IRVINE, California — The allure of figure skating, what captivates millions who wouldn’t know Axel Paulsen from Ulrich Salchow, why it transcends the Olympic Games every four years, is its ability to tell a story. More than any other sport, there is a cinematic quality to skating. It even comes with a soundtrack. “That’s what makes skating unique to, let’s say, hockey, or something that’s based on a clock,” said Shae-Lynn Bourne, a former world champion ice dancer for Canada and now one of the sport’s top choreographers. “We get to express. So it’s kind of our athletic art.” Ilia Malinin, figure skating’s current box office sensation, first emerged earlier this decade as the sport’s next...
