This season, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito is branching out for her programs.
Previously, her coach, Yulia Kuznetsova, would suggest the music and choreograph the programs for Levito, 19, who grew up in Mount Holly and lives in Mount Laurel.
For the 2026-27 season, Levito announced on social media that three choreographers had created her programs. Her short program will be to the song “Memória” by Rosalia, choreographed by Lori Nichol and Carolina Kostner. Levito went to Canada to learn that program.
Her free skate will be to the soundtrack from Pirates of the Caribbean, choreographed by Benoit Richaud.
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Skaters used to keep programs strictly under wraps until their first competitions in late summer or early fall. Sometimes, their final costumes wouldn’t be ready yet and they would skate in older costumes or elevated practice clothes.
But now program announcements are more like movie trailers, getting fans eager to see what’s coming. This has been especially true after the Olympics this past winter in Milan, Italy. Many skaters have retired — or in the case of pairs and ice dance, switched partners. Some talked about taking a year off. A small number of skaters, including Levito, toured in prominent shows such as Stars on Ice.
But it was a big transition season and a time when many people forget about winter sports.
Levito has said that she’s barely been home in months. Along with the tour and Canada, she returned to Italy to participate in Richaud’s Peak Ice Camp in Courmayeur.
She also may start the season without her final costumes. Despite releasing a video on Instagram that includes a thumbnail of her in a pirate costume, that is not what she will be wearing. In an interview on Peak Ice Camp’s YouTube page, she said she called costume designer Lisa McKinnon to discuss her new programs and that it would be a minute before they could move forward.
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“Benoit proposed the idea of pants” for Pirates, Levito said, “and I was like, ‘No.’”
She also suggested she might start the season later than usual because she still needs to heal from an injury she sustained in a bad fall during Stars on Ice.
Levito released a portion of her free skate step sequence on Instagram, and her programs are the subject of much speculation on social media. She is known as an elegant, balletic skater with beautiful spins and a lot of personality.
Pirates of the Caribbean music is considered overdone. There is a long list of skaters who performed to Pirates, including 2008 U.S. champion Mirai Nagasu, Spain’s Javier Fernandez (a two-time World champion and 2018 Olympic bronze medalist), eight-time Polish champion Ekaterina Kurakova.
But certain pieces of music are used frequently in skating for a reason. In the case of Pirates, it is lively and fun. Richaud also is a popular choreographer for a reason, and there is room for him to have made Levito’s Pirates different and special.
Richaud, a French former ice dancer, is one of the hot choreographers of the moment. At February’s Olympics, he worked with 16 skaters from 13 countries and was frequently seen with them in the kiss and cry, wearing jackets from different countries. His skaters included American ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, French skater Adam Siao Him Fa, and Georgian skater Nika Egadze.
Nichol, who is Canadian, also has been a hot choreographer. She created many fan-favorite programs for Michelle Kwan and more recently two-time Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama. She works often with Kostner, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist from Italy.
Levito has said that she wants to increase her difficulty and is eager to eventually land a triple axel and a quadruple jump, whether or not she does them in competition.
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