Eteri Tutberidze’s show in Moscow on Friday gave the audience bright emotions and unexpected performances, as well as one long-awaited return. The Sport correspondent saw everything with his own eyes.
The current tour of Eteri Tutberidze’s show across Russia can easily be dedicated to a milestone anniversary – ten years ago, the honored coach of Russia received this honorary title for her first outstanding success in her career. She led Yulia Lipnitskaya, who conquered the ice of the Sochi Iceberg and captivated the whole country, to the title of Olympic champion in the team.
And after the 2014 Olympic Games, Eteri Georgievna had a whole galaxy of champions. Two-time world champion and vice-champion of the Pyeongchang Olympics Evgenia Medvedeva, winner of the 2018 Games Alina Zagitova. The famous TSHK trio is the vice-champion of the Beijing Games Alexandra Trusova, the winner of this Olympics Anna Shcherbakova, the 2020 European champion Alena Kostornaya. Perhaps the most talented figure skater in history is Kamila Valieva. And these are only those stars who shone most brightly at the peak of their career.
It will be simply great if someday we manage to realize the idea of bringing together in one performance everyone whom Tutberidze nurtured. Perhaps a more significant reason is needed for this. But even in the current tour of Russian cities, the brightest skaters who went through the Khrustalny school are taking part. Full houses in every city where Zagitova and company come are proof of this.
But Tutberidze’s show in Moscow has always been a kind of semantic core of the entire tour. This is probably logical – Eteri Georgievna works in the capital, and here her students are received especially warmly. This time the performance at Megasport was no exception – for several reasons it became special.
It all started literally from the first minutes of the performance. Immediately after the group performance of the participants, last year's Russian champion Sofia Akatieva returned to the ice. Due to a severe leg injury that had become chronic, she performed this season only in test skates in September and in the demonstration part of one of the stages of the Moscow “Battle of Schools”. And then – long months of treatment and recovery. Only in February Akatieva resumed training.
On Friday, the figure skater performed her short program, which she was never able to perform at the competition – set to the music of Aram Khachaturian's “Masquerade”. From a technical point of view, of course, this was not the strongest performance: Sophia performed a double Axel and a triple Salchow, but did not do a cascade. But emotionally it turned out to be very strong – the feeling that Akatieva missed performing in front of the audience was tangible.
“”There was motivation to return, to recover, many wrote to me that they were waiting for me,” the figure skater shared her feelings after returning. “Now everything is fine. I’m not saying anything about the next season yet, I’m restoring jumps and programs. I really want to, I’ll do everything to to perform.”
The question of performances in the next season is also relevant for several other participants in the Tutberidze show. Alexandra Trusova answered him three days ago in St. Petersburg – or rather, she left him, saying that “she does not answer such questions.” So only she knows the plans of the Olympic vice-champion for now – and, perhaps, she herself has not yet decided what to do next. At least what can be said for sure is that if Trusova wants, she will return. At least she’s okay with triple jumps in the show. And where there are triples, knowing the character of this athlete, there will be quadruples.
As for Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, she also has not yet given an answer as to whether she will return next season after missing the completed one. “While I’m preparing for the show, I’m putting on new programs. My plans are to rest, then, perhaps, I’ll perform in Ilya Averbukh’s show. Everything is possible in our life,” this is how the ex-world champion philosophically assessed the likelihood of her return to the competitive ice.
The most devoted fans probably continue to wait for Alina Zagitova in tournaments – even though four years have passed since she suspended her career. It is hardly worth deceiving yourself – the chances of this are slim. First of all, not even because time moves inexorably forward – it’s just that Zagitova seems to have found a thrill in ordinary life off the ice, where she is a journalist, a TV presenter, a model, and sometimes a singer, and is still probably the most media athlete of Russia.
So, on the eve of Tutberidze’s show, the media space exploded after Alina published photographs from the wedding salon. “Is she really getting married?” – comments poured in on social networks. Late in the evening, the figure skater promised to reveal the secret of visiting this establishment the next day.
And here it is, on the ice of “Megasport”, this secret – Zagitova performs a completely new number to the music from the movie “My Affectionate and Gentle Beast”. At one point he puts on a wedding veil – remember this tragic story? But in Alina’s tender waltz, the sadness is still light. And after the music died down, the Olympic champion told why she performed this program.
“”This number means a lot to me. Today I showed it for the first time, it is dedicated to my grandmother, who dreamed of me performing in this image to this music. She supported me both during successes and during failures. I am grateful for everything she did for me,” Zagitova addressed the stands.
This was the most touching moment of the show. But besides this, the audience saw, as always, a whole scattering of wonderful numbers – Medvedeva’s already beloved “spring” dance, Trusova’s fiery show, and the artistic performance of Pyotr Gumennik in the image of Dorian Gray, and many other magnificent programs. It is very symbolic that the Moscow performance took place on Cosmonautics Day, because it was about space. And I would like to kindly envy the spectators of those cities who have yet to see all these performances with their own eyes. The show continues!
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