Vaytsekhovskaya's interview with Ilinykh `I do boxing at the weekends'

[Xela M]

I think that most of his teams get to a certain level and then can't progress beyond that validates the criticsm against him in that department. V/M and D/W were big exceptions, obviously, but he still worked together with Zoueva. There are legitimate gripes against Zoueva in the choreo department as well (all that kitsch and young love and hand kisses! ), but I thought together they gave these pairs some sort of look that worked for them with the judges. BelGosto OTOH were a pair that, beyond their technical issues, never found a clear artistic voice for themselves. Same for Punsalan/Swallow, except Oblivion. And I think it's telling that Oblivion seemed to happen as a sort of last ditch effort, where he desperately threw something together after their usual cringeworthy Latin wannabe FD had flopped. But by then their career had basically stalled at least in part because Igor gave them subpar program after subpar program. The same seems to be happening with C/B now, a pair who can't make the last step to the top because they can't find an identity. None of that is an issue for I/Z yet of course, they need clean up more than anything.

Well C&B are a subpar team and the fact that they are winning Worlds medals over much more talented teams is a testament to how good Igor really is

 

[Katha]

Well C&B are a subpar team and the fact that they are winning Worlds medals over much more talented teams is a testament to how good Igor really is

Eh, who's more talented than them? P/C, obviously. But after that it seems to me that it's mainly an issue of "a lot of fans hate C/B's guts and desperately want them to fail and refuse to give them any credit for what they do well". The Shibs have always had issues with power, speed and skating "big", plus IMO they tend towards cautiousness in performance. If you're ripping Madison for her skating skills, then you need to rip Anna Cappellini as well. WeaPo are hard-working, but isn't the general consensus on them that them not being exceptional at anything is part of what is holding them back? H/D are still in development as a team. B/S are hard-working and talented, though IMO also not exceptional. I'd class C/B right into that set: Hard-working and talented, but not spectacular. They're certainly not "subpar" in the current ice dance context.

 

[kirkbiggestfan]

Not sure who the French choreographer is. Fabian and Nathalie worked with Cottereau on circus themes and Laurie May a brilliant all-around choreographer.
Could also be the hip-hop choreographers from Lyon.

 

[Coquelicot14]

I may be one of the few, but somehow I am not optimistic about this coaching change. I do agree that I&Z needed a firmer hand than Kustareva. She gave them too much artistic freedom and not enough direction so they ended up with a mess of the programs last season.
But Igor has a terrible track record with the Russian ice dance teams (they end up splitting or retiring). Now they are working with Najarro again, which didn't work last year.
I do think Platov and a brand new choreographer would have been a better choice. For next season I am much more optimistic for teams that have turned to Tchernyshev to create their programs.

Too bad, I really like I&Z.

Honestly though, while I see I&Z and S&K as having some progress in the rankings, I don't see either as the top Russian team in the future.

 

[Xela M]

I may be one of the few, but somehow I am not optimistic about this coaching change. I do agree that I&Z needed a firmer hand than Kustareva. She gave them too much artistic freedom and not enough direction so they ended up with a mess of the programs last season.
But Igor has a terrible track record with the Russian ice dance teams (they end up splitting or retiring). Now they are working with Najarro again, which didn't work last year.
I do think Platov and a brand new choreographer would have been a better choice. For next season I am much more optimistic for teams that have turned to Tchernyshev to create their programs.

Too bad, I really like team.

Platov would have been ideal but everyone keeps ignoring him (for reasons I don't understand) so he wasn't even in contention for the job

 

[Marta24]

I may be one of the few, but somehow I am not optimistic about this coaching change. I do agree that I&Z needed a firmer hand than Kustareva. She gave them too much artistic freedom and not enough direction so they ended up with a mess of the programs last season.
But Igor has a terrible track record with the Russian ice dance teams (they end up splitting or retiring). Now they are working with Najarro again, which didn't work last year.
I do think Platov and a brand new choreographer would have been a better choice. For next season I am much more optimistic for teams that have turned to Tchernyshev to create their programs.

Too bad, I really like team.

I think from the Russian teams he only coached Riazanova/Tkachenko and I`m not sure if it was full-time. Anyway, a coaching change is always risky and there is no guarantee that it will work out. They could experience a breakthrough similar to Hubbell/Donohue when they switched to Montreal or they could end up like Paul/Islam, who lost their World`s spot to their team mates. After last season Elena and Ruslan had to change something and from the options they had, Shpilband seems like the logical choice.

 

[kosjenka]

I dont think Platov has a base and full time team on his side. I am trying to be optimistic about team Ruslena. Oh well...

 

[kwanfan1818]

(I don't remember how the music was chosen for the season, or whether the dancers could choose among a few options, or if they didn't even know which piece would play until they were on the ice.)

For CD's the ISU defined five or so cuts appropriate for the pattern, tempo, and mood. They played in a rotation. The starting draw determined which cut the skaters got.

 

[Coquelicot14]

I think from the Russian teams he only coached Riazanova/Tkachenko and I`m not sure if it was full-time.

Elena also trained with him before, don't remember if she had a partner. But it led nowhere until she went back and went to Zhulin.
Khokhlova/Andreev also skated under him (maybe Zueva too) with 0 result.

 

[Marta24]

Elena also trained with him before, don't remember if she had a partner. But it led nowhere until she went back and went to Zhulin.
Khokhlova/Andreev also skated under him (maybe Zueva too) with 0 result.

Elena went to Shpilband after Nikita broke up with her the first time, I think she was around 12/13 years old and no she didn`t have a partner. Khokhlova/Andreev had bad luck, since he got injured, besides he didn`t have any previous ice dance experience.

 

[clairecloutier]

Elena went to Shpilband after Nikita broke up with her the first time, I think she was around 12/13 years old and no she didn`t have a partner. Khokhlova/Andreev had bad luck, since he got injured, besides he didn`t have any previous ice dance experience.

Yes. As to Riazanova/Tkachenko, I'm not sure why they didn't succeed more under Shpilband. I just always found them to have no personality as a team. Maybe Igor couldn't solve the fundamental lack of chemistry. Tkachenko is much more interesting now with Tobias IMO.

 

[morqet]

Khokhlova/Andreev also skated under him (maybe Zueva too) with 0 result.

K/A were with him & Zoueva (I think she was the one that led & traveled with them to events), and got 4th at Russian Nationals & 4th at Golden Spin after 8 months together (as Marta24 said, this being his first ice dance experience), and went no further due to his knee injury. Not really proving a point either way for or against Igor's competence coaching Russian teams.

WRT to the elements coming before or after the music & choreo, I'd say it's only a problem if the step sequences & overall layout is determined before the music is chosen. Everything else - You know you have to do a rotational, straight line and curve lift, twizzles and a dance spin, just as a pair skater knows they have to do a twist, 2 throws, sbs jumps, etc and singles skaters talk about working on more complex jumps before putting it into a program. Even at the most basic level, you learn how to execute the element on it's own before trying to link it with anything else or thinking about how each part relates to anything else. Elena didn't say "we had the layout of the programs sorted and we know it's going to be SlLi, CuLi, Tw, SlStSq, Sp, etc and we had to find music that fits that". She said they had the elements done - i.e. the technical foundation, and then they have worked with the choreographers to turn that into the dance. Ask most skaters and they'll work in a similar way.

 

[Dobre]

I don't think he was doing choreo for C/L? Wasn't he more a consultant for tech while their main coach in Italy did most of the work? And D/W and V/M were in tandem with Zoueva. Anyway, this has turned into a discussion beyond I/Z, because none of that will be any kind of problem for them this next season. It's perhaps more of a discussion for Chock/Bates, who seem to have realized they need to go outside to look for inspiration. How Dean will work out for them is the next question, of course.

Yes. I'm glad Chock & Bates are continuing to look for outside choreography. (I was worried after this season). And I'm glad I&K will be getting outside feedback as well. Igor coaches too many teams for his weakness in choreography not to be apparent. Especially at the junior level, it's like there has been no effort whatsoever. A tango for you, a folk dance for you, R&J for you. But I'm glad two of the junior teams I love are training with him because I believe they are getting the technical foundation they need. And the same could be true for Ilinykh & Zhiganshin at this stage of their partnership.

To make that last step onto the top of the podium, it should and does take more. At the moment, outside choreography seems like the best way for his senior teams to get there. It's still an issue, though, because most great programs become great over the course of a season, not right off the bat. The coach still has to maintain the artistic vision while upgrading the difficulty.

Tarasova used to be so incredible at this. At taking a team or an athlete that already had all the technical goods and helping them reach a new artistic plane.

To be fair, there are precious few coaches who can claim to have coached a World or Olympic gold medal dance team. And no one does it by him or herself.

 

[hanca]

Elena also trained with him before, don't remember if she had a partner. But it led nowhere until she went back and went to Zhulin.
Khokhlova/Andreev also skated under him (maybe Zueva too) with 0 result.

I thought Khokhlova/Andreev were taught by Zueva, not Spilband. Besides, you can't make single skater be dancer and expect him to do well immediately. Dance is not as easy as non dancers think.

 

[gkelly]

For CD's the ISU defined five or so cuts appropriate for the pattern, tempo, and mood. They played in a rotation. The starting draw determined which cut the skaters got.

Yes. So, especially with standard CDs that they had been doing for years, the skaters were already familiar with the standard ISU-approved music cuts.

A significant point about the approved CD music selections is that they were all arranged to be very regular in rhythm, no subtle slowing or speeding up or held notes for expressive purposes, with in most cases the downbeats very clearly emphasized. Easy to follow so there was little excuse for skating off time.

In choosing free dance music, on the other hand, skaters could make use of some of those expressive rhythmic variations in the music that would not be found in the compulsories, because they could plan their unique choreography to match the nuances of that specific musical selection and rehearse it that way.

Of course, at various times the ice dance rules and ice dance judges were stricter than other times about requiring free dance music to be "orchestrated for the dance floor" and maintain a predictable as well as audible rhythm.

 

[hoptoad]

Yes. So, especially with standard CDs that they had been doing for years, the skaters were already familiar with the standard ISU-approved music cuts.

A significant point about the approved CD music selections is that they were all arranged to be very regular in rhythm, no subtle slowing or speeding up or held notes for expressive purposes, with in most cases the downbeats very clearly emphasized. Easy to follow so there was little excuse for skating off time.

In choosing free dance music, on the other hand, skaters could make use of some of those expressive rhythmic variations in the music that would not be found in the compulsories, because they could plan their unique choreography to match the nuances of that specific musical selection and rehearse it that way.

Of course, at various times the ice dance rules and ice dance judges were stricter than other times about requiring free dance music to be "orchestrated for the dance floor" and maintain a predictable as well as audible rhythm.

Thanks to you and kwanfan for reminding me how that aspect of the CD worked.
The couple of times I got to watch CDs live, I felt like I was starting to get what dance fans were saying when they talked about the skating skills of various teams. With the free dance, it's clear to me that the top teams really are in a different league than the others, but I still have no idea how to rank them objectively.

 

[kwanfan1818]

So, especially with standard CDs that they had been doing for years, the skaters were already familiar with the standard ISU-approved music cuts.

A significant point about the approved CD music selections is that they were all arranged to be very regular in rhythm, no subtle slowing or speeding up or held notes for expressive purposes, with in most cases the downbeats very clearly emphasized. Easy to follow so there was little excuse for skating off time.

You practically could see the more experienced skaters' eyes roll during the warmups, like a rock and roll teen when their parents put Sinatra or Andy Williams on the phonograph. Then they'd start bobbing along to it, like my friend who rolled his eyes at Yanni but found himself commuting home alone in traffic absent-mindedly singing along to his kids' "Baby Beluga" cassette.