Welcome to IDC’s New Team Series! For this series, we interview athletes who entered the 2025-26 season in a new partnership, or debuted last season. In this interview, we meet Anna Mackenzie & Wesley Lockwood, junior ice dancers who represent Sweden and started skating together in 2024.

So far this season, Mackenzie & Lockwood have finished 16th at Junior Grand Prix Ankara and 12th at Junior Grand Prix Baku. 

Tell us about your individual skating journeys, including any early special memories.

Anna Mackenzie (AM): I started my skating journey at a very early age. My mom was a skating coach that worked at my home club. She still does. She put me on the ice when I was 1 or 2 years old. I started in free skating and started ice dancing at age 9. I realized that I had more fun in ice dance and officially left behind my free skate journey at age 12 to focus more on ice dance. An early memory that I am fond of is when I was little I used to compete with my brother’s old black skates and at competitions they would have a picture of me on display doing a Y-stand in my black skates on the photography booth.

Wesley Lockwood (WL): I started skating when I was 2 and a half, my Mom was my coach growing up and I originally got into skating to make my hockey skills better, but then I decided along the way that It was not for me and I continued in figure skating. A special memory of mine was for an ice show when I was 5. I was the cartoon character called Peter Puck, it was a lot of fun until I fell down then I could not get back up. My costume was made out of 2 child wading pools and went past my knees and elbows made by my Dad.

What drew you to ice dance?

AM: At first, I never really thought about doing ice dance. I had always just done free skating. I remember when my coach came to me with one of the guys from my rink and told me I was going to try skating together with him. I ended up liking it a lot so I continued

WL: I originally had a crush on this girl that my Mom was working with and I knew of ice dance and knew that I was actually stronger in that area of my skating more than freeskate. I thought what better way to get to know somebody so I asked my Mom then I asked her if she wanted to do that too which she said yes.

Tell us how your partnership started. Describe the tryout.

AM: Our partnership started with my partner leaving and I had a year off, we were both on partner search and looking for partners. We knew each other from before so we connected and tried out and it worked out quite well and it just went from there.

WL: Our partnership originally started out by actually knowing each other, Anna’s partner was injured due to a freeskate injury and I filled in for him at a training camp so she could keep training. Once I learned that the partner left her and she was looking for another partner, I thought I should ask her mother and older brother as I had been friends with him for over a decade at the time because we competed dance and freeskate against each other for many years. Adding onto this, once we started dancing together, we never looked back.

What do you like most about dancing with your new partner?

AM: I like that he is very determined and works really hard. He listens to things I have to say and is always kind.

WL: She allows me to be myself and we kind of play off each other and just be 2 kids out there trying to have fun and work hard and quoting Anna “look professional”.

What experiences do each of you bring to the partnership? 

AM: I have a bit more experience in the dance aspect due to being a dance major at an arts school. Wesley brings a lot of strength to our team, he’s a very strong person and we can do a lot of lifts because of it.

WL: My partner definitely brings more of the classical dance and ballet background to the team and more of the overall dance knowledge, I believe I bring more of the ballroom and leadership required to allow her to be her best.

What has been the biggest adjustment for each of you so far in the partnership?

AM: I think the biggest adjustment for us was the distance that my partner had to travel at the very start of our partnership. It was a long way for him to travel and was hard for him to keep going back and forth between home and the rink.

WL: Our difference in age and difference in lifestyles. Adding onto this, moving away from home to skate here at Ice Dance Elite in Scarborough, Ontario.

Tell us about your training site. 

WL: It is a public facility located in Scarborough, Ontario called the Centennial arena, we specifically train on the Ice Galaxy which is an ice pad that is Olympic size but has no boards which allow us to hop on and off quickly to allow more teams to train. We train for between 2-4 hours a day on ice with 3 times a week having an off ice class being either strength, ballet or ballroom. We go outside to the gym individually at our own times.

Who are your coaches?  

WL: Our coaches are Carol and Jon Lane with Juris Razgulajevs.

Who choreographed your programs? Is someone else arranging your music? 

WL: Our programs were choreographed by our coaches Carol and Juris, but we do have professionals for our final music editing after the fork and knife cuts.

If you could have a lesson with any ice dancer past/present, who would it be? Why?

AM: If I could have a lesson with any ice dancer I’d probably want to have one with Paul Poirier, we skate with him at our rink. He’s really fun and such a nice person to talk to, he is also very skilled and has beautiful lines and edges.

WL: Andrew Poje because he skated very traditional and was overall a very good role model.

What is each of you looking forward to most this skating season? What will be your biggest challenge(s)?

AM: I think our biggest challenge and goal is to improve our turns and edge quality. I am really looking forward to going to international competitions and seeing new places that I will probably never see again.

WL: I think our biggest goal is to bring up our skating skills to improve outside of our technical elements and I am looking forward to trying to qualify for Junior Worlds and representing Skate Sweden.

Please share anything you would like our readers to know about you as a team.

WL: We are very fortunate to be representing Skate Sweden internationally and to represent Anna’s heritage, nothing makes a competitor feel better then to know you have not only a great organization behind you but a nation. We would also love to get to know anyone that wants to get into ice dancing and if anyone has questions, please don’t be a stranger.

You can follow Anna and Wesley’s progress this season by visiting their team Instagram page @annawesley_icedance.