Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nolan Seegert: We skate with each other and for each other

Interview with Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nolan Seegert. About past season, expectations and programs.

by Ludmila Orlova for blossomonice.com dd. 10th June 2020

You are two-time national champions, the leading pair of Germany. Can you say that this adds responsibility, pressure of expectations?

Minerva: Yes, of course. Our federation wants more and more from us, and we feel it. A year ago, we performed well at the European Championships in Minsk, and everyone in Graz expected us to skate at least no worse. Therefore, we went there with a certain pressure of responsibility.

Nolan: In fact, everything is quite simple. The German press constantly writes that we must fight for medals. They started talking about it after the last European Championships, so we listened to this for a year (laughs). Well, and we are also constantly compared with Alena Savchenko and Bruno Massot. We also feel a certain pressure because of this.

In general, this season you have achieved very good results for yourself: won the bronze medal at the Grand Prix in Moscow, first got to the podium at the Grand Prix series. Please tell us what do you remember about this experience.

Minerva: It was awesome. To be honest, we didn’t expect this at all. We haven’t even thought that we need to compete for a medal, for some high place. We just did our job, and as a result we got to the podium. Emotions were indescribable. I think at the moment this is our most serious achievement in our career.

If someone told you before the start of the season that you would win a medal at the Grand Prix, would you believe it?

Minerva: Never (laughs).

Nolan: In fact, one of the journalists from the German media spoke to us about this last year (smiles). We were told, for example, that we are in the same league with Matteo and Nicole (Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise – ed.), that we can compete with them on equals. And a year ago we ourselves could not even think of an equal fight with them, or of participation in the last warm-up, for example. So this bronze in Moscow is a huge step forward for us.

This season you have a very beautiful, lyrical short program and a bright, charismatic free program. Please tell us which images you reveal on the ice and which of these two themes is closer to you.

Nolan: Our short program is about love, but, how would I put it better … (thinks). Rather, it is not a love story, but a connection story. We skate with each other and for each other. There is such a line in this song: “Open hands are hard to hold on to anyway.” This is the leitmotif of our story. Hold your hands and run away together.

Minerva: And our free program is, first of all, a very useful experience. We wanted to try something new, see which style suits our pair more, what is better to choose for the Olympic season. It seems to me that the program turned out very good and bright.

Nolan: We skate to the House of the Rising Sun, a very famous piece of music. The plot of the program is based on the lyrics. Minerva lures me into this house of the “rising sun”, we’re flirting with each other the whole program – okay, okay, let’s go and stuff like that. Well, at least, our choreographer told us so (smiles).

And which program is closer to you?

Minerva: Probably the short program. It seems to me that this style is a little closer for us. We feel that the audience also like this program and we always enjoy skating it.

You said that your pair is always being compared with Alena and Bruno. Do you have a favorite pair that you want to look up to?

Nolan: To be honest, for me Alena and Bruno are somewhere in another dimension, which is impossible to reach. For me personally, in the past few seasons, one of the favorites were Vanessa and Morgan (Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres – ed.). They achieved everything with great, tedious work. They were constantly ahead, constantly performed at the highest level. These athletes I would call my idols.

Minerva: Me too. They fought for medals all the time, could not get into the prizes, complicated their programs, grew professionally and, finally, seized their chance and won the European Championships medal. It was awesome. They are a very beautiful pair and at the same time unusual, more athletic. In this we’re alike – we are distinguished not by some super elegance, but by athleticism. Therefore, I would compare our pair with them.

Related topics: Minerva Fabienne Hase Nolan Seegert