Tatiana Tarasova answers whom she would like to see as the winner of ISU Skating Awards
March 22 Montreal was to host the ISU Skating Awards, the first ceremony of figure skating “Oscar”. Tatiana Tarasova answers whom she would like to see as the winners, despite the fact that the World Championships was canceled.
by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya and Vladimir Zaivy for russian.rt.com dd 22d March 2020
The most valuable skater
Tatiana Tarasova: I think this is Yuzuru Hanyu. With all my love for Chen (and I adore Nathan), I will name the Japanese. He is not just a skater, he is a phenomenon. In the history of figure skating, there were outstanding skaters, but Hanyu is different. He is a celestial. His short program alone (Chopin’s Ballade No. 1) is a program at the end of which you should not get up, but kneel down and thank God that we are lucky to see this.
This is not just one hundred percent hitting the music, not only the most complex elements that hit every note, but some kind of absolutely amazing fusion of human soul and music. I saw this only twice in my life and not on the ice, but in ballet: when Maya Plisetskaya danced The Dying Swan, and Mstislav Rostropovich accompanied her, and in the ballet studio in New York, where Diana Vishneva danced and Valery Gergiev conducted. Yuzuru Hanyu’s skating is a phenomenon of the same order.
Best newcomer of the season
Tatiana Tarasova: In this nomination, I would choose between Alexandra Trusova, Alena Kostornaia and Kamila Valieva, but I would probably choose Sasha Trusova. What Sasha did this season, having successfully completed four quadruple jumps in one program at international competitions, it is unlikely that any of the girls will ever be able to repeat in the coming years. It’s generally very difficult to do what no other person in the world does. At the same time, everyone ganged up on Trusova, they are even going to change the rules so that the athlete could not get a big advantage for his jumps. So I’m for her!
Best coach
Tatiana Tarasova: Eteri Tutberidze. Why is she, not Tamara Moskvina, whose athletes became European champions this season? In my understanding, what Moskvina did with her athletes is an unconditional breakthrough of the year that has given us all hope. Why not Rafael Harutyunyan? He did a tremendous job with Nathan Chen, but this is still one athlete. But Tutberidze is a total dominance both in senior and in junior ladies’ skating. The best coach, it seems to me, should be determined not only by the quality of the athletes, but also by their number. Eteri has both.
Best choreographer
Tatiana Trasova: For me, this is definitely Shae-Lynn Bourne. She did a lot of programs this season that I like, and above all, Chen’s program. I give a standing ovation. Bravo! I am very pleased that I saw the development of Shae-Lynn when she skated with me. I saw her learn to listen and hear the music. She did such a good job.
Best costume
Tatiana Tarasova: It seems to me that the wording of this nomination was initially not entirely correct. Here we need to talk not about the athlete who shows this costume, but about the artist who came up with the idea and, together with the coach, embodied it on the ice. A costume is part of the coaching work. It is the coach who must decide how he wants to see his skater on the ice, what kind of artistic image will be embodied.
I was lucky because I worked with absolutely outstanding costume masters. Such as Natella Abdulaeva, Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Of the later masters, for example, I like how Milena Bobkova works. Few people know, but for several years she sewed dresses for Mao Asada – she did this even after I finished working with Mao. I remember I even bought a special sliding mannequin for Mao, designed for a very small and thin figure, and presented it to Milena.
If we talk about the costumes of specific athletes, then there are a lot of good ones. I can not choose.
Best exhibition program
Tatiana Tarasova: In this regard, now I do not like anything. We have already seen all this many times. The purpose of the exhibition program should be to expand the athlete’s capabilities first of all. There are no restrictions of the rules, and you can show what you never did in competitions, something that no one expects from you. Find some kind of artistic image that no one has used before you.
I do not like the dominance of Western music in the exhibition programs of our skaters: are they going to skate only in Western shows? It seems that people just take the first melody they like, and do all the same to it. The same steps as in the programs, the same spins. At one time, we did four or five exhibition programs and used this niche in order to develop the athlete as much as possible, so that he, as an artist, knew how to be different, and most importantly, he understood what he was skating about, discovered unexpected opportunities for himself.
Related topics: Alexandra Trusova, Eteri Tutberidze, Tatiana Tarasova, Yuzuru Hanyu
She’s right about exhibition programs. They’re no longer entertaining because the skaters are skating just for themselves, as many like to say.
I’d say they jusy don’t care about exhibitions(