there are organizations responsible for the direction and development of ice dance as the sport that should act to neutralize cumulation of power.
This is figure skating, though. Tons of issues need addressing, but there's no strong, visionary, courageous or responsible leadership in this sport. It is a sport largely run economically and administratively by a completely different sport. Many fans shrug about this reality as if it doesn't significantly and detrimentally impact the overall health of figure skating in many ways.
Nothing is going to change unless and until skaters, coaches, and fans rise up together with one voice to demand beneficial change for the sport of figure skating.
An issue such as you describe re IAM seemingly dominating the ice dance discipline is not something that can be easily changed in any case. IAM has a right to operate an academy with a unique approach to coaching ice dance in ways that have succeeded beyond the founders' wildest dreams.
If other coaches and training centers see IAM as a serious problem, then they all have a right to say something about it and to offer solutions to remedying what has been seen to be an imbalance. However, the main solution, IMO, is for other camps to offer strong alternatives. Then, the market [i.e., supply and demand] eventually self-corrects. In pairs, Dmitry Savin has had a great deal of success and many skaters and federations ask him for consultation advice. Nina Mozer was once hugely popular as a pairs coach and adviser. She still, apparently, offers assistance in the U.S. Bruno Marcotte used to have significant reputational popularity as a good technical coach. Julie Marcotte used to be prized as a creative pairs choreographer. She has since moved on to coaching with a reduced choreo roster. She's not as popular as she once was with pairs teams looking for a choreographer. The current trend seemingly is to secure choreographers who are former ice dancers. And alas, we come back full circle to IAM Montreal, where a number of pairs teams have received wonderful, stand-out choreo.
IAM Ontario staff are also known to be excellent choreographers, coaches and overall astute 'packagers' of ice dance teams in need of help. They have also done stand-out choreo for pairs teams...
Why aggressively break up and kneecap a training center that has benefited the growth and popularity of ice dance, due to jealousy of their success? Everything eventually shifts anyway. We should all be careful what we wish would happen to others.
As for skaters having free will - yes they do, but do they really have options? They see what's going on, I truly don't think they can leave this zone of influence with an hopeful, optimistic vision. And I can't think of a success story with such a plot.
In figure skating, skaters historically have not had say or huge control over their decisionmaking and career trajectories. They have been taught to accept their fate, e.g., not to question judging outcomes, etc. Skaters do need to be able to have access to making their own career choices and to having more and better competitive opportunities. Alysa Liu, Ashley Wagner, Adam Rippon, Amber Glenn, and ultimately even Mirai Nagasu (to name a few skaters), changed their career trajectories by taking charge when they faced challenges from federation, parents, and/ or incompatible coaching situations, etc.
Lauriault/ Le Gac have been successful via moving to the Ontario branch of IAM. Soucisse/ Firus had to make a choice when they were at IAM Montreal, because they had reached a career plateau. Thus, it was a good thing for them when they moved to Carol Lane, and then went through the difficult process of switching from Canada to rep Ireland. After the long fight to switch countries, they were able to extend their ice dance career. Sometimes, a coaching center may not be a good fit or may no longer serve a team's situation (whether it's IAM or any other center). Plus, IAM does not accept every team that desires to be trained there.
Like others have said, I really thought that they were poised for a breakthrough season next year, to finally realize their potential, after a few less-than-ideal years. They are so talented, and the golden waltz would have been an excellent dance for them. Ugh. I was already taken aback by Kelly-Ann and Loucas' break-up, but this one really blew me away. Hopefully something positive will come out of all these break-ups, like some new, even better pairings. Fingers crossed!
