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This interview is originally from www.kommersant.ru
Q: Your “Godfather” was sort of a cultural shock for fans and reporters… Evgeni: I like it too. But if I worked on the program a little bit more, in particular, finished the straight footwork sequence and made a circular footwork a little more difficult, that program would really become one of my best, maybe the best. Q: Aren’t you sorry to skate such a luxurious program a season before the Olympics? Evgeni: In a year, we’ll make the programs that aren’t worse. With my coach Alexei Mishin, we got very strong and friendly team. First, we involved one more talented choreographer, Sergei Petukhov, who choreographs for Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavijsky, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin. Edwald Smirnov who is connected to us by six years of creating together, participated in choreographing the free program and found new movements and style. Petukhov did the base for both programs. Each of them brought their best into my programs. Second, my coach and I are eternally grateful to our friend, Hungarian violinist and composer Edwin Marton who wrote and recorded that theme. If you work with people who are united by one idea and speak the same language, you get the results. I went to Marton in Hungary, we stayed in studio for hours. He offered a number of variations and I chose the one that was closer to my soul. By the way, in the second, slow part, the violin is written in – it was my idea. I said, “Edwin, I need the violin part for the nerve.” He said, “Not a question.” And he did it. Q: Before, many thought that you put more soul to the “Petersburg 300” program that into any of the other programs. Now, the criminal theme, again. Is that so close to you? Evgeni: As for “Criminal Petersburg”, I just liked Igor Korneluk’s music for that movies, that’s all, just like now, I liked the great theme for the “Shtrafbat” movie. Filippe Candeloro skated to “Godfather”, and I wanted to play up that theme for a while. Q: Why does Alexei Yagudin has a lot of followers, and American Johnny Weir is the only one who’s trying to get your style? Evgeni: I don’t see Weir copying me. He has some movements and steps that look like mine. Yagudin started to train other skaters, so it’s natural for his students to take the coach’s style. Too bad none of them improved. Maybe it’s for the best. You need to know how to coach. Q: Maybe the thing is that your individual natural qualities are harder to copy? Evgeni: I don’t want to hurt anyone but since we are talking about it, I , for example, never wanted to look like anyone. When I trained in the same group with Alexei Urmanov and Mishin would asked me to do like he did, I answered that I won’t just blindly copy Urmanov’s moves and did the exercise that helped me to get the technique to the certain level in my own way. There was time I looked up to Victor Petrenko, but skating in his style didn’t happen for me. Then, I liked Brian Boitano and Kurt Browning, but again, I couldn’t do it like them. As a result, I found my own style Q: Are you going to ad one more quad to the program Evgeni: I’ve been ready for a long time, but injuries… I am competing at the serious level for 9 years, and I had injuries – I punched my foot with the blade, injured my knees, my back; my head is filled with programs and victories. To win you have to train, and that means, overcoming the pain. Q: Maybe you should’ve missed the season and get a serious treatment before the Olympics? Evgeni: In sport, you won’t get cured once and for all. When you start jumping or learning the new elements, some weak spot will remind of itself. Last year, my left knee hurt sometimes, but it calmed down after the season. I started to learn the quad salchow, and again… Started the quad Lutz – my right knee hurts. Because I did Bielmann spin and donut spin often, I got problems with the back and a nerve on the backside. I just simply have to fight that, sometimes there are painkillers, and a little rest, of course. Q: What do you think of ISU trying to forbid skaters to perform in any show during the Grand Prix series which are commercial as well? Evgeni: I don’t have any contracts with ISU, other skaters probably don’t have them either. Of course, it’s unnatural that we are not allowed to skate. This is a step back in skating. The more exhibitions are around the World, the more popular our sports. Many skaters are probably thinking now about how they’ll live. ISU is probably thinking too. I am not angry with anyone, but when ISU forbid me to skate in the Prague’s show in early November, it was unpleasant to say the least. I let down the organizers, but importantly, - 15 thousand fans that filled the arena. Now, this situation is in lawyers’ hands. When time comes, I’ll definitely tell everything that for now is better not to be
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