Mao writes a column article every month on a Japanese sports graphic magazine 'Number'. Here is my rough translation of her article published
on the latest issue (this month), in which she mentioned Denis and the tribute show. Seems Ten-chan is the way how she called/calls him.
To the first anniversary of Ten-chan's death
I'm back from Kazakhstan. July the 19th was the first anniversary of Ten-chan's death. A tribute ice show was held there on the 20th.
Ten-chan's mother made the show happen by contacting the skaters from all over the world. From Japan me and [Takahito] Mura-kun took part in it. We had intensive rehearsals for two days. On the second day we had a dinner party as well. After the dinner we visited Ten-chan's monument to offer flowers to his spirit and also visited his grave. Dai-chan (Daisuke Takahashi) was with us from the party to the visit to his grave.
The ice show was held at an all-season ice arena which was built in Almaty three years ago. Probably 4,000-5,000 people were in the rink to see the show. 10 skaters(teams), both pro and amateur, came together to skate in the show including Canada's Weaver/Poje, Russia's Elena Radionova, USA's Jeremy Abbott.
I skated three group numbers and two solo numbers. When I got the first contact from his mother, I asked her "Which number do I skate?" Her answer was "I want Mao to skate 'Singin' in the Rain' which Denis loved the most." It was the program he skated as an exhibition number in the past. Since I wanted to skate the program just like he did, I made a replica costume and took it with me to Kazakhstan. The other solo number was my own program 'Winds Beneath My Wings'. For that number musicians played the music live and a singer sang the song. It made me feel great to skate to their live performance.
We also danced to the musics that Ten-chan made as well as to his recorded singing voice. I felt he was there with us even though we could not see him.
I used to skate with him in many ice shows. Also I would train with him since when I was training under Tatiana [Tarasova] in Russia, he was there too. There were times when we worked with Lori [Nichol] on choreography around the same time. On those occasions we played tennis together or went out for meals. He was a man who had a strong sense of justice, he was friendly to everyone, and he was the life of the party. In 2014 when he held his own first ice show in Kazakhstan, it was Denis and his mother who did everything to organize the show. I observed closely their extraordinary efforts for the show. They even made arrangements for skaters' flight tickets. He always gave his 100% and he was a hard worker.
Last year when the incident happened, I could not believe it... I never thought the murder would happen. I said to myself "Whyyy?" I could not accept it. I did not want to accept it. I had stayed away from believing it for a long time. That said, this time when I visited Kazakhstan, Ten-chan was not there, his video was shown on a screen through the dinner party, we visited the place where the incident happened, and all of this finally made me realize that he's gone.
Figure skating world is a very small community. We all are fellow skaters, who have worked hard in this sport, who competed together at international competitions, and who skated together in ice shows. It was so heartbreaking that such a friend was murdered. It was an incident that made not only me sad but also people in figure skating world from all over the world, the people across Kazakhstan, and people all over the world. Although I believe it's his family who were facing the toughest time, I was a bit relieved to see his mother had recovered to feel like holding an ice show. I was glad I could come and talk with her again. It was really nice that I was given a chance to visit there.
There I re-discovered that there are lots of things that he left. As a nation wide star he gave dreams to lots of children. His legacy obviously remains there including his musics, his voices, and his achievements.
By the way, now I'm working as a 'charity personality' for '24 hours TV' (note: a Japanese well known charity TV show to be aired live for 24 hours), which is my new challenge. Right now I'm working hard on tap dance to perform during the live show together with kids with hearing difficulties. Tap dance is tough for me since it's very different from figure skating. But tap dance is fun!
www.ifsmagazine.com
www.instagram.com
www.youtube.com
kazakh-tv.kz
(feels so much longer to me!)... we remember you, Denis.
www.inform.kz