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Grand Prix Final qualifiers Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch will attempt to medal at Skate America for the second year in a row. (Getty Images)

By Skate Canada

(10/17/2011) - The Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series begins this week in Ontario, Calif., with six Canadian skaters competing at Skate America. The event will run from Oct. 21-23 and is the first of six Grand Prix stops. There will be competitions in all four disciplines, but Canada will only compete in pairs and ice dancing.

In pairs, Kirsten Moore-Towers, 19, St. Catharines, Ontario, and Dylan Moscovitch 27, Waterloo, Ontario, will compete once again at Skate America. They won silver last year at this event and added another silver medal at Skate Canada International, concluding the series with a sixth-place finish at the Grand Prix Final.Moore-Towers and Moscovitch train with Kris Wirtz and Kristy Wirtz in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

Alexandra Paul, 20, Barrie, Ontario, and Mitchell Islam, 21, Barrie, Ontario, are one of two Canadian ice dancing teams at the event. They just missed the podium at Skate Canada International last year, placing fourth. Paul and Islam also won bronze at the 2011 Canadian Figure Skating Championships. They train in Barrie, Ontario, with coaches David Islam, Tyler Myles, Pavol Porac and Kelly Johnson.

Ice dancers Kharis Ralph, 19, Toronto, Ontario, and Asher Hill, 20, Pickering, Ontario, will be competing at their second international competition of the season, having already won a bronze at Nebelhorn Trophy. Last year on the Grand Prix circuit, they placed seventh at the Cup of China and sixth at Trophée Eric Bompard. The duo trains out of the Scarboro FSC and are coached by Carol Lane and Juris Razgulajevs.