George and Gladys Wilson brought up their family, young David and much older siblings Norman and Kathy, in Nobleton, a small town north of Toronto at the crossroads of Hwy 27 and King Rd. Their home was in a small subdivision about a mile outside of town on a dead-end street where big houses on big properties looked out over vast stretches of farm country.

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David and his pals could wander over acres of vacant fields where his Dad built dirt bike and snowmobile trails. “We had a blast out there,” David recalls. “I had a dirt bike when I was 7 years old … but what I really wanted was a pony!”

The pony idea was a non-starter.

With his cousin Robyn, who also lived on the same street, the adventures were endless. “We felt a little like the kids from ‘Our Gang’”.

Getting started in skating wasn’t intentional. “Like many small towns with an ice rink and a skating club, there was an ice show at the end of the season,” David remembers, although why the family went to see it, he can’t recall. He was 5. “Maybe Kathy had a friend skating in it … or maybe we went because there wasn’t much else to do that day.”

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Whatever the reason, fate was sitting on David’s shoulder. “I was so excited after seeing the show, I knew I wanted to do that!” His parents signed him up for lessons the next season.

“I remember my first day. It wasn’t at all what I expected.” His eyes were focused on the sea of kids. “I wasn’t used to that!” He mistakenly thought it would be like the ice show … spotlights and costumes … not big crowds all on the ice at the same time.

Eventually David caught on. Group lessons and the resulting challenges to learn things smartly and well saw him advance through all the badge tests in one year. “I remember being bored in my group so I’d wander off, going from group lesson to group lesson. As I mastered the next detail or movement, I couldn’t understand what was taking everyone else so long.”

With every small technical success, he’d proudly show the moves off to his Mom who was thrilled to see his progress. David grins, “I think I was probably over-loved as a child.”

Much of that feeling came from a tragedy when David was 6. Both Norman and Kathy had already moved out when Kathy suddenly passed away from an aneurism. “My parents survived that loss by pouring all their love into me.”

Skating was good therapy.

It wasn’t long before David’s parents were approached by the club coach requesting a meeting. “I thought I was in serious trouble for not paying attention,” admits David. But instead the coach explained he felt David had talent … and recommended private lessons.

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George was not impressed. According to him, David should have been playing hockey … but as usual Gladys stepped in to smooth the way. “She wasn’t going to let this go,” says David, “so of course I got the private lessons.” And it wasn’t long before his Dad did a ‘180’, gave up on hockey and became President of the Nobleton SC … for 7 years!

Looking back, David felt neither his Mom nor his Dad became the stereotypical skating parent, but ironically, it was his Dad who became the most involved in David’s skating path. “My Dad really made an effort to learn about the sport. He would edit all my music … and even mount my blades.”

David always felt his parents’ unwavering support, although their methods for showing it were often dramatically different. “If we were at a competition,” says David, “my boisterous and scrappy Dad would be a bundle of nerves pacing up and down while my Mom sat in the seats quietly knitting and talking to her friends.” David laughs, “They were a lot like Lady and the Tramp.”

David’s progress on the ice was fast, joyful and exciting but off the ice things were very different. Back then life in a small town for a young male figure skater was not easy.
“I suffered from a lot of bullying,” David remembers. “With my bit of skating success, my picture was often in the local paper. I was also very shy and a little chubby, all the ingredients that made me a target. And later, as a young gay person, I was humiliated every day, actions that almost destroyed my confidence and self-esteem.”

By the time he was 15, David and his family made the move to Toronto. It was there that David remembers feeling like it was an opportunity to live a new life. “At the Toronto Cricket Club, I felt like I was in some kind of witness protection program. Everyone accepted and encouraged me. I finally had friends … and it was then I found the courage to be me.”

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Training alongside some of the world’s greatest competitors, however, David soon realized he didn’t have their athleticism or the grit required to excel at the highest level. “I was good enough to be accomplished, got my gold figure and gold freeskate, but I didn’t have the competitive spirit.”
It was when he joined Ice Capades that he discovered a natural ability to perform. With the same loving and supportive environment in the show as he experienced in Toronto, David’s creativity blossomed. Working with some of the world’s most celebrated choreographers like Sarah Kawahara, it was the perfect laboratory to ignite and discover his own choreographic talent.

Fast forward.

Leaving the show after 5 years, David and his life partner, Jean-Pierre Boulais, moved to the Montreal area to begin coaching, starting out small and gradually doing choreography for their own students and for other skating friends. As time passed, their work was getting noticed. Yet when David was asked to choreograph a program for a senior lady, his ‘not-enough-ness’ started to rear its ugly head.

Behind the scenes, Jean-Pierre was his biggest supporter and encouraged him in ways that helped David live up to the challenge. “JP suggested I pretend I could do it … but it felt like I had Imposter Syndrome. Then he reminded me about all my previous work, all my time in Capades, and the amazingly creative people I worked with. So I just ploughed through it.”

While David loved teaching and solving technical problems, taking a more serious step into choreography made him confront those personal demons. “I always saw myself as a little nobody who felt there were so many other skaters more worthy of those assignments.”

He knew his ‘why me?’ was getting in his way. “That was when I finally realized I actually had my own ideas.”
After his Dad died and his partnership with Jean-Pierre ended, David eventually moved back to Toronto, a time when he really began searching for his own identity.

Income was slim at first. “Initially my choreographic work provided enough to pay my rent,” David remembers, “but as word spread and people started liking the impact of my creations, my schedule and responsibilities really started to expand.”

It was a turning point.

What eventually followed in David’s celebrated career were opportunities which took him around the world to work with skaters who became National, World and Olympic Champions, many of whom claim it was David’s creativity that made them successful.

Sebastien Britten, Josee Chouinard, Midori Ito, Brian Orser, Jeff Buttle, Javier Fernandez, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Patrick Chan, Joannie Rochette, Qing Pang and Jian Tong, Yuna Kim … the list goes on … all benefitted from his choreographic genius.

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Today, David’s motivation is as strong as ever.

Sometimes he suggests a piece of music, other times the skater chooses. “It’s not so much about the end result in competition, although that is certainly important,” he says. “It’s the making of that end product which I cherish the most, how I hear the music and the journey I experience with the skater getting into the emotion or story we want to portray.”