Andrei Mozalev

[Mariott]

A small interview after open skating

- What's your mood before the season? How prepared are you?

- Preparation is going well, everything is more or less according to plan. It's great that we have such an event to test ourselves before the rides. We haven't skated in public for a long time, the whole summer, so it was a bit unusual. I felt the adrenaline, like in competitions.

- This is your first full training in Eteri Tutberidze's coaching staff. What do you think about your form?

- I feel good. I am almost 100% ready.

- Can you compare the pre-season with the previous coaching staff? Is it tougher here?

- It's not tougher, it's just a different preparation. It's not much harder here, it's just organized differently.

- How should the season go for you to be satisfied with it?

- Top three everywhere, at every competition. Then I will get pleasure and emotions,” Mozalev told Match TV.

 

[Mariott]

Hi everyone! Well, Andrei finally completed the transfer, spent the first low season with a new team and got new programs. Both programs are very beautiful, they emphasize, even hypertrophically exaggerate Andrei's positive qualities: plasticity, musicality, excellent gliding.

Let's finally put his previous story to rest and summarize the results of his cooperation with the previous team, which lasted 12 years.

I promised to make a rating of the programs produced for Andrei Mozalev by the Davydenko-Lunin-Koscheev tandem. After I started looking at this rating, I found out that there are some amazing programs that have become Andrei's calling card, and some worthy of attention, but not that interesting. That's why I decided to do a short review on 6 programs from 5-10 lines of the rating and talk in detail about the top 4, which are really above the level of the rest.

Please note, I took only programs staged by this trio without guest choreographers. For this reason, “Red Hand” will not be included in the rating, although it would certainly be on the first place. But this is Averbukh's program. Cause I want to understand what positive fruits Andrei's cooperation with Davydenko's team has brought.

I'll post the rankings this week before the test skates begin. Stay tuned for more updates!

Unrated #10 #9 #8 #7 #6 #5 #4 #3 #2 #1

 

[Mariott]

Let's start with my short review, so positions 10 through 5 of my ranking very briefly.

Unrated
2015-2016 FS "That Awful Strange Music"

Music: Peter Gabriel - The Man Who Loved the Earth / The Hand That Sold Shadows
Image: A child of nature, perhaps

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The first program that Andrei received in his transition from novice to junior level.
To some extent, it was Andrei's calling card as a novice skater: strange music (very often), some philosophical idea (almost always), a program as if for an adult skater (always). At the same time, there is non-standard choreography and marvelous mastery of the skate and his own body. This is Andrei as we remembered him in his junior period. That's why I'm making a special mention of this program.

 

[Mariott]

#10 2018-2019 SP "Sinatra"

Music: Frank Sinatra - Over and over (The world we knew)
Image: a distressed middle-aged man, a jilted lover or a husband in the process of divorce

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The first program that was presented at the Junior Grand Prix stages in the 2018-2019 season. If you've been following Andrei since then, that means you've most likely fallen in love with this program. The gorgeous and sad Sinatra music, the smooth and rolling movements of the young skater who appears as the sad thirty-something ex-husband of the lyrical heroine - everything here is harmonious and beautiful.

Even the costume, here`s one of Andrei's two best junior costumes.

 

[Mariott]

#9 2021-2022 FS "Columbus"

Music:
Vangelis - “Conquests of Paradise” OST
Image: Christopher Columbus, discoverer, traveler.

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Olympic program. After it was presented on test skates, the program received a lot of criticism as “too simple” and “junior”. However, I am of the opinion that this only happened because Andrei had masterpiece programs in the pre-Olympic season. That aside, this is a very inventive program with complex and varied choreography, and the choreography during the choreographed sequence is just a fifteen-second performance on ice. It creates a cheerful mood, and that's probably why we have two splendid rollouts of this program on ice - at the Grand Prix stage in Grenoble, where Andrei got about 100 points for technique, and at the First Channel Cup.

 

[Mariott]

#8 2023-2024 FS “My Body is a Cage”

Music: Peter Gabriel - My Body is a Cage; Marcel Dettman and Ben Klock - The Room.
Image: an angel being reborn as a human being.

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I won't repeat everything I said in making this season's rankings. I still really love this program. This strange, sweet, nervous and melancholy program with a special mood is very sincere. The combination of Peter Gabriel's over-the-top soulfulness and cold electronic minimalism is stunning. Perhaps the problem is that people want more upbeat programs. Or maybe two melancholic programs in a row is too much.
Either way, this program is among my favorites.

 

[Mariott]

#7 2022-2023 SP "Led Zeppelin"

Music: Led Zeppelin - "I Can't Quit You, Baby" and "Kashmir."
Image: 80s teenager showing off on the dance floor.

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Speaking of optimistic programs, here they are. Kirill Davydenko made his dream come true, and he has wanted to put on a program to this music for years. Critics perceived it as a rather controversial experiment, but many people liked it, and many say that they would like to see more such programs from Andrei, that he needs to go beyond his usual role.

Whether Mozalev's dancing to 80s rock classics convinced you or he failed to do it, this program is definitely worth watching.

 

[Mariott]

#6 2023-2024 SP "Prodigy"

Music: Kai Schumacher - Out of Space (Prodigy cover).
Image: a winged angel among people.

Great challenging music for a guy who is a master at gliding and presentation and also very good at hearing music. We only have two people who glide well enough to handle this kind of material. Andrei is one of them. I liked “Apocalyptica” with its naive melancholy (it didn't make the top 10 in the end), but this program is much, much better.
It didn't become an masterpiece, but it was certainly a very good program that stood out.​

 

[Mariott]

#5 Show number "Staraya soldatskaya pesnya" (One old soldier's song).

Music: Bulat Okudzhava - "Staraya soldatskaya pesnya" ("One old soldier's song").
Image: a soldier in a hopeless situation

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There's nothing special here. But it is the case when something happens at the right time and in the right place. In Spring 2022, this number certainly embodied the images and thoughts of many people and received a warm emotional response. The number is set for Averbukh's show, but the producers are Davydenko and Lunin, so because I`m including this program in my longlist.


The shortlist includes 4 programs that have become something more than just programs.
It is by them that we have formed an image of the figure skater Mozalev. Let's talk about each of them in a little more detail.

 

[Mariott]

Some new photos

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[Mariott]

More photo

 

[Mariott]

As I said, we have 4 programs that stand out, that are memorable, that are associated with Andrei and have become his calling card. This is the case when Davydenko and Lunin jumped above their heads. Let's talk a little about each of these programs. Let's start in 4th place, with a small tin medal.

#4

2019 -2020 season SP “Juno and Avos” (“I'll Never Forget You”)

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The backstory of the creation of this program is the same as that of Led Zeppelin. Only this time Denis Lunin for many years dreamed of putting a program to this music and was looking for a skater to whom this program would suit. In 2018, he offered this music to sixteen-year-old junior skater Andrei Mozalev - and they succeeded. The result is still stunning, even five years later.

There were several risks at once here. First, the music. This is Rybnikov's music for the cult rock opera “Juno and Avos”, which for several generations has become an object of cult worship. Of course, with this choice they immediately attracted a part of the audience with a nostalgic attitude. But it was only a part of the audience. Don't think that in Russia, figure skating is really only followed by doughboys. The average spectator at the stadium is between 20 and 37 years old, and he obviously doesn't have any nostalgic feelings for this music. He may not want to play “old black and white TV”. They could find themselves in a situation where most viewers would find the program uninteresting and boring.

The second risk was that it was music with lyrics in Russian, and Andrei was competing at international starts. Perhaps the judges would simply not know how to evaluate his interpretation of the image.

The third risk was related to the age of the performer. Andrei was only 16 years old, and he was to tell the story of a grown man who had lived most of his life. Lunin feared that, most likely, looking at this gentle face, the viewer will not believe in the seriousness of the drama. But as we know, young Andrei has a talent for showing men with a midlife crisis on ice. He did it.

The result exceeded all the wildest expectations. The touching pinching music and sad romantic story did their job, melting the hearts of the audience, and the pink youthful cheeks became not a reason to laugh, but an additional bonus. Many agreed that Andrei play Count Rezanov in his youth, who sees his future, tragic love and its sad end. In general, everyone believed in him.

The program became popular also because it was victorious. It was with this short program that Andrei collected all his junior medals: gold at the World Junior Championships, silver at the Youth Olympic Games, silver at the Junior Grand Prix Final, two golds at the Grand Prix stages, and bronze at the Russian National Junior Championships. Here we can argue about what is the cause and what is the effect, but in the end this program was good and brought Andrei victories.

A touching, tender, very sensual program, overloaded with choreography - this is what we remembered “Juno” for. And this program became a kind of event, a ray of light, especially in that very nervous and sad year of 2020. It still has many fans all over the world.

It was a great idea to turn this program into a showcase number. Yes, Andrei skated it for a few years until the 2022-2023 season and it got a bit boring, but we could see how much better he got in those two years, how much he improved in presentation and skating skills.

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There are fans, there are haters, there are those who are neutral, but there is no denying that this program has become Andrei's calling card. Many people still associate him with this image.

But the Davydenko-Lunin tandem had more successful programs for Andrei. They set the bar incredibly high in AndreI's first adult season, and we'll talk more about that another day.

 

[Mariott]

His dances

 

[Mariott]

I'm starting to think that Tutberidze's team knows what Andrei needs. It was very, very beautiful

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[Mariott]

From warm-up

 

[Mariott]

Free skate. I really like it.

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[Mariott]

I definitely like both of the new season's programs. My hopes were fulfilled, the style of Gleichenhaus and Tutberidze suited Andrei well. I noticed excellent corpus work and very nice hand positions, something I haven't seen before. There was also a noticeable progress in the execution of non-jumping elements, I really liked the beautiful rotations (it seems that Andrei had never done a “tulip” before). It all looks very easy. The jumps also seem easier, higher, more technical. I would like stabilization and complication, but it seems that 9 months is too short a time for that.

The programs seem to be overloaded, lots of spirals, obligatory inabauer (I'm glad that Andrei hasn't lost his teenage flexibility and does this element almost like a woman). A lot of complicated skate work.
But I understand their plan. You have to show the product with your face, put all the best on the counter. Andrei needs to start getting higher components while he performs with lighter jump content to stay afloat.

All in all, it seems like a forward-thinking approach. The programs are staged at a relaxed pace, allowing Andrei to save his strength for the jumping elements. It's good that he's not being driven to make feats and has replaced the unstable salchow in the short with a cascade of two triple jumps. It all looks like an operation to bring Andrei back to the top. We'll be watching to see what they do. Keeping our fingers crossed

 

[Mariott]

His inabauer. It's pretty deep

 

[Mariott]

New FS costume

 

[Mariott]

Let's have a little fun. Andrei and Alexander went to the banya together after the test skates.