Christmas Interview 1998

by Tino Eberl

Kati and René, now, after your last Grand Prix appearance this year, what do you think about your skating season so far?

"So far we had a good start in the new season, the programs are good, but still we are making changes in the free program and in the costums to improve for Europeans and Worlds."

At the 1998 ISU Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, a lot of changes and amendments for ice dancing were accepted - not only regarding to judging but to dance elements too. What are the main changes in your eyes?

"The main changes are the required elements we have to show now, like a dance pirouette in the free dance, we are allowed to have seven lifts now and we have to show two step sequences (circle, diagonal).
We think it makes the programs more interesting and also there are some possibilities for the judges to compare the programs better, to have some elements to judge. And we hope the use of vocal music will stay in the next years, maybe somewhen it will be allowed in the free dance too??"

The proposal to require skaters to present a different free dance at the World Championships to the one presented at the Continental Championships was not accepted. Sure, a great relief.

"We think it is really very hard to skate in one season two different free dances, there is a lot of work in it until you can skate a free dance really well, and it takes also a lot of time to work it out and to improve the program, the programs wouldn't improve that much anymore. Beside we also have a lot of work to do with four compulsory dances in every season and we also have to skate an original dance, so how much time more would we spend on the ice with two free dances per season?? So we think it is a great relief for all of us ice dancers and even coaches."

With the new elements the ISU wants to create more specific judgeable elements in ice dancing. Many people think thats a good idea to reduce or prevent biased judgments and that this decision was long overdue. Others say that this step - adding elements from pairs figure skating - is rather ambarressing to the ISU and a declaration of bankruptcy regarding the competence of dance judges. What do you think?

"We think this change is not too bad, because why not some elements to judge? It is very hard to judge ice-dancing, sometimes it seems to be really a question of taste, and human beings are judging human beings, so no one can do that without feelings like a machine, so may be it's good to have some points, difficulties to compare... And we have to say it was a new challenge for everyone."

You got support from the 1997 World Pairs Champions Mandy Wötzel & Ingo Steuer during the preparation for this season's new dance elements. At which points did you concentrate and how did the cooperation work?

"We tried to work out with them the required pirouette for the free dance, we did that for three days in the summer and we had so much fun with them to try some pairskating pirouettes!!
They helped us a lot to get a good rotation for the pirouette, thanks again to Mandy and Ingo!"

At the 1998 Sparkassen Cup on Ice in Gelsenkirchen you won your first Grand Prix medal ever. A great feeling at the podium...

"It was really a great feeling for us to be in a Grand Prix event for the first time at the podium, and the best feeling was, that our both mothers were there to watch us. It was like we could give our parents something back, for all these years they supported us!"

The reaction to your new free dance was very positive. What's the story behind the idea choosing that piece of music?

"The idea of our free dance was born together with our choreographer Marc Bogaerts and the theme is "YIN AND YANG", the chinese philosophy, and we thought it is good to express for a couple, to express the two forces Yin and Yang.
Yin and Yang are two sides of the same power, they are opposites in the universe which must be united to find the harmony.
That was our main idea in chosing Kodo Drums and Tai Chi Music for our free dance."

Your costume was once again very innovative and caused "little heart attacks" at the judges ;-) How was the feedback?

"We wanted to show the two forces we spoke about, in one costum, so Kati had in her costum half skirt half pant, but we already changed that back into a normal skirt, because we think many people didn't like this idea."

You are just back from the 1998 NHK Trophy in Sapporro/JPN. How do you feel about your final rank after this last Grand Prix event?

"We think it was a good start in the season for us, for sure we still have to work hard to get higher in our ranking, but we are happy about the result we reached this year in the Grand Prix Series."

Only a few month after the Winter Olympic Games you were again in Japan. Did you had more opportunities to "explore" the country a little bit this time?

"We had a really great time in Japan, unfortunately we did not see a lot of Sapporo, but we met a lot of really friendly people and fans!
And after Sapporo we went to an "Ice dance seminar" for judges to Tokyo and there we had to skate for three days just in the morning, so we were able to "explore" Tokyo in three afternoons and evenings. It was just a great time in Tokyo, we saw Ginza, the biggest shopping street in Tokyo, went to the disco "Valfarre" and went to so many other nice places and restaurants. We just loved the food, for example we ate Shabu, Shabu, a typical japanese food and we had a lot of fun there with the japanese ice dancers."

Your next competition are the German Nationals in Oberstdorf from January 7-10, 1999. After your Grand Prix events there are sure some changes in your programs in progress. How are your preparations going on?

"Preparations for German nationals are going well, we are still changing some parts of the free program and try to make some new costums for compulsory dances. And we are looking forward to skate in Oberstdorf, because this is now our home."

What are your goals for this season?

"Our goal for this season is to improve again compared to last season, and to reach a good placement in the main events, like Europeans and Worlds."

Kati and René, thank you very much for the interview!

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