maya_alex

Fine-tuning: The Shibutani siblings went through a kind of boot camp recently when Corky Ballas of "Dancing with the Stars" fame visited the team in Canton from California to fine-tune their programs, particularly the siblings' Latin short dance.

"He freshened things up; he brought a whole new energy to our dance," Maia Shibutani said. Ballas told the Free Press by phone Friday from Houston: "I'm trying to push their boundaries a little bit so it doesn't look like everybody else's skating. I want them to look at each other as partners, not brother and sister. I've seen a visible change in them the last six months."