A big interview with choreographer Viсtor Adoniev (you could see Viсtor
in K&C supporting Anya Pogorilaya at the WC-2017)
Here is a Google translation under my editorship. My notes are, as always, in square brackets
"Tutberidze did not charge me money for training and gave me clothes»
The famous coach and choreographer Viktor Adoniev started his career in figure skating in the group of Eteri Tutberidze, when she just returned from the United States and recruited her first students in Moscow. Then the mentor helped him start coaching career at Khrustalny, and in may of this year Adoniev made a passionate appeal in support of her after Alexandra Trusova's transfer. In an interview with "Gazeta.ru" the expert debunked the myths about Tutberidze's character and principles, told about their joint work with Yulia Lipnitskaya and Evgenia Medvedeva, explained why Eteri asked Anna Shcherbakova to leave and how he helped the figure skater return to Khrustalny, and also told about his collaboration with Anna Pogorila, for whom he went to the world Championships at his own expense.
Q: You said that you came to figure skating only at the age of 11.
Yes, I learned to skate in October, when I was still 10, but on December 1 I turned 11.
Q: Why is it so late?
I really wanted to be a singer. I had an amazing voice, I performed at concerts, I was considered the best child in my district, and wanted to go to Gnessin [State Musical College]. But my parents didn't want a singer in the family. They said it wasn't a real profession.
..And then it happened by accident. My mother came to talk to a friend who worked in CSKA — she was in charge of a children's group. She said, "Let your child go to the skating rink, so that he will not be bored waiting for you" That's how it all started. I liked it so much that I said: "That's it, I want to skate!»
I was warned that it was very late and nothing really would work, but I'm a stubborn guy. I started training at CSKA, but not in a group. No one enrolled me there, because I was already considered very old (laughs). But because my mother knew someone there, she let me go out on the ice. And then I moved to the "Silver" skating rink.
Q: And Eteri Tutberidze worked there?
She came to us about a year after I came. She had just returned from America.
Q: Why did you decide to join her group? Her coaching potential was already visible then?
Of course! It was immediately clear that no one worked like her. Eteri Georgievna was very stubborn, so her group began to develop quickly, new children constantly came… When a person really works — it's immediately visible. She's still like this — a terrific perfectionist. Meticulously applies to everything, to every detail, looks at what many do not pay any attention to.
Q: What was it like to train in Tutberidze's group at that time - before the fame and excellent conditions of "Khrystalny"?
To be honest, the conditions were not really good at that time, because the entire rink was given over to hockey groups. We had only one ice training session a day — either 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes. So we did a looo-ot of work in the gym. General physical training (GPT), cross-country for 2.5 hours…
There was not enough ice, so we could not catch up with the leading groups, who had it for 2 hours 2 times a day — at CSKA, at the "Stadium of young pioneers", in "Moskvich»… And 1 hour on the ice is not training, especially when you work with young children. With adults, this is another matter, even 1.5 hours a day is enough, if you already have good skills. And with the little ones, you have to do a lot of work.
Now things are much better with "skate up" [slang for semi-systematic personal training, "skate up" it's like tutoring vs school] — there are a million rinks. And in those days it was very difficult. God willing, 2-3 times a week for an hour you will find — even this was happy.
Q: What progress have you made in the Tutberidze group?
At Eteri Georgievna's, it was impossible not to learn jump. With her great desire and the way she made you work… You can't fool her.
She always feels when a person is completely devoted to their work. For 2.5 years, I learned quite a lot — I jumped all double, double axel, and learned to triple jump. At that time, it was good, especially for a beginner with 1 hour of ice per day.
And in the gym, I have already jumped all the triples and even the Quad. But to make a jump in the gym is not the same as on the ice. In the gym, you can quickly develop sharpness, jump high, be quick, but on the ice I did not succeed, because there was no skating base, which is being developed for years. If you feel ice, your body starts working in a completely different way.
Q: You said that at that time you sometimes did not have enough money.
To be honest, yes. I come from a very poor family, and we often didn't pay Eteri Georgievna money. She didn't even take it — she knew our situation. And I wasn't the only one. She even dressed me.
Q: Paid for costumes for competitions?
No, just Eteri Georgievna gave me clothes — very cool, branded. It seems that someone from abroad brought them from relatives. It may be second-hand, but I was happy to wear this second-hand. It was hard to get something like that back then.
And then they tell me that she's a some kind of monster-coach, a despot. Yes, she is quite a hard person to work with, but I think this is the right thing to do. I myself have become the same. If something doesn't work out for children, I make them. I scream, I can even give you a little slap on the head. This is absolutely normal if you want to achieve results. And if your coach is always patting you on the head, what will happen to you?
In ordinary life, Eteri is quite different. This is the person you can always call. Even when I went dancing, she was with me all the time. She moved me from group to group, found me partners, and took care of me all the time. She was like an older sister to me.
Q: Did you switch to dancing from Tutberidze's group?
She transferred me. It didn't work out for me in single skating, because my knees hurt terribly because I started training late. In the transition age, the knees could not withstand the loads.
However, I denied it: "No, no dancing, only jumping!» I was crazy about jumps. But Eteri answered (Victor imitates a stern voice): "You're a beautiful guy! Go to the dance! You will skate" I: "No, Eteri Georgievna, I don't want to skate with partner! Not everything will depend on me." She: "You will go! You look like a guy from an intelligent family. You will skate!» (laughs).
She herself took me to Odintsovo, went with me. And she was always with me. If you have any problems with your partner, you need to solve something - she helped. So let them not tell tales that allegedly Eteri needs only money in life. What the hell? She, by the way, then arranged all her students somewhere. All of them! Even from my group. And arranged for them to work as a coach, and she gave to do "skate up" so that you can earn. No one talks about it at all.
I want to gather everyone and say to their faces: are you guys completely sick or what? Why am I the only one talking about this? Is it difficult for you to admit it? And she dressed not only me. And she didn’t take money not only from me, because it was a pretty difficult time back then. Not everyone had the financial means at that time.
Q: Figure skating was a very expensive sport even then?
Of course, not as much as it is now. There hasn't been so many "skate up" yet, but there hasn't been such a result. Look at how everyone has grown up now in skating and jumping. The demands are crazy, and the competition is super-crazy. Without individual training, you will not be able to grow to this state — it is simply impossible. Now success is taken by quantity, hours of work. And, of course, you will pay for it if you want to win for your child.
I also want to say that figure skating has become much younger. At the age of 15, athletes are already becoming, roughly speaking, millionaires, well-known media personalities. When was this? Unless it's Tara Lipinski or Michelle Kwan in America. This has never even happened in our country.
Q: What is the reason for this rejuvenation?
The reason is that the body of adults can not stand to perform such jumps. It's simple.
Q: How do you feel about this?
I believe that this is even better, because children then have a chance to go to a good сollege, get a profession. Many options! I honestly would have chosen this path for myself. By the age of 18, you have finished with sports, earned everything you can, earned money, and now you can invest it in your education. You are already a famous athlete, you won everything — I'm talking about Alina Zagitova. But I think that Alyona Kostornaya and Anna Shcherbakova will achieve the same.
They can really afford a different life, and not skate to retirement — up to 40 years, earning money on the show. In my opinion, this is not interesting, and you have to develop.
Q: Going back to your career: in ice dancing, after some time, you started skate for Kazakhstan. How did this happen?
Honestly, it was stupidity in the highest degree! I wanted to skate for Russia, but at that moment I really wanted to be at the Olympics, that's all. Just because of that.
About the partner, the Kazakh Fed pretty seriously lied to me. It turned out that she was badly injured and could not skate. She came three times a week for a 40-minute skate on one leg. You know this isn't serious, right? And I was a well-bred boy, so I wasn't looking for another partner. My dad kept yelling to me: "Vitya, look for a partner, why are you waiting? You're a boy!" [men's dance partners are valuable in Russia - there are not as many of them as girls] I told: "Dad, I can't do this." Although in fact, I could have skated until now, and there would be good results.
Q: As a result, you left the sport.
I'm tired of all this, to be honest. This happened after the 2011 Asian games, which were held in Astana and Almaty [new and old capitals of Kazakhstan], and I just skate for Kazakhstan. Our couple was in good shape at the time — we finally trained properly for three months. I thought that we would show ourselves well, and in the first training session we skate really good, the judges liked us very much... And then I got sick.
It was huge! I had bilateral pneumonia. And then the greatest horror of my life began. The temperature was 40 degrees, they put me in an infectious disease hospital, they gave me antibiotics, I lost seven kilos in three days — my suit hung on me like on a hanger. And I was forced to perform. Exactly this word - "forced". I was not asked "Can you skate or you are withdrawing?", they told me: "You must perform, Vitya"
Doctors warned that I should not skate, "He may not stand it. Especially with a partner - he has no strength! We will not discharge him from the hospital." But in the end, everything was arranged so that I still performed. I remember - it was a nightmare. We had a very bad skate. I didn't know how to get there at all. In the morning training session, we didn't do any elements, no lifts — I was just suffocating. I'd take a step and start coughing like hell. But I still went out on the ice.
In the RD, we fell at the end, because I had no strength left at all: I lifted my partner in support, and we fell on the ice. I barely got up. We didn't finish the free program so badly, but... also I was forced to perform EX later. Although I started having complications and coughed non-stop, it was very scary. My parents were shocked when they found out that I had bilateral pneumonia and I was competing in competitions. It's like now to imagine that someone with a coronavirus and complications will go on the ice. Everyone will say: "Are you crazy? He's going to die!"
None of the coaches in Kazakhstan even called me and asked how I was doing, although they all knew what state I was in. Do you know how offensive that is? Yes, my partner called me later, but, for example, her father, who was our manager, didn't even tell my parents when I went to the hospital. I believe that this is just a matter of jurisdiction! You can't do that. And after that, I decided to quit sports. However, I really wanted to skate more — which is probably why I became a coach.
Q: After you recovered your health and finally decided to switch to coaching, what did you do first?
I called Eteri Georgievna.
Good start.
Well yes. She said: "Come to me, I will see how you can work." Me: "Eteri Georgievna, I have no experience at all." She: "It's nothing, you are still a dancer, you will teach how to slide". I honestly thought she wouldn't take me. But she did. Vazgen Azroyan was working for her then, but for some reason he left quite quickly, and she hired me. It was in 2012.
Q: What were you entrusted to do in the group at first?
Everything, from the very beginning. I watched the athletes, taught absolutely everyone how to slide, immediately began to go with the skaters to competitions, made programs together with Eteri Georgievna. I came to choreography classes and watched the students practice, conducted a warm-up and cool-down. The only exception is that I didn't work with jumps. I worked with guys [just in case, in Russia this word is unisex] of all ages. I started work at 10 am and left at 10 pm.
Q: Then the group was smaller?
Yes, but there were still a lot of children.
Q: Who, besides you, then worked in the coaching staff?
Sergey Dudakov and Eteri.
Q: Just the three of you? And managed to keep track of everyone?
Of course! By the way, I was told that now coaches do not go on the ice — only in exceptional cases. But then we went out on the ice all and always. We stayed behind the board only when guys perform their program — every evening training. They warmed up for six minutes and showed the program one at a time — it was mandatory. The rest of the time we were on the ice, too.
I practically lived on skates — I came to Khrystalny by 6 am, because I also had individual classes with young children from other groups.
Q: You are also worked at the Khrystalny as a choreographer. What programs did you make during that period?
We did everything together with Eteri Georgievna. When they say that a particular choreographer created a particular program, this is not true, believe me. In this group, everything is maked together. And Danya Gleichengauz now works the same way — they, along with Eteri Georgievna decide how that will be. And we did the same.
The only thing: it was my idea to take the music with which Zhenya Medvedeva for the first time became a world champion (the famous program "I hear/I don't hear" — "Gazeta.Ru"). I watched the movie "W.E."(2011), I really liked the soundtrack, so I put it together and made a piece [Victor use word "fragment", i chose "piece"] for the performance. Everyone was delighted. As a result, this music was used for Medvedeva's free program in the 2015/16 season.
At the same time, this piece was originally intended for Lipnitskaya, and we even made a program. It was really cool, it's a pity that people didn't see it, cuz Yulia, in the end, didn't want to. But I would even say that this program was better than Schindler's List.
Wow…
Yes, the program was better.
Q: You told that during your time at Khrustalny you instilled in Lipnitskaya a love of second grade (PCS). It turns out that initially she was more focused on technic?
Julia hated sliding. Absolutely! It was very hard to her to slide and skate program.
By the way, when I myself performed in the dance, I was always irritated by one thing: why do we skate the same thing, why can't we doing different steps? And when I started training, I set a goal: to bring something new every day. If you don't do this, the students will think every time they train: "Groundhog day, goddamn, when will it end?"
I wanted the students ' eyes to light up in class. And we were always skating something new — new steps, new combinations. Everyone was interested, and everyone loved to skate. Before me, there was no such sliding system in Khrustalny — previously, everyone was given the same steps. And I started to develop this direction, adding body work and so on, of course, when the child already knew all the steps and understood what he was doing.
Q: What did you work on with Evgenia Medvedeva during that period?
We worked on programs, sliding, and went to competitions together. She was not so famous then, but I generally believe that working with a child and teaching them something is always harder than working with an established athlete who can easily implement what you ask.
Zhenya is unique to me. She always worked so hard... She didn't need to be forced, and I didn't even have time to tell her what to do, cuz she was already going and doing it. She's a workaholic of workaholics. There are only a few like Medvedeva.
I was really upset that she had left Etery. Terribly upset. I think Tutberidze did everything for her, everything that is possible! And I'm one hundred percent sure that Zhen'ka would have jumped quad if she had stayed. I don't know why she left, but this is their relationship.
Q: Do you keep in touch with your former students?
Yes, absolutely. However, it is rarely possible to meet. I also really want — honestly, I really want! — to visit Eteri, but something is not happened still. I'm even still afraid of her. I used to respect her as a coach and be a little afraid of her — so I continue (laughs). But I want to come and talk about a lot of things. Not even about work. I miss her as a family member. We both have hard lives. And her mom and dad passed away, and I lost my mom and grandma. It was very difficult. We are similar in this respect.
Q: In may of this year, you wrote a long post in support of Tutberidze when she was in the US. You wrote that she is waiting for a flight back and that Russia is everything to her. Then it seemed that you actively maintain contact with her and are aware of many events in her life.
We sometimes correspond: I send something, she responds. But rarely. So I can't say that we communicate all the time. I just knew about it. I don't use unverified information and I will never lie about anything. I knew that she flew to the United States to visit her daughter, and I think that she did absolutely the right thing.
Q: At the same time, you said thank you to choreographer Alexey Zheleznyakov for the "lesson of gratitude". Did you mean that the student should leave the group nicely?
Sure. That's what I can't understand at all. Zhen'ka Medvedeva — how could she leave and say nothing to the coach? I don't know the details and I don't want to know what happened there, but... this is your coach from childhood! Well, you bring a car of flowers! You can't leave like this. Whether it's hard for you or not, come and put a nice point so that you don't get discussed or judged later.
Q: And when you left Tutberidze for dancing, did you arrange some kind of farewell?
So we never said goodbye, that's the thing (laughs). I didn't want to leave. After that, we were friends, we were in touch all the time, and my sister and mother were very close to Eteri. I went away from dance training and came to Khrustalny, said on the phone: "Eteri Georgievna, I can't, let me jump." And she said, "well, come here." Even then I started composing music, and she put it to her athletes. I was always very pleased.
Q: Why did you leave Tutberidze's group for the second time as a coach?
I would not have left, but I had to do it in October 2014, because my mother was very ill. If all was well, I think we would still be working together with Eteri Georgievna.
Q: And then you decided not to come back?
Well, why? There Dan'ka Gleichenhaus works. They became popular. I'm a very proud man. If I go back now, people will say: "He found everything ready-made" And I'm not the one who "found everything ready-made". I've done a lot of things at the Khrustalniy.
Eteri Georgievna's group used to have problems with the second grade, although technically all the children were at a good level. And we started increasing the components. I told Eteri that you need to slide a lot, to skate — then everything will be different. So I brought something of my own…
Now look at the result. And beautiful jumps, and wonderful spins, and fantastic programs. Eteri Georgievna saw the result, she liked it, and she began to strongly develop the slide.
Q: In the spring, Sergey Rozanov left the group, and the position of coach of young skaters became vacant. Do you think they've already found a replacement?
Yes, of course they did. I should have just come right away, that's all. But I don't want to do that. I'm afraid of being judged. We now have very violent people who write such comments! I am always envious of what Canadians, Europeans, and Americans write about their skaters... They are all the best for them! And our people will find something nasty and will bring it out until it reaches its apogee. But why? They are athletes, they achieve medals for our country. And many of them are still children. Write them nice things to make their life pleasant, not to make them afraid of the whole world!
Q: Did you face any pressure yourself when you worked with the national team skaters?
I almost never leave comments. I don't want to be visible, I don't like it. Besides, I'm a terribly impressionable person. I know that Eteri Georgievna is too. I'm sure she reads every comment and worries about everything.
I now try to stay away from social networks, because I know that I will read everything. I remember that under my post someone wrote two nasty comments, and about Plushenko. I didn't understand what he was doing here, I didn't write anything about him (Viktor says about an Instagram post dedicated to Tutberidze's return from the US. - "Gazeta.Ru") Well, Trusova went to Plushenko — that's her business. I didn't touch this situation in any way. She can leave, but you just need to thank the coach, because it was Eteri who taught her everything that she went to Eugene with. I believe that it was Tutberidze who discovered the talent in Trusova.
Q: A talent for quads?
Sasha is different in that she is fearless. I've done a couple of training sessions with her, and I can tell that she's not afraid of anything at all. And, of course, Sasha moved figure skating forward, but without Eteri Georgievna, no one would have done this. I think so. Tutberidze never stops at anything, nothing is impossible for her.
Q: Did you study with Trusova when she was still training in Anna Tsareva's group before coming to Tutberidze?
Yes, that's right.
Q: And in those days they didn't even think about quads?
No, of course not. This all came only in the Eteri group.
Q: After leaving the Tutberidze group, you started working with Anna Tsareva's team at the same rink?
Yes. I had already "skate up" her students before, only very small ones, because Eteri Georgievna always said that you should not study with competitors, and I understood this perfectly well. And then, when I already left Eteri, I began to work there more. At the same time, I was not enrolled in the Tsareva group, but just helped in addition, because I spent a lot of time with my mother. I had to earn money to pay for her treatment.
Nevertheless, you became one of the key people in the group and even accompanied Anna Pogorilaya to the world Cup
Yes, Anya said then: "I feel safe when Victor is around." I know how to calm down at competitions, because I'm a positive person and an athlete can't help but feel it. In addition, at that time in Tsareva's team I coached a boy from Belarus — Pasha Ignatenko, and I was lucky: I was accredited by Belarus team for the world Cup in Boston.
So I went to the world Cup, for my own money, by the way. Then many were outraged: "Why was Adoniev at the world Cup?". There should be one coach per student. But I paid for everything myself. However, before the start, I was not allowed to sit with Anya in kiss-and-cry… It was awful.
But she had a great skate there, took the bronze and, in my opinion, should have taken second place. Ashley Wagner did not perform very well in the free program and could not get around Anya in any way. But it was in America, so that's understandable.
Q: When did you end up being allowed to sit with her in kiss-and-cry?
After she had already taken third place.
Q: Apart from the fact that you helped Pogorila at tournaments, what did your cooperation consist of?
We did a lot of work with the programs. Although her choreographer was officially listed as Nikolai Morozov, but I had to practically redo the programs, because they were very empty. He made good step sequences, but everything else seemed to be missing - transitions were missing, hands were missing at all. As a result, we changed a lot of things, and I was even offended that Viktor Adoniev was not listed anywhere in the choreographers.
By the way, there was a cool program that was made by Misha Ge. He did the tango and everything was fine. I didn't touch anything there at all.
I also made all Pogorila's EX. For example, before the 2018/19 season, we created the program "Frida" for her gala show. And then they decided to turn this number into FP. The program was very interesting, and it's a pity that Pogorilaya finished her career, and people never saw her.
I am now just as committed to working with my current students. Of course, these are not famous athletes, because I left the national team and do not want to work there yet. I feel better this way. In the national team a huge responsibility, no freedom, no personal life. You must study with your students from morning to night. Of course, this is favourite work and it's great, but there must be something else in life besides sports. But then it was a great time, of course.
Q: What kind of guys are you working with now?
I have a small group, recently gathered. There is a second coach. I don't recruit a lot of people, because now it's easier to work on intensive courses and training courses.
In addition, I try not to poach children in any case. We have many big fans of doing this. I don't understand it. I feel great when I take difficult children and make them very worthy skaters. It feels amazing. In my opinion, the coach should start with this and be able to make a skater of an ordinary child, not a talented one. Make it from scratch. If a specialist is capable of this, then for me it is an indicator of a good coach. And many take ready-made ones...
By the way, I do not understand why they write this nonsense about Eteri Georgievna — that she also allegedly takes only ready-made ones. Yes, good children go to her, because they understand perfectly well that if you want to become a champion, you have to go to Eteri. But where did she start? Do you think we were all talented in her group? No, of course not. She also accepted all the children, because she had to work with someone.
Q: If we return to the topic of poaching, why do you think this is a frequent phenomenon in figure skating?
Every child is what? This is money. More children — more money.
I'm of the opinion that if the child wants to, he can transfer, but first of all he needs to talk with coach, so I don't get made out to be the bad guy, as if I was poaching a skater.
So I will never poach. Imagine: some coach entrusted me with his student, so I made a program, engaged in sliding, and then I steal his student. I just can't sleep after that!
Q: Is your current group a private business? Are you not attached to some school?
Yes, this is a private business. If I will go to school to work, then only to Eteri Georgievna. Only at this level.
Q: How difficult is it to organize your business in the field of figure skating?
This is really difficult. No, of course, you can recruit a million young children and set up a great business pyramid, but I don't really want that and I don't think it's the right thing to do.
I don't have unique students, but I know what I can give to children. All of them are still good skate, perform great programs and this is noted by others. I generally like to work with young children. I'm always friends with them. I seem to be such an angry, meticulous coach, perfectionist, but they love me. I get off the ice and joke with everyone.
I even have students living in my apartment now so that they don't have to spend money on renting an apartment. They came from Vladivostok to study [Vladivostok is the farthest major city in the country from Moscow. it is located on the Pacific ocean, 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles) from Moscow]. The whole apartment has already been destroyed (laughs). We play video games with them and dance all the time. I'm used to this: I had to raise two nephews from childhood, when they were 2-3 months old. I came from the skating rink and sat with them, because my sister had to work.
Q: How many students live in your apartment?
Three. There are two more to come. I honestly don't even get tired of it. I feel great. It's time for me to have my own children, but I still don't have time.
Russian figure skaters very quickly began to recover after jumping out on the ice. Anna Shcherbakova jumped triple Lutz + triple toe loop after a week of training, Alexandra Trusova — quadruple Lutz, and Dmitry Aliyev made a quadruple toe loop on the first day.
Do you believe that Aliev jumped quad on the first day?
He posted a video.
Maybe they started skating earlier. If so, they couldn't have told you that, right? I can believe that Shcherbakova was able to perform three + three in a week. But to jump the quad on the first day... if he did it, he is good. But on the other hand, it's still stupid. God forbid you get injured at the very beginning of training. It is better to jump at the competition.
It used to seem that it was physically impossible to remember ice jumps so quickly. All they were worried about was learning to skate again. But in the end, everything is very good
You know, I see a lot of this in social networks now. And it really pisses me off when someone goes out on the ice and posts a video about how the girls remembered triples on the first day, when in fact they have been skating for six weeks. And then they explain: "Well, we can't say that we skated during the quarantine." Why would people lie? To make a beautiful ad for yourself? I despise it.
We have a lot of people on Instagram who are very good at selling themselves and making great videos, but sometimes it seems that people just don't have anything to do. They can spend all day posting something about how they conduct lessons. If a person really wants to train, they just don't have time to do it. I won't pick up my phone and start filming my workout. Why would I do that? I'm so involved in my work that I don't even think about it. And when a coach constantly puts out some videos, he is, of course, well done, good business leads, but this is not training. This is purely making money.
Q: Let's say that Yevgeny Plushenko often posts content from training sessions. This may indicate that he does not spend much time studying?
No, well, he has people there who take pictures. He can afford it. But Yevgeny, as I understand it, was also often absent from classes last season — there were a huge number of shows. I hope that now that Sashka Trusova has passed to him, he will have less of a show and everything else. And with this pandemic, the show is not expected in the near future. I pray that the competition will at least be returned to us. And I think Yevgeny will be in training a lot now. Seryozha Rozanov will be there now, and he is a competent coach. So everything should be fine.
You wrote in social networks that now many people have problems with programs, because everyone is only interested in the number of turns.
Honestly, there aren't many interesting programs. Everyone began to focus on technic, chasing multi-turn. This is clear, try to catch up with the guys with quads - there is no beautiful program will not help. And before there were a lot of interesting programs, everything somehow looked brighter. Although, maybe I looked with different eyes then.
But this season, for example, I like Kostornaya's programs. For me, Alyona is a goddess on ice, charming. I also like Anya Shcherbakova's programs. I used to work with her a lot — when Tutberidze asked her to leave the group. I also left at that moment, and Anya and I worked together a lot.
Wow… I've never heard of this fact.
I don't think that anyone will be surprised that we then collaborated with Anya. We worked together with Artemiy Punin, he was engaged with her jumps. Shcherbakova learned the triples under his guidance, and not with anyone else. Punin, by the way, is also a pupil of Tutberidze.
So he did the jumps, and I did the programs and gliding with Anya. It was after this that Eteri Georgievna again took Shcherbakova to her group. This is a normal situation, because Eteri is already a great coach. She's telling everyone now: "Good girl, you come with all the triples — I'll take her." Her track record is already so solid, everyone wants her, so there's no other way.
Q: What could Anna do before leaving the group?
She jumped double and double Axel, but there were serious mistakes and no one wanted to deal with it. The coaches then had someone to work with, and there was no point in wasting time on Anya.
Q: And in what group did Shcherbakova study before returning to Tutberidze?
Not in any group. Her parents paid for private lessons, that's all.
Q: At the "Khrustalniy" skating rink?
No. We studied with her on the ice rinks in " Snow.com" and in Kommunarka. This was in 2014-2015. And at the end of that season, in 2015, Anya came to Tutberidze with all the triples. She was taken immediately. And now we see the result.
Shcherbakova is insanely emotional and she has turned out successful programs this season. And I didn't like everything else except Kostornaya. Everything else was pretty weak.
As a choreographer, I am interested in watching beautiful programs. I still want figure skating to remain figure skating, and the girls will not lose this. They can jump better than boys, and when you look at boys, they can already skate like girls.
Everyone breaks themselves out, everyone has a stretch mark that never happened. And the girls jump and jump and jump! You look at it and think: "Well, something has somehow changed everything with us."
And in Volkov's words in last year.
hm... you toss in serious words on many person.. if you want to defend your "saint". I wonder why the Russians like to judge so serioulsy except their favorites? No, I don't find Volkov unethical because he most of the time works quietly. I believe your "saint" was more unethical when she had bad words on Medvedeva,Tsurskaya, Lipnistkaya........and so on. Your bias makes your words questionable.
