I came across a rather new official site for Petrova & Tikhonov (I think www. Petrovatikhonov.ru) , with which they are rather involved it seems – lots of updated diaries, photos… At least until they get bored with it. It has an English flag, but I think that leads to a translation service. They will probably never do a full English version because there are just tons and tons of text.
One section is programs – they list each program they did each season. The first time each program appears, the choreographers are listed and detailed explanations of how they feel about the programs, its aims, etc. Though I like their technique and persona, I have to say I was surprised by how much depth they had in their own minds at least for some of the programs.
Again, massive text – so I’ve translated an edited version and skipped some programs....
1998-99 Season
OP: “Doctor Zhivago” – choreo: Alexander Stepin, Ludmila & Nikolai Velikov
A: “It was mostly Ludmila and Nikolai’s choice of music….just started skating together…mostly technical… We tried as best we could at the time to express the beautiful music and tell the story of two people, but we didn’t really understand it ourselves.”
FP: “4 Seasons” – Stepin, Velikovs
M: “… I really liked this music, it’s gusty, soul-wrenching, it left a deep mark on my soul. So Lesha and I decided to skate to it again, but with a new program…”
Ex: “Dance Me to the End of Love” Choero: Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
A: “… Our first exhibition number. It turned out lyrical, touching and became our favorite...”
1999-2000 Season[/B]
OP: Francesca di Rimini – Stepin, Velikovs
A: “… very strong, powerful, emotional music. Our short program relied on powerful skating and difficult elements… I think the program worked….We nearly always competed it flawlessly. The idea is life storms, difficult relationships between a young man and girl, Masha and me.”
M: “This music really fit the music that we chose well. We tried to show a confusion of feelings. Lesha had a white costume and mine was black – which also symbolized the battle of our emotions.”
FP 2 “Mister Bureaucrat”, “Diva” and “Fifth Element” – Stepin, Velikovs
A: “… In addition to being very strong music, it’s also unusually deep in meaning. The theme is a bit sad, it’s true so maybe we were “too sad”. Or at least we thought it worked and Masha and I really liked it, but the judges probably wanted some stronger accents. Well….”
M: “This is my mom’s favorite programs. It really touched her soul, so sometimes she still rewatches it. She really likes the unusual flow of movement and movements. Nobody had done anything like this before us, so probably the judges didn’t receive it as we hoped they would for this reason.”
2000-2001 Season
OP: Russian Theme – Choreo: Sergei Petukhov
A: “… Masha at the general fitness summer camp injured her leg… now with experience and hindsight, we can say that our rush to compete was misguided…. We should have skipped part of the season and recovered… but we were young and ambitious…. We loved this program and skated it with pleasure. However, the injury prevented us from skating it well; there were always small errors….”
M: “… I saw this program as a bit ironic take on flirting games of a boy and girl…”
FP: Le tourment»/«Vision du Paradis» Choreo: Petukhov
M: “I recently rewatched our Skate Canada performance… and was impressed by the number of interesting elements… It was a very different program and it’s still interesting for me to watch now. But some of the judges found the music monotonous…”
A” “Some judges and fed officials didn’t like it…. “
Exhibition : Hebrew prayer - Petukhov
A: “…I think this is one of our best exhibition numbers. It was a story with meaning, beginning with a prayer before the Wall of Tears. We were praying to God about ourselves and loved ones. The theme was difficult for us, but Ludmilla Velikova adored this program. We really only skated it for her. Although, despite the fact that it was sad, the audience also really liked it.”
M: “We had a sad year, so our state of being affected the music choice.”
2001-2002 Season
Exhibition Goran Bregovich’s “Black Cat, White Cat” – Petukhov, PetTIkh
A: “The idea was to make like a gypsy wedding…”
M: “[Not Bregovich’s music,] but Bredovich’s! (trans. Petrova making a joke on the guy’s last name – basically calling it “Crappy”.) I didn’t like this idea much… I think it really was crappy. I was supposed to play some sort of weird girl, but I wanted something beautiful…”
A: “Masha just didn’t completely understand what we were doing, but everyone who saw it liked it!”
2002-2003 Season
OP: “Blues Under Rain” – Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “… one of our favorite shorts… It was so sweet, light, flirty. Everything happens in it and it comes out like a beautiful dance full of light/goodness under rain…”
A: “It’s a dance of 2 hearts. They meet and the rain starts. The first raindrops are the feelings that are starting to overcome them… It’s lyrical and beautiful. There is a touch of light sadness and joy from their interaction. Everything was in this program and we adored skating it.”
FP: “Symphonic Dances”
M: “It’s very serious music and we…
A: “fell a lot!”
M: “Yes, a whole lot! But it was interesting and technically demanding. One element flowed out of the next and there were difficult acrobatic connections between them.”
A: “In this program we focused on technique, but it seems it was an error. We should have paid more attention to the musical and expressive content….”
Exhibition: Russian Folk _ Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “… We returned to it because I really liked it. You could say I insisted we make an exhibition for it.”
2003-2004 Season
OP : Melodies – Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “For me, this program was a continuation of “Blues under rain”. Attraction turned into real love, the first date into a serious relationship.”
A:… Nikolai found the music.
FP: Princess of the Circus: Edvald Smirnov, Aleksei Urmanov
A: “… We asked Lesha’s choreographer to help us..”
M: “… one of my favorite… there was a picture, style and most importantly – a fun, happy mood.”
A: “It wasn’t just a program – there was a story, unlike the rest and everyone noticed that. It was very successful for us, our fans, and strangely enough, even the judges….”
Ex: Tango – Petukhov
2004-2005 Season
OP: Piazola’s Tango. Petukhov
A: “As we had a good exhibition tango, our coaches recommended to use it for the short…”
Exhibition: “You Gave Me Roses” (Russian) - choreo: Smirnov, PetTikh
A: “After watching a film and hearing the song sung by Night Snipers group with Dmitri Pevtsov… we decided to make a show program right away….”
Exh: “Heart, you don’t want peace and calm” – Stepin, PetTikh
A: “We made it for Averbukh tour because he asked us to do it.”
M: “I didn’t really like it..”
A: “Me either, but lots of people loved it! I know that older people really like this song, it’s been a part of the fabric of their whole lives. We got a decent show program, but we probably didn’t have a sufficiently serious attitude toward it.”
2005-2006 Season
OP Sarabande: Stepin, PetTikh, Velikovs
M: “Thanks to Denkova and Staviski, we took this piece. They had a stunning free to it and later Maxim showed us a clip.”
A: “In this clip we saw striving – a person, going through a wall running to his goal. Then we had the idea to make our program to it. We felt this striving could be best demonstrated in the short…..Everywhere we got a great ovation, just everywhere… The audience was thrilled. So were we. Occasionally, judges too.”
FP: Fellini – Velikovs, PetTikh
A: “We wanted to tell an Italian story, but due to the number of elements, we couldn’t pull it off. There wasn’t time to finish the dance”.
M: “The new judging system was really starting to spin at that time. You had to show so many elements, there wasn’t time to act practically at all. And you have to show the story!”
A: “There really was a need for more acting. It’s very difficult music that we chose…It probably was a tactical error…”
FP2: “Four Seasons” _ Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “We decided to be decisive before worlds. 2 weeks prior we decided to change the program! Our coaches were stunned. When we told Ludmila Georgievna that we’ll skate four seasons, she said: “You’re insane!” We said: “Maybe. We’ll see.” So we showed a draft version of the whole thing right away. You can’t say that we just turned Fellini into 4 Seasons, we tried to make adaptations. We changed the style and everything worked!...”
A: “It was a successful risk. I said it several times because I’m really convinced – we deserved to win the worlds in Calgary.”
Exh: Ave Maria Choreo: Stanislav Voityuk
A: “our friend and choreographer Slava Voityuk found … [the music] in the beginning of the season. We liked it. He made a wonderful number for us that is full of acrobatic and difficult pair elements.”
Exh: “Via Con Me” It’s wonderful Choreo: Petrova, Tikhonov
M: “We made this program for Averbukh’s tour “Italian carnival”… It developed right on the tour without aid from choreographers. We just felt this music and tried to express it…. It’s so light, flirty, mischevious, doesn’t’ make you sad, very positive – for the public and us. We tried to skate it in a fervent, fun and joking manner. That is really Italian..”
2006-2007 Season
FP: Moonlight Sonata – Petrova, Tikhonov, Ludmila Velikova
A: “… totally and completely our choice, and a well-considered one.”
M: “… I always really liked this music and wanted it to skate it, but as soon as we’d start talking about it, they would let me know we weren’t ready for it yet. Then they allowed that we were mature enough.”
A: “.. You need some kind of life experience to skate this music, which we didn’t have earlier. At this stage of life, we just relished it. Of course when elements were added, we relished a tad less. Or more – depends on your point of view”.
M: Lesha did the music editing.
Exh: Hurt – Agilera – Choreo Voityuk
A: “… there are no pairs lifts, but it’s still technically difficult. Tehre are 2 souls singing. The pain of two people who realize they want to be together, but can’t because circumstances pull them apart and they must separate.”
M: “… In the video, it shows she has lost her father and has memories and relives them. I really wanted to show that in this number.”
A: “We skated it all over Russia to hooray. Even the Olympic champs on tour said it was great.”
M: “Lots of guys would watch our number. Marat Basharov [actor, who skated with Navka] watched it each time, even though there were 60 cities and it would seem you’d get tired of watching one and the same thing, but he watched our number all the time. Tanya Navka also watched it a lot. Because each time, it grabs you.”
2007-2008 Season
New Program but no comments:
Everybody (Backstreet's Back)
Choreography by Voityuk and Petrova, Tikhonov
One section is programs – they list each program they did each season. The first time each program appears, the choreographers are listed and detailed explanations of how they feel about the programs, its aims, etc. Though I like their technique and persona, I have to say I was surprised by how much depth they had in their own minds at least for some of the programs.
Again, massive text – so I’ve translated an edited version and skipped some programs....
1998-99 Season
OP: “Doctor Zhivago” – choreo: Alexander Stepin, Ludmila & Nikolai Velikov
A: “It was mostly Ludmila and Nikolai’s choice of music….just started skating together…mostly technical… We tried as best we could at the time to express the beautiful music and tell the story of two people, but we didn’t really understand it ourselves.”
FP: “4 Seasons” – Stepin, Velikovs
M: “… I really liked this music, it’s gusty, soul-wrenching, it left a deep mark on my soul. So Lesha and I decided to skate to it again, but with a new program…”
Ex: “Dance Me to the End of Love” Choero: Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
A: “… Our first exhibition number. It turned out lyrical, touching and became our favorite...”
1999-2000 Season[/B]
OP: Francesca di Rimini – Stepin, Velikovs
A: “… very strong, powerful, emotional music. Our short program relied on powerful skating and difficult elements… I think the program worked….We nearly always competed it flawlessly. The idea is life storms, difficult relationships between a young man and girl, Masha and me.”
M: “This music really fit the music that we chose well. We tried to show a confusion of feelings. Lesha had a white costume and mine was black – which also symbolized the battle of our emotions.”
FP 2 “Mister Bureaucrat”, “Diva” and “Fifth Element” – Stepin, Velikovs
A: “… In addition to being very strong music, it’s also unusually deep in meaning. The theme is a bit sad, it’s true so maybe we were “too sad”. Or at least we thought it worked and Masha and I really liked it, but the judges probably wanted some stronger accents. Well….”
M: “This is my mom’s favorite programs. It really touched her soul, so sometimes she still rewatches it. She really likes the unusual flow of movement and movements. Nobody had done anything like this before us, so probably the judges didn’t receive it as we hoped they would for this reason.”
2000-2001 Season
OP: Russian Theme – Choreo: Sergei Petukhov
A: “… Masha at the general fitness summer camp injured her leg… now with experience and hindsight, we can say that our rush to compete was misguided…. We should have skipped part of the season and recovered… but we were young and ambitious…. We loved this program and skated it with pleasure. However, the injury prevented us from skating it well; there were always small errors….”
M: “… I saw this program as a bit ironic take on flirting games of a boy and girl…”
FP: Le tourment»/«Vision du Paradis» Choreo: Petukhov
M: “I recently rewatched our Skate Canada performance… and was impressed by the number of interesting elements… It was a very different program and it’s still interesting for me to watch now. But some of the judges found the music monotonous…”
A” “Some judges and fed officials didn’t like it…. “
Exhibition : Hebrew prayer - Petukhov
A: “…I think this is one of our best exhibition numbers. It was a story with meaning, beginning with a prayer before the Wall of Tears. We were praying to God about ourselves and loved ones. The theme was difficult for us, but Ludmilla Velikova adored this program. We really only skated it for her. Although, despite the fact that it was sad, the audience also really liked it.”
M: “We had a sad year, so our state of being affected the music choice.”
2001-2002 Season
Exhibition Goran Bregovich’s “Black Cat, White Cat” – Petukhov, PetTIkh
A: “The idea was to make like a gypsy wedding…”
M: “[Not Bregovich’s music,] but Bredovich’s! (trans. Petrova making a joke on the guy’s last name – basically calling it “Crappy”.) I didn’t like this idea much… I think it really was crappy. I was supposed to play some sort of weird girl, but I wanted something beautiful…”
A: “Masha just didn’t completely understand what we were doing, but everyone who saw it liked it!”
2002-2003 Season
OP: “Blues Under Rain” – Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “… one of our favorite shorts… It was so sweet, light, flirty. Everything happens in it and it comes out like a beautiful dance full of light/goodness under rain…”
A: “It’s a dance of 2 hearts. They meet and the rain starts. The first raindrops are the feelings that are starting to overcome them… It’s lyrical and beautiful. There is a touch of light sadness and joy from their interaction. Everything was in this program and we adored skating it.”
FP: “Symphonic Dances”
M: “It’s very serious music and we…
A: “fell a lot!”
M: “Yes, a whole lot! But it was interesting and technically demanding. One element flowed out of the next and there were difficult acrobatic connections between them.”
A: “In this program we focused on technique, but it seems it was an error. We should have paid more attention to the musical and expressive content….”
Exhibition: Russian Folk _ Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “… We returned to it because I really liked it. You could say I insisted we make an exhibition for it.”
2003-2004 Season
OP : Melodies – Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “For me, this program was a continuation of “Blues under rain”. Attraction turned into real love, the first date into a serious relationship.”
A:… Nikolai found the music.
FP: Princess of the Circus: Edvald Smirnov, Aleksei Urmanov
A: “… We asked Lesha’s choreographer to help us..”
M: “… one of my favorite… there was a picture, style and most importantly – a fun, happy mood.”
A: “It wasn’t just a program – there was a story, unlike the rest and everyone noticed that. It was very successful for us, our fans, and strangely enough, even the judges….”
Ex: Tango – Petukhov
2004-2005 Season
OP: Piazola’s Tango. Petukhov
A: “As we had a good exhibition tango, our coaches recommended to use it for the short…”
Exhibition: “You Gave Me Roses” (Russian) - choreo: Smirnov, PetTikh
A: “After watching a film and hearing the song sung by Night Snipers group with Dmitri Pevtsov… we decided to make a show program right away….”
Exh: “Heart, you don’t want peace and calm” – Stepin, PetTikh
A: “We made it for Averbukh tour because he asked us to do it.”
M: “I didn’t really like it..”
A: “Me either, but lots of people loved it! I know that older people really like this song, it’s been a part of the fabric of their whole lives. We got a decent show program, but we probably didn’t have a sufficiently serious attitude toward it.”
2005-2006 Season
OP Sarabande: Stepin, PetTikh, Velikovs
M: “Thanks to Denkova and Staviski, we took this piece. They had a stunning free to it and later Maxim showed us a clip.”
A: “In this clip we saw striving – a person, going through a wall running to his goal. Then we had the idea to make our program to it. We felt this striving could be best demonstrated in the short…..Everywhere we got a great ovation, just everywhere… The audience was thrilled. So were we. Occasionally, judges too.”
FP: Fellini – Velikovs, PetTikh
A: “We wanted to tell an Italian story, but due to the number of elements, we couldn’t pull it off. There wasn’t time to finish the dance”.
M: “The new judging system was really starting to spin at that time. You had to show so many elements, there wasn’t time to act practically at all. And you have to show the story!”
A: “There really was a need for more acting. It’s very difficult music that we chose…It probably was a tactical error…”
FP2: “Four Seasons” _ Stepin, Velikovs, PetTikh
M: “We decided to be decisive before worlds. 2 weeks prior we decided to change the program! Our coaches were stunned. When we told Ludmila Georgievna that we’ll skate four seasons, she said: “You’re insane!” We said: “Maybe. We’ll see.” So we showed a draft version of the whole thing right away. You can’t say that we just turned Fellini into 4 Seasons, we tried to make adaptations. We changed the style and everything worked!...”
A: “It was a successful risk. I said it several times because I’m really convinced – we deserved to win the worlds in Calgary.”
Exh: Ave Maria Choreo: Stanislav Voityuk
A: “our friend and choreographer Slava Voityuk found … [the music] in the beginning of the season. We liked it. He made a wonderful number for us that is full of acrobatic and difficult pair elements.”
Exh: “Via Con Me” It’s wonderful Choreo: Petrova, Tikhonov
M: “We made this program for Averbukh’s tour “Italian carnival”… It developed right on the tour without aid from choreographers. We just felt this music and tried to express it…. It’s so light, flirty, mischevious, doesn’t’ make you sad, very positive – for the public and us. We tried to skate it in a fervent, fun and joking manner. That is really Italian..”
2006-2007 Season
FP: Moonlight Sonata – Petrova, Tikhonov, Ludmila Velikova
A: “… totally and completely our choice, and a well-considered one.”
M: “… I always really liked this music and wanted it to skate it, but as soon as we’d start talking about it, they would let me know we weren’t ready for it yet. Then they allowed that we were mature enough.”
A: “.. You need some kind of life experience to skate this music, which we didn’t have earlier. At this stage of life, we just relished it. Of course when elements were added, we relished a tad less. Or more – depends on your point of view”.
M: Lesha did the music editing.
Exh: Hurt – Agilera – Choreo Voityuk
A: “… there are no pairs lifts, but it’s still technically difficult. Tehre are 2 souls singing. The pain of two people who realize they want to be together, but can’t because circumstances pull them apart and they must separate.”
M: “… In the video, it shows she has lost her father and has memories and relives them. I really wanted to show that in this number.”
A: “We skated it all over Russia to hooray. Even the Olympic champs on tour said it was great.”
M: “Lots of guys would watch our number. Marat Basharov [actor, who skated with Navka] watched it each time, even though there were 60 cities and it would seem you’d get tired of watching one and the same thing, but he watched our number all the time. Tanya Navka also watched it a lot. Because each time, it grabs you.”
2007-2008 Season
New Program but no comments:
Everybody (Backstreet's Back)
Choreography by Voityuk and Petrova, Tikhonov
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