The world of ice dance is diverse, but the ties and friendships that bind that community run deep. The response to the predicament of Ukrainian ice dancers Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin confirms that. Even those who are not close friends with the team are rallying to support them, along with others in the skating fraternity who had no connection to them at all until this week.
Normally based in Moscow, both skaters returned to their hometown of Kharkiv, a city that has been one of the hardest hit, following the 2022 Olympic Games.
As with most people in the world, the invasion of Ukraine has shocked and saddened Madison Chock and Evan Bates. The duo knows the Ukrainian ice dance team well, having trained with them years ago in Detroit. The safety and health of their friends is foremost on their minds, which was evident in the responses they gave to certain questions during a teleconference call earlier this week.
When asked if they had any update about the Team Event medal ceremony, Chock and Bates had no obvious interest in opining on that particular topic.
“I have been thinking about what is going on in Russia and Ukraine, but it has nothing to do with our situation,” Chock said. “What is happening right now is really devastating. I think about our Ukrainian friends who have just had the biggest highlight of their life (at the Olympics) and then they went home to a war in their country. It breaks my heart. It is hard to think about anything else. An Olympic medal seems like really not a big deal in light of all of that.”
“It (the war) puts things in perspective,” Bates added. “We have tried to keep in touch with our Ukrainian friends Sasha and Max who we trained with when we were in Michigan. We saw them in Beijing and had never seen them happier.
“And then we came home and in trading messages … it is difficult to comprehend and grapple with having a similar experience in Beijing, and then returning to such a different world and life experience. That has been hard for us to digest. It (the medal ceremony) is not of importance to us at this point.”
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are also friendly with the Ukrainian ice dance team. “We have not had the pleasure — at least myself — of training directly with them, but of course in the skating world you cross paths many times,” said Hubbell.
“I have not spoken with them directly but what I heard through the grapevine was that they were finally given permission to leave and they are now safely out of Ukraine and in Poland. I did not speak to them personally but I heard there is a possibility they could attend the World Championships.
“I was speaking with Gabriella (Papadakis). I know she is trying to urge them — if at all possible to come and participate at Worlds, even if they do not feel that they are competitive.
“Gabriella is definitely doing her part in not only reaching out to them, but also asking all of us at the rink if we would be willing or able to bring supplies to them if they need something. I know they left very abruptly so I can only hope that we see them and surround them with a loving community. What is happening is, in general, just horrible to watch.”
Canadian music guru Hugo Chouinard was sitting at his desk one morning earlier this week, wondering what he could do to help. While watching the situation in Ukraine unfold on a TV screen in his Montréal studio, Chouinard decided to reach out to the athletes, coaches and the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation to see if there was anything he could do to help the skaters’ with their music. Nazarova and Nikitin took Chouinard up on his offer.
“I was feeling that I had to do something and wondered what I could do for them. Having never worked with any of the skaters before, I reached out on Instagram on Tuesday and told them that if I can do anything to support or to enhance your music before Worlds, it would be a great pleasure to help,” Chouinard explained.
“Oleksandra (Nazarova) responded, thanking me for the support and asked if I could take the music for the rhythm dance and change it ‘because we do not want to skate to happy music.’ They want the music of their program to express what they are living through. I immediately responded, ‘yes, I will do this for you.’”
On Wednesday morning, Nazarova sent Chouinard a video of the new music they want to use for the rhythm dance. Chouinard said he dropped everything to work solely on this project. “We quickly started to match the tempo, the elements, rephrasing the music — to match everything in the structure of the program they currently have to the new music. Everything fit like a glove for the choreography, so they had nothing to change in the program.
“I sent them a version at about one in the morning on Thursday and we are now refining everything.
“Just working on this and watching the videos and images we are working with, I had tears in my eyes while editing. It is really moving. This program has a meaning that is so deep, so real. It’s life. It is what these people are living and what they want to express to the world.
“I feel that this is the most significant program I have made in 30 years.”
Ed. Note: Hugo Chouinard advised us on March 18 that the Ukrainian pairs team has now also reached out to him to prepare new music for their short program.
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