The jump from individual skating to the den of the dance of subjectivity. Chronicle of Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva

Greetings, dear figure skating fans! Your dedicated author is in touch Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva with a new topic on transitions from singles to couples.

We can say with certainty that every child reaches the age of twelve. More or less, at this age, both boys and girls understand whether it is wise to continue playing sports. Proceed to pair skating if the skater has good triple jumps and appropriate anthropometry. Enter the whirlwind of ice dancing if the athlete likes to slide and embody different images. Well, or you should just finish it.

I’m going to tell you how I found myself in a crazy “dance party”…

I started figure skating shortly before the Olympic Games in Turin in 2006. Then it gained great popularity among the people thanks to the strongest Russian team. And you know, figure skating in the 2000s was real madness and courage and dedication and faith in success. Otherwise, I can’t imagine for what other reasons my parents agreed in 2008 “there is no ice, so come from Mytishchi to the skating rink in Maryino at 3:50 in the morning to skate for an hour for 3,000 rubles” . Yes, yes, mom and dad decided that we should immediately play sports professionally. I skated in one section of my city for literally six months, then there were many sports schools. “Sokolniki” by Marina Druzik. SC “Olympiysky” at Oksana Matveeva (but my mother, of course, was very proud of the phrase “we skate at Tchaikovskaya”). That same fatal failed screening at “Moskvich” (after which I will be an eternally hungry child) with Natalya Dubinskaya (in the future, in ice dancing, she will really support me and become my fan). “Snow Leopards” by Svetlana Panova. Svetlana Goncharenko’s attempts at CSKA. UOR n°4 with Ilya Klimkin. And the most, it seems to me, the most important period in the formation of a personality as an athlete and in understanding what hard work is is Olga Sapronova (Levina).

Olechka Sergeevna was Klimkin’s assistant, then she broke away and formed her own group. It was this man who taught me the correct and bookish jumping technique, thanks to which, ten years later, I can do double jumps without crashing. And also understand that the result depends only on your honest work and any work on mistakes will bring results in the future. Since then, I never felt sorry for myself during training, unconditionally followed the coach’s instructions and never in my life allowed myself to contradict or even doubt my training plans . This helped me a lot as a teenager.

2014 Sochi Olympic Games. The parents said with annoyed looks: “What a shame Lisa is still little! ” And they dreamed that she would become the winner of a home gold medal. To be honest, I always felt guilty about it. When you grow up in a family where everything is done for the good of your sport, any failure or potential dissatisfaction with your mom and dad takes a toll on your psyche. Feelings of disappointment, worthlessness, and uncertainty that you are doing anything worthwhile.

For the first time I saw dancers performing on television when I was 11 years old. Yes, of course, I knew who Navka-Kostomarov and Lobacheva-Averbukh were, but I never saw their performances and was not interested. But in 2014 my first serious love happened – “Swan Lake” by Ilinykh-Katsalapov. I was in love with Lena and the way she behaved on the ice until I was 15 years old. She was my idol, I was very inspired by her skating and, of course, her beauty. Mom and Dad saw this and asked in a stern voice: “Why do you constantly watch these dancers?” Maybe you would like to start dancing now? At that time, for some reason, among parents of young figure skaters, taking up dancing was equated with losing status. I didn’t want to start dancing right away, I just really liked the way they skated and showed their emotions.

The offseason passed, I worked very, very hard. And she worked honestly. She choreographed good routines, sewed beautiful costumes and set up a set in the free skate with up to three triples, which for my school was wow, what a level! And then I went to the stage of the Russian Cup in Samara (it’s ironic that with this region in the future I will still become the champion of Russia). I skated my programs and sat down to watch my rivals’ final warm-up. The girls jumped all 3-3 stunts with raised hands and took tenth place thanks to impeccable performances.

I realized it was an abyss. I just can’t catch up. I returned home with a respectable 35th place and started thinking about what I should do. Spend more money on singles? This makes no sense, I’m almost twelve years old and there are practically no results. Either you need to finish and go study, or change something.

Parents reacted very negatively. There were scandals – dad spoke out against ice dancing, raised skirts and a boy next to him. And of course, their dreams and hopes that I would become an Olympic champion in individual skating were shattered. From then on, an ultimatum appeared: if you want to ride, go for a ride. Your decision, your ice dance, pay for the training yourself. Then I gave 350 euros per month. Naturally, it was at the end of 2014 that the crisis broke out and the exchange rate jumped to 95 rubles. A month passed, then another, I worked for my father at Savelovsky, selling cases and phones on training days off, and when I lost all the money I had saved, given and earned, my parents gave up: “Okay, it seems like you really want it, sure, we’ll support you.”

Throughout my singles career, I definitely skated better than most people my age (look at how much money and time was invested in additional individual hours of choreography and gliding). I have always had a good CE2, speed and high levels on the slopes. My sporting childhood passed in parallel with the parting words of each of my singles skating coaches: “Khudaiberdieva, please go dance already. You still can’t jump, the only thing you’re good at is skating. How wrong we all were!

Having changed my discipline, it turned out that I literally no longer knew how to skate at all. I was also an adult (12 years old), quite tall and, as you remember, not the skinniest of girls. With the advent of dancing and the situation “for every ten girls, according to statistics, there are a maximum of five guys,” I suddenly lost weight, opening Pandora’s box of problems with eating disorders , and I began to fit the image of a dancer. That is, go to training in a skirt, always with tinted eyelashes and a beautifully styled hairstyle. But that didn’t help me find a partner. I went to all the rinks and all the groups for two and a half years. I dreamed of dancing on ice. I reviewed all the possible competitions – adults and juniors, I knew the parts of both partners from all the programs in the groups where I skated. I learned about all the famous dancers from Soviet times, and even today I remember who danced what and to what music in different seasons. I was very excited about it and wanted to start working. But there was no partner.

Interesting and fun facts:

I am glad that today parents and coaches understand: ice dancing is very difficult, honorable and beautiful. In the early 2010s, taking up dancing was tantamount to punishment and initiation into suckers. It was believed that there was no difficulty in this type of figure skating and only losers went. This is part of the reason why, about ten years ago, there was a serious shortage of boys. The fight for partners and even “resales” coaching flourished with great success. Nowadays, this happens much less often.

In mid-November, I celebrate my birthday: ten years of ice dancing. It’s been ten seasons of Santa Barbara, I swear! And each episode has such a twist in the storyline that the only thing that comes out of your mouth is a phrase from Soviet cinema: it can’t be! Serial melodrama. You can forgive someone like this for any betrayal, betrayal, character changes, late night premieres and poor translation of the voiceover into Russian. But he is forever in the heart, the most beloved. Like me even today, I love and fall in love with ice dancing, because it is the most real emotions and the most real life.

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