New interview with Daniil Gleikhengauz:
С программами Даниила Глейхенгауза Алина Загитова выиграла Олимпиаду, а Алена Косторная и Александра Трусова установили мировые рекорды.
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"High level sport is not about health", - an interview with the chief choreographer from the team of Eteri Tutberidze
With the programs of Daniil Gleiлhengauz, Alina Zagitova won the Olympics, and Alyona Kostornaya and Aleksandra Trusova set world records.
Modern figure skating is not only quadruple jumps, but also choreographic programs that are remembered. After performing to music from "Schindler's List" at the Sochi Olympics, Yuliya Lipnitskaya made female single skating a national treasure. Delighted with her performance, even Steven Spielberg, the director of the film about a girl in a red coat fleeing from the besieged ghetto, wrote a letter to the skater. This performance was prepared by the team of coach Eteri Tutberidze, based in the Khrustalniy Ice Palace. And since then, this group did not allow themselves choreographic mistakes - thanks to the new director Daniil Gleikhengauz. With his "Black Swan", Alina Zagitova took Gold at the Olympic Games in Korea, and "Anna Karenina" brought Silver to another member of the team - Yevgeniya Medvyedeva. The "Fifth Element" of Gleikhengauz turned Aleksandra Trusova into the "Russian rocket", "Flight of the Soul" allowed Alyona Kostornaya to set a world record in the short program, and "Firebird" helped Anna Shcherbakova defend the title of National Champion of Russia.
- Can you remember 2014, the Khrustalniy Ice Palace? At that moment, when you had not yet worked in Eteri Tutberidze's team, your mother already collaborated with her (Lyudmila Shalashova - former ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, choreographer)?
-- No, I started working with Eteri Georgievna first, and then, about a year later, when a choreographer was needed for the dry hall, for ballet classes, I suggested my mother. Eteri Georgievna watched her teach, and everyone was satisfied.
- How did you get into "Khrustalniy" yourself?
-- At that time, I had been working as a trainer and choreographer at other skating rinks for several years, doing a show with Ilya Averbukh. And when Eteri turned to Ilya for help, she said she needed a new person for the team, a choreographer, he advised me, gave her my number, and that's how it all started.
- It turns out that Eteri had already seen some of your works, say, in a show or for other athletes?
-- Knowing Eteri Georgievna, I don't think she had time for this. Because, preparations were underway for the Olympics.
- You remember the first program you staged for member of Tutberidze's team?
-- If we take a landmark program, the first that was shown in the big arena was the short program of Adyan Pitkeyev.
- And how do you come up with programs fitting for the athlete? How do you choose music, images for this or that skater?
-- Due to the fact that I work with these athletes every day, teach them how to skate and see their abilities, it is easier for me to understand what will suit them and help them to open up. And then I try to offer several options for musical compositions. Or, if I have a ready-made idea and image, I explain everything in detail, show it, and then preparation begins.
- Where is the easiest place to find images? In movies, in music?
-- This is all thanks to the internet. And I have more opportunities than when I myself went to the theater, opera, cinema, concerts and shows. Thanks to the Internet, information is easier to gather. And in really every different source you can find this or that image. An interesting story is the exhibition number of Alina Zagitova, which she skated in tribute to the memory of my mother (Lyudmila Shalashova died on August 29, 2019). I watched a video on YouTube, but then the plot was interrupted by an advertisement, which we all don't like very much, and the track of the band M83 played in this advertisement. I heard it,
shazamil, began to listen to it again, and so the idea of a number about a flower and about life appeared.
- Last year's program of Alyona Kostornaya - '
flight of the soul during clinical death', as she herself described it - is this also a dedication to your mom?
-- No, Alyona skated this program for two seasons. Eteri and I staged it before everything happened.
- Your group is known all over the world for World and Olympic champions, as well as for the fact that figure skaters from team Tutberidze are already mastering quadruple jumps at a young age. The dominance of these elements - does it interfere with the staging of artistic programs? How to reconcile complex technical elements that require concentration and preparation with a smooth artistic plot?
-- One, two and even three quadruple jumps, if you correctly arrange them in the program, do not greatly affect the programmatic flow of the plot and the choreography. But if you have to put five quads or more, the program will begin to suffer here: because approaches to such difficult jumps require more speed, more preparation time. Because of this, the continuity of the program can be destroyed.
- How often do you recruit new athletes to your team?
-- If we talk about small children, then quite often, more than 3-4 times a year. As for older athletes - from 11 and 12 years old and up, then at any time. But this usually happens at the end of the season when athletes decide to switch from one coach to another. Both from us and to us.
- With what do you associate the fact that "Khrustalniy" today has become the world's center of female figure skating?
-- This probably happened after the Sochi Olympics, when Yuliya Lipnitskaya made a splash, and people became interested in figure skating. And since that moment, thanks to the work of the coaching staff, every year we show results of the highest level. Parents see this, understand this, so they come to us for screenings even from other cities.
- What do you pay attention to when watching children? We are talking about 7-8 years of age.
-- This is where the experience and professional view of the coach are at work. We assess the build and proportions of the athlete, we look at the height ...
We require a very high level of coordination. It is clear it will be difficult for tall children to jump quadruples. What else are we looking at? At jump height, muscle softness, stretching, spinning. There are many pieces to complete this puzzle. It is also important for us to understand whether we can help the child to reach the level that, in fact, its parents expect from us. They don't just bring their children to the rink for a skating run. Every parent thinks that his child should become an Olympic Champion. And, in order not to disappoint the parent later, it is important for us to immediately understand whether there is content fit for this purpose. Many people think: we will bring our child to Tutberidze's team, and everything will turn out by itself.
- When you talk about the importance of build and proportions - what exactly are you talking about?
-- The athlete must be in good shape, without excess weight.
- Should an athlete be different from others?
-- Hmm ... Every athlete is different, we don't have clones.
- I am not talking about that. Should the skaters be visually different from each other? Does this rule of the modeling business work in sports?
-- Of course, any person whose appearance brings a smile on your face will find it easier to win over the audience and judges. We see this in the example of rhythmic gymnastics. Just like in figure skating, there are many beautiful girls who become great athletes from a technical point of view.
- Is competition in figure skating good for athletes?
-- Of course, this is why we have so many strong athletes. This is generally the problem of many countries: there is no competition and an athlete who skates at a good level, does not feel another is breathing in his back, does not improve; he already knows that he will make it to the World or European Championships.
- How does competition affect the mental health of athletes? Surely this is not much different from any other super-competitive enterprise, where the results of this struggle are apathy, burnout.
-- We all know that it is one thing to participate in sports for your health, and another thing to be part of top sports.
Top Sports is not about health, physical and emotional injuries can happen. But we try to be in constant contact with children, talk, discuss these moments. The important thing is to find the right words, to support, to explain why happened what happened. It is important to always be honest. Not talking like: how wonderful for you to be with us, how unfair is the world. No, if something didn’t work out, there’s a reason for that, something was not properly done, it needs to get better, and results will come.
- And sports psychologists - do they generally work with skaters?
-- Yes, they are, but I cannot say in which schools and groups their services are used on an ongoing basis. An athlete spends most of his life with a coach, and the problems that he experiences are also solved with the same coach.
(c)
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