- You worked in the coaching staff of Angelica Krylova, but since the summer, you have completely focused on the project of Ilya Averbukh "Ice Age". Does this mean that your work in sports has ceased in principle?
- No.
We continue to work with Angela, I just really asked for a vacation for a while.
The project took a lot of time, attention and nerves.
You come to the skating rink in the morning, the whole day there is a rotation of pairs, setting programs, working off.
And so on until late at night.
We have delivered more than a hundred programs.
Sometimes I returned home in an unconscious state.
It was simply impossible to combine this with any other work.
- Is “Ice Age” for you a great creative interest or, above all, earnings?
“It's not about money at all.
As Averbukh likes to say, we are all his team.
And, of course, when he organizes or proposes something, almost everyone takes it a priority.
Still, Ilya is the person who, to a certain extent, made us life after sports.
He did not allow the abyss, he constantly gives work, and very interesting.
But even when we had a big demonstration tour, I found time to work with athletes in between shows.
First I came to Sasha Zhulin, this summer I helped Angela quite actively, since all our performances were canceled due to the pandemic.
- Krylova, like you yourself, is a very creative person. Working with her side by side, do you feel the difference between the women's view of figure skating and the men's?
- I drilled my partners to a greater extent - I never knew how to close my eyes to their jambs.
In dancing, the role of a partner is incredibly great, he must be a stable basis, a technical leader.
Relatively speaking, a girl should feel behind him, like a stone wall.
As we were told at one time: the partner is a crystal vase, the partner is the mare lifter.
If a man is unsteady, then a woman will not do a damn thing either in supports or in skating.
- I'll try to be an opponent and remember the Olympic champion of Salt Lake City Marina Anisina. Personally, I have always had the feeling that she is carrying the male function together with Gwendal Peizerat.
- I would say that Anisina was just brighter.
Redhead, her eyes are burning.
Another question is that Marina taught her partner a lot: when they paired up with Peyser, Gwendal absolutely did not match her in terms of skating level.
But he pulled himself up very sharply and quickly.
He did a lot of work while remaining in the shadows.
After all, it was he who always led the pair.
And let Marina be bright.
- What is the phenomenon of another French couple - Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron?
- When they won their first season, I was not exactly impressed with their free program, but I really liked it.
There was some incredible fusion, cantilence, as Tatyana Tarasova likes to say.
But then I looked carefully at all the positions, steps, and realized that there was nothing there.
When Papadakis / Sizeron appeared and began to win, if you remember, they were constantly compared to Tessa Vertiu / Scott Moir (three-time Olympic champions
- RT
).
So, I want to say that the Canadians would have skated any program of the French no worse with a minimum amount of training.
But what Vertiu / Moir did on the ice, Papadakis / Sizeron will never be able to repeat in their lives.
- Are you talking about the complexity of the elements?
- Rather, about the transitions between these elements.
What is called transitions in figure skating.
Papadakis is a cool skater who can merge with her partner like a chameleon.
But it is she who constantly adjusts to him, it is she who carries him throughout the dance, like that very crystal vase.
In other words, he does everything he can to ensure that Guillaume can show his best qualities.
The partner is busy exclusively with demonstrating himself.
And the French skate, if we think globally, the same program.
Just to different music.
This is a little strange for me.
- Don't you think that now there is no need to come up with something original in terms of performances? Bundles of elements that bring the maximum number of points have long been known; in single skating, people perform the same steps from year to year, changing only music and costumes.
- Such a tendency is also seen in dancing.
- But you don't like her?
- The point is different.
You can catch a certain wave and ride it for five or six years, as the same Papadakis / Sizeron do.
But you can skate like that if you represent France, Russia or Canada.
Albena (Denkova
- RT
) and I still skated for Bulgaria.
And if they did the same thing for six years, they would bore everyone in a year and would forever remain outsiders.
Therefore, I had to surprise every time.
Look for and come up with new supports, interesting choreography, memorable steps.
In dancing, for example, there is a step that Christopher Dean first demonstrated.
An absolutely elementary step, from the category of cross-country ones.
But, now, I remember, I caught my eye - and everyone now knows: this is Dean's step.
You need to constantly think about how to bribe the viewer, to interest him.
If you are the same from year to year, you will quickly get bored.
And to the judges too.
- If you could influence the adoption of some changes in the rules, what would you change in dances first?
- I would stop bothering people in support so much.
The things that the dancers did before were really interesting.
Both in terms of ideas and positions.
Now there is a continuous acrobatic clowning from the series "hijack a car in 60 seconds."
I didn't have time to take my partner to one position, but immediately turned it over to another, to the third.
They twist the girls over their heads, through their legs, through their arms.
Like in a circus.
And, to be honest, no one can surprise anyone with this.
- And figure skating is slowly turning into a show with given elements?
- The fact of the matter is that the show itself disappears.
Because the task of stupidly passing the program and making all the elements cleanly comes to the fore.
Roughly speaking, many have given up on choreography and production.
Even in the selection of music.
“Let's take Carmen?
Yes, this "Carmen" has already been rolled a billion times, well, take something else!
Or put on a production, as Vertiu / Moir did in their time, so that everyone remembers it, so that everyone gasps.
- It turns out that your sport is becoming obsolete, running into a dead end?
- As Igor Talkov sang: “Enemies sigh with relief, and friends say:“ Tired ”.
Both are mistaken - this is a halt. "
We'll see.
But I think figure skating will never get rid of itself.
It's just that everything comes in waves.
Then there is no one to look at at all, and then suddenly a whole pack of brilliant athletes appears who do things on the ice that even we do not always understand how it can be done at all.
Or maybe now is just such a period when the athlete does not have time to open up.
Look, for example, at Sasha Enbert - what a splendid partner he has become within the framework of Glacier.
He plays everything out great, learns some new elements that are not peculiar to him.
And she studies very diligently.
Why was it not revealed in sports like that?
After all, he had a cool partner there.
The same Katya Bobrova, during her participation in the project, also began to perceive a lot of things in a different way.
In skating, in choreography, in contact with the one with whom you skate.
Yes, and Dima Solovyov only now seems to have realized what it means to control a girl.
Because on a project you really have to follow every movement.
- You are talking about the project, and I catch myself feeling that now it is much more interesting for you than sports.
- Let me explain why.
When you work with athletes, they sometimes have to endlessly repeat elementary things: do not look down, do not lift their shoulders, sit on their feet.
You repeat this, like a fool, for a month, you persuade, swear, try to force, although you should not, and you cannot get rid of the feeling that your words do not cause any emotions in people.
In our project, we have adults, accomplished people who do not seem to need anything.
And suddenly it turns out what is needed.
You make comments - they look in your mouth, catch every word and try to fulfill something.
This difference is annoying, of course.
- Now a lot of copies are breaking in figure skating about the age of the skaters and the question of whether an athlete should strive for a long career at all, if you can win something and immediately go to the show.
- On the one hand, of course, it is better to leave the sport at the peak, as a winner.
But if you became a winner at the age of 15, leaving is very disappointing.
You just understand much later what exactly you have lost.
Look at the same Zhenya Medvedeva.
It can be seen that she did not roll.
She just started a conscious life in figure skating, and it is clear that she wants more.
Ride in sports, cook in it, adrenaline, compete.
This is the main thrill.
Albena and I still miss the competition very much.
We are missing this adrenaline.
- People who work in the field of show periodically have the idea to hold something more athletic, as the two-time Olympic champion Dick Button held his professional championships for 25 years.
- Averbukh also held a professional tournament, in which many of us skated.
He even invited Stephane Lambiel to his place to compete with Alexei Yagudin.
In my opinion, it was a fairly high quality experience.
It's just that now it's difficult to talk about any prospects in this regard.
Everyone lives from start to start, they are constantly waiting, they will cancel the performances, they will not cancel.
But personally, I would like to participate in such competitions.
Show that there is still gunpowder in the flasks.
- A short blitz in relation to the current season: Yuzuru Hanyu or Nathan Chen?
- Let both be.
I definitely don't want to choose on this issue.
Let both progress, compete, jump, and let the judges compare them to each other.
And we will look at it from the outside and have fun.
- Trusova or Valieva?
- I do not know.
Girls, like all singles, have the same principle: they jumped off all their jumps - the program is a masterpiece, brilliant.
Fell somewhere - the program is no good.
Although, in my opinion, all current single women are approximately the same.
The one who jumps more and better will win.
- Eteri Tutberidze or Alexey Mishin?
- These are different figures.
As one of the journalists said at one time, comparing Mishin and Tarasova, if Aleksey Nikolaevich is an excellent cook, then Tatyana Anatolyevna is a wonderful waiter.
It's the same here: Tutberidze is not a person who puts athletes on jumps.
But she is a great leader.
Albeit peculiar.
- What exactly?
- In your approach to the process.
She's tough, sometimes too tough.
In Europe, perhaps, it would not have been accepted at all.
But it gives results.
All her girls are constantly striving for victory and winning.
For example, I respect Tutberidze very much - precisely as an organizer.
It is very important when a person can find ice, choreographers, specialists who can stage jumps, unite with a single goal ...
- Do you think Evgeni Plushenko is capable of becoming a specialist of this level?
- According to its potential - quite.
It can be seen that he really wants this.
Zhenya has always been a very hard-working, hard-working guy.
When he has a desire to achieve something, he achieves.
Therefore, if he wants to become a specialist of this level, he will become one.
The main thing is not to be disturbed.
Plus, Plushenko worked with Mishin for many years.
Knows how the process is built, how to stage jumps.
It seems to me that he will succeed.
Why not?