20. In the beginning of the 2014-2015 season Najarro choreographed short dances for three ice dance teams in figure skating. All the dances, created for the Americans Chock/Bates, Spaniards Urtado/Diaz and Russians Ilinykh/Zhiganshin, turned out to be different. The “Carmen” dance for Ilinykh and Zhiganshin proved to be especially brilliant and expressive and became, as it seems to us, the favorite one for Najarro himself. “Carmen” was important in his own acting career, and, perhaps, for this reason he strived so much to explain his vision of the characters of Carmen and Escamilio to Elena and Ruslan. As a result, he was highly pleased with his work with them.
24. In the beginning of the 2015-2016 season Antonio continued collaborating with the young Spanish figure skater Javier Raja, as well as with the Russian ice dance team Ilinykh/Zhiganshin, with whom he created a new free dance “Frieda” to the music from the film of the same name. According to the choreographer and the skaters, the work on “Frieda” was very exciting. In the interview Antonio explained the reasons for his continued collaboration with the Russian team: “During the work on “Carmen” Elena and Ruslan were very pleased with my choreography and style of work, by how I attach great importance to movement and poses and try to put my energy and soul into every movement. Being extremely passionate and expressive figure skaters, they were very comfortable with me, and so they decided to ask me to continue working with them, [now] on the new free dance.” Let’s hope that, as with Stephan [Lambiel], Antonio and Lena and Ruslan have “found each other,” and the result of this fruitful, creative union will surprise and please us in the next season.
