Years ago, when the country's book market was engulfed by a boom in precocious detective stories and women's novels, a kind of guide appeared on the net for those who set out to become a successful writer.
I remember the author's statement that, in addition to a bright and exciting beginning, every eleventh page must necessarily contain either a murder or a brutal rape.
Otherwise, they say, the reader will inevitably lose interest in what is happening and will not finish reading the book to the end.
Ice dancing, if you think about it, is built on the same principle.
Especially when it comes to leaders.
If in the first 15-20 seconds of the program you failed to really attract attention to yourself, making the audience, if not gasp, then at least be surprised, if you don’t support this surprise with unexpected tricks during the program, it becomes secondary how deep the partners of the arc are and at what level the judges will evaluate their step sequence.
This is becoming especially relevant now, when high sports goals have very sharply faded into the background.
Russian dance duets in the current reality have suffered more than others.
Until the two strongest duets decided to skip the season (read - to start arranging a full-fledged family life), everything looked much more optimistic: in the face of world champions Victoria Sinitsina - Nikita Katsalapov and vice-champions of Europe Alexandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin in duets the second tier had top-class landmarks in front of their eyes, allowing them to grow and develop in a very tough rivalry.
Plus - there was a scandalous duo-irritant, who inexplicably soared in the rankings on the eve of the Games.
When the first two couples fell out of the competition, and Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin were forced to be locked up in the United States, all other Russian dancers found themselves in a vacuum: they got a situation in which the athletes,
Dance coaches found themselves in the same position, which is actually much more critical.
After all, no matter how successful and talented this or that mentor would be, sooner or later he begins to exploit the same ideas, images and techniques.
How did Davis-Smolkin hook the audience a year ago?
First of all, due to the fact that, thanks to long-term training in the USA with Igor Shpilband, they skated “in a Western way”.
That is, completely different than most Russian duets of their level.
Were they technically stronger than their competitors?
In my opinion, no.
But brighter and more advantageous in perception - of course.
I think that just for this reason, a year ago, Nikolai Morozov, Alexei Gorshkov, Alexander Svinin and Irina Zhuk had the idea to create a team in the image and likeness of the famous Montreal dance school.
But it turned out that Morozov settled in the United States for an indefinite period, signing a lucrative contract, and the beautiful idea died without really taking shape.
The performances of the dancers at the rentals at Megasport only confirmed all of the above: with a sufficiently good level of skating for the beginning of the season, with ideas and programs that really touched the soul, there was a clear shortage.
For single skaters and sports couples, in the foreground at all times were not performances, as such, but the quality of the elements.
Accordingly, a memorable program could become an additional, but not a defining bonus.
Forced isolation, if we talk about the leaders, hit primarily on sports motivation.
But it gave rise to the idea that cool, memorable programs with good technical content may well turn out to be a kind of contribution to their own future in the current realities.
Because various shows continue to exist, where there are always noticeably fewer places for skaters who have completed their careers than applicants for these places.
So it was at all times, and not only in Russia.
After the Games in Beijing, for example, the stars of the most prestigious Stars on Ice on the Japanese tour of the team were not Olympic champions Gabriela Papadakis - Guillaume Sizeron, but the Americans Madison Hubbel - Zachary Donoghue who lost to them.
The French, on the other hand, found themselves in a much less prestigious, to say the least, second-rate Holiday on Ice.
There is one more thing that cannot but require maximum creativity from athletes: thanks to Channel One, figure skating is now more and more moving into a television format, where “Ice Age.
It's time to ask the question: why in the project of Ilya Averbukh, with rare exceptions, there are no unsuccessful programs or costumes?
The answer is obvious: because this is a business in which in no case should the audience's interest and, accordingly, the ratings be reduced.
Having lost international starts, Russian figure skating has turned into exactly the same television product, devoid, moreover, of the main component of sports success - the result.
Perhaps this is precisely why the most exciting event of the season is already not the December Russian Championship, but the March show program tournament, which should show how things are with coaching ideas and creative directors.
If the prize for the best creative is given now, I would give it to Tamara Moskvina without hesitation.
The waltz short program of world champions Anastasia Mishina - Alexander Gallyamov recalled the story: in 1996, two-time Olympic champion Dick Button held one of his professional championships in Innsbruck, Austria.
In the category of couples, Moscow's Elena Bechke and Denis Petrov performed there, they were the last to skate, and when the “Viennese Waltz” struck the final chord of the entire tournament over the ice, the audience howled with delight.
There I also asked Moskvina what the choice was dictated by and whether she was afraid that the cult music of Strauss for the Austrians would be in that tournament for every second participant?
The coach honestly admitted that there were concerns about this.
But then she told herself that the Viennese waltz is such an obvious and somewhat banal choice that her rivals are unlikely to want to take risks: they will probably look for something more original.
In the end, it turned out that way: Bechke and Petrov’s waltz became the only one in Innsbruck, and most importantly, it brought victory to the skaters.
Shostakovich's waltz performed by Mishina and Gallyamov at first glance was not the most creative choice, but in fact it perfectly emphasized one of the pair's main trump cards - the incredible speed of skating.
There was more than enough creativity in the Elvis Presley free cut: in this regard, the production overshadowed even the absolutely magical Olympic free dance of Evgenia Tarasova - Vladimir Morozov.
The author of the brightest program of the first day, Mark Kondratyuk, fell three times in the free skate, made a butterfly and left the stage with the words "too many (falls) for a member of the Russian team."
But it was Kondratyuk who should be thanked for the fact that Russian men's skating has noticeably started.
All previous years, while Mikhail Kolyada was considered the leader of the national team, it was as if they did not have to compete with him for this position: everyone understood that, regardless of the results, there is Kolyada in the unspoken rating of the FFKKR and there are everyone else.
Kondratyuk's breakthrough into the number of participants in the Olympic team tournament came as a shock to many.
And it is unlikely that any of the current Russian single skaters did not ask themselves the question then: “Why him, and not me?”
So they rushed to catch up.
In productions, in jumps, in impudence of a move - in everything that can leave a mark on the audience's perception.
Perhaps, for the first time in recent years, men's skating really began to look no less interesting than women's.
The highlight of the Sunday program, however (especially after the removal of Alexandra Trusova was announced), was to be Kamila Valieva's new free program, dedicated to the drama experienced by the figure skater at the Olympic Games.
That is what she became.
Since the time of her Olympic performance, Camila has not lost a drop of her charm and, as Maxim Trankov very accurately noted after the performance, if the skating of this figure skater can leave someone indifferent, then the person simply has neither soul nor heart.
At the same time, the rental left a mixed feeling.
In any other country, the program would have every chance of being booed.
No matter how beautifully and sensually Kamila skated, it was difficult to get rid of the idea that there was a man on the ice who became, albeit through no fault of his own, the center of the biggest scandal of the Games.
And the pedaling of this topic, until the proceedings are completed and the Olympic medals are not received, looks too provocative from the side of the coaching staff.
Such a program would certainly be good, as a sort of parting chord of a career.
In this case, everything fits perfectly into a coherent dramatic plot: riding on an aortic rupture, and a hood, and tears.
If the production is made for the whole season and is accompanied by such a painful emotional return, as we observed in Megasport, it is just right to call it "hell that is always with you."
And once again, to sympathize with Camila, who continues to courageously drag her Olympic cargo alone.