Petrova and Tikhonov recently had leading roles in Averbukh’s ice musical “Carmen” and performed for the first time with their 9-year-old daughter, Polina Tikhonova, who played the role of Carmen as a child in the production.
They first put their daughter into skates at age 3, but her expectations of being able to “do it all” were dashed the first time she stepped onto the ice. “She immediately fell, of course, and asked ‘what’s happening?’ We told her that is not how it works and she said‚ ‘Nah, if it does not work like that then I don’t want to do it,’” Petrova recalled with a laugh. “A couple of years later we enrolled her in classes. She didn’t like it very much. She would look at us, silently, but her eyes asked the question, ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you torturing me so much?’
“Polina trains at the rink where Eteri Tutberidze coaches. The first month she went to training with tears in her eyes. She was lagging behind so we put her into a group with kids that had been skating for a year so she could catch up with them. At first she couldn’t do much, but she caught up with them by the end of the year. When the competitions started, she liked it and now she is seriously engaged. Polina is currently competing as a singles skater, but we are inclined to put her into ice dance. She is artistic, but very tall and there is no way she could do a quad.”[/quoe]
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