Interview with Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov, September 2006

Q: When and why did you decide to continue to compete?

Maria: We went on holidays and had some rest. It wasn’t only our decision, our federation asked us. They said there are no couples, maybe you can stay in. We decided to give it a try. We are entered for the Grand Prix, and we’ll see after that. We took our decision after our vacation end of June.

Q: How difficult was this decision?

Maria: It was difficult. If they hadn’t asked us, we probably wouldn’t have stayed. It does play a role that the federation now will fight for us, when we are the first couple. We skated well at Worlds and we considered it to be our last competition, our farewell. We had other plans already, to try coaching, and we set our mind on it. But then they started to ask us and to convince us – the fans, the federation, the friends. All this together and the fact that we had some rest led to the decision to give it another shot.

Q: You mentioned the World Championships. Many people felt and still feel that you would have deserved the title. It wasn’t for the first time that you didn’t get what you deserved. How hard is it to live with these decisions of the judges?

Maria: This has been going on throughout our whole career! With time, we accept it calmer. In the beginning, it hurt often. But then we started to look at it from another perspective: how are the spectators receiving us? The spectators like us a lot. It’s obvious when they whistle at the marks. We try to skate well for the spectators. The judges... well, what can we do?

Q: You have a new free skating to „Moonlight Sonata“ by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Maria: I wanted to skate to Moonlight Sonata for a long time, and I suggested it. There was another idea, Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovski. We listened on the ice to both pieces. This music (Romeo and Juliet) seemed to be too heavy for us, but we want to look light. Moonlight Sonata is such a delicate music and I think it suits us. Therefore we stuck to it.

Alexei: Tchaikovski is good music, but we would have looked too heavy to it. Now there is another idea, Tatiana Anatolievna Tarasova gave us yet another music, the Russian folk song „Meadowlands“. But I don’t know yet, we have to listen to it and to check it. Surprisingly the Moonlight Sonata suits both our characters. We feel this music. We use the Moonlight Sonata itself for about half of the program. I thought it could be too long and that you get tired from it, but it looks good when we skate to it with our elements. The program isn’t ready yet, but I think it will be good.

Q: Your short program is to the same music, “Sarabande”, but the elements changed.

Maria: Yes, we changed the order of the elements, but we kept the music. So far we haven’t found a better music. We’re still looking, and if we find something we still can change it. We really like this music.

Alexei: We didn’t find anything that would be stronger and better than Händel. So the music is the same, but the program is different. The beginning is still the same, but the rest is different, also the character has changed a little bit. I think it will be interesting to see this program. Maybe we’ll do another program, but not for the Grand Prix, but for later, for Europeans. If we get that far!

Q: Let us talk about the show „Stars on Ice“. What are your impressions so far?

Maria: I really like it, it’s very interesting. First of all you meet a lot of new and interesting people. They are all well known personalities (in Russia). It’s fun to teach them something, to talk with them and to see how everything goes. It was my initiative. Liosha wasn’t too interested in the project, he didn’t want to participate as much as I did. I fell sick after the summer training camp in Sweden and he said, maybe we shouldn’t do it, but I still wanted. I wasn’t able to practice fully anyway, and I said, let’s try it, at least we’re on the ice and stay in shape.

Q: How does it work out with your partner, the saxophonist Igor Butman?

Maria: Very well. He is learning quickly, because he has skated on ice hockey skates before. It was a bit difficult to get used to figure skating skates, because of the toe pick. He stumbles. Generally we try to focus on what he can do, he can do some steps and hockey braking techniques. We try to focus our programs on him. I can adapt to that. We can do a death spirals, little lifts. But he doesn’t have so much time for practice as he has to give concerts.

Q: How dangerous is it for you that you get hurt? He isn’t an experienced pair skater.

Maria: It is dangerous, of course. But I try to teach him. We don’t do really difficult things. He won’t do any overhead lifts, obviously.

Alexei: I’m a little worried about her! I’m also helping and giving some advice.

Q: How difficult is it to combine this show with your preparations for the season?

Maria: It’s difficult indeed, because the show is taped in Moscow, and the practice is also in Moscow. We get some ice, but it’s in different places, and we’re training with different partners. I have one time, Liosha has another time. I don’t know yet how we’re going to manage that.

Q: You also don’t know how long you will be in the show.

Maria: Yes, it’s unknown. We actually thought that we’ll be kicked out after two or three shows, we have to prepare for the season after all. But apparently the people like us. I think we won’t be there until the final, because everyone knows that we have the season ahead of us. However, we still have some time, our first competition is only in mid November (Trophee Bompard), so we can stay a little bit longer.

Alexei: I was relaxed about the show. Masha was sick and couldn’t train hard, but she wanted to participate so much, therefore I agreed. I thought, otherwise we’d just sit at home, but so we’d meet new people and we’ll be on skates, although this isn’t sport, but something else, but still interesting. But you know how much you’re used to competing! You go out and you want to win!

Maria: It’s cool to see yourself with another partner.

Q: You’re even rivals.

Alexei: Yes, and so far Masha is winning! The show is actually a big help for us. When I was in Tatiana Tarasova’s ice theatre and in the ice show, it helped me a lot. The same thing is happening now. We can’t show our technique, but we have to act a lot, put emphasis on what used to be the second mark, the presentation. You have to force yourself to open new pages. It’s working very well for Masha.

Q: How difficult is it for you to work with another partner?

Alexei: It is difficult! But it’s also good, because when I skate with Maria again, it feels immediately so comfortable.

Q: One of you will leave the show before the other. What will the other one do then?

Maria: The other one will continue.

Alexei: It will be easier for us. Probably I’ll be kicked out first, I’m realistic about it. It’s a show, it’s done for TV, and the judging can’t be fair – it’s like in the sport! You keep those whom you need. It will be easier then, because I can stay with Masha. Her partner has played ice hockey before, they don’t need so much training, one hour maximum, while I need up to three hours with my partner, because she isn’t skating very well. She has been skating for one and a half months only.

Maria: But she really wants it. My partner wants it, too, but he doesn’t have much time. Time is very limited. In general, the stars take everything very serious and they’re even quarrelling!

Alexei: It will be easier for us when I’ll leave and Masha stays. We’ll have more time for our practices. The federation told us that they’d help us to find ice time in Moscow. (Federation President Valentin) Piseev has asked us already when we’ll start training.

Maria: Apparently I made a new impression on our president. When he was a judge, he gave me marks like 5.9 and he said how good I’m looking on the ice as if he never noticed me before.

Q: You have been elected in the federation presidium. What are you doing there?

Alexei: Not much so far. I’m the athletes’ representative on the board, and maybe later I’ll become the representative of the Russian athletes in the ISU. The election came as a surprise to me, I didn’t expect it. It’s a sign of recognition of the people who have known me for a long time. If I can help our school and figure skating in Russia in general in this way, it’s a good thing. For the first time there is an athletes’ representative on the board of the federation.

Q: You had your first practice in the newly opened figure skating academy in St. Petersburg. What’s your first impression?

Maria: We liked the quality of the ice. They gave us very small dressing rooms at first. The boys got a bigger one, but ours is still small. Overall, the conditions here are good.

Alexei: However, there are some minuses. They wanted a building with beautiful architecture that is in harmony with its surroundings. But I think they overlooked to build big dressing rooms, things that we need. I just was in the shower, and the water was stuck.

Maria: There are still some technical problems.

Alexei: But it’s great for figure skating that they built this academy.

Q: How difficult was it to leave Yubileini where you trained for so many years?

Alexei: I hope we didn’t leave Yubileini yet completely. We probably will train there sometimes. We’re living closer to the Academy, that’s practical.

Maria: It is a bit sad, but the conditions here are better. Here we have a big room for warming up and choreography. In Yubileini, there was only a small room, and there wasn’t enough space for everyone.

Q: Thank you very much for the interview!