Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier Go for Gold in Netflix Doc Series

Canada’s captivating ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are heading back to the Olympics with eyes on making the podium. But before they hit the ice in Milan for the 2026 Winter Games, they’re giving fans a behind the scenes look at the sweat and dedication behind their sport in the Netflix series Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing. The documentary directed by Katie Walsh (Simone Biles Rising) follows Piper and Paul as they vie for Olympic gold alongside American competitors Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Both teams are looking at an open run for the podium after the three top duos retired following the previous Games.

But their plans get thrown for a loop when defending champion Guillaume Cizeron reneges on his retirement plans and entices Canadian ice dancer Laurence Fournier Beaudry to join him when her partner Nikolaj Sørensen gets slapped with a ban from competing after a 2012 sexual assault allegation surfaced last year. (The decision that has since been overturned.)

The new team coming into play during the lead-up to Milan Cortina means that all the skaters must perfect every dance move, master each rhythm, and leave no room for error among the highly subjective judging. For Pipe and Paul, though, letting the cameras go alongside them during this pivotal Olympic year was a chance to hone in on their craft as they walked the filmmakers through their stories and their routines.

“In an Olympic season, there’s so much more that gets put on your plate, not only with this docuseries, but just there’s so much more press and sponsorship opportunities and all of the buzz around the Olympics,” Poirier tells POV via Zoom. “One of the biggest challenges in Olympic season is finding the right balance of making the most of all the opportunities before you, but making sure that you’re taking care of yourself and taking care of your energy. But I think with this series, we were excited at the prospect of being able to share more about ourselves, share more about the process, and share more about our sport to teach people about ice dance and what makes it so special.”

Poirier says that juggling on-ice and on-camera duties made him mindful of energy reserves, but that the filmmakers were obviously respectful of their needs as athletes to give them space to train. (After all, a documentary wouldn’t be as interesting with stars running on empty.)

“I think especially with their experience working with Simone Biles before the last games, they were so understanding of the process and what it takes,” says Poirier. “It ended up not being a distraction at all, and we got really emotional when we had our last day of filming in Japan in December because it really felt like the end of something in a way. We’re really grateful for the entire team for taking such good care of us and taking such good care of our story.”

“Once we met them, we kind of knew what they were trying to capture,” adds Gilles. “They weren’t out for making a villain, whereas reality TV could go that direction, but they were just purists in the sense they really wanted to know who we were and share our stories.”

While Glitter & Gold finds narrative threads for their competitors in that Chock and Bates are married, while Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry are a strategic marriage, so to speak, Piper and Paul’s idiosyncratic nature shows how two distinct friends create harmony on the ice. “We very much know our differences. I am a go with the flow [person]. I don’t need a schedule. I don’t need someone to tell me how to be a character,” says Gilles, who says Paul’s a planner by comparison. “He can conceptually see something differently than I can. What he brings is now reflecting on me. The two of us just have blended together in one way, but we know our uniqueness and we know our differences. We value being different and how that can coexist and create something so natural and beautiful. That’s been the story of our entire career.”

Piper and Paul’s story especially fuels the third episode of the three-part series. Gilles opens up about watching her mother’s battle with brain cancer while she prepared for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang (her mom passed shortly afterwards in May 2018) and then experiencing a scare of her own when she was treated for ovarian cancer in 2023. In episode two, Poirier reflects upon providing positive representation for queer athletes in the sport as he and Piper rehearse their routine for the rhythm dance. For their routine, they choose RuPaul’s “Supermodel” as a nod to LGBTQ+ community and as a chance to let loose and have fun in their signature blend of classical technique and contemporary pizazz that sets them apart from their more traditionally-oriented competitors.

“We’ve really put a lot of work into small moments. With the rhythm dance, because it goes by so quickly and we have a lot of elements to accomplish, it’s pretty difficult to encapsulate the character that we’re trying to portray,” says Gilles. “We did a lot of work on one of the choreo steps in there that really embodies the sassiness of walking that runway and the movements between element and element, but it’s been a process.”

She adds that they’ve tweaked the opening to the routine, too, since that’s such a big hook for audiences. “We’re finally figuring out exactly how to skate this programme,” says Gilles. “And we needed to have criticism to take a step back and figure out what else we can do.”

“We finally had some time to really revise and upgrade the programmes after the Grand Prix,” adds Poirier. Episode three, which mostly focuses on Piper and Paul’s “Vincent (Starry Starry Night)” in the free dance, shows the disappointment that the teams face when bogus judging doesn’t give the skaters credit for the calibre of their work. (Netflix asked us to refrain from questions about judging.)

“The Grand Prix events are so close together and you don’t have a lot of time to make those refinements, so we were really glad after the Grand Prix final to have the opportunity to review the programmes and make some changes—some that we had been planning for a few months since the start of the Grand Prix series, and it was really nice to go to nationals and have two very successful skates with both programmes,” says Poirier. “It gave us a lot of confidence and it really showed us that we’re moving the programmes in the right direction.”

Glitter & Gold doesn’t show the “Supermodel” routine in full, whereas Madison and Evan and Guillaume and Laurence find a heated rivalry in episode two as their dance-offs fuel the dramatic arc. However, recent performances of the routine since filming wrapped show that Piper and Paul’s work with the RuPaul number won’t see them sashay away in Milan. They really nailed it with a recent triumph at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

Watching the recent performance on the heels of the Netflix series, one can see how they’ve continued to refine the routine. For example, Glitter & Gold observes as the teams find the right costuming to accentuate the routine. They escape the skirt drama that thwarts Madison and Evan, but also throws a twist in one of the Grand Prix standings. In the series, Piper and Paul hew closely to a family resemblance challenge with matching(ish) white outfits, but their nationals’ performance showcased Paul in a sequined black costume to contrast with Piper’s white outfit. The yin and yang effect helps “Supermodel” click.

Poirier notes that costume designer Bobby Ackbarali suggested a black outfit, but that he put the idea on the back burner until they were doing fine-tuning after the Grand Prix. “When we got back from the Grand Prix final, Piper really wanted to create a freer energy for the programme in a lot of ways and suggested we go to something that’s a little bit more contrasting and complementary instead of matching with the two costumes,” says Poirier. “It was a really positive change that gave us a freer and more open energy for the programme. It really brings a positive energy.”

As Piper and Paul get ready to channel that positive energy into some Canadian pride on the ice, they’re savouring the moment and celebrating their sport regardless of whether that glitter translates to gold. “We’ve had the privilege of doing two Olympic Games before this, so we understand what an incredible and unique experience and opportunity it is,” says Poirier. “There’s just so much positive energy around these games and we want to take that with us when we go into what will be a high pressure environment, but an environment that will be full of joy.”

“Everybody has a chance to cheer for someone new and be inspired,” agrees Gilles. “We’re just thrilled to kind of be a part of that energy and atmosphere and be inspired by the athletes in the village because I love listening to people’s stories.”

Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing premieres on Netflix on Feb. 1.

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