IGNATEVA & SZEMKO WANT TO BE DIFFERENT

By Matteo Morelli | Images by Yoriko Suzuki

Mariia Ignateva & Danijil Szemko have been skating collectively for 2 years representing Hungary, working laborious to develop as a crew and create their very own id. We met them after the European Championships to seek out out extra about their journey collectively to this point and what they need to deliver to the ice.

Mariia and Danijil, did you take pleasure in taking part at your second European Championships, the place you secured a tenth place end?

Mariia Ignateva (MI): It was a stupendous occasion and necessary for us as a result of it was an enormous competitors. The organising was actually good, every thing from the bus schedules to the lodge was properly organised and the organising was good.

Danijil Szemko (DS): We loved it. We had an enormous duty on our again as a result of the subsequent European Championships goes to be in Budapest (Hungary) and with our tenth place we are able to deliver two {couples} now. Largely we needed to take pleasure in it and I believe it occurred, there was a extremely heat and good viewers there.

Your free programme this season is predicated on music from Cirque du Soleil, which you carry out on the ice bringing in your personal interpretation, alongside very distinctive make-up and purple costumes. How did you give you it?

DS: It was me and our choreographer, Maxim Staviyski. He got here to Budapest and we had been doing the brief programme, actually concentrating on approach and the best way to do it clear. We had one thought to do one other music for the free, however then I later met with Maxim in his lodge for a drink and we randomly got here up with the Cirque du Soleil thought, occupied with the choreography and reducing the music. The following morning, we went to see Mariia and informed her we had an incredible thought and music to deliver to the ice! Total, there’s a huge distinction between our rhythm dance and free dance. We needed to do one thing for the viewers to recollect.

MI: I couldn’t even think about I’d have skated one thing like this! Maxim needed to do one thing totally different, one thing that individuals would discover, a dance that they might keep in mind. 

You might be nonetheless a comparatively new crew, with this being your second yr collectively. How did you discover one another and determine to skate collectively?

MI: I used to be in search of a associate for greater than half a yr. I hoped to seek out somebody tall: it was crucial for me however I knew it’s uncommon to seek out tall ice dancers!

DS: Mariia is sort of tall too, it may very well be laborious to seek out somebody who would match. We discovered one another by way of the Ice Companions Search and earlier than then we discovered one another on Instagram. Mariia was the one which wrote to me.

MI: I used to be updating my profile twice a day at the moment! I actually needed to seek out somebody and I instantly noticed when Danijil created a associate search request: I used to be the primary woman to jot down to him. 

DS: It was nonetheless the pandemic time, there have been no flights, however we managed to get Mariia to Budapest for a check out.

MI: We based our couple on Christmas Eve! It was December twenty fourth once we determined to skate collectively. 

We’re completely happy that you just discovered one another by way of Ice Companion Search, the now twenty years previous portal managed by our editor Daphne Backman that has helped quite a lot of skaters to seek out one another.

DS: Wow, that’s cool! We have to thank her then!

Have you ever all the time been ice dancers? 

DS: I’ve all the time been an ice dancer! I used to be fairly tall and got here late into determine skating, I began skating once I was seven years previous. My coaches had been making an attempt to show me the jumps, however I used to be extra into the music and was transferring loads and doing choreographies for myself and one other child, so my coaches informed me to go to ice dance.

MI: I used to be a single skater from the age of three to 12. I’m nineteen now and this September it is going to be sixteen years of skating for me! After I was in single skating, I used to be afraid to leap: I might do all triple jumps besides the triple axel, I might additionally do triple-triple and triple-double combos and a double axel. I used to be a extremely good skater however I used to be already tall, so if I had been a single skater now I’d battle as it’s troublesome to leap with my peak. 

How would you say your partnership has been growing because you determined to affix forces?

DS: We’re engaged on our partnership, always! We come to the ice on daily basis to follow. Mariia and I are very totally different, however I believe we work properly collectively.

MI: Day-after-day, we’re studying to grasp one another and our physique language. It’s in stress state of affairs like competitions that when one thing adjustments you must perceive the physique language and the mindset of the particular person subsequent to you.

DS: We are able to see that we’re positively beginning to perceive one another. 

With this being your second aggressive yr, you’ve got already earned two nationwide titles and took part in quite a lot of totally different competitions together with the 4 Nationals Championships, two European Championships and one World Championships. What did you be taught from these competitions and what do you goal to realize for the long run?

MI: After each competitors, we be taught an increasing number of to be collectively, how we skate and the way we really feel. 

DS: We go to the ice on daily basis and do what we be taught and what we work laborious for. We’re studying to not stress ourselves an excessive amount of with the large competitions. I maintain Mariia’s fingers, get on the ice, focus and do what now we have to do. Our goal is to slowly get to the highest!

MI: All people desires to be on the high! We are going to attempt, step-by-step.

Are there any groups that you just take inspiration from?

DS: For me, the Italians, Charlene (Guignard) and Marco (Fabbri). They’re nice, the best way they do what they do. The best way they cope with stress is outstanding. At Europeans, that they had a lot stress on them, however they did it for one another and their coach. There are quite a lot of actually good {couples} this yr, for instance the Finnish couple (Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis).

MI: I additionally like Charlene and Marco, and Juulia and Matthias. 

DS: That is at European degree, however at world degree there are such a lot of nice groups, it will be attention-grabbing on the World Championships. All people is looking for their very own model and solution to impress the viewers. After 2014, everybody was making an attempt to repeat Papadakis and Cizeron, however now everyone seems to be looking for their very own model.

MI: It’s a actually optimistic growth in ice dance, as a result of everyone tries to be totally different, it’s good.

What do you take pleasure in probably the most when not coaching? Mariia, we are able to see out of your social media that you just like to color? 

MI: Sure! I like it, I can present you [she shows a work in progress], this can be a portray of my canine. I paint at dwelling and in studio. It’s not simple however I attempt!

And also you Danijil, what do you want doing? 

DS: I’m doing music and dealing on teaching youngsters.  I actually love Budapest, so I like strolling and discovering new locations on the town. 

Thanks a lot for sharing all this with us, it was nice to seek out out extra about you. There’s something else you wish to say that’s necessary to you.

DS: I needed to say a few phrases of help for Solène (Mazingue) and Marko (Gaidajenko), the couple from Estonia. She had a horrible harm this season: they’re very nice younger folks and she or he goes by way of such a tough state of affairs. We need to share our help to them: Solène is a bit of hero and we hope they are going to be again quickly.