Derek Hough, Ice-Dancing Choreographer

We are obviously partial to any Olympic sport with “dance” in its name—which means we’re always eager to watch ice dancing.

First of all, ice dancers are beautiful movers and performers, which, yay. And despite the extreme difficulty of what they do, the fact that they don’t have to include any oh-my-god-please-don’t-die throws and jumps makes watching them simply enjoyable, rather than nerve racking. In an Olympic field stocked with sports that continually have us on the edge of our seats, it’s nice to watch something that might actually be good for our blood pressure.

During the skating team competition earlier this week, awesome American ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White showed off a short program set to music from My Fair Lady. We realized, about halfway through it, that we were loving the easy, graceful flow of the choreography almost as much as the dynamic duo’s brilliant performance—we were watching it the way we’d watch a dance onstage.

Well, now that all makes sense: It turns out the routine was choreographed by none other than Derek Hough. How cool is that? Apparently Davis and White contacted him through their friend Kristi Yamaguchi, the Olympic gold medal-winning ice skater who also won season 6 of “Dancing with the Stars” with Hough’s buddy Mark Ballas.

Davis and White will perform Hough’s My Fair Lady routine again (as part of the regular, non-team ice dancing competition) this Sunday—tune into NBC at 7 pm to see them in action. For a sneak peek, here they are competing the same number earlier this year at the US National Championships.

We’re not sure how you wish ice dancers good luck, so, just to be safe: Merde! Break a leg! Skate the pants off this thing!