has discovered her strengths, the tools needed to help skaters succeed. Others have noticed.

This year, more than any other, skaters have flocked to Bourne for that special choreography that will get them to the Olympics, and for her secret weapon - her positive attitude.

It's worked. A week ago, unheralded Japanese skater Akiko Suzuki earned a spot on the Japanese Olympic team using a Bourne program. Reigning U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott will fight for an Olympic spot at his national championships in three weeks with a Bourne short program. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., are now suddenly in contention for one of only two Canadian Olympic spots for ice dancing at the upcoming Canadian championships, with Bourne as a coach/choreographer. And Andrew Poje and Tong Jian of China are among the favourites for an Olympic pairs medal with a Bourne free-skate routine (done in conjunction with another Canadian choreographer, David Wilson).

Bourne's workload has doubled in the past year, even though she's a relative rookie in the choreography business - and this is a season in which some become almost paranoid about their choices for an Olympic campaign.
But her career got a boost from her first real assignment as a choreographer: with five-time Canadian champion Joannie Rochette of Ile-Dupas, Que., who used a Bourne routine to win a world championships silver medal last March.

Bourne's first task with Rochette this year was to find her a short program that would set her apart from her competitors at the Olympics. Bourne, Rochette and coach Manon Perron decided Rochette should do something "character driven," like a tango.

"I don't think any of the other girls could pull it off as well as Joannie could," Bourne said. "You go with your strengths. I wanted to show just how beautiful she is and how sophisticated she is on the ice. She looks like a woman on the ice."

Over two months, Bourne said she listened to "a million" tangos, but it finally came down to three. Rochette couldn't choose. Nobody could. Finally, Bourne realized that they were up against Olympic pressure to be exceedingly special. Both she and Rochette were hobbled by the quest for perfection.

Let's just pick one, Bourne thought, and have fun. "If you're worried too much about being perfect, we're not going to enjoy this experience," she said.

From that day on, Bourne said, the process changed. "It can be overwhelming when you focus too much on the end result, or the Olympics," Bourne said. "You've got to be just in the moment, enjoying it, know that you're doing everything for it, and let it be."

Bourne had one of her favourite moments the very next day, when they created the footwork sequence. Her trick was to put Rochette in a tie, a hat and a long satin jacket, and do the footwork with all of the props on, knowing that a costume would help the skater get into character.

"She was amazing," Bourne said. "She wasn't even thinking about how it looked or if it was good enough."

Rochette has had some rocky moments since. She fumbled at Cup of China, finishing seventh in the short program, although she rebounded by finishing second in the free skate to win bronze overall.

She won Skate Canada, but not with a strong performance, lucky that everybody else was worse.

At the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo a month ago, Rochette faltered badly, finishing fifth of six skaters.

Bourne's first instinct was that the thought of the Olympics weighed on Rochette's mind too much.

"The stress you can put on yourself when you're striving to be perfect can be a scary place," Bourne said. "You can really do yourself in. It's all in the mind. The moment you think too much about being perfect, you're not going to enjoy anything you do. ...You lose sight of reality."

There's still plenty of time before the Olympics to turn things around, Bourne said. "It's easy to make a U-turn, if you want."

After seeing Rochette a week ago in Montreal, Bourne said she is not worried about the skater, although many are. She went to do touchups to Rochette's routines, a common practice for choreographers who want to remind skaters why they do a move, where they can push more, how to use their blades to do it, how to come out of a corner to do a jump and which direction to look as they skate. (Always look ahead, they say. If a skater looks back, it appears to be a lack of confidence.)

And then Bourne worked on something that went beyond physical details. She tried to provide energy to Rochette, to remind her that she skates for the joy of it, to increase her performance level. "That's where I can help," she said.

The first day together, Rochette and Bourne worked together on little technical issues. The second day, the work was "all about heart," Bourne said.

Bourne left feeling excited about Rochette's chances in the coming weeks. "You can tell a skater until you're blue in the face that they can do it, and that they're amazing and just to enjoy it, but it's easier to say than to do," Bourne said. The understanding has to come from within.

Rochette did understand that, Bourne said. "I can't wait to see her at nationals. I can't wait to see how she opens up to the world at the Olympics. I have a really good feeling about that for her.

"She's one of the best women in the world, no doubt. I think she knows that."