Figure Skating | “Fortunately, the audience doesn't skate” – ice dancer Juulia Turkkila would like to know what the judges really think

Kaunas

In Finland is the first time since 1996 that there are two ice dance couples at the European Figure Skating Championships.

Thank you for that Juulia to Turkey and to Matthias Versluiswho brought the second representative place with last year's EC bronze.

Turkkila and Versluis will compete in this year's European Championships in Kaunas Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen. In 2020, Orihara and Pirinen replaced Turkkila and Versluis, who missed the European Championships due to injury.

While Turkkila and Versluis are going to defend their medals, Orihara and Pirinen consider it possible to finish in the top ten. In 2020, the pair was 18.

If it goes really well, Finland can even get a third ice dance couple for the 2025 European Championships.

It requires that the combined ranking of the two pairs is 13 or better. It would come true if Turkkila and Versluis were on medals and Orihara and Pirinen were tenth.

In this case, the third representative pair should be found among young people. There were only two ice dance couples on the ice at the Adult Championship in December.

“There is a goal in that,” says Pirinen.

The before that, we have to wait for the results of the European Championships in Kaunas. Ice dance rhythm dance is competed on Friday during the day and free dance on Saturday evening.

A year ago Turkkila and Versluis won bronze in Espoo with a margin of 2.5 points over the Lithuanians to Allison Reed and to Saulius Ambrulevicius. In Kaunas, the Lithuanians will compete in front of the home crowd.

Home field advantage can be decisive when the judges are trying to score their points.

“Luckily, the audience doesn't skate. There must be a good feeling in the hall”, says Turkkila.

Although the judges nowadays have exact rules on how and on what basis points are awarded, nothing is ever certain in judging.

As a rule of thumb is, the longer a pair has skated together, the better the judges know it.

Versluis says that building awareness takes time, and it's a long way. He and Turkkila have competed as a pair since 2016.

“It would be nice to get inside the judges' heads and see what they think. You still can't be sure how they will judge,” says 29-year-old Turkkila.

“Points are not always up to you. In some running sports, the time is determined by knowing the statistics. Not in figure skating, although we also have a ranking,” says Vers
luis, who is the same age as his partner.

“Figure skating is different from, for example, skiing, where the first to finish wins. In this sport, you have to take the result that comes. You have to be realistic,” says Pirinen.

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“The program doesn't run through my mind all the time. If you spin, you'd go crazy. You have to separate training and free time.”

In the season ranking of the International Skating Union Isu, Turkkila and Versluis are the fourth best European pair. In addition to the Lithuanians, the Italians are ahead Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri and the British Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson.

Orihara and Pirinen are ranked 14th in Europe. They have been skating together since May 2019.

Orihara found Pirinen's coach Maurizio Margaglio with connections. The Italian Margaglio, who lives in Helsinki, also coaches Turkkila and Versluis.

Both Finnish figure skating pairs have learned dozens of different programs during their careers, first as single skaters, then as pairs of ice dancers. It requires good adaptability and the ability to learn new things.

Programs and choreographies are often built in such a way that old, already learned things, such as jumps, can always be applied.

“It would be difficult if you had to reteach everyone every year. We have learned at least 14 programs in ice dance, and when you add the solo skating programs, we get to about 30–40 programs,” Versluis calculates.

In December, Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis competed in the figure skating championships in Helsinki. Picture: Vesa Moilanen / Magazine photo

And how much of the program do you have to go through in your mind's eye? Is the film spinning in your head all the time, so to speak?

“The program doesn't run through my mind all the time. If you spin, you'd go crazy. You have to separate training and free time,” says Versluis.

“I can't say to the second what will happen in any given time. But if I hear the music, I immediately know where to go in the program,” says Pirinen.

Bridge in the period, the theme of the ice dance rhythm dance is the 1980s, of which modern couples only have hearsay and the music of that time.

Rhythm dance's Turkkila and Versluis skate the American Taylor Dayne Tell It to My Heart inspired by the song. The two other pieces of music in the show are Dayne's handwriting.

Orihara, 23, and Pirinen, 28, are confident in rhythmic dancing Madonna's to songs and in free dance Chicago-to the musical.

Brought a medal in Turkkila and Versluis free dance Franz
Schubert has changed English Phoria– to the band's songs Mass and Losswhich combine many different styles: art pop, progressive rock, classical, indie rock, dream pop and electronic music.

Both Finnish couples are couples only on ice.

The relatives of Turkkila, Versluis and Orihara are excited about the EC competitions in front of the television. The Pirinen family, on the other hand, travels to Kaunas in their own car.

“It takes twelve hours to drive here from Tallinn. It can be driven in a day,” says Pirinen.

European Figure Skating ice dance on Friday from 12 o'clock.